Drowning...I'm drowning!

It was the first thought Credence's drowsy mind conjured when a downpour splashed over her face. She sputtered and coughed, then sat up with a shiver and opened her eyes.

It was morning and the air was comfortably cool, and she was still next to her fire, which had long fallen into dying embers. Her stomach was painfully clenched and her throat felt raw, but the pain was the least of her worries.

Sitting before her with an empty waterskin in its mouth was a wolf.

It took her a few seconds to recognize him.

"John?" she rasped.

He dropped the waterskin and released a relieved huff.

"Thought the heat had gotten you."

Credence tried to stand—

"Not too fast!" John said, but his warning came too late, and Credence fell to the sand.

"I'm...dizzy..." she mumbled.

"Of course you are. What would possess you to come here?" He cast a disapproving glance at the waves. "You've no proper food or water—when did you last eat?"

Credence wanted to laugh at the almost parental concern in John's voice.

He turned and pointed with his snout.

"Climb on and I'll take you to fresh water—don't tell anyone about this."

"No..." Credence grumbled, though her head screamed against her refusal. "Not...go...to the woods."

"Then you'll die. Is that what you want?" When she didn't answer, John tsked. "Fine."

He took his leave and Credence watched through half-lidded eyes as his form disappeared into the trees.

***

"Credence...Credence..."

John's voice.

"Wake up! Come on!"

She felt fur against her cheek. A wet nose nudged her mouth.

"Open up and drink."

It took a great deal of strength to part her dry lips, but she was rewarded with a stream of cold water. She moaned in argument when John took the source of nourishment away.

"There's more," he promised, "but you need to sit up—slowly!"

He helped pull her into sitting and propped her against him. Credence opened her eyes and found three bulbs of damp moss and a full waterskin before her. She ignored the plants and reached for the waterskin.

It took many moments before she was satisfied, and it was only when the waterskin was nearly empty that she had her first thought beyond drinking.

"What poor soul did you steal this from?" she asked, motioning with the waterskin.

"It was given to me."

"I don't know if I can trust you."

"Why couldn't you trust me?" She gave him a scornful look, but he returned it with genuine shock. "I caught your scent a day ago. Thought you might be in trouble, being out here alone."

"I'm better on my own—" Her words fell into a round of coughing and gasping.

"I think I shouldn't believe you," John said flatly as she struggled to calm her breathing.

He moved from behind her, trusting she could keep her balance, and plucked a ball of moss from the ground. He set it in her lap.

"Here's more water, but you'll have to work for it."

He watched silently as she wrung water from the moss. When she settled, Credence wiped her mouth with her hand and cleared her throat.

"Ajo sent you," she accused.

"Obviously, but that's not why I'm here." He didn't explain further. "I'll catch us some food and refill your water, now that I know you won't be a corpse in five minutes."

He disappeared into the trees. Now that her mind could focus on more than drinking, Credence had a moment to examine her situation.

John was Ajo's most trusted servant.

John was the Protector of Ajo's woods.

She had to make it clear that if he intended to take her to his master, a fight to the death would ensue.

***

A rabbit was roasting over a well-fed fire.

John wouldn't eat any of it, telling Credence she needed the meal more than he did.

But his refusal bloomed suspicion in his company.

"Is it enchanted?" she asked.

"Why would it be?"

"To make it easier for you to bring me to your master."

To her surprise, the wolf shook his head. "That's not why I'm here."

"You serve the King of the Wood."

"I did, yes. There was a time when I would have thrown myself from a mountain if he commanded. But not anymore."

Credence took a long drink from the waterskin, but hesitated before touching the rabbit.

"I could have just as easily doused your water," he said. "Eat. You're starving."

She pulled away a strip of leg meat with her teeth and chewed slowly. It burned her tongue, but the flesh melted like butter, and the taste was pleasing even without spices or salt. She stared at her company as she ate, studying John's face as if she might spot a sinister intention in it. 

"I'm not going back," she said abruptly. "I don't want to see Ajo ever again."

"We share the same attitude."

"Why? What made you turn on your master?"

"You."

"Me?"

The wolf shrugged. "It doesn't matter why, Credence."

