Stretching felt nice under the warm sun, the fresh scent of wildflowers and dew-covered grass filled my nostrils. A smile appeared easily here. Mornings were always cold at the crack of dawn, but the tiny fire at the edge of the meadow and the warm morning sun at my back left me with no complaints. The peace was disturbed only by a twig snapping in the distance. I sat up, straining to see the wolf emerge gracefully from the thick brush, a rabbit limp in his jaw.

“You didn’t harm the coat, did you? Would make for good trading in the next town we go.” I felt strange, a strong sense of Deja-vu filled me. The wolf cocked his head questioningly, noticing my unease. Where am I?

- -

Wakefulness took me like a drill pounding behind my forehead, breaking through the skull. My eyes hurt like I’d been crying, and the scent of blood filled my nostrils.

When I lifted it, my head complained; the whole world spun, and bile rose in my mouth. A concussion. Damn. The light hurt my eyes forcing me to squint. At first, it seemed I was alone, until a shadow departed from the edges of the light to tower over me.

His actions confused me, but it became clear he was revelling in the light; looking from paw to paw, inspecting my face, my body, and the room around us. James had mentioned the ‘kings beast’ was down here for years in the dark. Was the light keeping me alive? It was dimming, meaning it had been just under four hours since I’d fled the camp.

“The lamp will die soon,” My hoarse voice hurt to use. The wolf barred his teeth at me, startled by the sudden noise but I continued, “And only I can charge it.” He growled, hackles raised but didn’t strike. It hurt to talk, but I gritted the rest out, “Do you understand? If you want the light, you can’t kill me.” The edges of my vision blurred; my strength was leaving me.

A low growl rumbled through the floor as he lowered his head to my neck, centimetres away from killing me. Like a punctuation to my statement the light died plunging us both into darkness; with it, my own consciousness fled.

- -

My body jolted awake sending sharp stabs of pain rocketing through my skull. Everything was stiff, hurt, and the taste of bile was a permanent guest in my mouth.

In the dark I heard James knock the lamp towards me. It rolled to a stop against my cheek. I wanted to berate him for being so lazy until the memory of the previous night flooded me. Tears once again painted my face.

It was a small feat simply heaving myself off the ground. Every movement caused swathes of pain through my head. With the lamp in hand its familiar whine filled the room, though the process had to be done in the dark; the world would shift with every attempt to use darkvision.

I expected relief to flood me when I turned on the lamp, instead fear struck me. Directly in front of me the wolf sat staring. My pounding heart could be felt through the floor and a searing pain in my head caused my eyes to tear; but I didn’t scream, or move, for a long time.

“Holy shit,” My voice could only whisper, “Do you mind giving me a bit more space?” Apparently, he did mind. It was like he was drinking in my features… As if he’d never seen a human before. The only way I was going to cope was to will my fear into anger, “What? Something wrong with my face?” Of course, he couldn’t respond, but a few more minutes of this had me truly mad. This wolf had killed five people in front of me, had nearly torn through my own leg, and now it was sitting within biting distance staring at me. “Either fight me or fuck off, pick one.” He didn’t seem to understand English after all.

Now that I was sitting this close to him, I finally noticed a giant clunky collar wrapped tightly around his neck. His skin on either side bulged around it and his breathing sounded strained. The collar itself was made of metal and leather with intricate designs carved into it, it was a series of big boxes chained together around his neck.

My knife wasn’t in its holster. My incognito search for it turned up nothing, till a glint under the wolfs paw caught my attention. He was intelligent enough to make sure to disarm me. Noticing my focus on the knife he pushed it towards me. I nearly cut myself in the process of picking it up and my fingers could only vaguely grip it. My eyes traveled between it, and him. His eyes seemed to spark, anticipating my next move.. He had every opportunity to kill me and seeing him up close now confirmed that the knife would do nothing against him. His eyes followed my hand, then rested on my face, studying me. The glint of insanity was replaced for a moment by calculation…

Minutes trickled by dragging my eyelids down with them. He finally seemed to find whatever he was looking for and left me to sleep. My eyes closed, and I hadn’t the strength to open them.

- -

It was dark when my eyes opened again. My parched mouth kept me from sleeping so I resigned myself to trying to figure out where I was. The water jug was nearly empty, but the last few gulps ridded me of the need to leave yet though the smell of musty animal and mold was another matter. The lamp was dead again forcing me to fester in the dark while it charged.

The room was unfamiliar too me. It had two exits, one directly across from me and another on the wall right of it; each with its own iron gate though one’s latch was bent. The furthest corner from both exits had what looked like a pile of rags. They appeared to be scraps of clothing, all showcasing various stages of rot. Two caught my eye though it took me a moment to place why they felt so familiar. One was my towel, the other my missing shirt. But how did they end up here? I was alone here and barely able to contain my fear.

