Move. Move. Move.

The encouragement trickled through what was left of my consciousness, though the words barley registered in my mind. Exhaustion thrust away all positive meaning to running. My infected right shoulder burned, and a broken left leg dragged behind me, sending pain lashing through my faint consciousness at the slightest bit of turbulence. It's not worth it, it's not worth it...

Every insignificant object assented to that fact. Tiny pebbles nudged my broken leg with taunting jeers. Ferns spread their arms smugly, blocking my path to the best of their abilities. Even the flora was contaminated here.

Despite the hopelessness of the chase, the sheer impossibility of survival, some unconscious part of me kept me crawling across the paradise that used to be my home.

That was exactly it. There was no hope. No hope. There was an equal amount of hope and infinite hopelessness. The black fog prodded my head, poking some of the pleasantly obnoxious molecules through to fly around my already jumbled up senses. Their helpful, destructive presence was taking on the qualities of mad hornets.

My pathetic crawl was cruelly interrupted as I stepped forward to set my weight on my forepaw- and the world tilted sickeningly downward at a steep drop. Instinct scrambled my limbs to find a hold, and my paw came across a small niche-got it! I shoved myself up, a sliver of hope twinkling within me.

Heck no! I wasn't having that! The black fog rammed through my defenses, clouding judgement and buckling my foreleg, bowling me over into the hands of the intense wind. My sliver of hope was successfully left back at the precipice as I crashed to the watery ground with a sickening thud. The black fog swarmed my head wildly in all directions, numbing the overwhelming pain as well as my senses. Yet its power couldn't even dampen the frenzied, joyous emotion that pierced me when I spotted the ghostly silhouette waiting for me.

I had come full circle.

"Oh! Why, hello there, Icepath." The smooth voice was pleasantly surprised as if I had dropped by to see an old friend rather than taken a tumble down a mountain to land in a heap at his feet. "I didn't expect you to come visit anytime soon. I thought I told you to be patient and come when you where ready?" An amused sigh. "Oh, well. I guess we both know what you came here for, and I wouldn't want to disappoint you now, would I?"

He padded over with a slight bounce in his step to sit beside me. I was pleased to have him so close, and snarled at his proximity.

"Ooh, behave!" He chided and placed a giant paw over my face. The fog, which had begun to grow even wilder, whirled around my head at his touch. It moved in synchronization as one intelligent entity now, powerful and utterly unstoppable as the black hurricane swallowed me whole.

I did not resurface.

And when I opened my eyes for the first time, it was if I never existed.