The night split open with a soundless cry, shadows pooling and spilling across the forest floor as if the world itself was exhaling its sorrow. A shimmer of moonlight rippled through the clearing, giving way to a sudden, sharp crack of silver lightning. The flash illuminated a lone figure—a tangled heap of fur and sinew, thrashing and snapping at unseen foes, rose-gold eyes blazing under the watchful moon.

Phantom’s chest heaved, their breaths painting frost into the chilled night air. The scar across their face throbbed with a phantom ache, though the wound itself had long since healed. Slowly, the snarl faded from their lips, replaced by something deeper, something raw. Their head turned, muzzle brushing the frozen earth. This was no familiar glade. The scent of the soil was alien, the trees reaching higher, their silhouettes like silent sentinels. This place bore the marks of Lun’s light, yet it was utterly and devastatingly unfamiliar.

They pushed themselves upright, paws pressing into ground that felt foreign beneath them. The connection they had once felt—the pulse of life through soil, the whispered comfort of the world they knew—was gone. Phantom stilled, their eyes drifting downward, expecting to see hands but finding only paws.

Did we not shift back? The thought surfaced, desperate and fleeting, yet it was met with silence. We must. Their mind pushed, groping for the connection they had always known. It was instinct, a bond forged in the marrow of their being.

But there was nothing.

A frayed tether dangled where the other half of them had always been—a hollow space where the human once resided. Phantom froze, their breath catching in their throat. Rose-gold eyes darted to the sky, the gaze of the moon above feeling less like a benediction and more like a jeer, cold and distant. Their lips trembled as they licked them, an anxious gesture that betrayed the storm building within.

The wolf and human were one. Always. They had never been separate, never known what it was to walk without the other. The memory of Cyris’s absence, once their greatest source of pain, now paled in comparison to this terrible loneliness. This was worse. This was an abyss.

It must be a dream, they thought, clinging to the idea. Werewolves are two halves. We cannot be severed. Yet, as their mind reached out again, seeking the comforting weight of the human soul, they found only void. A great sob tore free from their throat, unbidden and raw, spilling into the silence of the forest. They were alone, utterly and devastatingly alone. And for the first time, the wolf did not know how to survive without the human that had always been a part of them.

She had walked and wandered for miles further than her eyes could see. Elodie had little idea of where she was going or what method of madness compelled her footsteps forward, but nonetheless, she continued with a thin line drawn silently along her lips.

For all its beauty, the North was barren in her eyes—a world composed of nothing more than frigid air and relentless ice. A world in which sat poised and ready for the Quinn’s next misstep; like a predator readying for its fill in the moonlight, she knew only the North would wish to consume her.

And so she had left before danger, or worse, wandered up toward her doorstep and truly, irrevocably tore her asunder.

But as the darkened night bore down on her, the light of the moon a mere sliver in the sky, it had not been the fear of the shadows that riddled her bones with unease—rather, the sound of a warbled cry.

She halted in her steps, a head drawn from a weary place before her chest as a nose would faintly twitch. An unfamiliar and rouge scent reached her senses as she momentarily considered fleeing.

She could run, turn back now, and perhaps never come face-to-face with whatever darkness lingered in the shadows…yet her conscience told her otherwise.

The cries that whispered through the dreary evening were of heartache and loss—a broken song that made Elodie’s own heart tense and quiver in the space within her chest. Whoever they were, they were in pain, and Elodie certainly knew the loneliness that accompanied such suffering.

Far before her rational mind could tell her no, Elodie crept forward—her paws light against the winter-kissed earth as a heterochromatic gaze swept along the growing evening. Hello? She called out gently as though her voice were composed of velvet and moss. Are you alright…out there? She hesitantly asked as she continued her slow approach, her attention rapt along the darkness that consumed the world around her.

Perhaps she could not see them. But certainly, Elodie could hear them.

Now, she just needed to locate them.

Their breath seemed to catch in their throat as they gave in to gentle waves of sobbing, mourning a loss they had not expected. They didn't evne know how they'd come here though a distant scent of petrichor lingered around them. Whether that was from their arrival or the melting snow, it could be hard to tell.

The cold ground beneath them was enough to remind them that they were alive, at least, and there was a chance that they may find that connection again. If not now then perhaps after sleep or after searching. Their sniffling and crying had not quite stopped when they heard the voice. Melodic, gentle, seeking out the source of melancholy.

Phantom adjusted their weight and wiped their eyes along their foreleg to clear their vision before their head lifted to search. With eyes so wide from crying, there was clear reflection that cast out toward the oncomer under the full moon. They were a siloette, maybe, where a wolf should have stood, outlined by moonlight with pupils shimmering.

It was a woman approaching them, lighter, easier to see under the silver light of Lun and they let out a shaky breath as she sought them. Comfort. The need to mask their own loss overwhelmed them and so they drew in a deep breath before responding, taking a moment to steady themselves.

