Tala padded across the open meadow, her once youthful, energetic strides now stiff and hindering. She had been troubled by a stiffening in her joints for the course of a few months now, and it wasn't getting any better, no matter how desperately active she tried to be. She feared it was arthritis, but she told herself it wasn't. It couldn't be. How could she ache from the pains of old age when she felt so young within?

She panted a little, purple tongue lolling from her mouth, sides heaving with her breaths. The pain hurt, and it exhausted her a great deal, so much that it was all she could do to keep up with the great herds of caribou she followed. In her youth, she used to be able to trail behind the heard swiftly and silently, undetected, waiting for her chance to attack. But even that had become more difficult as the years flew by.

She gazed ahead, looking to where the great herd now was, safe and far from her reach. She could no longer keep up with them. She was now simply walking the worn trail that they had created many days before.

The old wolf sat down, still trying to catch her breath. Her ribs poked out through the thick mat of shaggy white and black fur that had once been so healthy and was now oily and dirty. It had been at least four days since she had last eaten, and when she had eaten it was solely the scraps that were left behind by other carnivores. Tala sighed sorrowfully. Things weren't like they had once been. She felt somewhere deep in her heart that her time on Earth was coming to a close, and quickly. Perhaps things would have been different had she not been a lone wolf. Yes, she would have lived longer, having family to rely on and care for her. But she didn't. She was alone, vulnerable, and old, watching a herd that she had once dominated passing her by, vanishing beyond the horizon and setting sun.

Wincing in the discomfort it brought her, Tala stood once more and limped off a ways, getting well out of the way of the caribou trail and moving to lay beneath an old, lone sycamore tree. It was old like herself. Far older, and it still had a good many years left in it, Tala supposed, curling into a ball of fur and bone, her tail covering her nose to keep it warm. She was so tired, she couldn't dream of going any farther, even as her stomach grumbled in protest. Chances were, she wouldn't succeed in making a kill, anyway. She would just have to wait and try her luck come morning.

She closed her auburn eyes against the glare of the scarlet sky above her, her tired old muscles relaxing, even as she shivered a little from cold. Her body didn't retain heat as well as it once had, and she suffered all the more from it. The best thing she could do was go to sleep. That was all that was on her mind. Sleep, even as her failing instincts told her that she wouldn't be likely to wake up. Her breaths began to come faster and shorter as she felt herself drifting to sleep, and deep in her mind she was afraid. She suddenly wanted to wake up, but she couldn't, and it began to register in her mind what was really happening. She wanted it to stop, even though she felt so comfortable. But it wouldn't stop. She could feel her life draining...

"Tala, you seem frightened and rebellious. Your heart, it's rhythmic beats ceasing fast, still proves strong. You are fighting a battle few have dared to fight. Am I right in guessing that you still wish to dwell with the living?" A voice whispered, close in her ear. Tala, even though her senses were dulled, could not sense the presence of anyone near her. Still, she confirmed that what the voice said was true. She was not yet ready.

"Good, poor creature. Let me help you, then. I have the power to keep you from Death's cruel grasp. If you are willing for me to save you, I will, but you must be willing to give me half of your soul in return, for I will need it to be able to keep you alive and well. Are we in agreement? If not, simply say so and I will let you be."

"No, I am willing. It is only half my soul. If it were all my soul I would say no, for one is not truly alive without it. Take the half and do as you will, only keep your promise."

It was the last thing Tala thought. At that moment, her final breath slipped through her lips and her soul began to depart, raising into the air to begin it's journey to wherever it may be that souls go. This was the moment Kali, the Goddess of Darkness, had been waiting for. With a cruel laugh, a sound not heard, but felt, she caught Tala's soul just as it exited it's Earthly shell.

"Foolish, careless creatures! They will do anything to save themselves. All the better for me, I suppose. Oh, Tala. You were the last creature I would have thought to be tempted and tricked by me! Fear not, I am true to my word, senseless wolf!"

Gleeful and triumphant, Kali ripped the soul into two equal halves. One half she absorbed. The other half she tainted with darkness and even placed a piece of herself in it. When finally satisfied, she returned the soul back to it's shell and then placed life back into the body, watching as the wolf rose to her feet. Her once kind, auburn eyes now glowed blue, shimmering with an unholy light.

"Go, Darkfate, and spread your hate and destruction upon the land. All that is good and pure shall be at your mercy and disposal. You are part of me, now, Darkfate, for I have part of your soul. You will act of your own dark will, though in doing so you are doing my bidding. Everything you do, I do with you. We are one and the same. Now go. Do not disappoint me. As long as you please me, my promise shall stand unchanging," Kali said. And with that, the wolf, once the kind Tala, now the ruthless Darkfate, darted off, fading into the shadows of night.

*~Rhiannon McHugh~*