Shining Eclipse

The rain fell mercilessly as the young wolf ran across the sand, across the grass, across the cold stony ground. The roughness of the surface she tread on sent a sharp sting through her feet, her various wounds felt the same as the rain pounded into the slashes, sending small stabs of pain through her, but she refused to stop until she reached her destination.

She couldn't tell if it had just been minutes, or perhaps even mere seconds, but the run felt like hours on end. All of eternity had passed her by before she finally stood at the edge of a high cliff, her front left paw resting at the very edge. She paused to catch her breath, which came in huge gulps, burning her lungs with each inhale and seemingly doing nothing to restore her energy.

But all that pain wasn't noticeable to her. She could easily tolerate it, though she couldn't remember where she had learned to.

All that pain was pushed aside for the throbbing pain she felt throughout her entire body, strengthening its grip on her with every beat of her heart. Confusion, fear, disbelief, regret, guilt. They pounded against her in waves, though they were no longer trying to sweep her off her feet. Instead, their previous goal completed, they attempted to drown her, push her under the water until her strength finally gave out.

I never wanted to know, The wolf thought, her barricade finally breaking down; the barricade that she truly believed was her. I never... wanted... this...

She lowered her head and her whole body shook with her silent sobs, as if trying to force the feelings out with the violent shaking. Her eyes created their own flood, one that no one ever noticed, as the salt water fell and was washed away alongside the rain.

A small glimmer of hope flared in her chest and spread out through her entire being, filling it with a warm glow. But as she argued with herself, the small flame was quenched by the rain that just kept pouring, and she knew how to ascertain who rested behind the walls of her demolished barricade.

Shaking, she raised her tail and painted a simple circle, the very tip of her tail turning a dark red color as she tested herself.

She looked up in despair at the sun, eclipsed for years and years by the moon, which remained as it had been seconds before.

No... She grit her teeth and tried again, only for the same results.

The wolf repeated this action over and over, growing in franticness as the sliver of hope she had mustered slowly withered away to nothing once more. She knew exactly what her results were, and it was the exact contradiction of what she wanted, wished for, hoped for, and longed for with her entire being.

She collapsed to the ground, trapped in a lament of herself, who she thought she was, everything she once knew, for it had all been a horribly twisted fabrication of the bitter truth she was now forced to deal with. Everything she had once hated, loathed, and detested... it was exactly who she was.










And, while she despaired over the horrible new discovery, she failed to notice the sun, which, although largely blocked off by the moon, shone just a little bit brighter.