With a snarl, Vivian soars through the air and lands on an Obsidian, tackling it to the ground. I watch her bite into it's neck, spitting out bloody shards of obsidian as it shatters. Like earlier, the Obsidians are very fragile, as if they were completely hollow. Perhaps they are, which would explain the lighter colors.

Trying to stay between my friends, I fight in a group amongst the chaos, wolves coming in to assist each other and tackling my foes when I'm about to go down. Their group work is astounding, each of them staying in carefully organized patterns as they launch themselves fearlessly at the enemy.

Despite this, some of them are bloodied, and I can not return to my uncloaked form to heal them.

Or can I?

I look around for a tree or some other place to hide away, but unfortunately the fight is vast. Aislyn leaps into the sky as she tries to attack an aerial opponent, a six winged dragonlike being with half the size but twice the versatility. Unfortunately, she's unable to reach it without her wings and she falls. The dragon dives down at her face and she blocks the hit, siezing one of its wings and jerking her head down. It slams into the grass and she dives for its throat, beating it again and again until it scatters into ugly shards in the grass.

"Aislyn!" I call. "I need your help!"

"You do? What's going on?" she asks. "Are you alright?"

"I have a plan. I want to use my uncloaked form."

"Are you crazy?! They'll see us and then all of the Obsidian army will be on us!"

"They'll only see me at the most, and the chances of them catching me are low. There's only so long we can hold out. Can you help me or not?"

She sighs. "Whatever you need."

"Good." I say, and race away across the battlefield. Aislyn covers me on one side and I slide around the dueling forces best I can. Aislyn's sharp teeth and slightly enhanced senses make her just more powerful than the average wolf, not enough to draw attention but enough to make a difference. I have increased flexibility and speed myself, which is helpful for running away from angry killing machines intent on rending the soul from my body.

Aislyn suplexes an enormous amphibian with hundreds of ugly tentacles and it shatters on the ground. The shards trace their way along her already existing scars and Aislyn's shaking from the pain and blood loss.

"It's okay. It'll all be okay." I reassure her. "Now, uncloak me!"

Aislyn does so and I feel relief flood me as my familiar Canis form rises from gray fur and my petals break free of their magical prison. "What now?"

"I'm going to climb on your head. Jump me up!"

"You're crazy." she insists, but she lets me on anyways, barely holding my weight.

"We all are." I say, and as she jumps me up, I take an impossible leap and find myself clinging onto a tree trunk. Scrambling upwards, I grab a branch by holding my head over it and use my other limbs to pull me up.

This is when I remember I have telekinesis and pull myself all the rest of the way up with ease.

Thank you. My petals flare open, and I take in a deep breath and bolt for it. I can feel the hope rising in my throat and in my lungs. My whole body feels alight with energy and I imagine my wounds healing. They close quickly as a bright gold energy drifts over them, released from the petals. Stardust. Reassured, I open my petals and take another leap. I silhouette the clearing and I jump (with a slight telekinetic assist) from branch to branch, scattering the healing powders across the clearing.

As it hits the wolves, their wounds heal and the Obsidians look around in confusion only to be tackled by a reinvigorated army.

"It's an angel! We've been saved!" calls Aislyn.

"An ancestor has heard our cry." corrects a dark wolf with odd speckled markings across his back.

Vivian drives her claws into the last one, which shatters, and I dash away into the trees and fall to the ground, where Aislyn meets me to recloak. Hearing pawsteps, we turn around to see a pitch black wolf with gold eyes watching us.

"Hello there." says Storm Chaser, yellow eyes alight with amusement. "So you really are our hero."

I return to camp with Storm Chaser at my side. He says nothing as the camp silently stares at me. He looks at all of them and mutters, "Pack meeting at moonrise. The newcomers are not permitted to come."

"You were right, Lotus." Aislyn says as we return to our den, which is high above the others, lonely and cold but reassuringly private. "We would've been done for without that."

I nod. "I know we shouldn't be revealing who we really are to the Obsidians, but for all we know, they might already have pinpointed our location. What we need to do now is help in any way we can."

Vivian mutters, "Still not worth it. One down, who knows how many to go."

We enter the den and I lie down next to her. "Vivian, are you feeling alright?"

Natrina dashes away to get herbs for Gash's wounds. Gash and Aislyn keep their distance while we talk in hushed voices.

"I've been meaning to ask you... in the tunnels, when you said you hated all of us... did you mean it?" I ask.

"I was stressed, Lotus." Vivian says, a warning growl in her voice.

