Page 3

She tore through the forest, up the incline of the hollow’s edge, stumbling to the crest of the hill.

Breathless, she turned back, searching for him.

He was still standing at the center of the glade, those glowing violet and gold eyes on her.

She stared back, transfixed.

Until the world began to explode in the distance.

A cascade of major detonations ripped the atmosphere.

Light, seething, terrible, blinding, and hot soared from the horizon.

The earth ripped open in thunderous twists, rifts forming and rushing toward them.

A storm rose from the fissures into arolling inferno of cosmic detonation.

It swept toward them, a churning tempest of scorching combustion.

Burning everything in its way, devouring trees and terrain, engulfing flora and fauna alike.

‘Nada!’ she cried, hand outstretched to him. ‘Leave, now!’

He didn’t run.

Instead, he swiveled to glance at the turbulent mass of fire and then turned that beautiful, spectral, furred head to gaze back at her, calm and certain.

A knight in wolf’s skin, standing proud, glimmering with aetheric energy and power.

He raised his magnificent head and howled.

With a roar and screeching blast, the blaze swallowed him whole.

He imploded, becoming one with the stars he called out to.

Her scream broke into the wind as she collapsed to her knees, helpless.

The churn kept rolling toward her, speeding up the rise of the hill.

Booming and spinning into a cataclysmic tornado, the inferno reached her.

Her final breath caught as the conflagration lifted her, swirled into the air as her body dissolved in flames, light and gold motes.

Rising into the sky, becoming one with the celestial heavens, spiraling above a burning Earth.

2

A Wolf At The Door

SAVVINE

Riding a star-kissed heaven, while sipping onkahawain utter silence, was Savvine Bianchi’s idea of bliss.

The dark-haired, emerald-eyed pilot liked the quiet of her bridge, the beauty of a distant jewel box stellar cluster, and the purity of space.

Most of all, the calm of a well-behaved perimeter, away from duty, responsibilities, worries, and cares that sometimes threatened to choke her.

She was still reeling from her dream earlier in the day.