093 | BEYOND THE DARK PASS

I didn’t know how long I had been unconscious for, but I knew three other things: the first was that my head hurt, the second was that dawn-light still painted the sky – had a full day passed, or no time at all? – and the third was that I was slung over someone’s back.

Slowly, my memories pieced themselves back together. My puffy, bleary eyes sought of the colour of the fur beneath me. White. I couldn’t see his brown paw, but I knew, deep down, that it was Nazte I sat upon.

Next, I turned my attention to my surroundings. I moved as carefully as I could, remaining limp across his back and using the momentum of the slow beats of his run to mask the shifting of my neck and head. As I lifted my head, I quickly understood why I had not fallen from him, even as a dead weight perched precariously upon his back. I was tied to him. I frowned. He wouldn’t have been able to do that himself. He had help. A companion.

‘Ares?’ Still unable to pinpoint my exact location, I hoped and prayed and begg