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Zhan has never been a water enthusiast. He hated how much heavier his wet fur seemed to be, just like how he hated the smell of soil his body emitted after having come into contact with water.
Even in the precarious situation where he was at the moment he couldn't help but feel uneasy about it.
'What a stupid way to die'.
He felt like his own destiny was mocking him. He would have never expected to spend his last moments of life so much near water.
His body carried away by the river was leaving behind a trail of blood. It was of a so much intense red that it seemed to be the veil of a young bride, which waited for her husband to lift it up and admire her milky skin.
Little drops of rain were falling from the sky on the wolf's cold face. However, his body was too numb to notice. Bit by bit the river's streams became faster and stronger, pushing his body further and further away.
He didn't dare to move a single part of his body. Being carried away like that was almost too relaxing for the tired wolf and the temptation to close his eyes was strong. Nevertheless, he fought this impulse back and kept his eyes open: it wasn't that he was scared of dying; he just felt like it was not the right moment to let that endless darkness take over his sight.
Clinging almost desperately to this feeling, he didn't fight against the sheer force of the streams and waited to see where his destiny would have brought him.
In the meanwhile, he started to think about how he ended up in this situation, about how he managed to escape from many mortal events and about how he always used to cling vigorously to life.
It was in that moment that suddenly in his mind flashed the image of white and long feathers, for which he always felt the forbidden desire to kiss and hold.
And just as he was about to growl at such memory, he felt his body rub against the shore, which was wet and soft because of the rain and of the high tide.
'It hurts';
That was the first thing he thought of when he finally touched the ground. The dying wolf yet had to figure out if it was his body to hurt or if it was his heart, trampled on by the only one he devoted his life to. The white feathers that once reassured him, now were the token of his destroyed expectations.
He felt like crying, but he didn't.
'My time has come...how pathetic".
With his shivering paws he tried to push himself away from the river, in search of a proper place where to breathe his last breath. Soon the ground became dirty of his blood and the air was filled by the noises of his heavy and weary breaths. He could have died right there in the shore but he was too hardheaded to let death win so easily; he was more than aware of the fact that he didn't have much time left before he died but, as long as he had breath in his body, he was ready to fight and make things harder for the gods that were playing so ruthlessly with his life.
It was during this last battle of his that he noticed something strange being carried away by the river. It seemed to be a white body that, for some strange reasons, was glowing with light.
"May it be my guardian spirit?", Zhan wondered aloud with an hoarse and deep voice. With a strange burst of energy, he reached out his hand towards the river and brought the mysterious body to the shore. When it finally was in his arms, the wolf leaped: he knew too well who it was.
"I would have never thought that my Lord would have become such radiant spirit".
Probably he was hallucinating but he didn't care; he preferred to think that Shen became his guardian spirit than to let the reality of the situation ruin his last few moments of life.
In normal circumstances he would have tried to punch him as a vengeance for all the pain he caused to him. He would have got angry for the way Shen killed his comrades like they were ants or for how he humiliated and abandoned the poor boss wolf in the end just to kill a panda that won from the beginning. Zhan was deeply angry and yet in that moment he felt so much relieved that he couldn't help but hug close to his chest what he thought was now his guardian spirit. He dirtited his burnt feathers with his blood but in that moment he didn't care: he was too busy caressing his cold face.
"I should hate you...and a part of me does, but your smile is so soothing, my guardian spirit", he muttered as he gazed lovingly at the expressionless corpse of his former lord. Despite on his face there wasn't any smile, the wolf knew that he was smiling.
"Did you come to order me to stop this battle with death and just follow you? I won't disobey anymore at your orders, especially at this last one, my Lord".
Closing his eyes and coughing blood a few times, he decided it was the right time to stare at the black vortex behind his eyes beside the one whom he loved, and like that he waited to walk hand in hand with Shen towards a new and better life.