All was nothing. Nothing was all. He—he? Had he ever had a body? Had he ever known who he was?
Moments passed, but time mattered not. The slow progression of the universe rotated upon the point where he remained, pondering who and what he might be.
As the infinite reach of the universe completed its revolution, he heard something, or perhaps remembered it.
Shadow.
Something beyond that, a whisper twining around the word, made of scent and sound he couldn’t place.
He became aware of his body again, though he couldn’t see it, and he twisted to follow the trail. Stars streamed around him, and he swam, following his nose, pushing through the light field.
A moon rose from the glow, enormous and looming, followed by a smaller, brighter secondary moon. He howled, and an endless pack of Zuul howled with him. They disappeared—all but one, who turned to stare directly at his formless self.
The howl became a promise, the smell of truth and loss and home.
Shadow.
Neither voice nor memory, he flicked his ears, reached for the lone Zuul, and…
Woke.
“Shadow!” Dana’s voice, ragged on the edge of a sob, flattened his ears tight against his skull.
“Mom.” His tongue rasped against his mouth, and before he could blink his eyes clear, she was there with water for him.
“‘Bout time.” Alan this time, leaning close from Shadow’s other side, shoulders hunched with the worry he wouldn’t name. “We were about to get the nanites.”
“Waste,” he answered, needing another sip of the water Dana held to continue, “of credit.”
“That’s my boy.” Alan put a hand on his shoulder, then stood. “I’ll get Doctor Tanner.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Dry.” Fastening his eyes on his mother, Shadow tried to relax his jaw to reassure her. The tangled edges of a memory slipped through his mind, but he couldn’t hold it. “What…happened?”
“I’d ask you the same thing,” she murmured, tucking her head close against the side of his to smell his neck. “Do you remember falling?”
“I remember…” Falling. Through stars? The vision began to come clear, and then the doctor filled the doorway.
“How are you feeling?” Dr. Tanner asked.
“Sore, tired, thirsty.”
Tanner laughed and gestured. The nurse brought Shadow a small cup of water, which he drank gratefully. Once finished, he coughed a couple times and sighed.
“Better?”
“Yes,” he said.
Dana hugged him, and Shadow hugged back, nuzzling her neck. She smelled of concern and fear. How bad did I look?
“Can you get up?” Alan asked, then looked at the doctor for guidance.
“If he feels up to it, sure.”
Shadow sat up slowly, carefully noting how he felt. When nothing hurt, he swung his legs over the side of the bed. Because Zuul ankles were reversed from Humans, getting down off their beds wasn’t as easy for him. He and his siblings slept on low cots, which were much more comfortable. He slid off and onto his feet with no dizziness or weakness. Everything felt fine.
“No problems?” Dr. Tanner asked.
“Nope,” Shadow said.
“Walk around a bit, make sure you’re steady.”
Shadow demonstrated his lack of impediment, and the doctor nodded.
“Can you tell us what happened?” Alan asked. “Why you fell?”
Shadow licked his muzzle. How could he tell his father he’d had a waking vision? Something he’d been hoping to have for years, ever since he’d learned Human holy men claimed to have them. He’d almost given up hope of inducing one, and when does it happen? A dozen meters up in the air.
“I think I was dehydrated after my walkabout,” he said. It felt like the lamest description he could have imagined, yet the doctor nodded.
“That’s reasonable,” he said. “I don’t have baseline hydration data on Zuul, but if he was out wandering in the bush, it makes sense. He should spend the day indoors, drinking lots of water. I want to check him out tomorrow morning, before he goes climbing on any roofs.”
“Sounds good to me,” Alan said. Dana looked skeptical, but nodded finally. “At least you got out of work, right?”
Shadow grinned and rolled his eyes.
“Well, you don’t get off that easy. Thirty days on reception duty instead of construction.”
Shadow’s grin turned to one of horror. “Oh, Dad; come on, mate! I can work outside.”
“Nope,” Alan said. “Answering phones won’t kill you.”
I might wish it did. Shadow sighed and nodded in consent. A second later the door burst open and his four siblings rushed in. Through all the greetings, sniffs, and hugs, Shadow continued to think about his dream and what it might mean.
* * *
Sonya dropped into a comfortable squat outside the med center, her tail brushing the wall behind her. She lifted her face to the sky, eyes closed, and took shallow breaths to keep from smelling the shifting wind around her.
Even though Shadow had woken up and would be fine, an unease had settled in her gut that even her mother’s smiling face couldn’t end.
Her ears flicked at the crunch of a footstep, and she opened her eyes, expecting to see Ripley. It was a measure of her distraction that she hadn’t noticed the difference between Zuul and Human motion.
“Hewers.”
“Sunny.” Jack Hewers, newly VOWS-certified and reattached to Silent Night in an official merc capacity, had the warmest brown eyes she’d ever seen on a Human. He was also broad-shouldered, big-smiled, and nearly as tall as Drake. If he weren’t so unrelievedly Human, she could…she would…
“My parents are inside, if you’re looking for orders.” She closed her eyes again and wished breathing through her mouth would keep his scent out.
“Sunny,” he repeated, dropping down next to her. Jack braced his back against the wall, knowing from long experience he wouldn’t be able to hold a squat anywhere near as long as her. “Wanted to check on you—you
