The gray veered around a stump that crackled with flame
and pointed his muzzle into the smoke-filled wind
probing for pockets of fresher air along the ridge top
he yelped directions to the others as they ran blindly
he could not turn them back against the inferno
let his brothers and sisters fend for themselves but
if they swept to the bottom so close to the lights
they might enter that other world and the gray knew
no beast that crossed the invisible barrier ever returned
Yet when the pack breeched the edge of a mud slide
and a pup slipped backward toward the valley below
the gray didn't hesitate to leap in and push her free then
made sure that no other stragglers became mired
his hindlegs began to lose strength so he thrashed
with his forelegs and crouched to stop his momentum
gravity sucked him to the very edge of a precipice and
then the night air ballooned his matted fur as he
slammed into a shallow pool along a highway
engines of noise and destruction rushing by in a blur
Adrenalin drained from the gray leaving only ache
artificial daylight streaked about him and he
let consciousness slip away knowing
that a senseless new course
of events and the phases
of the true moon would
now dictate his way
he tried to howl but
could only muster
two weak grunts:
release me