It's no matter, they called into the darkness. We all have another day, though I am grateful for a stranger's concern. The answer was vague and fleeting. They looked up for signs of the moon, quietly longing to feel Lun's blessing in this strange land. The sky was half obscured.

That was typical, alnd expected at this point. Can I help you? And that was, maybe, a bit sharper than the previous words, though it was not entirely unkind either, the words coming out short as their sideways gaze fell towards the sound of that voice again, towards the lighter wolf who approached them in the dark.

Her confidence was comical, fragile, and quivering. And yet, Elodie still swayed to the side of bravery and empathy as she pushed her limbs regretfully forward. The dark was hungry, the shadows ravenous, and though she knew nothing of who was out there nor what, she continued to try to find them.

Quietly, her gaze skittered from side to side, flashing amongst the shadows of the approaching night as she searched. At first, there was nothing beyond the scent of herbs and earth, of mysterious rain within a clear, cloudless night—but then, a voice.

And then a gaze she could’ve sworn had glowed in the absence of the moonlight’s darkened glimmer. Hello? She hesitantly asked again as the shadows before she transformed into a body—a silhouette that looked far more akin to a wolf than a beast.

Their words were cryptic but…normal. Enough so for Elodie to question the sounds she had heard not moments before. Had she dreamed those sounds of heartbreak and pain? That longing for something that would no longer come?

I— She hesitantly started as her pace slowed a mere few feet away from the stranger ahead. The golden girl’s ears wilted atop her head as hesitancy flourished like the beating wings of a bug between her flesh, I thought I heard… She murmured into the dark, toward the glowing eyes she swore bore into the shards of her soul that barely remained. If not…I may be… crazy. She shook her head, My apologies, she offered instead.

Perhaps it was she who was losing the last strings of her own insanity.

There's nothing I need...but is there…anything I can do for you, instead?

Defensiveness had been natural for them. To wall themselves up and ensure that whoever had stumbled upon them was not a threat. They did not want to show weakness to someone who had not yet deserved to see it. So of course they stuffed it down. Their mind reached for the guidance of the human soul that had been attached to them once and there was a pang of panic once more as they did not find it.

Peach eyes shifted out and around before settling again. The little bit of moonlight that existed wasn't a lot. They could see her shape, her softness, but not enough. The voice of the girl was enough to soften the abandoned wolf and their ears shifted back as they let out a small shaky breath.

We are lost, they admitted softly. They did not know how to explain what they were missing, how they were lost. What had happened. Surely they didn't know what had happened either way. Only that they were here alone other than this stranger who had come to check on them. Who had clearly heard their sounds of dismay.

They wiped their eyes again with a paw, taking in a deep breath before shaking their head.

I suppose not... at least... Can you tell me where we are? I need to find... I need to find someone.

Except Bezalel didn't know how to explain that they had to find the other half of themselves.

Lost, they had said, and Elodie could feel her heart cinch in her chest. A tightened grip that threatened to pull her thoughts down under and that weary thread of emotion to come spilling out from between her lips.

She, too, was lost.

Uncertain and no more than a weary flag that drifted between the skies.

Gone were the semblance of home, of her friends, of her family. And now Elodie was alone in a world she could not yet recognize, adrift with nothing more than a worried heart that continued to ache and bleed no matter how hard she tried to staunch the bleeding.

Whether lost or abandoned, Elodie, similarly had no one.

And unfortunately for the other, Elodie neither had the answers they had sought.

Her lips dipped into a shadowed frown as her own ears tipped back and splayed along her crown. I.. She started, mouth opening to only briefly shut again. She wanted to help, so badly, she wanted to help…but she knew nothing, not of the information they would need.

I’m not sure, she finally admitted through a sigh, A forest, I reckon. At least it had been one during the daylight, although now the shadows contorted those eerie trunks of trees into shadowed figures that looked as hungry as her own demons within her felt.

I have only arrived a few moon phases ago, she explained to the other, who remained drenched in the shadows of the night. But, She paused briefly, a heterochromatic gaze drifting toward that darkened silhouette, I could help you find whoever you are looking for?

At least then, neither of them would be alone.

For now.

The lonliness in their chest persisted and they released a sigh into the night, shifting as they leaned more to their right where they sat, waving a paw slightly in dismissal of the details. It didn't ultimately matter where they were. Where she was. Where this place was. They were so very alone.

She seemed to be new to the area, too. A few moons wasn't a lot, but it should be enough to give her an idea of the surrounding area. Of others who might be here. Maybe someone who would know how to connect them with the other part of themselves. Their dark face angled down as they looked away from her, ears slanting back as they contemplated their situation and what it meant.

Another deep breath in.

I don't know if you can, but I suppose we can try, they answered her. They didn't know how to explain that they were missing half of themselves. That the one they were looking for was them, except not them. Would they look the same if they were separate? Would they be human, would they be wolf? They're a lot like me. Perhaps could be mistaken for me... Though I suppose I do not know.

They seemed as unsure as she did. Standing, they shrugged and fluffed their fur a little. Do you have a name, pretty one?