Ray slipped deep into sleep.
The wolf awoke in a deep and primordial forest, the scents that it could smell long forgotten, clean from human interference. The wolf hungered, and so it went to seek food. It was not long before it came upon the scent of prey and it followed it for quite some time, moving between trees and around ancient pools that were clear like glass. The wolf thirsted for nothing but the life-sustaining blood, and so it did not pause for these.
Before long it came upon a clearing in the forest with sweet grass, a meadow that broke the treeline. There waited a stag, tall and proud, thousands of points stretching into the sky. In the world above the wolf may fear this beast. The Lyalltines knew creatures like these, but they had sharp teeth and a taste for blood unlike the deer we know—the people of the forest—and those who knew the deer as a deer would respect it and search elsewhere for one more likely to give under the hunt. In this forest, however, this was a challenge that the wolf didn't care to deny.
They stared at each other, each giving and taking in the way that they responded, the wolf skittering back at the shake of the stag's head, and the stag scuffing the earth as the wolf edged closer, teeth showing. The grass waved as if a soft breeze blew through the meadow, but no such breath was felt, though the sweet grass and flowers and blood scented clearly.
The moment was sudden and hard to predict, though both knew it instinctively, and the moment the stag began to rush from the meadow into the woods on the other side the wolf gave chase, speeding after the great stag. From the sight of it in the meadow, one might think that its magnificent antlers would catch on the branches, but the stag moved elegantly, dancing and prancing around trees, flying effortlessly over great roots and through clinging branches that brushed its back like an old friend.
In the same way, the wolf was untroubled with the underbrush, the deceptive ponds, and brambles that waited on the forest floor. They raced each other forever, it seemed, the wolf never appearing to gain any ground, or else managing to run alongside the stag though not quite able to get ahold of it. Though hunger gnawed at the wolf upon seeking the stag, now the joy of the hunt was enough, and the wolf and the stag would love to tirelessly traverse the forest forever. They passed great lakes, scented oceans without seeing a drop of salt, traveled over high ridges, mountains, and through deep valleys, the trees coming and going, the seasons changing heedlessly as if time too raced with the wolf and the stag.
Suddenly, almost inevitably, the end arrived. The wolf witnessed the great stag reach the edge of the path, powerful legs pushing against the edge of the threshold of the cliff it raced for before falling long and hard to hit the bottom below.
The wolf stared forlornly at the edge, seeing the sun on one side of the sky and the moon on the other, taking in the memory as it played again and again, tail down. It then went to seek out the stag, to speak harshly to it perhaps for ending their competition in such a way that didn't make it feel like a victory, or maybe to compliment it on such an sophisticated end that spared the pride of a beast that served to cull the sick and weak to keep the people healthy. There was no shame in keeping sickness and starvation for all away.
But when the wolf arrived, the bear was there, already partaking in the broken and the dead—though in this forest the dead would return to begin the hunt again endlessly, for the joy of life was too splendid. The wolf felt shame heat fur anew, and the two argued and screamed at each other in sharp barks and enraged roars, though the wolf knew that those great paws held great power and could settle any argument. This didn't stop the wolf from biting and snipping at the shoulder, fur, and flank as it circled again and again before taking one too many passing strikes and sulkily going to settle to the side to lick wounds. The wolf waited and rested until the bear finally finished and decided what it wanted before going away again, and the wolf knew this wouldn't be the last time it and brother bear would argue over a kill.
Once the bear had its fill and went away, the wolf shared with the birds of the sky that equally waited to be fed, massive black birds that similarly tried to convince the wolf to simply relinquish the meal altogether, but the wolf would not have it and forced them to share. The wolf, after gorging, knew that tomorrow it would find the stag waiting for it again in that great meadow, but for now, it was full and sleepy, so it went to find somewhere to sleep.
Only something seemed to be different in the forest today. Something seemed inherently wrong, and so the wolf went to seek out the truth of what this may be. The nervous energy grew and grew until the wolf found brother bear, but now bear cried and shrieked in a way that wolf had never heard from the great beast, no matter how well wolf had fought—and there were some days when wolf did indeed win—and as wolf drew closer the enraged bear swiped at it. It was hurt and scared, and the wolf knew it, could smell it. There was nothing more unnerving than seeing the great bear scared.
The wolf was further confused when it saw what it was that harried the great bear. It was a flower, though the flower had no scent that the wolf had ever smelled before in this forest, harsher than the scent of blood, and the scent of blood was plentiful now.
