Drabble Challenge: Day 9

    I am not past the deadline. Still got a little over half an hour. But this is seriously getting harder to do. I'll have to start working on these throughout the day, instead of starting at 10:45 in the evening. Heh.

    But I did it and, as usual, I reached and surpassed the word count for today. Yay! 


    Drabble Challenge: Day 9 - move
    Word Count: 576    Minimum Goal: 540

    She didn’t want to breathe, let alone move. Almost every inch of her was icy cold and yet prickling with numbness, except where her side felt like it was on fire.
    Dragging in a ragged breath, Vena opened her eyes to darkness. It took her a moment to process that it was dark because it was still night out, not because she couldn’t see. The pain alongside her ribs increased when she tried to push herself up onto her elbows to take in her surroundings, sending her back into her imprint upon the snow.
    Memory was slow to filter back. Dunlark. Wolves. A tree. What now appeared to be a hard fall.
    Snow was melting and seeping into her clothes. Vena freed a hand to get her hair out of her eyes and then rolled onto her back, bumping into the large tree trunk as she did so. Brows pulling together, she stared up into the darkness, making out the branches from which she had dropped. 
    Had the fighting finished, then? She couldn’t hear anything, but a good knock to the head had proven several times before to disable her hearing for a bit. There wasn’t any ringing this time, though, so Vena hoped maybe it was still intact.
    Using the tree and digging her fingers into the bark, she was able to ease herself upright, other arm held tight against her injured side to keep whatever was going on there from getting worse.
    It was only after the mindpath was sitting up that she was able to see the large, furry mound collapsed in the snow only a dozen paces away. Its sides, covered in black fur, shuddered with breath still. It was alive, and if it realized she was too, Vena was pretty certain her state of health would deteriorate quickly.
    When it didn’t move for several moments after she first looked at it, Vena began to think maybe she wasn’t the only one banged up. Where was the rest of the pack, though? Dead? Fled? Probably both.
    Her body protested shifting, but she had to get up, and so she did, pushing to her feet even when her knees threatened to give out. Her side burned as if a torch was being held against it and a whimper escaped before Vena could help it, tears filling her eyes.
    Forget the living Great Wolf, she was going to bleed to death or freeze solid before the beast would get the strength gathered to come after her. 
    Vena realized that her knapsack was no longer at her side. She knew it’d been in her hands when she’d been up in the tree and it would have something to keep her alive a little bit longer.
    But it was…. Gold eyes searched the snow for the familiar form of her bag contrasted against white and saw it lying nearby, a couple paces closer to the wolf. 
    There is no way I am getting anywhere near you, pal. 
    Except, she needed her bag. Somewhat badly.
    Finally, Vena just gritted her teeth and stepped away from the tree, hoping that she wouldn’t fall without its support. She didn’t, but the possibility lingered. 
    The snow covered her boots and threatened to fall over the top, and the wolf still hadn’t shifted. Standing now, she could see blood on the snow, a scarred muzzle, and a ripped ear.
    Then Vena’s strength ran out and she fell to her knees again.

    
    Should I mention this continues on from yesterday's and Day 4's? First look at Astarot! They do end up together, no worries. Should be interesting getting them to like each other, though, to say the least.

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.