THE WOLF WHO WALKED THROUGH TIME**
693 Words
The first time it happened, Kael thought he was hallucinating.
One moment he was by the campfire sharpening his claws, the next moment he found himself standing in a ruined temple. He was watching a younger version of himself from the past. This younger Kael was roaring at the stars, grieving. The air smelled strongly of Elara's blood. Kael realized this was the night when Elara had first time-walked, though he hadn't understood what was happening back then.
Suddenly, the younger Kael sensed something. He turned his head and sniffed the air, looking directly at present-day Kael.
"Impossible," present-Kael whispered in shock.
The eyes of young Kael turned completely black. When he spoke, it wasn't his voice but the Godslayer's voice coming from his mouth: "Not impossible. Inevitable. You are the thread that stitches all wounds, Abyss-Walker. Now pull."
Kael reached out instinctively and suddenly slammed back into his present body by the fire, gasping for breath. He noticed his claws had completely melted through the whetstone he had been using.
Rhel looked at him across the fire. "You good, prince?"
Kael flexed his hands, which had silver markings on them. "We need to test something," he replied.
---
At dawn, Elara found Kael and Rhel at a circle made of standing stones.
Kael was frozen in mid-step. One foot was firmly in the present while the other seemed to be somewhere else entirely. His body was blurry around the edges, flickering between now and some other time.
Rhel's fur was standing up in alarm. "He's been like this for minutes. If I touch him—"
"Don't," Elara warned. Her eyes, now completely black like voids, could see things normal eyes couldn't. She saw thousands of delicate threads connecting Kael's essence across different points in time. One wrong move could destroy him completely.
Instead of touching him physically, she reached out with her mind, using the special bond they had formed when she had shared her broken heart with him.
*KAEL.*
His consciousness connected instantly with hers. Images flooded between them: a battlefield covered in celestial blood, Lirae crying over broken scissors, and the Godslayer's true form unchained.
Kael's body suddenly became solid again, and he gasped. "It's not time-walking," he said hoarsely. "It's *time-stitching*."
The silver marks on his arms now glowed faintly.
---
By noon, streaks of Kael's hair had turned completely white.
"Side effect," he said gruffly when Elara touched the white strands. Every time he looked into the time-stream, it cost him something—sometimes a memory, sometimes a scar, sometimes hours of his life were simply gone.
The worst moment was when he blinked and didn't recognize Elara's face.
"You don't know me right now, do you?" she asked quietly.
Kael dug his claws into his palms in frustration. "Your eyes are wrong. They should be... brown?" His uncertainty broke what remained of her heart.
She guided his marked hand to her cheek. "Then *see* me."
When his fingers touched her skin, the Godslayer's power activated. Kael's pupils widened as time rewound just for them—
He saw Elara laughing by a campfire with warm brown eyes, then suddenly she was screaming as her soul was split apart. When he opened his eyes again, Elara's void-black eyes were filled with tears.
He pulled back with a gasp. "I remember."
---
That night, the star-born gathered everyone for a war meeting.
"The spire's defenses work through time," their leader explained, drawing glowing star patterns in the dirt. "Lirae has created traps that completely erase intruders from history itself."
Everyone looked at Kael.
Elara squeezed his hand tightly. "You can't."
His fangs gleamed in the firelight. "I have to."
After the others left, he showed her the vision that had haunted his time-walks.
He had seen her lying on a stone altar, with the Godslayer's full power erupting from her chest—but not as destruction. Instead, it worked like a key turning in some enormous cosmic lock.
"The spire isn't Lirae's stronghold," Kael whispered. "It's *your* cradle. Where she first made you into the prison."
Elara's void eyes swirled with energy. "Then it's time I went home.”
- Writer
