New chapter! Enjoy~

Chapter VII: Opening Up

An eagle cried out as it soared through the darkening forest. The sky had turned a bright rose color, and the sun glimmered as it lowered towards the snowcap mountains.

Tala winced with every step. Her paws were sore after their first full day of walking "shoeless". She prayed she would fall asleep and wake up with a thick layer of callouses on her paw pads.

A bellowing hoot echoed from in the woods. An owl yawned as it stretched its wings from its day-slumber, and it turned its glowing eyes to look at the two wolves below its hollow.

Her blue eyes met the giant orbs of the owl and Tala picked up her pace to stay close to her guide, who had been quiet for the past few hours. She wasn't one to fear things so often, but after the body change and everything, the young she-wolf was overstressed.

"Hold on." The male wolf said sharply.

Tala stumbled over a log in the dark,

"Oof—" she quickly perked her head up from her place on the ground. "What is it?"

He lowered his body into a crouch position before sniffing the air,

"You smell that?"

Tala sniffed as hard as she could, but only the scent of pine and smoke filled her nose.

"I just smell smoke."

The male wolf sniffed again and crouched lower,

"Exactly."

The she-wolf blinked a few times. Why was he so concerned?, she thought. But then she realized that this was a normal smell to her, but not to a wolf. Smoke meant fire, and fire–meant humans.

Humans. The cogs in Tala's brain started to click and whir.

"Humans!" she gasped.

Her mind wasn't thinking clearly as she leapt up from the ground and ran towards the smell.

The other wolf's mouth dropped, "H-Hey wait!

Her tongue lolled out of her mouth as she ran aimlessly through the woods, occasionally tripping over a branch or rock. She had forgotten her form change, and her heart filled with hope that she could find help.

Suddenly a red light came into view, and with a leap over a bush Tala landed in a small clearing. In the center was a small burning fire. Tala looked left and right, but no one was anywhere near the fire. She panted heavily, but the breathing slowed as she realized that she was alone.

Her ears dropped and she slumped into a sitting position. Her tail settled gently on the ground.

Rustling sounded from behind her, but she didn't move as her eyes gazed at her paws.

"What—were you—thinking?!" the male wolf said between pants.

"There could be hunters anywhere! Are you crazy? And what—" his words trailed off as he turned to see that the cream-furred wolf was breathing shallowly as if she were crying.

His ears flattened and he immediately felt bad for yelling at her.

He stepped closer to her, "Hey, are…are you okay?"

He reached his paw out but the she-wolf jolted upward and leapt back to stare at the male wolf. There were in fact no tears in her eyes, but she definitely seemed upset,

"I'm fine. I don't cry, it's fine." She swiftly turned away and sat closer to the fire. Her fur was glowing from the small flames flickering around the embers, and the other wolf couldn't help but stare.

Maybe…maybe I was too hard on her? I've been such a jerk all day, geez…, he thought to himself as he relaxed his muscles from the fright he received earlier.

He walked towards the fire, skeptical of it, and sat near the she-wolf.

He scratch his neck with his forepaw thinking of something to say.

"Um." He mumbled.

Tala glanced over at him, but quickly turned her attention back to the fire. The embers' lights glistening in the curves of the necklace she wore.

"My name's Kai. By the way…" he trailed off after trying to make his voice deeper.

He heard a shifting of movement next to him, and the wolf turned to see a paw stretched out towards him.

"My name's Tala." The she-wolf stuck out her paw to shake as she would in her human body.

Kai simply looked at her paw in confusion, but he reached his paw up and they proceeded to shake.

"Oookay," He cleared his throat. "Look, I'm sorry if I've been a—"

"Jerk?" Tala finished for him.

"Yes, a jerk. Wait. No—" He shook his head. "I was going to say quiet or something—anyway, the past few days have just been rough for me."

Tala was going to make another smart remark, but then she saw Kai's eyes turn towards the fire. Something was there. In his amber eyes she could see…hurt.

Kai continued before turning towards the fire again, "I lost my friends."

Blue eyes widening, Tala's heart immediately dropped,

"Oh my gosh, Kai, I'm so sorry."

"Oh, no no no—they're not dead! I got separated from them."

"OH!" Tala sighed in relief.

Kai proceeded to apologize for the confusion. The she-wolf asked what had happened.

"Well, the thing is—I don't know," He inhaled a deep breath. "It's a long story but my friends and I have been travelling to the Kukutnu mountains for a few days. It's tradition for each wolf to get their own token from the caves of the mountains, and so we split up."

He stretched out his paws and lowered to the ground to lie down,

"I stayed at the meeting point and waited for two days for my three friends to return. But they never did."

Tala lowered to the ground too as she let out a yawn,

"Why did you stay behind?"

Kai's ears flickered. Tala wasn't too keen on canine social cues yet, but she could guess that she said something that made the wolf think harder than usual. The male wolf grinned shyly,

"I—I didn't have anyone to bring a token back to."

A lightbulb flicker on in Tala's brain,

"Wait, girl wolves and guy wolves both go to these 'caves', get gem tokens, go back to their home, and then exchange the tokens as a symbol of—" she wanted to say love but she couldn't bring herself to say it as she looked over at Kai.

He let out a small laugh, "You got it."

An awkward silence hovered between the two.

Kai yawned loudly, "But yeah my friend, Tokalu, has this beautiful she-wolf back home. Problem is he's kind of a klutz with important stuff like this, and knowing him he'll probably lose his token two or three times on his way back."

The two wolves laughed at this. Tala didn't even know these wolves, but the way Kai told stories made you feel like you were already friends with every person he talked about.

Then the dark brown wolf became quiet. He looked over at Tala,

"That's why I asked for your necklace. In case Toka loses his," Rolling over onto his back he sighed with a grin as he looked up at the treetops and the stars peeking through. "I'm his best friend—we've got each other's backs."

"The girl sounds like a real lucky wolf." Tala added with a laugh.

"You have no idea. This girl is gorgeous. I'd hate for him to show up token-less to the Festival and not propose to her. She's got snow white fur, black tipped ears and tail, dark green eyes, and a smile that makes you melt."

Another awkward silence rolled in as Kai caught himself rambling about the she-wolf. Tala noticed this uncomfortable air and turned to ask him something, but he quickly rolled over and huffed.

"Anyway, we'll get up early so we can make it through the forest and to the plains tomorrow."

Tala stared at the wolf's back as his large shoulder blades rose up and down from his deep breathing. She blinked a few times before rolling over to the other side. Tala hadn't listened to someone like that in a long time, and she found herself drifting off thinking about wolves carrying stones in their mouths. She even imagined them dancing on two legs at a wedding festival.

"Thanks for helping me get to the mountains, Kai. I hope you find your friends." She whispered with a tired voice, but Kai had already fallen asleep. Tala's eyes closed and she drifted off underneath the cold, winter sky. The flames of the fire were now nothing but glittering, red embers.

Thank you all for your patience with this story. Life hit me hard this year, and I'm currently in Italy for studies and travel so it can be a bit hard to write sometimes. I haven't given up on my stories though! I hope all of you are doing well, and thank you so so so much for the reviews over the past year! You all inspired me to keep writing this story :)

Peace and Good Vibes always~