Eclipse Child |✔|

|33|

My past is an armor I cannot take off,

no matter how many times you tell me

the war is over.

-Jessica Katoff

***

It's like a dream.

One of those visions you have in your sleep where you wake up happy, yet you don't know why. You can't remember what it was about. You can't recall what left you waking up smiling, or why you felt at peace opening your eyes to the world.

It's not until later that day, maybe even months, that you stop, and it hits you what the dream was about. The peace settles over you. You smile.

And then you go back to reality.

The windows are down, air blowing past and pushing my hair and his fur.

Orion's head lays in my lap.

He's been asleep the majority of the car ride, the sense of the truck rocking back and forth adding in with the hum of the engine- all calculated into him eventually resting his head and closing his eyes.

My hand is stroking his head, ruffling his ears. My eyes occasionally glance away from the road to take in how his nose or ears will twitch. Or sometimes there is a vibration through his legs, or down his whole body.

The drive is something that I didn't expect to bring a smile to my face.

Before it, I had felt nothing but anxiety and worry. Meeting the surrounding packs was not something I was looking forward to. Leaving Henry alone at Alba Rosa set me on edge.

Everything made me nervous.

Everything but Orion.

He starts to wake up as I pull the truck over. A low grumble can be heard as he sighs deeply, pushing his head further. He raises a paw, shielding his face from the sunlight.

"Orion, wake up."

A single grey eye peers at me through the fur of his leg before he raises it back.

I sigh with him this time, looking around at the forest that covered us. The trees were different from the ones in Alba Rosa.

A darker wood, with thinner coverage. Mountains could be seen in the distant. Orion's mountains were close by, but I wouldn't let him know that.

Slowly we get out of the truck. He stretches, yawning and shaking himself before sitting and lazily leaning against one of the wheels.

I look away and smile, reaching on the floor for one of the travel bags.

Behind me, I can hear him shifting- the odd sound that came with it of bones cracking and joints realigning. The painful noise of his body pushing back something it didn't want to.

Warmness is felt behind me as he steps closer. "Do I really have to wear this?"

I turn back around with the clothing in hand.

"Yes, come on now."

A slow-growing smirk appears on my face as I watch him. He shakes his head, holding out his hands so that I can button up the shirt and adjust the neck of it.

"It's choking me," he tugs at the collar of the shirt.

"Just for an hour."

With a sullen glance, he reloads into the truck.