19 THE WOLF ENCOUNTER
She swallows hard standing in the depths of nowhere, her breath hitching in the frigid climate. The wind howls in all extremity around the trunks, disturbing the leaves, rendering them rustling. Aggravating her already disconcerting condition.
In whichever direction Yue snapped her head towards in order to get her bearings of the surroundings, it appeared only to be an irremediable course. Just a few brief moments past, she had managed to survive a cerebral death and it was as though to make up for the lack of enthusiasm in her life she had yet again gambled her lifeline in what could be another near-death experience.
Her heart slammed against her structured bone cage to the point that it became physically painful. She sharply inhaled the forest air, trying to being her frantic breathing at it's accustomed course.
The eerie dead silence of the forest and her panicky discomposure augmented her senses to listen to each scaled-down sounds that the creatures of their lush green homeland produced.
Branches creak as she stepped back, her feet shuffle through the detritus. The variety of sounds reaching her ear was a good load. The birds hymn their own songs, while the insects churr in harmony, the crickets leading the orchestra. The lizards and the likes scrabble on the tree bark yielding an unlikeable resonance.
There's flutter of wings unseen amongst the dense crowns of the seemingly ubiquitous trees, a few rustled leaves cascade and fall over and around her. She could hear the coyotes call all across the length of the forest, and the overwhelming omnipresent voices and sounds of the forest dwellers induced an inherent tendency to take steps in a backward direction.
"Ah-" A grunt pain parts her lips as she catches a root and falls rearwards. Additionally her hands land upon tiny twigs, which moreover lead her soft palm to bleed in response. "Just what I needed." She scoff at her worsening situation.
Goosebumps rise all over her skin at the touch of the damp floor of the forest which retained its winter mire. The moist mud sticks to uneven portions of her undressed skin.
As she gets back up on her feet again leaves slide across her bare forearms like wet tongues. Her hands indulge in scrapping and dusting off the russet brown soil reluctant to break the ephemeral contact with her skin, and it's wet texture making her feel chilled to the bone.
Her heart palpitates as bushes a few steps away from her rustles unannounced. Her throat immediately goes dry, beads of sweat forms on her forehead inspite of the perished state of her body.
The first thought with all speed that flashed her mind was to expect the unearthly fissling to be of Wu, thinking perhaps he had followed her along. But as no visible figure emerged in sight and the ferns below continued in the shiver the rustle now directed to appear to be that of an animal rooting amongst it.
Back in the shadows, branches thrashed and snapped as she kept stepping backwards. Her corpse like pallor made it evident of how she was affrightened to the core.
The clouds had engulfed the moon, sheathing the woods in shadow. She pressed her back against the bark, the ridges biting into her skin, as she tried to become one with the tree.
Her eyes widened and she stood petrified in her steps as a Timbre wolf emerged from the undergrowth, it's growling intensifying with each step it takes forward.
The wolf's skull and muzzle are long, which is a prerequisite for a keen and well-developed sense of smell. Yue's palm continues in it's requisite journey of bleeding through the cuts. The aroma of the blood is probably what guided the wolf right to her.
Standing against the rough bark of the tree, she instinctively to protect herself tries to step backwards. But the greasy moss on the grass underlying the wood makes her slip and fall.
'If only I had subsumed my ego and remained back with Wu.' She squeezed her eyes shut somewhat contriteful of her own impulsive decisions. In the imminent face of death she wished nothing more than to be back in that uncanny house of his.
