Snippet #2550052

It was difficult to say how long they remained there in the field as she ran the trails of the forest within her minds-eye, but when he spoke again, the late morning sun had begun to dip lower in the sky towards late afternoon.

"The trail 'as come to an end an' you see the field from earlier. Look back. The wolf is standin' there watching you, but it does not follow you as you step into the field. You can feel the sun on your skin, an' you can see the stones from earlier. Walk to them. Remember them. Kneel in the grass, remember the feel of it under you, an' when you're ready, open your eyes."

By the time he had started telling her to imagine her journey, she was the wolf. At first she was uncertain, and Desmond could see it form a slight worry line between her brows. But soon in her mind's eye, she was running. She traveled between the trees as fast as her legs could take her, and he would see that any concern was gone completely.

The journey was a long one and even as Desmond began to end the journey for her, she could feel that she didn't want to. She wanted to continue to run through the forest, but eventually the trail did end and she was back at the top of the hill.

She turned around and noticed that she was no longer a wolf, and she stared into the eyes of her wolf self. A knot of emotions registered almost immediately, between anxiety and longing. She didn't want to leave. Desmond could see the distress on her face about the decision. So it was no surprise when Chloe finally opened her eyes, they were glowing bright neon. She groaned and grabbed her head, bending over to where her forehead nearly touched the ground.

"Easy," he told her. "Remember the forest, remember the sounds an' the smells. The wolf is still there, it's still a part of you. It will be there when you're ready to run again. Touch it if you need to, feel its fur. It's safe, you're safe. Just breathe until it passes."

Given what the woman had been through the past few day, the last thing her body needed was another transformation. Still, he wasn't a moron. He stripped his jacket off and draped it over the stone to kneel down in front of her, so as to be wearing fewer restrictive articles of clothing in the event that he needed to shift abruptly.

"Look at me eyes. Do you see it? Do you see the wolf?" he asked.

The rise of the wolf in her had turned his own eyes amber, and the energy filled them both.

"Let it go."

He would try to ride it down with her, letting the wolf fade from his eyes with her own, if she would let him.