Chapter 2

Ash awoke from his dream to Mimosa gnawing on his leg.

'Ow! This little rat... why are you eating my foot?'

Ash hurriedly pulled his foot away, the pain lingering for a moment.

'Note to self, make sure to have at least one other pup between me and bitey here. Now... what was that?'

Ash tried to remember what his dream had been about.

The pain had distracted him just long enough for the mist in his mind to quickly consume the memory of his dream, leaving a sense of desolation behind.

'I feel strange… like I've lost something, but I don't know what. Maybe I was having a dream of my past life? But what can't I remember anything about it afterward?'

After pondering for a bit, Ash gave up on trying to remember his dream, and instead focused on the present: he was hungry again.

'It felt like I was just sleeping for a moment, why am I hungry again?'

It seemed like hunger would be his constant companion in his childhood, as his mother had not returned yet to feed the pups.

'I hope she comes back soon, or this life of mine will end before I have the chance to do anything. Right now only Mimosa is going to survive, by turning to canibalism!'

Ash curled into a ball, fighting off his hunger, hoping that his mother would return soon.

"Bro… bro you good? Are you okay bro? Don't worry, the medical team is on its way. You will be ok, it doesn't look too bad. How did you fall in?"

A familiar voice echoed out in Ash's mind, but he couldn't remember whose it was.

In a panic, Ash tried to figure out who or what was in his head. 'Who's there? Hello? Who was that?'

After waiting for a few minutes yet receiving no response, Ash settled back down.

'I need to figure out what is going on. Maybe if I fall asleep again, I will have a dream about whatever this is, and I can figure out who I was!"

Closing his eyes tightly, the little pup began counting sheep, waiting for sleep to take him back into his lost memories.

Luckily, the other pups seemed to be sleeping already, and none of them interrupted his attempts to sleep... not that it helped.

It would always be hardest to fall asleep when you want to most. Thinking 'I want to fall asleep' might not be effective, but in a world full of darkness, there isn't much else to do other than sleep.

Eventually, Ash fell back into the dreamland, and was greeted by pain.

BEEEEP!

"I'm sorry bro, it was my idea to go to the sanctuary."

Someone was crying over Ash. Roth. The usually cheery guy was bawling his eyes out over Ash's prone body.

BEEEP!

There were other people moving around Ash as well, they seemed to be medical workers of some sort.

'Am I in a hospital? Am I going to die?!? What happened?'

"Doctor, can you save him? This is all my fault, I can't let my best friend die because of me!"

'This must be my past life… but I still can't remember anything! Everything hurts, and I am in a hospital or something similar. Is this how I died?'

BEEP!

Roth's face started to blur, as did the doctors rushing around him.

BEEP!

Ash tried to speak, but it didn't work. His throat refused to make even the slightest noise.

BEEP!

Darkness started to overtake Ash's vision, pulling him downwards.

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP!

It was pitch black. The noise from the hospital was gone, along with everyone who was in the room with him. Almost all of his senses were gone.

'I guess that is how I died. At least I remember that much this time. I am guessing I fell from somewhere and hit my head, that is probably why iI can't remember anything. I think Roth mentioned something about a sanctuary, maybe a wildlife showcase of some sort?'

The pups surrounding Ash started to grow rowdy, and a very faint scent of milk made its way into Ash's faulty nose.

'Mother is back! Finally!'

The pups hurriedly crawled over to their mother, filling up on milk before resting once more. This cycle continued for the next two weeks, during this time, no more dreams came to Ash. It was as if his past memories had been erased permanently after his death in his previous dream.

Finally, after two weeks, there was a big change in Ash's otherwise dull life.

A dull light was streaming into the cave, illuminating the small pack of wolves just enough for Ash to make out individual figures of the wolves.

He could see!

There were eight other wolves, including his mother. Ash was unable to identify which of them was his father, but he didn't mind much, too happy that he could finally see after weeks of darkness.

He began crawling away from the group of cubs near the back of the small cave, trying to get a peak outside, at whatever wondrous world awaited him, but it was difficult to crawl, and his legs weren't strong enough to walk.

After a minute of struggling to crawl towards the light, Ash had to give up, and rolled back to where his brothers and sisters were resting.

'Alright, I can see! It will be a lot easier to figure out things from now on!'

Since he couldn't reach outside of the cave, Ash figured he would explore inside first. He turned towards a small patch of moss that seemed to almost radiate light, and began admiring it.

^Luminous moss, commonly found in caves.^

A voice boomed out in Ash's mind, startling him.

'Who is that?' Ash shouted into his mind, and after a few seconds, he received a reply.

^I- I don't know. I felt compelled to tell you what you wanted to know… but who or what am I? I seem to know a lot of information, but nothing about myself...^

The voice seemed to come from a small ball of light in Ash's mind.

'Hah! Same for me, buddy. So, I guess that means we will be stuck together from now on. How long have you been here, by the way?'

The mysterious voice seemed to flinch at the word "buddy," but it wasn't sure as to why.

^I am not sure, but I think that I have been here for a short period of time, maybe a week or two? I tried to talk to you before, but I don't think you could hear me.^

'So, I guess I will name you now. Any suggestions?'

The mysterious voice pondered for a bit, before speaking into Ash's mind again.

^How about Roth? I'm not sure why, but that name feels familiar…^

After a few seconds, Ash decided to tell Roth about the dream he had of him dying, but left out the part of Roth claiming it was his fault. He didn't want to hurt his new, or maybe old friend's feelings, and certainly didn't want to blame him for his death.

As he described what had happened, the little orb of light seemed to shrink in fear and guilt while Ash was telling him about the dream.

^Why do I feel like I've done something terrible, something I can't fix?^

'I'm sure it's nothing bad, bro. Looks like our friendship in our last life was too powerful for even death!'

The two laughed at this cheesy sentiment, but something still felt off to Roth. Why did he feel so guilty, what could he have done to his seemingly best friend in his past life that would make him feel like this?

Finally having someone to talk to after two weeks of total silence, aside from the muted yelps and whines of his littermates, Ash seemed to be much happier as he explored the inside of the cave.

Roth seemed to know everything about every plant or insect that they found, like he was some kind of limitless knowledge machine.

'Ah I know! Inspect one of the other pups!'

Information seemed to pop into Roth's mind out of no where, displaying what species Ash's litter was.

^Willow, an adolescent Dire Wolf. Dire wolves hunt primarily in packs, however, they are able to hunt alone if needed.^

'A dire wolf! I thought those died out a long time ago on earth!'

^Maybe we aren't on earth… I mean, you did die, I probably died too, since I am here as well.^

Nothing inside the cave sparked much attention, so the two minds inside of Ash spent much of the next week chatting.

'We seem to be away from any humans or any other intelligent species, as we haven't encountered anything that would suggest their existence. We are probably deep in a woods somewhere. We also can't rule that there are no humans on this world at all, we don't know if we are even on earth.'

^My knowledge seems to be supernatural, I don't think a high school kid would know detailed information about every plant and bug found in a random cave, so we could have to deal with other supernatural creatures in the future. Luckily, we are one body with two minds, so we should have at least double the intelligence of any other animal we meet.^

'We need to be able to survive and thrive, we should try to protect our packmates to the best of our abilities. Once we grow up, we can go and explore the world. Maybe we will find a human civilization, hopefully they are friendly to us and don't try to attack us on sight. We might be kind of scary looking to them.'

Soon, Ash was able to walk, and he spent as much time as possible walking around the cave, trying to exercise his muscles to grow strong enough to explore outside as soon as possible.