“James?” A picture of his lifeless corpse, my dagger in his breast flashed in my eyes, Hendricks bloody mocking grin with stone spikes through his chest, and finally my favourite hoodie I’d worn down here splattered in their blood. This time bile escaped me, I lurched over but very little came out. Sobs bubbled out of me aggravating my headache, but a tide had been released that I could not bottle; all I could do was curl up and let it wash over me. Hours passed; kept by the battery of the lamp.

My stomach was empty, and I was parched but couldn’t bring myself to try to eat or drink. Every time my mind turned to it my thoughts turned to James and I sharing a meal together, talking about our families. My mistake took away every future meal he’d ever have with his. How could I eat?

It was halfway charged again when one of the latches clanged open. The wolf was on the other side, having just used his tongue through the gate to open it. Another headache blossomed. I could feel every step the wolf took, and the slamming of the iron gate reverberated through my entire core just as it did through the stone walls holding it. Focusing on the gate left me able to feel where it was rusted through, where the metal was stressed and where it was still strong. That concussion has some weird side effects.

The wolf was licking his lips, the telltale signs of dark blood staining his fur. He’d eaten so well these past few days. In my fear I pushed myself off the floor but lost the ability to tell which direction the floor was. I found it with my cheek. The wolf paused when I’d stood but seeing that I couldn’t make it far it lounged on its cot, if you could call it that.

“Can you understand English? Or have you gone crazy like they say?” My head was beginning to clear which brought a lot of questions. Did he understand me when I gave him that ultimatum? I can’t say I’m versed at reading the expression of a wolf, but I could swear he seemed annoyed. “Ok, how bout this? Uhh, wag your tail once for yes, twice for no.” He just glared at me. “Can you understand me?” Nothing. I guess not. Anxiety and practicality warring in me. The killer, man eater, beast of the dark was lounging in-front of me; I ought to run… but when I wasn’t concussed, I’d just barely escaped. Now I didn’t have anywhere to escape to. On the other side, it hadn’t attacked me. It had every opportunity to kill and eat me, yet its snout was stained with another’s blood.

I began to inch away from the pile of bile beside me putting distance between me and the wolf at the same time. The wolf eyes followed my every movement, but it didn’t try to stop me. My strength gave out long before I’d put any nominal amount of distance between us, but it was comforting enough that I dared stretch out, using my pack as a pillow. It made for a terrible one but the stench in the room made me think twice about pulling anything more comfortable out. It was horribly cold here too, preventing me this time from an easy sleep.

- -

My mouth was fuzzy and dry when I awoke. Just that alone told me I’d slept a long time. The lamp had died again, so the first thing was getting it back on. My headache only bothered me now if I tried to move too fast. It was time to go.

My destination was the camp again. The lamp was charged but off, ready to use if I ran into the wolf on the way there. My Darkvision was finally working and left me with only the slightest headache and my knife was a comforting weight against my side. I was ready for any prisoner that dared. The memories of that night still haunted me and left me with too many questions. The shock had worn off but what I remembered didn’t seem real, and I needed to be sure.

The halls were silent, and I hoped the last of the prisoners had been dispatched by the wolf. I tried not to feel guilt over it either. The stench of blood in the great hall had largely subsided but when I cracked open the rubble entrance I retched. Rot had quickly taken hold inside making me second guess what I was about to do. Curiosity won out. The need to confirm was just to great.

A grisly scene awaited me inside, and I turned the lamp on, simply for the comfort the light would bring. James was still propped up against the wall where I’d left him, though his body had begun to bloat, and his eyes had reopened. He wasn’t the worst of it though, Hendrick had managed to pull himself off the stone spikes and had bled out in the middle of the room, his entrails visible. While James’ blood was dried, Hendricks was just congealing meaning he’d only recently died. Tears stained my eyes and I regretted leaving him to such a fate. The person I wanted to be would never do this. I’m never letting my emotions prevent me from showing mercy again.

Taking in the scene I relived what had happened. I had died that day, but I didn’t stay dead. I’ve been to the Aether once before as a child, in a dream at least. Then I’d understood what it was, but I didn’t know how I’d managed to make it there, or what I’d done when I’d gone. This time was different, I’d gone there and was meant to leave this world, destined for wherever my soul was meant to go in the afterlife. The creatures that whispered to me were there too and I realized whatever had attacked me so many nights ago was from the Aether. The veil was horribly thin in this world.

Stepping over Hendrick I took a closer look at the blood-soaked spikes. When I’d died there was only Earth to call upon, it was the only thing I could contact… I commanded it… commanded it to save me and this was the result. I glanced sadly at Hendrick. I’d killed him, and not mercifully either. Something inside me angered when I cried for him, but I was determined never to let it choose what I did again. This wasn’t who I wanted to be.

The pillar that safeguarded us for so many nights shifted, then toppled to the ground opening the entrance and revealing me and this gruesome scene to the wolf. He peered in curiously, taking in what had happened, and what I’d done. His expression changed, though I couldn’t read what he was thinking.

Grabbing my blood-soaked hoodie, I left that place for the last time, but not before turning to the wolf and pointing to James, “Don’t eat that one.”