You wanted to know what happened to make Michael hate you so much? You’re not going to like it, Shaman, Sven whispered maliciously as his host rode the black waves of unconsciousness.
Nat returned to the Flock’s roost before dawn, having lounged at the side of a creek for what remained of the previous day. Slipping through the fields, he crept to the building Hana was residing in. She had been awake for a little while. He hoped alongside Sven that she was feeling better.
Dreams flooded his senses. The moon cracked into deep fissures, and a faceless woman with black wings flew over the sky. He followed her movements, enthralled with her dance. The glade sparkled in the stillness beneath her floating ballet. Polaris’s surface shattered into a million pieces. A shadow man emerged in the dusk. The woman…
They packed their bags and collapsed the tent. Sleep had done the pack good. They were in a relatively jovial mood as they walked farther and farther from Portland and the sights of war. The highways had been destroyed to an extent, but there were still fragments of road leading them into potato country. They…
The white wolf paced in his head, begging for attention. Nat rolled, opening his eyes to the field they had set up in late the night before. The sound of the tent zipper had woken him in the frosty dawn. The women had taken the tent at his insistence. With work, and more than one…
Hana woke in fits and bursts. An hour after settling into the room, the group grew restless with her starts. The woman was jittery, which placed their wolves on edge.
In the morning, the friends found themselves not in warm beds but in a freezing tent. Their body heat seeped out through the thin shell of second-hand polyester. Benj, first to wake, tiptoed out of the tent, letting in a draft.
The trees that surrounded the area loomed over the site like ancient guardians protecting their tiny treasures Nat and his friends hunkered down into the snow-covered grass, bracing themselves against the chill wind that blew in from the north of them. It smelled of wood smoke and burning gas.
Deck dragged out his hiking bag and bug-out bag and crammed two more sets of clothes into the bottom. Pilfering the back corner of his closet, he located the four-person all-season tent and sleeping bags.