~Calen
The forest breathed in low, wet whispers. Mist clung to my coat as I walked through the trees, each step stirring the soft, damp earth. The moon was a dim coin behind the clouds, its light too weak to touch the ground.
Beside me, the creature I’d grown fond of padded silently — long-limbed and lithe, skin burnished a faint pewter. His eyes smoldered gold; his breath steamed in the chill. The faint tang of blood clung to him like a shadow. He was taller than me, broad and solid where wolves are lean. He had been my companion in this world that despised monsters.
We stopped near a clearing, the grass flattened by recent movement. I turned to him. “You’ve been keeping watch, haven’t you?”
“Yes,” it rasped, voice low and almost human. “Your servants… they didn’t return.”
“They’re o
