The darkness flooded her mind as she fought the terror rising inside her body. Her breath caught in her chest, the pain stealing her awareness for a moment. Not moving, frozen in the dark depths of terror she listened, willing a sound to invade her, telling her brain what to do. The blackness enveloped her, she did not know if she was dead or alive.

The smell of canvas assaulted her nostrils. Finally, yes finally her brain gave her the tiny clip of memory she needed to begin the process of controlling the terror. She was in the tent, yes, her brain said, the tent. Her hearing now acute, she listened for a sound from the two women beside her, silently begging God to let her hear them breathe or move. In the flash of a second before her brain registered her companions silence, the howl pierced the darkness.

Hot fear ran down her spine, seeping into every organ, leaving the sickness behind to fill her stomach. Her muscles pulled against the frozen paralysis, yet her body did not move.

The sound filled every cell in her body. When there was no more space she shuddered, and the tiny trembles began freeing her from the grip of frozen terror. Her breath silently shallow as tiny beads of awareness nudged at the edges of her mind. The fragrance of the damp forest, the long ago doused camp fire, the faint scent of the body-warmed flannel seeping up through the sleeping bag that restrained her raced through her mind. Her brain quickly sorted the smells, finding a second’s comfort in the familiar before the howl pierced the silence once again. Bolting upright she found herself staring into the darkness where she knew the tent flap should be, praying that it remained tied, closed and safe.

She felt Marie’s icy hand gripped in hers, but she would never be able to say when it happened, or how they found each other in the darkness, or if she knew or sensed that Ann clutched onto Marie from the other side. All she knew at the moment was that in her terror she had some how moved.

Blinded by the darkness surrounding her, her remaining senses on acute alert she heard the breathing first, low and smooth, from deep within the maw of something unseen. Hot, humid breath suddenly filled the space. The scent of rawness hissed in the air, her eyes widened at the nearness of the low guttural growl, taking her near the edge of her sanity. She thought she heard the wind howl, or was it another of what ever stood before them in the darkness. No! her mind screamed, there could not be another of this entity, this being.

An odd sensation began to course up her taut body, she felt herself let go and a sweet, warm breath eased her fear. Softly, as if the first glow of the rising sun, the gentle golden eyes pulled her into the heart that beat behind them, cradling her in a sense of love she had never before imagined. She wondered if her companions felt it too.

Then the words penetrated her being, “come, it is time.”

No question came to her mind nor did she turn to the other women to see if they had heard, for she knew that they were with her.

Each would later tell of the experience as if they had been only one person, no separation, no differences. Together, hands gripped tightly, they followed the She Wolf from the tent and walked into the dark forest.