Something had drawn her to the cliffs above the lake. There was someone down there, taking advantage of the moonless night to bathe privately while the others slept. Cole, no doubt--he fit in very well on the Animarium, with its thousand year old lifestyle and traditions. It was modern society he was having trouble adapting to.

She watched for a moment, knowing he would consider it no invasion of privacy. Indeed, the only reason he waited for nightfall was out of respect for the others. Cole was one of the least self-conscious people she knew, and she thought, rather wistfully, that her father would have approved of him.

He splashed water in his face and tossed his head back, shoving his hair back with both hands in a very familiar gesture. It wasn't, however, a gesture she had ever seen Cole use before. She stood, frozen, as the figure turned just enough to reveal his profile in the twilight darkness.

It wasn't Cole.

Something drew her down the path to the lakeshore, certain every time she looked away that the apparition would be gone when she lifted her gaze. He didn't vanish, though she did catch a glimpse of his companion as she made her way closer. Never far from the wolf, even when the moon hid its face.

She stood on the sand for a long time, watching the pup struggle to stay afloat in the too-deep water. Her ghost, too, kept an eye on the silver muzzle, making sure it stayed above the surface. He laughed once, the antics of his companion proving too much for his stoic facade, and she wished he would do it again.

He shook lingering droplets out of his hair as he turned, heading for shallower water. He paused, then, waiting for the tired pup to notice and follow. It did, paddling valiantly but falling farther and farther behind. Finally, in a startling display of trust, the creature allowed itself to be scooped out of the water and carried toward the shore.

He saw her.

Something would draw her forward. She moved through the water as though it wasn't there, closer and closer to this vision from the past. He had walked away from her once... would he do it again? How strong was the wolf, now? She had thought the man gone completely, buried by fur and fangs until the last echo fell silent and forgotten.

She woke alone, in her chair by the fountain, with the same heartache she had taken to sleep. There was no way to tell the others, no way to stay their hand without compromising their precarious safety. If only she could be sure...

High on a ridge, some distance away, golden eyes stared down at the figure by the fountain. They tracked her movements as she rose and saw her hesitate when the lonely howl of a wolf drifted through the night. She lifted her head, turning slowly, surely, toward the unseen gaze that flickered uncertainly under a waning moon.