The North

Chapter 14

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And if this chapter is a mess, I'm sorry. It's been a rough week!

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Have you ever had a dream that felt real?

Chapter 14
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I came to standing in the doorway of the courtyard hall, but there was something different. Nothing remained of the roof overhead, and though the night sky was clear of the usual snow clouds, not one star glittered in a blanket of oppressive black. The windows yawned into the abyss, some like jutting canines from where the wall had crumbled away.
I shuddered and moved slowly further in.

No fire burned in the hearth, the table was broken on one end, and the throne was charred black with glimpses of light brown where wood had cracked. It was as if a great fire had destroyed the place, but that couldn’t be possible. Where was Alpha Hati? Beta Caldar? Or Gerlac? Why did I get the unnerving impression nobody had set foot here in generations?

If this was a dream, it was like none I’d ever experienced before. The stone floor was icy beneath my feet, and I could feel the tickle of the thin white dress that rippled with my every movement. I didn’t own a dress like this, another clue to something off. I rubbed my eyes, certain the last thing I could remember was sharing blood with Alpha Hati. It had hurt, I’d passed out, and woken. . .here.

Wherever here was.

A gust of wind moaned through the derelict hall, causing wooden beams to creak dangerously overhead while brown leaves scattered across the floor. A scent came with it, burning embers and must.

“I know you’re there,” I whispered into the dark, and as I did, I became aware of eyes watching from the shadows.

The scittering of claws trailed down from my left, pausing nearer the table at the far end, though I still couldn’t see a thing. I backed away slowly, urging myself to shift to fur but it was as if that part of myself was locked away. My skin tightened, but my bones refused to reshape. Panic set in.

“You can see me?” a deep voice boomed out questioningly, and a darker mass moved against the wall, vaguely person shaped but distorted and hunched.

“No,” I croaked, trying to lift myself up taller when creeping fear made my bones rattle. “But I can smell you.”

The shadow chuckled suddenly from my right and I spun around to keep track of it.

How had it moved so far without me hearing?

Still I saw nothing, and I wished the strange sky would fix itself so stars or moonlight would give me something to use. My eyes hurt trying to make a single thing out but I knew it was in the far corner, could sense it’s presence.

“Clever, she-wolf.” High in the rafters now, dust and twigs falling to the ground as he, or it, crawled across. “What are you doing here? You don’t belong here. You smell far too sweet to be one of the dead.”

My heart skipped a beat. What on earth did it mean by that?

“I don’t think I’m dead. I’m dreaming.”

“Dreaming?” the creature asked, tone thick with intrigue.

I nodded slowly, trying to catch sight of it again now that I was sure it was on the ground once more. Bright eyes gleamed from beneath the table, a dark shape that slunk across the ground with eerie grace and precision. Not once did it come into the light, almost as if it couldn’t, like it was forced to stick to the shadows.