the heat it was making. Durango was up, faster than a flash. They ran in a different direction from the fire but only to find that they were surrounded. The dry trees around the small field was perfect fuel to create a big fire, it would have been easy to start too.
Luckily Durango was so picky at his choosing of the shelter. Litzy ran straight for the river, anyone else would think of it as suicide, but in this case, staying there would be suicide. She jumped in with Durango on her tail, no questioning her plan, but Litzy didn’t exactly have a plan. Unless her plan was to be pushed around in the river by rocks and fallen trees, then yes she had a plan, but not a very good one. They didn’t really need to swim in the river because the river simply pulled them along anyway, if they did swim they would just be propelling themselves faster into the rocks and trees, resulting in more pain. They couldn’t just swim across to the other side because the river was too harsh and even if they did manage, the fire would have forced them back in. Because of the late night – or early morning – the water was like ice, even with the few lit up trees that fell into the water, those trees would go from 1200 degrees to 0 degrees as soon as it impacted with the water. It only took about two minutes for Durango and Litzy to start loose their feeling in their limbs. But the water continued to carry them away through the night.

Chapter Eight: MORE FRIENDS --------------Thursday

Although she still had pain throughout her body, Naryia was up and walking. She was staring at her reflection in a calm river. Eli and Baako were still curled up in sleep under a few broken branches, which provided a pretty good shelter.
Naryia watched as one tear fell into the water, creating hundreds of ripples which destroyed the calmness of the river. ‘And that’s how easy my life had fallen apart’ she thought.
She walked into the cool water slowly, she stopped when the water reached the top of her legs, the sun hitting her back. She lapsed up some water with her tongue for a sweetening drink.
Baako opened his eyes and found Eli’s nose breathing into his face.
“Ugh… Now I know why I’ve been dreaming of garbage all night,” He muttered to himself. He pulled his head up to look out for Naryia, but she wasn’t curled up with them as she was last night. Baako had a sudden jolt of fear and worry for Naryia as he was scanning the place for her. His worry left when he found Naryia in the water and he let out a sigh of relief.
Baako stood up and stretched, taking in a deep breath of fresh air. Sleeping with a nose full of Eli’s smell anyone would think a pile of poo would be fresh air. After his stretch – and managing to be able to not wake Eli up – Baako trotted his way over to Naryia.
“Good to see you up and walking,” He said.
Naryia gasped, she didn’t expect anyone to up yet and Baako took her by surprise since Naryia’s thought was deeply in the water. She was wondering what it would be like as a fish and how they felt the sun under the water.
“Oh…yea, it’s great,” She said. Baako sat, slightly in frustration since Naryia wouldn’t open up to him.
“So will you ever tell me why you are out here on your own?” He asked softly. “I mean you don’t have to, but it would be nice to stop guessing. I’ve thought of a lot of scenarios of what made you leave home but none seem to fit with you. There’s one that I thought you were--”
Baako was interrupted by Naryia’s blood curdling scream. It was so hazardous that it even woke up Eli. But all he really did was flop his head around and when he thought nothing was wrong he fell back asleep. Baako, on the other hand, was at Naryia’s side just as fast as the other times.
“What? What is it?” He asked worry filled his words once again. “Are you hurt?”
“No! Look!” Naryia pointed with her nose in the direction of what had made her scream. Baako looked into the water at what Naryia was aiming at. It seemed to be two floating bodies. This shot up Baako’s worry quite a lot.
“Eli! ELI!!” He called, Eli’s head lifted up again, he looked even less aware than last time. “Come help me!” He shouted. Eli took awhile to respond to Baako’s request. He stood slowly and stretched.
“NOW ELI!” Yelled Baako, but Eli – and his slow registration brain – simply walked towards the river clumsily. Baako grunted in frustration as he ran to the bodies in the water.
“I’ll come,” Said Naryia trying to walk through the water behind him. Baako didn’t stop trying to get to the bodies as fast as he could while answering Naryia.
