Chương 32: I WAS RUNNING IN A FOREST

(NOT A PROPHETIC DREAM—consider yourself warned.) I was dreaming again. You know this, and I know this. But was I in a prophetic dream? I was running in a forest. I looked down and checked my hands; they were still hands. I am relieved to report that these were my hands this time. Ah, but if I were running in a forest, in human form, I guess I didn't get the prophetic dream showing what my wolf would look like, huh? Bummer. Maybe the Moon Goddess realized that she showed me the wrong prophetic dream last night.

Maybe last night's dream belonged to Golden Eyes. Tonight's dream would be a proper pre-shifting prophetic dream. Back to running in the forest. It was sort of evening time, but unlike evening time, the sky didn't turn completely dark. It was like the sun got stuck on its way down, just at the last bit... And then I realized that if this was a dream from the Moon Goddess, there should be a moon somewhere. I looked up and TADA! Behold the full moon.

So even though it looked like the sky was permanently stuck at evening time, it still had a really bright moon. Good job Moon Goddess! Against every law of nature, you stuck to your standard template. I couldn't figure out this forest. I was running like I knew where I was going, but I had never been here before. I kept running, but this dream didn't seem to be moving its plot line. I guess the usual laws of logic didn't apply either. I was running in the forest. Still running in the forest.

I noticed that I wasn't tired or perspiring, and my feet didn't get scratched up from running barefoot. But by now, I had also stopped expecting this dream to follow any kind of reality-based rules. I just kept running. And just FYI, I had clothes on. Pretty ordinary-looking clothes that I hadn't noticed the design of. Back to the dream. I was running in the forest—yes, I was still running. Was I running from something, or to something? Maybe I was just going for a run in a forest at night for casual exercise.

I was running, but no one was chasing me. I wasn't chasing anything either. Should I be? Okay, maybe in these dreams your mate was supposed to be chasing you, and then you meet. But my mate was not chasing me. Maybe I should be the one chasing him. And then I saw a pool of water. I stopped running and hesitated. If I were in my wolf form, I would go look at the wolf and tell you her fur and eye color, but I was in human form. Maybe it means I was mateless! OMG. Maybe my mate would be in the pool.

I mean, not his reflection—maybe my mate would be a merman, except I didn't think mermen lived in ponds in the forest. Maybe my mate would be a frog... or a salamander. Omo. I walked over to the water. I mean, it was either this or running in the forest again, right? Suddenly my dream became a choose-your-own-adventure book. (Which I had read too many of before school started — I blame Savy for buying so many.) Anyway, choose an option: 1. Look into the water 2. Something crazy You choose 1: Look into the water.

As I approached the pool, I saw it was more of a lake than a pond. It was wide, as if it expanded with every step I took toward it. I hesitated. Should I look into the water? I wasn't sure what I would find there. I decided to look before I creeped myself out. I hope it's not a salamander. I don't know where that came from. I remembered Terrence. Oh, that's right. Just a human taunt. So no worries. The Moon Goddess wasn't going to give me a salamander for a mate.

At worst it was a frog, but those should turn into princes… right? I was stalling, yes. I should really stop overthinking these things. Just look into the water and wake up. I approached the still water. It was a very deep blue, almost black, darker than the moonlit sky. There were stars reflecting on it, so it looked like a large, shiny piece of sky on the floor. I looked into the water and saw... me. Just me, standing alone in the dark. My hair was long, though, all the way down my back. My skin looked pale.

I didn't see the color of anything in the dark. Everything dark-colored looked black; everything light-colored looked pale. How the hell did those ladies see their wolves being tan or gray? Everything looked black, or dark, or pale to me. Great. I was dreaming in black and white. But if you wanted a description, then my hair was black and my eyes are black? Definitely they were darker than my usual brown hair and eyes, but I was in the dark...

So my usual hair and eye colors would have also been black in the dark... I was trying to figure this out when... I heard a growl from behind me. I spun around, realizing that I was being watched by something in the shadows of the forest. Mate? My heart started hammering. The growl came from the forest behind me which I took as a good sign. It wasn't a merman, frog, or salamander. But no one stepped out of the forest to meet me.

"Show yourself," I commanded. Nothing. I took a tentative step forward. And then another. Still nothing. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Walking into the forest, I sniffed, but smelled nothing because dreams had no smell, of course. And then I saw it... A dark, sticky liquid on the ground, like footprints and small dark patches. Mud? The footprints led away from the pool.

I stepped back, meaning to retreat quickly, afraid of what I might find if I followed them. The scene was seriously freaking me out. It's just mud. I kept telling myself. A lot of mud. And then I saw more mud, on a tree trunk this time. A large handprint in... ah... mud. It's mud. It's just mud. But my breathing had quickened. Breathing that didn't smell anything — because dreams had no smell.

Another handprint, and everything I learned in hunting and tracking lessons as a child told me someone was here, and that the someone was severely injured... I mean, dirty, you know... covered with mud. And the someone had leaned on this tree and watched me while I was at the pool. I examined the mud on the tree—another large handprint. A man's hand, for sure.

But also probably a shoulder would have been pressed on this larger mud blotch, and the rest of the trunk had sticky mud smeared on its bark where it had supported his weight. It was a tall man. The shoulder blotch was at the height of my chin... and I'm considering that he couldn't have been standing upright, given all the... um... mud that he had been dripping. And at the foot of the tree where I stood, a puddle of mud, so I know that he had stopped here for quite a while. By now, I had seen enough.

I wanted to wake up. Moon Goddess, you messed up! This was a really bad pre-shift prophetic dream. I wanted a redo. A proper one! Without blood—I mean mud—everywhere. One that I actually saw a wolf. One that I could actually see the colors in. What a stupid dream. I should've done something crazy... Actually, let's rewind the dream and do just that: You choose 2: Something crazy. I was running in the forest… wth! At this point, I might as well do something crazy.