"And when Ajo discovers your betrayal? He's unforgiving when it comes to that sort of thing."

"And highly sensitive to it, what with his wife proving disloyal."

"You know about our marriage?"

John clucked his tongue. "Who doesn't?"

"How? No one was there to witness it."

"True. But many have witnessed the mad king raging through the woods, screaming for his traitorous beloved. Hurting those he believes are keeping her from him." He scoffed. "You thought he was a monster before, you'd be positively horrified to see what he's become."

"It was not my intention for others to be harmed on my account."

"Doesn't change the fact."

"It's not my fault," she snapped. "Guilt will not force my hand. I deserve freedom."

"Yes."

"Since when do you care about innocent lives? I recall you were in charge of ending them."

"I still do. But not because Ajo commands it."

The name of the man he served sounded foreign from John's tongue.

Not master or king.

The simple fact that John did not give Ajo a superior title spoke volumes about his changed perception.

"You've left his service."

"I left before you did." At Credence's startled look, John continued, "In spirit, at least. There was a moment when you were still in his world...I decided that my life would never belong to anyone but myself. And then you hurt him. The kind of monster you left behind hadn't been seen in the woods before, and there was nothing that remained that I could serve. So, when he charged me with finding you, I left, too."

"I guess that means there will be no more 'my lady' from you."

"This wolf bows and simpers to no one. But I might make an exception for etiquette. For you."

"I've had enough formal titles." She paused. "The Queen has declared war against Ajo."

"Yes. What a treat the growing civil unrest has been." He rolled his eyes. "There were uprisings when Ajo took the throne, but with the Queen locked away the people had no one to turn to. It was easy to kill their rebellions. Now they have someone to hide behind. They've been given a real chance to oppose the king. Maybe they'll be victorious. Maybe not."

"Will you join her army?"

"I doubt she'd accept a beast like me. No, I've taken the same position as you—no position at all."

"You're not here to persuade me into her cause?"

"I could tell you to go to the Queen and become a glorious war hero, just as easily as I could tell you to keep the promise you made and join Ajo as his bride. But the truth is, I'm the only beast in the woods that does not care what becomes of it."

"You're not the only one."

John shot her a perplexed look. "What did you see in his vault?"

Credence shook her head. "Why did you follow me here, if you don't care? Why help me at all?"

"One good turn, I suppose. You helped me, I help you."

"But I can't be sure you're not lying."

"No."

"When Ajo figures out you're a traitor—"

"I doubt he even remembers my name." He nodded at the half-eaten rabbit in Credence's hands. "Do you need more? I could hunt another—"

"No, I'm quite full." After a pause, she added, "Thank you."

"You're welcome." The wolf stood and shook the sand from his fur. "I've got a surprise for you."

"I'm tired of gifts."

"You want this one, I promise. It's in the woods—"

"I'm not going back there."

"If you won't go into the woods, I will bring it here. But it will take longer that way. Tomorrow."

Credence sighed. "I won't hold my breath waiting for it."

"I found the chance to do something right. That hasn't come often in my life."

"More often than you think, John. You just never grasp the opportunity to do good."

"No time like the present to begin. If Ajo is defeated, I'll be an outcast—or worse, executed. If Ajo wins, my fate is just as grim. I've accepted that my life is near its end, but that doesn't mean I can't do something with the days I have left. Some good-doing might ease my soul."

"Rabbit's a decent start," Credence said with a smile.

They spent the day in quiet company. John, surprisingly, knew a little about the landscape of the beach, and taught Credence a few tricks to catch food and find water. While they were carrying wood back to the fire, he explained how the sun could be dangerous without trees to block its intensity.

"But it looks like you've already learned that lesson," he teased.

The more she learned, the more Credence began to think she'd made a mistake in choosing the ocean as her new home.

For their dinner, John dove into the water to catch fish, and Credence cackled as the wolf struggled against the current in an ungraceful display, trying to catch food in his jaws and receiving mouthfuls of saltwater for the effort.

"It might help if you become human!" Credence yelled from the shore.

"Fat chance!" John snarled before a wave overtook him.

He broke through the surface and cursed at the water.