“You’re not strong enough,” He warned her. “Eli, hurry up!”
“I can try,” She said harshly. This would possibly provide Naryia with more pain to numb the images. So she was willing. Eli was still stumbling his way over to river. Naryia and Baako pushed their way through the water, as they did the river was getting deeper and deeper until they had to swim. Baako was the first to dive for them, grabbing one by the scruff and pulling it ashore. Naryia did the same but had more trouble in the matter. Naryia almost choked on the water herself, luckily she got to the surface in time to take a deep breath. But the body she was holding was too heavy and was starting to puller under again. Her legs hurt and nose tried puffing out water which gave it a cold burn. But her goal never changed. ‘Pain is good. Pain is good,’ she repeated in her mind. Baako had already dragged his wolf ashore and Eli – finally – made it to the river bed.
“Take this one back to the shelter, I’ll go help Naryia,” Said Baako. Eli stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds but Baako had already left before he could scold him some more. Baako swam towards Naryia as fast as he could. He dived under them and came up underneath the wolf she was carrying.
“I got it from here,” He told her. Naryia let go of the wolf to debate.
“No I’m fine!” She said.
“NO! You’re not fine!” He yelled. Baako had been pushed to the limits. Mostly because of Eli, which he noticed was only just starting to pull the first wolf away? Baako sighed again and swam off. Naryia stopped, she didn’t want to make anyone hate her anymore and she realized that that is exactly what she was doing. She didn’t notice that she had completely stopped moving until the water reached her nose again. She shook her head and swam after Baako, who was already out of the water and dragging the (hopefully) unconscious wolf to the shelter.
Once she was out Naryia kept her distance from the others. Baako and Eli lay on the other two wolves to provide heat. As soon as they were dry Baako left Eli to keep the heat between them, given the fact that it was close to midday and it would be warm enough.
Naryia was laying down a few metres away from the shelter, she was looking up at the clouds wondering how long it would take her to grow wings and fly away from this mess.
“I’m sorry for yelling at you before,” Said Baako ever so softly. Naryia was caught by surprise again and gasped.
“Oh… It’s okay. You were right, I wasn’t fine,” She said.
“But it’s not my place to tell you what you can and can’t do,” He reasoned.
“It was a matter of life and death,” She mumbled. Naryia sat up and looked at Baako straight in the eyes. “Do you really want to know what happened with my pack?” She said, after that little scenario in the water and how worried Baako had been for her, Naryia thought she could trust him enough with this story.
“Yes I do but you don’t have to tell me,” Baako was kind of taken by surprise, he was suppose to be coming over to apologize but instead he was about to hear her story she was trying to hide from him.
“You have to promise to not change the way you think about me,” She warned.
“I swear on my life,” He said.
“Okay,” Naryia sighed, she wasn’t ready to let in the images but she felt she had to. She tried to control them, one tragic image at a time, starting from the beginning.
“When I was a pup, my mother betrayed our pack by trying to kill our alpha Darian. She died…when she tried attacking the whole the pack to get to Darian. But before she… died, she killed my siblings,” Naryia stuttered, she had a hard time explaining while trying to keep back her tears.
“Oh I’m so sorry,” Said Baako, but he didn’t know what this had to do with leaving her pack if that had happened when she was pup. Naryia continued…
“Since I’m the only one of her offspring that had survived the whole pack kinda… disowned me and my father. They wouldn’t talk to me or go near me and if they did it was only to blame me for something,”
Baako had a harsh frown on his face, like what she was telling him was unbelievable, he was about to comment but Naryia cut him off.
“Anyway, a few days ago, some other pack wanted to take our land. Darian tried to reason with them but they wouldn’t accept anything. However they did settle for a one-on-one fight to determine our fate,” Naryia’s mind played the movie of everything that had happened.
“If we won they would leave, but if they won then they would take our land and kill anyone who tried stopping them. My… father was the one chosen to fight for our side and so he fought,” In Naryia’s mind, her