For four days the silver wolf had laid in the cage, sleeping for many
hours on end, waking only four times to eat or drink tiny amounts,
before slipping out of conciousness once more. She could feel her body
fighting the sickness, with the help of the injections, and the inner
struggle left her exhausted.

Sometimes she saw images and shadows of wolves or dogs, when she was
in a world halfway between sleep and wakefulness. The things that
passed before her vision would disappear and reappear, and her clouded
eyes would stare into space unblinking for minutes at a time, seeing
or hearing something real only to her.

When she slept, she slept deeply, and relived her death-fight with
Itola many times over. So many times she watched the red wolf die, and
sometimes she died in his stead, and at these times her stiff waking
body would relax and her labored breathing would become easier. When
she was awake, she never remembered these dreams.

On the fourth evening Aithne awoke, and the room that smelled of
humans was again frighteningly real. There were voices beyond the door
on the opposite side of the room. Canine voices. After a bleary moment
of watching the door, she turned her head to dip her muzzle into the
water dish, and found it empty. With a sigh, she put her head down.

Could Aithne have stood for a moment outside of herself, and seen her
body as another wolf would, she would not have recognized herself. Her
fur was filthy and patchy, and her winter coat had blown itself as
she slept, and clumps of dead fur hung off her skeletal body, giving
her a resemblance to an old fur coat left to be eaten by moths.

The corners of her eyes were filled with a half-crusted subtance, and
her ears barely stood erect. The wolf was half the weight she once
was, and the grime and sickness that covered her fur had rubbed off
onto the sides of the cage, filling the entire area with a horrible smell.

Blinking slowly, Aithne raised her head and leaned it against the
bars. She did not want to die in this tiny space, a weak creature
hardly resembling a wolf, to be removed by the humans and buried. If
she were to die, she wanted to die under the sky, like a true wolf.
Like Itola.

Bracing herself against the bars, she tried to howl...


OOC: Wtf. I dunno if I'm gonna kill her or what. XD