"We've been stressed this whole time. Was our relationship just a product of stress, too?"

"Lotus..."
"I don't know what I was expecting to hear. I'm sorry." I say, getting up.

"Lotus, sit down." she snaps, like a mother talking to her pup.

"You can't order me around." I warn, suddenly furious. "I'm not malleable as Aislyn is nor am I trusting as Gash. I might look like some fluffy flower to water or starve to fill your needs, but I assure you that I have thorns."

"You're more like your sister than you realize." she snaps, loud enough for the others to hear.

I draw back. "Like hell I am. At least the two of us are loyal to each other."

She realizes her mistake too late but stubbornly keeps her mouth shut. She looks away as Aislyn and Gash watch after me. Both of them are silent and with a backwards look, I rush down the stone walls and into the bottom of the camp.

I find myself wandering the gorge in the moonlight, stars shining on my fur. For a place so beautiful, it's oddly silent at night. It gives the entire place an ornery feel. What am I doing?
At this point, I have no idea. My whole life went way off the rails long ago and all I'm doing is riding out a storm to which there may be no end.

"That's not enough." says a familiar voice.

Storm Runner.

I pad towards the sound, stopping right outside of a den. This must be theirs.

"It will have to be for now." retorts a more feminine voice. Is that...

"We're going to lose, Dark Rainbow!"

"You don't know that. I saw an ancestor descend and shower us in stardust today." Dark Rainbow says and despite not being a real part of the pack, I feel my heart burst with pride.

"The waves are increasing in power. We may not always have miracles." Storm Chaser says menacingly.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Prepare a beta. If we die in this hellish war, I want someone ready to fight to the death."

"Paladin is more than ready. If we asked him, he'd fight an entire army of them alone."

"That's not enough, you know. What if they're coming after them?"
"They saved one of our pups. Twisted Heart was about to die when the stardust healed her."

"Our pup who will die in the next wave anyways."

"You don't know that." she repeats. "You're just making assumptions."

"You don't care about what happens, do you? Keep chasing your dreams, Dark Rainbow. See where it gets you."

"If I stopped younger, I never would have met you!" she snaps back.

"I'll be going." I dash across the clearing, heart racing, but he's too angry to notice me. He stalks into the forest and my eyes narrow as I watch him go.

I'm clear.

"Wait!" Dark Rainbow whispers. "You. Out there."

I turn around. "I'm so sorry. I can explain! I was just-"

"You're our savior. Come inside, please."

She returns to the den and I come to sit down by her, careful not to sit in either of their nests. Both of them are ornately decorated, and Dark Rainbow's is full of feathers and blue berries are pressed onto the wall above her. Their dark juice paints a night sky and when it borders her fluffy nest, it almost looks...

like home.

A memory of a willow, under the night sky...

"I'm sorry. My mate is under a lot of pressure and sometimes I feel like he'll crack us both." She says.

"Are you two alright?" I ask, and then follow up, "This war has almost torn us apart. Hopefully you've fared better."
"I promised myself to Storm Runner for life, it would take a lot more than a few arguments to break us. Even death has nothing against our relationship. I just love him far too much to see him do this to himself."

"How do you stop him?" I ask.

"I can't always do it. Someday, someone you love will do something amazingly stupid. It will be so impossibly awful to bear that you feel like leaving them forever. Yet, for some silly reason... you find yourself coming back to them. If you feel like you're going to lose them, you end up clinging on harder." She pauses, looking at her wall with a sad expression in her pale eyes, which look almost like sea foam. "Why do you ask, anyhow?"

"I'm in love." I tell her. "I'm in love and I don't know if we're twining tails or if I was only close to them for minutes before losing them."

"You know, sometimes you have to let your emotions win. Love isn't always rational." Natrina says, striding into the doorway.

"N-Nat! Fancy seeing you here."
"Like I'd ever leave my little sister alone. It takes a lot more to get rid of me." she jokes.

Dark Rainbow looks at us both and her wistful expression changes, her tail swinging playfully. "I wish you both luck. I'll see you tomorrow on the battlefield."

"To the end of the war." Natrina says, "You'll see us there, fighting like foxes."

"Foxes, hm? I've always had an affinity for them." Dark Rainbow huffs under her breath.

"You don't say?" I think of the Canira at home. Would she like to see them? I may never know, and though it's silly, I wish she could see them.

"Clever beasts." she says. "Good night."
"May your paws ever be swift." Natrina says, copying our old good-night phrases from home.

"May your heart's path always be straight." she tells us.