Each time the wolf tried to separate the sharp petals that dug into the bear's hide like insidious teeth. The bear took another swipe at the wolf, growling lowly, shame as well as fear coming off of it in waves. Even so, each strike grew slower and clumsier as the strength to fight back dwindled until bear no longer struggled against wolf's efforts at all. It felt like years passed before wolf could manage to free that great paw from the foreign flower even so, and longer still before the bear was able to pull away from it. Wolf didn't bother to lecture bear, knowing that it was foreign to wolf as well and the wolf would have equally have reacted poorly to it. Wolf just barely managed to keep its nose from getting clamped in the strange flower after freeing bear also.
Wolf, even after the bear was gone, studied the strange thing. Owl watched with a heavy expression on its face.
"Who?" Wolf asked the owl, and the owl seemed to bristle at wolf's request, but took flight. Wolf followed, though it longed to sleep again, longed to see wolf kind again, as is wolf's nature, but this curiosity drove wolf from the forest all the same.
This was the first time wolf had seen anything even vaguely 'not-forest' even compared to the bare mountaintops and the endless tundras. This place that owl led wolf to felt utterly empty as if no life lived here, and it was strange to the wolf that always knew life.
Wolf, feeling uneasy, did not venture further into this place where life wasn't. Owl had already retreated back into cover, as the owl was rarely of the kind to fear such interference. Wolf, however, would learn just how viciously this place of no life wished to see wolf of like kind.
Wolf ventured deep, deep back in the forest, but could not shake that there was something awry and something that sought after it after it returned after being seen—though there didn't seem to be anyone to see—in that place.
Wolf, when it realized that it was being followed, paused and turned to face the being that was following it. It was strange and carried a thing of wood and the peculiar substance the flower was made of. The wolf did not know the feeling of being hunted, so it did not know how to react when the strange creature pointed at it. The wolf did not know that a creature could use something that it held in such a way, but the fear that came with that first vibration in which solid metal struck into the wood of the tree beside it was enough to drive it like the stag was driven.
There was a sense of great joy, great victory as wolf realized that it could fly through the forest with the great grace of the stag while this strange creature seemed to be held to its clumsiness, and the wolf was confident that it could leave the strange animal far behind.
And then the wolf learned the trickery that this creature utilized, making the forest that the wolf knew all its life strange as well. Where there was once solid ground, the wolf found it was now loose leaves, and barely managed to leap in time to keep the ground from collapsing beneath it. The metal flowers were hidden amongst the foliage, and the clear water was now cloudy with poison, but wolf knew these tricks well by sight and smell.
One trick that wolf did not know that didn't smell like the strange flower was the vine that was tied to catch at paws and tighten, dragging wolf from the earth into the sky. There the wolf struggled, but to no avail, and watched helplessly as the clumsy creature effortlessly and slowly approached, the metal device pointed at beating heart, but the thing it held was no longer a thing of metal, but a long and twisted black wand.
"Are you meant to survive in these lands?" The figure chuffed. "There's no stopping progress. A god like yours is obsolete, and a people like yours born to fail."
The wand glowed red hot, and a beam shot toward the wolf, monochrome fur turning all red as the light drew closer, but the next moment the wolf was no longer in the trap and on the tree, but sitting in a grove in a cave. There was a short table with biscuits and tea on it, and a freckled boy with the legs of a sheep, fluffy and white from the waist down.
He laughed and told the wolf, "We can't win against them, can we? We fae can't stop the march of iron and you wolves can't stop the destruction of the forest, but we can convince them, can't we? We can change their minds, can't we?"
The strange boy grinned and picked up a teacup, but instead of drinking from it himself he held it up to the wolf and murmured, "drink and trust me. Can you trust me? Can you still trust people?"
The wolf appeared a bit confused, not sure how to drink from a container like this at first, but finally lapping up the tea. It tasted like the future and the past, bitter and sweet. It also tasted like the unfathomable forest, where sweet berries grow, and like the crushed crystalline sugar that the wolf didn't hesitate to crunch up as they settled at the bottom of the cup.
"You have to prove that you're still good, though it's not fair that one being will have to represent an entire race, is it? Especially not without knowing it beforehand. What do you know about the skin you wear? What do you know about being human? What do you know about being a wolf? Funny face, do you want more tea?" The boy laughed.
He poured more, but instead of putting the sugar cube in the tea, he offered it to the wolf and the wolf nibbled it out of his hand gladly before drinking the offered tea.
Ray woke up really needing to pee, and his mouth was dry.