One
Torak sliced the water with his oars, drawing back and allowing the breeze to fill his face. He knocked his knee on the faithful skinboat, which had once been dyed with seal blood, but had lost all traces of the color. The Seal clan had offered to dye it again, but he declined. He liked his boat as it was. He lay down on the hide, enjoying the clouds that drifted past his sightline, savoring the lovely feeling of floating on the water.
It had been half a moon since his battle with the last Soul-Eater on the Mountain of Ghosts. He dared not say her name aloud for fear of bringing back her spirit to haunt them. He was still remembering the whole battle, picturing it taking place in his mind, when suddenly a nauseous feeling swallowed his belly, and he immediately tried to think of happy things. Too late. His throat clammed up, and one single entity obliterated everything. Fa. It still disturbed him that he could have saved him, brought him back from the dead, but he gave up the chance. Had he made the correct choice. One side of his brain said that this way, the entire Forest had benefitted from the choice, and the latter choice would mean that only he and Fa would have benefitted. The other side said, But what about Fa?
He tugged open his deer stomach pack, drawing out some of Renn's salmon cakes and a few hazelnuts. He munched on them, jumping from each string of thought to another, and then ending the whole process with a crunch. Much like Wolf.
His hand involuntarily raised up to the stone wolf amulet that Dark had made for him. He had dutifully taken care of it, renewing the alder blood on its belly every 7 days.
The boat stopped abruptly. They had hit land. Torak woke, grumpy at the end of his boat ride, but the feeling left him entirely at the prospect of meeting Wolf again.
Torak put his hands to his mouth and howled. I'm coming, pack-brother!
Fin-Kedinn watched the elk they were hunting stomp off to the brook for a drink. He took aim – and a grey arrow shot across the scene. And, if he had looked closely, he would have seen a tongue dropping straight out of a wolf's mouth.
The elk ran away. Fin-Kedinn sighed. The hunt was ruined.