It would be callous to say Abyss did not find the lake beautiful, but all the smokey fae currently had eyes for was the crystal clear water. Water. Blessed water. And such water! Little else occupied her thoughts as her protesting body worked into a trot and then an unsteady lope as she awkwardly barreled towards the lake. Dimly, at the back of her mind she wondered what this heavensent body of water was called, but even that was lost as her overheated body crashed through the water surface to gracelessly settle at the bottom of the belly-deep water.
Exquisite bliss poured across her body. Life, she thought, didn't have much else to offer. Stifling croons of pleasure, Abyss languished in the shallow water, submerging all but her nose as she felt the water seep deep into her fur. She couldn't get enough of it. Her maw opened, and somewhat ashy water poured in, but it was manna for the wolf, and she gulped down the liquid as though she had never had water before. She would never look at water the same way again. She couldn't stop thinking of the word 'water'.
Crawling out into slightly shallower water to roll over on her back, with lightly earthy pebbles digging into her back, Abyss ruminated on the recent happenings. Having narrowly survived a fire was no small deal. She systematically checked each limb for its availability and its functional state. Besides an increasingly painful front paw - the one she'd stepped in coals on - she was surprisingly unscathed. Her pelt seemed lighter, as the tips had been singed away, but besides that, she marveled at her relatively healthy body. Her body heaved as she breathed in deep gasps of crystal clear air, and she lay there, soaked fur clinging to her body, belly exposed with paws neatly folded across her chest. She even let her tongue loll out.
Oh, yes. Her eyes, which had been drowsily closing, opened wider. What happened to the brute who had been alongside her? Her maw closed, though her tongue still stuck out. After a moment's quiet hindsight, Abyss decided she owed him a lot. Her life, even. She doubted she'd have made it out by herself. Endowed with a clear mind and rational thought, he was the best wolf she could have asked to be by her side at that point in time. And she didn't even know his name. ...Where was he?
Abyss sat bolt upright, shooting to her paws. Had he been left back there, in the blazing pasture? Couldn't have been. He'd passed through before her. May be he left for his pack land? Already? A part of her wilted, though she greatly questioned the gloom that washed over her. Irrational, she thought rebukingly. Slowly, she sank to her chest, and lay there, head erect, belly and hindquarters submerged in water, but head and ears erect, attentive and proud.