I mentally glare at the glowing blue message. Yes, this is clearly some sort of trick. I shall bet *all* the riches of my kingdom... I no longer have… on that. Ugh.
The blur of autumn-touched trees whip past my vision as I start to ignore the text. The direction my wolf runs us in was chosen by me. All of the route is familiar and unfamiliar at once.
I knew from this body's memories that there was supposed to be a river nearby. If I can just get to it, that might buy enough time to get away without things turning even more… chaotic.
Hopefully.
I've found myself forced to rely on the influx of Helene's, rather limited, old life in the short time I've been... here. Luckily, the impression is dry and clinical. My feelings are still my own, which is as good a thing in this strange situation as I might hope for.
I still don't know how my soul got moved to this world and body. Or why.
However, that doesn't matter immediately. My immediate concern is that fighting isn't exactly my forte. Doing it in an unfamiliar form would be even worse! While this hybrid mix of wolf and human is... bestial… it is not *quite* like anything I learned about before.
I might be able to let my new spirit partner handle it… but no. The mere thought makes the creature in my mindscape whimper.
> Not a fighter either, huh? Then focus on running! <
Even if I did manage to *somehow* win against all three, I can't exactly stay... wherever here is. Yes, I know it's the [Duskpaw] territory... but that's about it. Her memories are only worth so much.
Aside from some pretty generic geography information, the poor young woman I've taken the place of was rather ignorant of a lot of the things which I would expect a denizen of a realm to know. The wolf spirit inside growls at me for my thoughts and I want to sigh.
> It's cute that you understand how I think so little of your old partner. But hiding my criticism of her ignorance doesn't erase how true it was. Your pack is quite literally backwoods country bumpkins - Helene's own thoughts. <
It quiets down… and rather flippantly stops working the control of this body. Just as the sounds of running water get closer and closer. A bit of stumbling from my taking the reins back ends in me slamming into a sapling.
A clever trap that whipped back in my snout.
An unintentional growl later - as well as an *instinctive* snapping bite at the attacking object... I reach the edge of the riverbank. There was probably no time to wait and study it, so I sucked in a deep breath and dove in without a care. To the great displeasure of my wolf.
The cold water comes as a shock to my system and makes it harder to move for a couple seconds. It pulls my muscles tight and makes me want to go back up. But I force myself to stay deep under the surface.
I start to use crawl-like motions to swim near the bottom. Upstream. When they find the end of my trail here they will figure I went in the river - but will they actually think I fought *against* its pull like this... or that I tried to use its speed to get away while saving my strength?
Imagine, using half remembered tactics lessons that I heard while sneaking into my sibling's lessons. And relying on luck. That deity seems just as capricious here as in my own world.
A few bottom dwelling fish scattered from my intrusion in their world as I rushed along. The wolf inside is extra quiet as I 'fight' for our survival… by crawling on my belly over smooth river rocks. It seems to have accepted my rationale, even if it's still not all that happy with me.
That's fine with me.
As long as we're cooperating for the time being. I can't exactly afford to fight with a *fourth* silly animal, too. Eventually, I will have to come up for air - and I pray to many deities that don't exist here that I've moved further upriver than they might be able to notice.
And that I haven't kicked up a bunch of suspicious clouds of dirt from the bottom…
When I poke my snout up... I freeze and carefully sink back to the bottom after an inhale. An attempt to not make splashing noises by diving too quickly. On the way, there is even time to count my blessings that… who I just saw did not see me.
The first of the three male werewolves on my tail to reach the water's edge was, as expected, Jace himself. I caught a glimpse of him standing there black furred as the night, sniffing at the air and staring at the woods on the other side... like he was trying to decide if I'd actually gone under.
Or jumped across.
That's another reason I bet on this plan. The person that knew her 'best' in this tight-knit group was probably her former 'fated mate'. Which means he would stop to question whether Helene of all people actually just *willingly* fell into a river or not.
> Your last partner could not swim. You had to save her three different times from her memory. Two of which, he stood and watched her struggle. <
Inside I could feel my wolf - because it *is* mine now, whether either of us like it that much or not - whine very sadly. The girl it had protected for so long was gone, the soul that took her place smelled and looked like a beautiful fox, and I have every intention of never coming back to the awful, awful pack it was meant to be a part of.
⧖ ☾ ❄ ☽ ⧖
As I hauled myself out of the river, I couldn't help but glance back over my shoulder. There was no sign of Jace or the others. For now, at least, I seemed to have evaded them.
At the cost of a coat of black fur, very heavy with water and feeling like I am an icicle.
After shaking myself off as best I could - a hopeless task with what remains of my clothing stuck to me - I loped towards the treeline to seek shelter and a moment to rest. I need a few moments to do more than just focus on moving one step forward.
Some time to actually try and *think*.
The wolf inside me was still mourning Helene and the pack we'd left behind. It clearly hates the very concept of being a rogue, even if the only other choice was to be taken back and probably killed. Or worse.
The rumors she heard of what used to happen to the unmarked she-wolves they caught in this territory… Yes, let's not think about the 'worse'.
I did my best to ignore that and the creature inside me as my wolfish feet tramped through the leaves. Much too physically tired to really try and be quiet. I focus instead on finding a spot to lay down and curl up.
After several minutes of searching, I finally find a large hollow beneath a fallen tree… just big enough for me to squeeze into as a human. I shift back to that form - claws, fangs, and fur retreating to smooth skin. Then I curl up, trying in vain to control my shivering.
> It's alright if I confide in you that it's not just about the cold, right? <
The sad creature raises its head in my mindscape and chuffs at me. I guess it's not in the mood to commiserate over our very different core fears and worries just yet. My fox soul form turns its back on it.
And I also flick glorious tail fluff at its nose before I leave it alone, like it wanted. While looking for something else to think about other than being stuck here in this body forever, I finally allowed myself to once again confront… the strange message.
CONGRATULATIONS! APOCALYPSE SYSTEM HAS CHOSEN YOU!
This ethereal blue text has been flickering at the edges of my vision the whole time. Like an attention seeking firefly. I narrowed my eyes as it grew more 'substantial' when I focus on it and swirled to the center of my sight. The writing had a strange… almost otherworldly quality to it.
"Well, it is in English… so I guess that is true in my case."
I chuckle weakly to myself, trying to make fun of my predicament. It didn't really help. Just made me hug myself tighter.
The words shimmer like the glow of foxfire... or with the semi-translucent quality… the thing in this world they might call 'holographic'? When I started to wonder if that was all it did, more text began to appear, as though responding to my attention.
INITIALIZING INTERFACE...
I read the phrase a few times in confusion. Then talk to myself again… since my wolf still seems to be waiting for me to appear so it can pounce on me in revenge. Foolish beast, you think I can't see what is going on with a place I built with my own soul?
"This sounds like the 'computer' stuff that Helene didn't know much about."
The text disappears and I look around to the sides of my vision. I'm not naive enough to think that was all the entity using this unidentifiable magic on me intended from this experience. Just when I get tired of waiting and thinking I could be wrong... more of that blue glow swirls around the edges of my sight.
It fades in and out, like mist being pushed along by a stiff wind on a pond. Symbols drifted and swirled, gradually settling into an arrangement of some kind around the edges. One especially pulsing glyph at the top catches my eyes first.
Quickly the gently rotating snowflake moves to the center as if it knew I was looking. Probably did. It takes over a chunk of my vision as it morphs into a full message.
TIME UNTIL APOCALYPSE COMMENCEMENT: 57 DAYS, 13 HOURS, 27 MINUTES
"What in the name of the nineteen hells is this?"