Jolon frowns. "Come on now, Decaarr, it's not that bad. This place is a palace compared to the rubble of Haven."
"No," you say, stumbling over your words. "I feel like we're still trapped there. That this is just a fantasy."
"We've talked about this before. I know the guilt weighs on you, but we did what we had to do to escape." He sighs. "Look, let's not dwell on this tonight, okay? One calm and sane evening, that's all I ask."
The scene shifts, and you're lying back on an almost impossibly comfortable mattress, gazing up at the rocky ceiling of your underground abode.
You close your eyes and savor the peace and quiet of your new home. Unbeckoned, a thought intrudes on your inner calm, insistent and relentless. How did we get here? I can't remember how we escaped Haven….
Next
Your surroundings melt in a muddled diffusion, dripping down a canvas of white. Darker colors fade and blend with each other, a cascade of watercolor eventually coalescing into the shape of Ahote's study. The elder stands before you, a frown on his face as he studies you intently.
"Never have I been more wrong about a wolf," Ahote says, staring down at you from what somehow feels like an impossibly towering height. "What a blessing for the entire pack that you rejected my offer of leadership. You have been a disgrace, an utter disappointment."
You shuffle your feet nervously, like a child caught in a lie.
"If I'd only known that you were a cold-blooded killer, I'd never have put you forth as a candidate. Had I wanted that kind of solution, I might as well have gone with Haken. Bloodying your claws should always be a last resort. Killing your own mentor, Decaarr? All Lonan ever did, he did for you pups. And that's how you repay him? With murder?" You try to protest, to get a word in edgewise, but Ahote won't listen. "I've heard all your excuses before. You can't just explain your guilt away. You'll have to live with it for the rest of your life. I should never have let you give the human boy over to Haken. Have you even checked in on him since we dropped him off into the care of a madman who wants to fight the humans to the last wolf? Where is your sense of responsibility? What was I thinking, letting a young wolf who voted for Haken's plan over mine into my confidence?
"Well, Decaarr? What do you have to say for yourself?" Ahote growls, morphing into his wolf form in the blink of an eye. Impossible! you think. No one can go through the change so fast! "What good are you?" Ahote bellows, and the room quivers and shakes around you.
"Your studies have made you strong, not only of mind, but of will," Ahote says, balancing almost cartoonishly small optics on top of his lupine nose. "But knowledge will only take you so far without the courage to apply it in the world around you…."
The elder's bones crack, snapping and rearranging themselves as he grows ever taller, and soon the back of his neck is pressed up against the ceiling of the study. Still he grows, his spine pushing up, ever upward and through into the void beyond.
You fling yourself under the desk for protection as brick and timber fall. Rubble and splinters rain down around you until your vision is reduced to a stinging haze, your eyes bleeding in thin red rivulets. Your eyes! Why can't you close your eyes? Why can't you close your…?
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