"Hands will serve you better than paws!"

John replied with a string of foul words.

After several spectacular failures, John gave up his pursuit of fish and left to find food in the woods. He returned with two more rabbits and helped Credence prepare one for roasting. The other he ate raw, and left a few bones for future gnawing.

As they waited for Credence's dinner to cook, she couldn't help but snicker at the memory of John's defeat in the water.

"Yes, yes, very funny," he growled. "Have a laugh at the one feeding you."

In retaliation, John soaked his fur in the ocean and ran back to their camp, then shook his body to rain water over Credence and the fire.

"Goodnight," John said when they laid down to sleep, one on either side of the fire.

"Goodnight," Credence repeated.

"Tomorrow when you wake up...the world will have changed."

Credence thought it an odd thing to say, but did not remark on it.

And she still wasn't sure she could trust Ajo's wolf.

***

The morning sun found Credence alone.

She sat up, searching for her companion, and found nothing but sand and waves.

For a moment Credence wondered if John's presence had been a dream—until the wolf emerged from the trees and dropped a lifeless duck by the fire.

"Dip it in water to remove the feathers," he instructed.

"I know how to prepare a bird."

"Good. Have some breakfast. I'm going back to the woods."

"To fetch my gift?"

The wolf winked. "You remembered, eh?"

Before she could reply he took off.

He's done this before, her mind warned. Promised gifts and brought them back, and it was a ruse...

After eating a meal that took far longer to prepare than consume, Credence decided to occupy her time with a swim. She knew better than to stay under the sun for long, but the water was a balm to the muscles that had stiffened after sleeping on the sand.

The ocean was beautiful, she could not deny it, but the land around it was too difficult to live on. She knew she couldn't stay here forever, but where she would go next remained a mystery. She would have to walk around the forest, and she wasn't sure she would survive a long trek without John's aid.

Will he stay with me? she thought as she splashed water over her shoulders.

Perhaps John knew of another land, neither beach nor woods, and would take her there.

She returned to the fire to dry, still pondering her options. John had refilled the waterskin, and as she took a long drink Credence reminded herself to thank the wolf for his consideration.

Around midday, a figure emerged from the trees.

"Took you long enough!" she yelled but her heart fluttered when she realized it was not a wolf.

Half a mile from her fire, a man had cleared the trees.

Credence squinted, trying to discern if John had a change of heart and became human.

John had blonde hair, and this stranger's locks, which touched the tops of his broad shoulders, were brown. He was taller than John, and looked formidable, though Credence couldn't see the details of his face.

She grabbed a stick and rose to her feet, ready to fight if the man threatened her.

He drew close enough that she could see his face clearly.

His brow was furrowed in stern concentration.

She raised her stick into the air and the man ceased his approach.

"What do you want?" Credence called in a severe voice. "If you mean to hurt me, I'll kill you first!"

Fire erupted in her free hand and the man took an awed step back.

"Speak your purpose or leave!" Credence demanded.

He did not follow her order, but lifted his nose to the sky and inhaled deeply. Credence sensed with a shudder that he was searching for her scent in the air.

This wasn't John, but a creature like John.

Part man, part animal.

Did John send him here?

There was no time to think about it, for the stranger found what he was looking for in the wind, and then he was running towards Credence at full speed. He was a few feet away when Credence sent fire in his direction. The flames just missed him, a calculated warning that halted his movement immediately.

He was so close Credence could hear him panting to catch his breath.

"Any closer and I'll burn you alive," she warned.

There was something about him that felt familiar.

A nose that—

Ma's nose.

Eyes just like Pa's eyes.

Was he the ghost of Pa?

"Who...who are you?" Credence asked.

No, this was not Pa.

The stick fell from Credence's hand.

He spoke, and his voice sent a shiver through her.

"My word is 'pineapple'. What's yours?"

The world slowed to a stop.

"My—my word?" She had a vague memory of having her own word.

But she could not remember it.

"My word...my word is...my word—"

Her mind was still racing to catch up, but her lips moved to form a name she had long believed was lost forever.

"Josiah?"

A sheepish grin broke across the man's face.

"Hey, 'Crence."