no one is real

[Blaise]

-throws random puppy at-

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Blaise was hurting. The ache in her stomach made moving so painful that she needed to stop every few yards, curl into a tense ball, and wait for it to go away. But, always after she got up and dragged herself forward again, the ache returned, and she did not understand why, and it hurt. She drank many gulps of water from the lake nearby, but that only satisfied the dryness in her throat and did nothing for her belly. Her skin hurt, too; she scratched herself, which worked until she scratched so much that she bled and hurt more. While all of this was happening, she saw her mother in her head. Tears flooded from soft purple eyes as the wolfess ordered her to drink water, then follow the smell of others like them. Blaise had asked her mother why she was crying and saying these things. Her only response was that she must not follow. The child had never heard a command this harsh, but her mother had soothed her with kisses, turned away, and limped slowly into the distance. As Blaise watched her disappear, the warmth of the kisses faded, and again she puzzled over why her mother was leaving. She did not understand that either, and it hurt most of all.



The little gray wolf did as she was told, because good things happened when she did what her mother told her. Although she hurt inside and out, she eagerly followed the scent of her kind. The trail took her along the edge of the glittering lake, until a huge building rose in the distance toward the iron-gray sky. That must be where the wolves lived. Maybe her mother was there, waiting for her. Grinning, the emaciated pup bounded through the snow as if nothing hurt at all.

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