It didn't look like I'd be able to wake up anytime soon anyway. I looked around me at the quiet, dark forest and tried to think of the craziest thing possible. Whatever it was, I wasn't heading to the water, because that was just what the Goddess would be expecting. But everywhere else was forest, right? I had been running for ages, and the forest didn't seem to have a beginning or an end. Was I alone in this dream?

I tried to sniff the air, but I already knew there were no smells in this forest—not the smell of dirt or pine... which would have been pretty apparent. I mean, it was pine. And I was surrounded by pine trees... Which didn't grow anywhere in the Night Leaf... not in a whole forest like this anyway. So at least I knew I was not going to run into my pack town and see it burning to the ground. I groaned in frustration. I wanted to do something crazy, but I couldn't think of anything.

If this were a webnovel, I wished you could send me some ideas in the comments... but it was not. I didn't even know why I was thinking that. If I kept running forward, then I would just be running in the forest. If I ran backward, then I would still just be running in the forest... for what I already knew would be a long time. I began to understand how option 1, look into the water, was not just the most popular choice. It was the default choice. It really didn't seem like I had another.

Either I kept running in the forest, or I looked into the water. There wasn't a crazy option in this dream. No wonder it played out so similarly for everyone I heard it from. Wait—but in that case, not that I've heard an exhaustive example of such dreams, but if the pattern held true, since I was in my human form, the most likely scenario was that I was going to meet my mate... in all his full glory. He would just step out from behind me should I have gone to the lake. I looked around...

This would place him in the forest just behind those trees. I knew what crazy thing I was going to do now. I wasn't going to the lake. There was no point in seeing my own reflection in human form. I was going to flank my future mate from behind and step out from behind him! Ha! Take that, Moon Goddess. Never think that Sam Kingsley, future alpha of the Night Leaf Pack, would just go along quietly with your cookie-cutter dreams.

If my mate was in this dream, I was going to hunt him down if it was the last thing I did. I don't care if there were no smells. I don't care if he remained completely still and silent in the forest. I had something no other wolf had... a very lucky sense of direction. Oh yes, and I also deduced which area of the forest he was most likely to be positioned for him to step out from behind me at the lakeside. I headed very stealthily into the forest where the undergrowth was denser.

If my mate was in this dream, I was going to find him. It didn't take me long. The area wasn't large to search, and I didn't even have to search; my lucky sense of direction took me there immediately. I stopped and snapped myself quickly against an adjacent tree, straining to see him without being seen. Leaning heavily in the shadow of a tree... his breathing is shallow. I could only make out his silhouette. He was tall and broad and muscled; it was not the body of a young teen.

He was older than me, if his height and shoulders were anything to go by. He hadn't seen me; he hadn't even looked up. He looked like he was concentrating just on keeping his breathing quiet. Was he hiding? Why was he hiding? Okay, I was supposed to step out from behind him, right? Good. But his back was facing the other side, so I would need to sneak around more trees first. As I snuck nearer, I could hear his breathing. It was shaky.

His heart was steady, but his breathing—I held my breath to listen—it was almost labored, as if he was holding back... What was he holding back from? If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought he was crying. Silently, as if afraid to be found out. Goddess, my mate was a crybaby. Okay, no, I didn't know that for sure. He could also be breathing in great pain because, you know, being in a perfectly still forest by yourself could hurt you if you accidentally trip or get a splinter. I was being sarcastic.

He was like, really unlikely to be hurt. I crept closer. Seriously, if this dream had smells, it would have been impossible for me to have come so near undetected. But so far, it had been fun. I realized I quite like hunting down my mate. I had always been pretty good at track-and-hunt simulations. When I got close enough, I stepped out from behind him. I grinned widely at my win. Checkmate! (OMG, I made a good pun. Bet you didn't expect that, Goddess!) But the grin was wiped off the moment he turned to face me.

You know the darkness covering half his face, his whole back, and the larger part of the rest of his body? It wasn't a shadow. Some of it might have been shadow—he was still leaning on the tree—but most of it was dark, wet liquid. I looked at his face. He grimaced when his back hit the rough bark. Half his face was covered with blood from a head wound, but the actual wound was covered by a thick lock of curls. His hair was black and glossy, swathed in darkness and moonlight. And his eyes... golden eyes.

He turned his face away, as if he didn't want to see me. Why? Was he unhappy to meet me? If he dared reject me in my own prophetic dream, I would kill him. He seemed quite on the brink of death as it was, being only kept somewhat upright by the tree he was leaning against. Wait, Goddess, were you showing me my mate dying? So cruel... I'm sorry if I disrespected you. I was just joking. I'm sorry I didn't play along with the typical development of your prophetic dream. I was crying now.

Please don't kill my mate because of me.

"I won't die from this," he spoke through gritted teeth. His voice was deep and rumbly, just like in the dream I had yesterday—like distant thunder rolling out the words, so softly that I had to strain my ears to make them out.

"So don't cry." And then I woke up, my face wet with tears. Who's the crybaby now? My alarm rang, the start of a new day. I shut it off and wiped my face with the palms of my hands. Stupid dream. Yeah, that's exactly what it was. Come on, you can't believe that was a real prophetic dream, can you? It was probably just the mashup of all the loose thoughts I left floating in my head before I fell asleep! I mean, salamanders and golden eyes and running in evergreen forests...

it was just my subconscious at work while I slept. And I was pretty sure prophetic dreams did not come in choose-your-own-adventure editions. I did warn you from the start. This wasn't a prophetic dream. So there. Don't argue with me.