Determination replaces my frustration and I finally pull open the door, stepping out into the chill air, prepared to pull on the cloak before the cold seeps through my clothing.
Stellen waits at the far end of the path, standing within the arched entrance, his expression unreadable.
He is as blank as new snow.
I wonder if he was listening to my heartbeats or my ragged, fraught breathing before I calmed myself just now.
Heading toward him, I quickly scan my surroundings and at the same time begin pulling the cloak around my shoulders, preparing for the awkward process of slipping into the leggings and body suit portion of the garment.
“Leave it off.”
Stellen’s whisper reaches me across the distance. Surprising, since he told me to always wear this cloak outside.
I reach him a moment later, the garment half over my shoulders, but my attention is drawn to the splatter of blood across the left shoulder of his tunic. “Are you hurt?”
“No.” His expression remains blank. Then softens. “It was nothing I wasn’t expecting. Leave your cloak on the ground. It’s time to learn how to jump safely onto Nara’s back.”
I blink at his quick change of subject, but I’m not about to argue. When I needed to alight onto Azul’s feathery back, I had to find clever ways of getting myself high enough to reach him. It was never easy on my own.
If I’m to become self-sufficient, I need to know how to ride a wolf. “Show me.”
“Left hand here. As high as you can reach.” He demonstrates by placing his hand on a spot at the side of Nara’s shoulders. “She’ll lower herself as much as she can for you, butyou’ll need momentum to make it up. Aim to swing your right leg over this part of her back.” Again, he demonstrates. “Now, try it.”
Nara waits patiently as I start with placing my hands across her back, getting a sense of her shape and how I might take hold without ripping out her fur.
Then I contemplate how to make a run-up.
I won’t always have space to gain momentum, but here on the path, I can at least make it easier for myself the first time.
Judging the distance, I act it out first, counting the steps to reach her, stopping and then mimicking the action of placing my hand on her side, testing the movement of my upper leg.
“Okay,” I mutter to myself, ready to try it for real.
Launching myself forward from five paces away, I make it to her side, leap, plant my hand on her shoulder?—
And hurl myself too far over her other side.
Fuck!
It’s only because I grab a handful of fur that I don’t fly right over her and crash onto the other side of the stone path. As it is, I end up dangling on her other side, quickly letting go and sliding to the ground so I don’t rip out her fur.
Stellen strides around Nara, his eyebrows raised, his blank expression vanished. “You’re fast. Speed gives you more strength than I expected.”
I’m not insulted. Being underestimated has kept me alive. “I got good at running.”
He appraises me, his icy gaze passing from my head to my toes before he backs away and folds his arms across his chest. “Slow down. Trust your strength. Try again.”
Rounding Nara, I whisper an apology to her, but she doesn’t appear perturbed, doesn’t snarl at me, so I hope that means I didn’thurt her.
This time, I start from nearer to her, hoping that a shorter run-up will mean a more controlled ascent.
It works.
Then nearly doesn’t.
I land on her back and keep sliding, clenching my thighs and throwing my arms around her neck to stop myself sliding off her other side again.
I manage to stay put, my right leg dangling, left leg hooked, clinging for dear life, a grin breaking across my face. “I did it.”
