In Æternum (Book 1): Eternality

Chapter 1: Wolf's Grey

Blood. A crimson wonder to the little creature’s silver eyes. It’s never seen something so deep and so dark before. The liquid tastes funny; the smell was repulsing. For some more peculiar reason, such substance originated from oneself when it felt pain over its body. It hurts so much. What fascinated most about it was how pure it was. Coming straight from the heart and soul, with all of its pain and happiness and secrets. Perhaps that’s why it is painful to bleed. But the little creature limped on, guided by some invisible longing for something that it could not describe. It didn’t know where it was headed, as only a dull grey surrounded it.

            The sole thing the little creature recognized was the trickle of the merlot blood staining a once-shiny golden bronze fur coat, the soft padding of its feeble paws, and the heavy swish of its long, fluffy tail as it drags on the ground. As the creature trudges, its paw catches on something, and trips. She yipped more in surprise than in pain of her wound, and tenderly licks her twisted paw. Yet after only a few minutes of resting on the floor, the little creature began to walk again, despite the pangs of protest her tiny body screams.

            She flicked her soft golden ears, listening for any signs of life in the darkness. Nothing. Alone, the small creature walked on, into an endless eternity. Or maybe it was already in one. It’s hard to tell when you’ve been living like this since you first began to hold memories – not knowing any other life besides this one. The little creature didn’t know the feeling of loneliness, or abandonment, or love. How can she, when she’s always been living like this? But somehow, the fragile creature knew something was missing.

            For the world she walks upon is not black. There are no shadows or fear or burning infernos of hell. No highlights or whites or warmth to soak in. The mere grayscale of absence and apathy is what makes up the creature’s surroundings. Stuck forever in a life of nothingness. And it is because of this that she has nothing – knows nothing – and doesn’t even realize there is nothing – she simply marches on in a blind-like state.

One day, the little creature alas figured out what she was. A wolf. But a mere pup. The thick fur coat, fluffy ears, and four tiny paws. But she didn’t stop there. She yearned to be separated from the greys of the world. And somehow, in the midst of the plain grey walls of her world, the little wolf pup decided to give herself an identity. She was named Kiri.

Kiri, a wolf pup with golden brown fur, sharp silver eyes, soft ears, four skinny legs, and a long, fluffy tail who lives in a vast void of dull greyness. Kiri abruptly stopped in her tracks. She pondered what the point was in giving her own self a name when there is nothing at all around her? What is the point when she is stuck here for an eternity? The throbbing pain of the wound intensified, and whimpering in pain, Kiri laid down.

She curled into a tight fur ball and drifted in and out of sleep for hours on end. Every time Kiri was about to be enveloped in sleep, she saw the black darkness of the slumber and in fear, she’d wake up. But the pain and exhaustion constantly lured her in again towards the grasp of sleep. She doesn’t know how long she has been lying here, but at some point, a fuzzy haze in the grey drew her attention away from her doze.

The haze was minuscule, no bigger than her small black nose, and it was a light brighter than any of the greys around it – which was only one grey in reality – floating down from above. Curious, the little wolf pup half trotted, half limped over to the petite light. As Kiri came closer to it, she realized it wasn’t a light at all. Rather, it was a small descending object that was as silvery white as – well Kiri didn’t have anything it could compare it to.

But what she did know was that there were four individual sections to it; the ones on the left were symmetrical to the ones on the right, and they all connected to one body. On occasion, it would move as it was tumbling down, though when Kiri listening for the sound of its movement, she heard nothing. It twitched and fluttered, but it was still dropping down limply. Kiri soon realized why. One of the four parts was broken; it was ripped and shredded and lifeless.

The little wolf pup looked up at the close figure falling down. She was so awestricken and curious of the thing that she did not notice it would land right on top of her. Before Kiri could move away, the tiny figure landed on top of her nose. She stared at it and it stared back. It moved delicately with grace and finesse, even with one of the parts was broken. The little silvery white light was alive. Just like Kiri. And she would later learn that those four parts that fluttered are called wings. And that the tiny figure taking shelter on the wolf pup’s nose is called a butterfly.