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// (14) Dangerous Tides 
// Story: Wish Fulfillment (Legacy Version) 
// by Boopy Doopy 
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Shorey gave me a look, silently indicating with her eyes the direction we should travel. I didn’t waste any time following behind her, moving as quickly and quietly as I could. My heart was beating out of my chest because of the danger we were in. This wasn’t the same as when I was on that mountain on the edge of that cliff. If I fell down, there’d be a chance I’d survive. Getting caught by these things meant certain death.
I had to force myself to keep my breathing steady as I followed Shorey. I looked behind us every so often to make sure they weren’t following. Every time I looked, I saw them stalking around in the same general area, not really moving, just trying to catch a sniff of something. They weren’t moving toward us, so I would take it, even if the smell of their breath reached us from here. Every second that they didn’t follow us was another second that my heart rate slowed down from a million beats a minute. 
We could still hear them, but eventually we got far enough away that we could slow down our pace, only having to keep quiet and watch our backs. I turned around and walked backwards to watch them, allowing myself to smile a little bit when I saw them still several hundred yards away, visible but drawing no closer. I was glad that things wouldn’t be difficult for once with how much everything else was seemingly trying to bring me down. I wouldn’t be long before we were far enough away that we could breathe a sigh of relief.
Then I stepped on a branch.
It was impossibly fast how quickly all of their heads turned, the wolves not waiting a moment to start running toward us. I screamed and started forward, Shorey, running just a second behind me. Of course I was going to alert them and put my life in danger once again. Murphy’s Law seemed out to prove itself to me.
“I’m gonna die out here!” I couldn’t help but yell as we ran, obviously not the first time I thought it. “If stuff like this keeps happening, I’m gonna die!”
“Just don’t stop running!” Shorey yelled behind me. “I’m sure we can lose them, or they’ll get bored after a while! Just keep going!”
It was easier said than done. My legs were not up to this after doing nothing but walking for the last week. They were sore, and wanted to do nothing but stop and rest for a month. 
I didn’t know how long or far we ran, but it felt like a long while. The timberwolves behind us from the sound of it were no worse from wear however. I didn’t dare look behind me to check though. I was already playing it dangerously, having to gallop as a pony. One false step and I’d trip and be timberwolf food.
Not that I wasn’t going to be. I could tell I was slowing down, not steaming ahead at a full gallop anymore. Instead, I was now alternating between that and trotting, getting completely worn out. I tried my best to keep moving though. I could hear the predators howling behind me.
“Come on, Rally,” Shorey yelled, slowing down a bit so she could keep pace with me. “You have to keep going! Don’t fall behind!”
“I’m trying,” I huffed, desperately trying to force myself to keep running. “I’m trying my best. I need to stop and rest.”
I didn’t dare do that though. The timberwolves were closing in on us impossibly fast now since I slowed down. In a second, they were right behind us, the whole pack of them, running even pace with us, as though they were taunting us.
Up ahead, I could see a river, probably a few hundred yards away. I wasn’t very good at swimming, really only knowing how to keep my head above water, but if we could just get to that, then…
“FUCK!” I yelled, feeling a sudden surge of pain behind me. I could feel my tail in the teeth of one of the wolves, being ripped off my flank rather than stopping me because I was running. I could safely say the pain of it was probably the worst pain I’d ever felt in my whole life, one that instantly brought tears to my eyes and renewed by adrenaline. 
Shorey cursed loudly as one of the wolves swiped at her body with a claw, causing her to bleed. I didn’t dare look behind me though to see what the damage was as we galloped forward. I only cared about getting to safety, everything else be damned. 
I was moving faster than her now, but slowed down when I came up to the river. I didn’t know what I should do. Obviously I couldn’t stand there and be eaten by timberwolves, but I was not a strong swimmer. I wouldn’t even say I knew how to swim at all. The best I could do was keep my head above water, and that was it. I didn’t even know if timberwolves would be deterred by the water. It was risky business.
I didn’t have a choice in the matter however, because a second later, Shorey was pushing me in.
The next thing I knew, I was struggling to keep my head above water and choking some because of it. It was a bit easier to do with four legs somehow, and the water wasn’t too deep by the bank, but it was still a struggle nonetheless. The current, despite being relatively slow, wasn’t helping, but I did my best.
The water was freezing cold, probably no more than fifty degrees. And given the low temperature outside already, I was certain hypothermia was going to be an issue. Not freezing, but refrigerator temperature wasn’t that much better.
I tried to keep my heart steady as I looked ahead at Shorey to follow her as best I could. I wasn’t quick enough though. She was actually moving forward, faster than I was, and in a minute, was at the other end of the river, climbing up onto the bank. I however, wasn’t able to move nearly as fast, if at all, and struggled to just get off the bank I was on as she flopped onto the grass on her back.
Looking at the bank side I was on showed the timberwolves were not interested in coming into the water after us, which was a relief. They seemed stopped along the edge, walking back and forth as though trying to contemplate how to get to us before sitting on their haunches. That meant just getting to the other end was going to be good enough to be safe. Assuming I could even get there. The river was wide, and it didn’t take a brainiac to know it would get deeper in the middle. The risk of drowning greatly increased the farther from the bank I got.
“Come on, Rally,” Shorey finally called from her spot in the grass. “You can’t stay in that water. Get over here.”
