Chapter Text
Keeping limber, keeping one’s wits and body always at the ready— that was key to staying ahead of the enemies. No matter what cosmic brew or electrolyte hot tub an enemy had, Whisper the Wolf had no envy of their leisure or cheat codes.
Leaping from tree to tree in the gentle woodland, Whisper scouted as though it had already been festering in spies. She aimed her wispon. Small targets were hit dead center. Large targets like old rotting logs were splintered to pieces.
She looked alone, but she did not feel alone. Not entirely, anyway. The wisps were not just a means to fight. They were a source of camaraderie. Nothing eased tension easier, except when they themselves reminded her that it was not right that they were the one form of camaraderie she implicitly trusted. She still needed her own people too.
She did not think about that now.
After one scrupulous leap from a large branch into another, Whisper landed hard against the trunk and winced a vigilant eye.
A light bloomed below in a bright flash.
Tensing all senses, Whisper waited.
Not until the light lowered did she slip down as silent as a shadow to investigate. In long weeds and shifting grasses, she prowled and stopped. She frowned in her surprise to see that the source of the disturbance had been a very small device.
She held back a gasp at the bigger surprise to see that a chaos emerald was latched tight into it. Sleek blue and black, the device looked like little more than a cuff bracelet without the matching blue emerald, but the blue lines were glowing.
As she reached out a hand towards it the glow dimmed and went out.