FAOLAN
She went still.
The thought came sharp, clear, even as the waves of release still pulsed through me. Her body softened beneath mine, her muscles going slack, her head dropping forward into the dirt.
No. No, she—
And then pain.
Fire ripped through my bones, my muscles, my skin — agony like nothing I'd ever felt, not even in the worst of my years alone. I tried to howl but the sound came out wrong, strangled, changing mid-cry from animal to something else.
My spine cracked. Reformed. My limbs shortened, twisted, the joints bending in new directions. The fur receded like tide pulling back from shore, leaving bare skin in its wake — cold, so cold without the coat I'd worn my whole life.
What's happening what's happening what—
The thoughts were different. Sharper. Words where bef
