The world was darkening — and the forest strained for the last moment of light with a weak whimper — like a smothered flame. It appeared to Zera that the woods were abandoned, similar to herself. Her eyes watched the long shadows stretch and yearn for the sweet sun. She could do the same, if only she knew which direction claimed her mother. But she yearned anyway in every direction. She felt as though her heart hung on to the last rib with a dying grip, and the hold was temporary as happiness. Zera was afraid to move, afraid to lift her gaze from the edge of the woods. Afraid that if she did rip herself from the outskirts she'd have no other place and her heart would finally succumb to the depths of emptiness. The forest was just as abandoned as she was.
But a part of her moved to think about other things. She thought about her stomach, which was impossible to ignore just raving with growls and tinging pain. She thought of the others. But how couldn't she? They loomed heavier behind than her dark shadow, existing and demanding like living things tended to do. They required her. She couldn't just slip away like this. She'd be leaving them, leaving what little she had left in her tracks just as Nayeli did, to grow incurably frozen, eventually lifeless. Zera knew it wasn't just winter that made everything so cold. Her father's flame reduced from the roaring fire that kept the pack forging bright hope. He reduced to this bitter thin trail of smoke that swirled sourly into the pack's lungs. Zera couldn't stand the succorance, and chose to spend her hours away from the Bend where the snow could swallow her in heaps, help hide the guilt. And she hid in it, better than anyone else could. Zera found her way through the ominous cold like there was an old friend waiting somewhere on the outskirts of familiar territory. As though she could meet new faces, that would console the girl's tumultuous heart, distract her from everything she'd been carrying behind her yellow eyes. As though one day a passerby might be blessed with the white diamond blaze and clear eyes. As though she might find what she was looking for.
But the forest was abandoned now, raped of light and the frail warmth by the cold that crept in. They were both forsaken twins, each with the same loneliness. Only Zera had forsaken herself.