AMAYA
I wake up before sunrise to go for a run.
The sky is still a shade of indigo when I slip through the service door and into the cold. Frost slicks the stones, and the air bites my teeth, but I welcome the sting. I need something simple, being in the forest has never failed to provide the comfort I desperately need.
My boots find the packed earth of the trail, and the forest receives me without a sound.
I let the rhythm of my breath carry me under the pines and past the birches that hold the last tatters of moonlight like thin flags. My wolf paces with me, pleased to be out in the cold where she could run free. She only urges speed, and I oblige until my lungs feel hot.
“Faster?” she asks, bright against my ribs.
“Faster,” I answer, and I let go of the night and the house and th
