Chapter Forty-Seven - Willow

The forest looked dead. Dried leaves blanketed the forest floor beneath my paws. Everything around me was gone. The usual mossy trees and a small creek running through the tangled woods looked dead. I pawed at the earth, noticing the soil was hard and lifeless. Not soft like usual. The moon hung over me hauntingly. Like a lone light in my nightmare. It mocked me in so many ways. The moon normally called to my wolf, but now it looked so close but so distant. The humid breeze of summer approaching pushed through my fur and made my wolf pant. It was a wolf’s hell. I eased into the still water of the creak and lapped up the taste of dirt and grunge. Even the taste of the water felt rotten to my soul. A wolf howled in the distance, close to the perimeter of the pack lands. The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I eased through the trees, and slowly walked toward the disruption. There were no insects or animal noises. It was silent in the midnight air. Everything seemed aware that