Kara and the Stranger Beyond

She ran, chasing the howls.

The howls were her best chance at finding him. They'd been running their whole lives, she and him, mania and oblivion, chasing each other until they caught each other's tails. Their love was a black hole, light bending around them so they could only see each other through space and time.

She ran from the sun, from the desert sand that scoured her skin, from the heat and dust that burned her eyes. She ran for him because it was all she knew how to do. Her feet skimmed across the sand like water lapping over rocks. It seared her soles where she'd stepped too close to the sun. Sand dunes rolled past like waves of black hair. As she ran, she felt herself become more wolf than woman; sleek and powerful. Her bones lengthened as her body stretched taut between her shoulder blades, muscles bunched tight under her skin. She could smell his scent on the wind, not quite human anymore but still familiarly warm with an edge of blood-tinged iron. His pheromones made her want to curl up against his big chest and feel those strong arms wrap around her until there wasn't enough air in the world for both of them.

She skidded to a stop at the top of a dune and got down on all fours to claw her way cautiously down its other side. Something growled below her, a low thrumming sound that vibrated through her bones and into the earth beneath her paws. Inching down the slope, she tried to control her breathing so he wouldn't hear hers above his own ragged gasps for air. He didn't need to sense her physical presence to know she was near.

Eventually she reached the bottom of the dune and stopped again in surprise at what she saw there: an oasis of shade next to a long expanse of water stretching out into infinity like an ocean reflecting back all its horizons simultaneously, beautiful and terrible at once because when you looked into it you saw yourself reflected back in every possible way all at once so it seemed you would drown in your own infinite potentiality for being rather than actually drown in its actual waters which were shallow enough that you could stand up in them without drowning at all if you stayed close enough to shore--if there was such a thing as shore here--if it existed at all here--if this was even real or if this was just another hallucination of hers--if reality itself had ever really existed or if it too was drowned in this shimmering sea--the one that wasn't really a sea but more like a dream made manifest--dreams being what dreams do after all--not that anyone had ever really dreamed except maybe God who probably didn't exist either but who doesn't exist is me might be dreaming right now too because reality is just a dream we're having right now while we're asleep so someone must be dreaming us somewhere but who is dreaming us? Who is dreaming us? Who? Who? I don't know!

The voice chittered to itself as it shattered its words into pieces too small for any observer to piece back together again into anything resembling a rational thought. The dark-haired woman standing beside the shimmering sea shifted restlessly on her feet while ignoring this internal monologue entirely because of course she would be aware of something happening within herself that no one else would notice but of course no one else would notice this sort of thing happening because no one else exists except me! Oh great! Well then I guess I'm not really talking about myself since there's no one else here except me! But I'm definitely thinking about something though because I can think about things whatever my thoughts are about since I exist even though there's no one else here except me! But I don't have any thoughts about anything in particular because everything is thrown into chaos by my non-thoughts which aren't really non-thoughts since they're thoughts just not thoughts about anything in particular which isn't really throwing anything into chaos since they're not thoughts anyway they're... well... they're... uh... uh... uhhh....uhhhhhh.. *long pause* UHHHHHHHNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!

The wolf-woman's head snapped up toward the sky as an immense roar ripped through it like thunder tearing apart an overcast sky asunder to reveal blue sky beyond but there was no blue sky within this place just more desert sand rolling endlessly across an endless horizon broken only by this oasis which was itself broken by something dark, blacker than nightshade; something shadowed and monstrous hunkered down before the waves licking away at its toes with murderous intent like a cat eating a mouse before devouring it whole; something ancient and huge with wings folded behind its neck so their span could not be measured against its mountainous shoulders or from tip to tip along its spine or breadth between its impressive thighs; something hideous with gnarled horns jutting from atop its forehead ridged like warthog tusks; mouth pulled back over crooked teeth sharp as knives; ears twisted like sculpted obsidian shards pointing backwards flicking left then right towards some invisible source of sound; eyes burning red with hatred for everything around it yet somehow still searching for something lost long ago; claws bent inward upon themselves like some kind of sickening mockery of hands stretched out toward heaven begging forgiveness for sins committed many lifetimes ago; skin pulled tight over bone stretched taut between muscle bunched tight beneath skin stretched tight over bone stretched taut between muscle bunched tight beneath skin stretched tight over bone stretched taut between muscle bunched tight beneath skin stretched tight over bone stretched taut between muscle bunched tight beneath skin stretched tight over bone stretched taut between muscle bunched tight beneath skin stretched tight over bone stretched taut between muscle bunched tight beneath skin stretched tight over bone stretched taut between muscle bunched tight beneath skin stretched tight over bone.... stretching.... stretching.... stretching.... stretching.... stretching....