I knew I couldn’t stay in the water. It was way too cold to be in here for longer than a few minutes, which was exactly how long it’d take to cross this wide section of river. I was deeply afraid though that I’d get caught in a faster current near the middle somehow and get swept away and drown. Or bash my head on a rock. Or some other silly thing because it was every other hour that I dealt with something that could potentially kill me.
“You can do it, Rally,” she coaxed me. “Your head is above water already. Just push yourself forward.”
As scared as I was, I carefully started to make my way forward, making sure to keep my breathing steady. Each inch farther away I went from the bank, the more nervous I became, but I continued, getting a quarter, then halfway, then two thirds of the way there. I didn’t dare try to breathe a sigh or relief or stop for a second though. I fully expected to at some point come across something in the middle of this river that would try and drown me.
Just as I thought, about three quarters of the way in, I came across a particularly rough current, one that pushed my head under the water. I started to panic and flail as I choked, struggling to keep my head above water. I was certain that after everything, this would finally be the end of me, but before my head went completely under, Shorey was jumping back in and grabbing my neck in her teeth.
“Stay calm,” she instructed as she wrapped her hooves around me to keep me up. “You need to be calm so you can start swimming again.”
I coughed up water in response, my whole body shaking as Shorey effectively dragged me to the other bank. I climbed up and flopped down into the grass, still coughing as my exhausted body gasped for breath. How had I not died yet? With everything I’d been through in the last week up to this point, I should’ve been dead by now. I wasn’t sure how many other people would’ve been able to contend with all of this.
Not that I was safe yet, my body shivering in painful reminder that I was now contending with being soaked in the cold. Sure, why not bring back hypothermia? The world was trying its hardest to kill me anyway. Timberwolves and cold and cliffs and drowning– I wouldn’t be surprised if food poisoning was the next thing added to the list.
“How are you feeling?” Shorey asked after a long minute of letting me rest.
“Awful,” I said, not getting up or turning my head. I noticed my back was lighter, and didn’t have to look to see that our supplies were lost. Because of course they were. I was starting to change my opinion, now thinking that Lord Zulu was specifically setting all of this up to be as difficult as possible for me. I had to be taught a lesson for the terrible sin of playing a joke on someone. At least with all of this narrowly dodging death I was doing, I didn’t have time to think about being dysphoric.
“I’m kind of at a point where I think the world should just kill me,” I continued, my teeth chattering as I closed my eyes. “I know we need to get out of the cold, but it’s going to be something else after this.”
I couldn’t cry. I was way too exhausted. I did turn finally turn my head to see if the timberwolves were still there, waiting for us. Sure enough, they were, back up and pacing around, clearly trying to figure out how to get to us. One of them was sticking a careful paw in the water as if trying to test it out.
“I guess we have to get going because of them, too,” I said. “Those things still want to kill us, and I bet you it’ll only be like ten minutes before they make their way over.”
“Yeah, we should get out of here,” she agreed. “Need help getting up?”
“Yes, please.” She grabbed my hoof, wrapping her fetlocks around mine to pull me up. It made me realize something that made me laugh.
“What is it?”
“I’ve been trying to grip with my hooves,” I said, “but I realize that I was hanging off that cliff with my fetlocks. That shouldn’t be possible, unless fetlocks are actually supposed to be how you’re supposed to use these things.” To test, I picked up a rock by the bank, and laughed when it latched on instantly. A lot of things would’ve been a hell of a lot easier had I figured this out sooner.
“It’s so fucking helpful to learn this a mintue after I lost our supplies in the river!” I laughed hard. “Thank God I can fucking use these hooves now!”
Shorey only sighed, clearly not seeing the humor in it, and said, “Let’s get going now.”
I didn’t leave immediately though. I wanted to look at my tail, or rather, what was left of it. What was once something long and flowing was now reduced to shreds, practically nothing left of it except for pain, along a few stingy strands of hair and a little tuft just above my dock. 
What was that about not thinking of dysphoria? I thought to myself. That’s what I get for even letting that thought enter my head. Any semblance of modesty I had before was ripped away, my genitals fully exposed for everyone to see, a thought that made me shiver and retch. There was no way I was going to be able to hide the masculinity of this body, if there was one before. Not that they’d be staring at that. They’d probably be more curious about the bloodied mess of fur that was where my tail used to be when it was ripped off. 
Shorey didn’t look much better than I did. Her face didn’t show it, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if she was in more pain than I was. There were three claw marks on the left side of her body, from her leg to about her shoulder. They didn’t look too deep from my position, but were still dripping a little bit of blood into the grass. How she wasn’t expressing any pain as she walked forward, I didn’t know, because moving my back legs felt terrible.
“We need to get you to a doctor when we can,” I said, my body shivering. “And myself for that matter. But you especially. That looks bad.”
“It looks worse than it feels,” she told me, not stopping to chat. “Now let’s get out of this cold please?”
That sounded like a good plan to me. Although with my luck, the forest would stretch on for another hundred miles ahead of us. Or better yet, we’d get to the Crystal Empire and drop dead from infected wounds. Wouldn’t that be something? I wouldn’t have been surprised if there was something worse than timberwolves waiting for us beyond the next hill with how this adventure was going.
It might have been the kinder fate for me anyway. I didn’t think I’d be able to stand very much longer having to dodge danger while I tried to ignore this feeling of awfulness settling over me. More than that, if Lord Zulu really was watching us and specifically taking his anger out on me, then I didn’t want Shorey to get caught in the crossfire. She was too nice and kind to have the happiness she found cut short because of me.