Her arms and legs are too weak for her to stand. She crawls. Crawling as fast as she can. Too slow. Far too slow. The falling dirt, soil, and stones cover and encase her body. There's too much happening for Adalia to worry about anything but her own life. At least if she survives, she'll be able to save Catrina and maybe Kaiden too. However, she can do nothing now. Nothing. She's locked by the heavy dirt and stones. Nothing but to save her strength for if someone from the agency catches the signal from her watch.
Perhaps over an hour has passed. It's rather worrying considering the response time for an agent out of border rescue is about an hour and it doesn't take her more than several minutes to run from the wall construction to where she is. If she hasn't been found then that means Catrina and Kaiden haven't been found either, and they are in worse condition than Adalia. Very concerning indeed.
However, those aren't the only things bothering her. The dirt feels colder. It feels softer. Feels lighter. It's almost like she can stand. She can stand. The wet soil becomes dry sand. She stands.
She pushes herself out of the silver sand. Adalia's hair sparkles from the bits of grains that got stuck. She looks ahead and finds Arcadia. Once again Adalia finds herself in the silver desert.
"You finally wear it."
The voice booms behind her. Adalia flips around and finds the giant silver wolf looking down at her.
"Be not afraid. I will cause you no harm."
"You... Speak?"
"You wear my ring, finally. Only now can you comprehend my speech. I can also see that your body has changed."
"Your ring?" Adalia looks at her right index finger, where she's wearing the ring. It's so bright, almost glowing, but not bright enough to be considered shining. Her watch is broken. The glass is cracked and between the gaps, she can see the systems underneath.
"Yes, my ring. I made it for that very purpose. My wolves and I do not share the same speech. Rather than influencing their minds and giving them all the knowledge of my speech; creating an item that grants one the ability to communicate with me is far easier."
"Huh..." Adalia doesn't really understand, but she decides to take everything as is and move on. Something does come to mind though. "Wait, your wolves? So, you're like their creator? Their god?"
"You can refer to me as their deity, I suppose. However, I did not create them. The wolves were already there when I came. I simply help them; I guide them to..." The silver wolf stops for a second. His expressionless face fills with resentment. "Where they were... Up until your kind show up."
Adalia is a little confused and can't help but feel somewhat offended by his tone. "Excuse me?"
"They were living fine on their own. Then your kind shows up. Understandably with a different speech. So, I quickly study it and influenced my wolves to all speak your language, but what did you do when you see them? You raise your weapons and start slaughtering them. When they fight back you call them evil. When your weapons become obsolete you make new ones that will never, no matter how long or how much you use them. you design them to kill my wolves. You train specifically to kill my wolves. They didn't do anything to you. They have never even used my gift to them for the purpose that I give them for. Why?"
"That was ages ago. I wasn't even born yet. I have nothing to do with any of that." Adalia becomes defensive.
"Exactly! You have nothing to do with that, yet you continue the slaughter. Why are you so incessant? Why haven't you given up?"
"How can we give up when they keep attacking us?" That is how she sees it. That is how everyone sees it. Perhaps the humans did strike first, but now they're just defending their home. With the population growing so fast they need more space to build more housing. Even with some of the innermost walls being converted into apartments, there are still too many people. The wolves attack the workers; they can't let their own people die, so the agency is founded.
"Attacking you? You're the ones attacking my wolves. They're just defending themselves. This is their home first; you only came after. What makes you so entitled to something that isn't even yours?"
Adalia is lost for words. She isn't much of an arguing person. Also, that is indeed a fair point. The wolves are the natives of Arcadia after all. However, the wolves are the ones attacking and kidnapping the construction workers. Though, they only start building the walls after they secure and flatten the lands for them. That being said, it couldn't possibly be that bad, right? Then again, they are invading the wolves. They are robbing the wolves of their own territory. But the humans also have no choice. Sure, they can build higher, but that would take more resources, energy, and most importantly time compared to if they just build another building. Also, if they build more walls the previous ones can be converted into apartments, factories, or power plants.
Feeling defeated. Adalia instead tries to explain the perspective from her side. "We have nowhere else to go. We're stuck here. We must hold on to what we have. Now what we've got isn't enough so we need to take more. We can't just give up, we can't just leave, we can't just die."
The silver wolf backs away and sits down. "Then we are at an impasse. Such destructive incompatibility. There's nothing I can do but see how things would play out."
Still looking for a middle ground, Adalia proposes an idea. "Can't you influence their minds to stop? Be more friendly? Maybe even like send a prophet or something similar?"
Sand dunes rise beside the two. They circle around as if some massive things are swimming under the desert. The silver wolf's eyes glow.
"I do have something akin to a prophet. You killed them all every single time. I also won't influence my wolves in that way for that reason. Even if I were to do so, how would your kind react? Are you sure you won't just take the opportunity to end them all? I am not taking that chance."
The dunes circle faster and faster. So fast they form a sparkling tornado of sand. Adalia floats away.
"Wait, wait, wait! What's happening?"
"Your time here is up. You must return to your body now. We'll meet again, eventually."
The giant wolf fades between the sands. Adalia is tumbling around in space surrounded by violent sand. She tries to grab hold of something, but there's nothing anywhere.
She spins and spins and spins and spins and spins and spins...
She wakes up gasping. Her body jumps up into a sitting position, but before she moves any more the pain from the bite wound on her stomach stops her. She touches it and finds herself bandaged. Her clothes are hung on a rope above her.
Birds are chirping. She's on a mattress of dried leaves and cotton in a tent made of wood, mud, leaves, vines, and animal hide. The sunlight passes through the thin roof and walls, illuminating the chamber. beside her is a plate of what seems to be smoked meat, some fruits, and vegetables. On the walls above the mattress are colorful small carved trinkets. each has a picture that seems to tell a story together.
Beyond the archway leading out of the chamber is the back of a gray D-type. It seems preoccupied with something. Now's her chance. Adalia grabs her sword, if she has it. She looks around. Not there. She tosses away the blanket and lifts the mattress. Still nothing. She checks every nook, cranny, and gap of the chamber walls.
"Looking for this?"
Adalia turns at the wolf. She's holding Adalia's sword with a piece of wet cloth.
"It's very dirty when I found you. I thought you might want it cleaned." Her voice is raspy and aged and so does her face when she turns and shows herself.