She had been running for a long time.
Big wolves chased her through the dark, their paws pounding behind her as her breathing grew harsh and ragged.
She had almost fallen over more than once.
Worse, the blue things would not go away.
Their glow kept revealing her location.
They said things she did not understand, and she hated them.
She hated how they made the two little people fly around her every now and then.
They kept pointing at the blue thing while she was hiding inside the log, right up until she tried to swat at it.
Then something happened.
Her body hurt.
A lot.
After that, she passed out to the sound of something big hitting the ground.
She had not expected to wake up.
So imagine her surprise when she found a strange, painful tingling running through her while two people figures talked nearby.
One was a short-ear with a weird stick thing stuck on his face that he did not remove for some reason.
The other was a tamed wolf one.
One of the weird ones that spoke the people's language and used the blue boxes.
Part of her wanted to make a break for it, but both of them seemed stronger than her by a lot.
She did not like her chances.
So instead, she stayed still and hoped they would get bored.
Or at least decide not to eat her.
Somewhere in the middle of that plan, she fell asleep.
Which confused her.
Pain made sleep hard.
So why had the hurt from before not kept her awake?
They must have done something to her.
The wounds from before were gone, but they had wrapped strange things around her body.
She could still move, but the things brushed against her fur in strange ways.
She hated it.
However, she was also worried they might come back, so she waited for a moment before moving.
Her ear twitched.
Then she sat up and began ripping at the bandages with her teeth.
The two little things kept flying around her, saying things she did not care to hear.
She flicked her tail at them in annoyance.
She had finally freed one arm when she turned and saw something strange.
There was a small hog.
No larger than her, so it must have been young.
On its head was some strange thing that looked like it was made of metal.
The little hog strutted along.
She licked her lips in excitement.
It seemed breakfast had walked to her all on its own.
A bit of fortune on an otherwise terrible day.
She made her way into a corner, out of sight, and prepared to pounce.
The little things kept flying in front of her and waving their paws in her way.
She resisted the urge to growl, just in case it alerted breakfast.
As she got ready, something touched her paw.
She did not look at it.
Even twitching might give breakfast a chance to realize she was there.
Then the little blue screen appeared again.
Thalia has used skill Marionetting Fingers (D).
Before she could figure out what that meant, she was jerked out from where she had been hiding.
She thrashed, trying to free her paws, but something had bound them.
She jerked and swayed, hissing and gnashing her teeth, hoping it would be enough to scare whatever held her into loosening its grip.
It did not.
Instead, she found herself held up in the air.
She spun slowly as she struggled.
Then she heard people voices.
As she turned, she saw three people.
One was short, with white hair and a strange blue thing coming from her fingertips, wrapping around the fox's legs.
Next to her stood a much taller one with brown hair and a strange purple thing on her left arm.
The purple thing felt ominous.
Dangerous.
The brown-haired one seemed to be talking to the short white-haired one.
Lastly, there was one with brown hair and a tanned complexion.
She smelled oddly of bird and had feathers all over her.
That must mean she was one of the domesticated ones.
"What should we do?" the little thing with a rose in its hair yelled as it flew in circles around the fox's head. "She can't move, and if she dies, we have to go back to the heavens!"
"Relax, Sera," the other little one said.
This one wore a ratty coat and floated slower than the rose one.
"Only she can understand us because of her skill. So we can come up with a plan right in front of them, and they wouldn't even know."
"Dude, she doesn't talk to us. I don't think she would listen, much less work with us to make a plan!"
"I do talk to you," the fox barked. "I tell you to shut up."
She had found out long ago that they could not understand anything she said.
And they would not leave her alone.
As she hung there, someone spoke.
This time, it was something she actually understood.
"I carry you for miles and have my friends use rather expensive healing potions on you, and you tell us to shut up?" the wolf asked. "Kind of rude, don't you think? Also, why aren't you speaking Common?"
She tried to whip around.
From where she hung, all she could do was slowly turn and see the wolf from before.
The one who had talked with the stick-on-face person.
He stared her down.
The other people seemed surprised, looking at the wolf in confusion.
"You can speak?" she asked, surprised but cautious. "How? Most tamed cannot understand our language."
The wolf shrugged.
Then he turned and spoke something in the people language.
Tame speak.
The strings around her feet released.
She scrambled to her paws and lunged back, barking.
The people seemed worried, but they finally stepped out of the room, allowing the wolf to walk in fully.
"I grew up in a tribe of Naturalists," the wolf said. "So learning the woodland language was part of my upbringing."
He studied her.
"And since you are using it, I can only assume you are from one of the Naturalist tribes. Which chief do you serve?"
She gave him a look of confusion and barked, "I serve no one!"
The wolf stared at her for a moment.
Then the blue box appeared again.
She swiped at it, annoyed.
The wolf gave her a puzzled look.
"Are you going to close that or not?"
She barked a laugh at him and glared.
"It appeared almost eight winters ago, and I have never been able to get rid of it. I would slay even a bear to be free of this foul thing!"
The wolf stared at her, surprise clear on his face.
Then he asked a strange question.
"How much time pass are you?"
She took a moment to think.
The word he had used was for time passing, so the question was confusing.
Normally, questions like that were used to ask how much time remained before dark.
"I do not know what you mean," she said.
She started to calm down slightly.
It seemed whatever hostility the wolf had held before had dimmed.
Now, he seemed more confused than anything.
Still, she was not foolish enough to stop preparing herself to lunge.
"Uh," the wolf said, thinking. "How can I ask this?"
He looked her over.
"How many winters have you survived?"
She thought back to her life.
To how her siblings had seemed to age so rapidly around her.
To how they died while she remained youthful.
"I have lived for seventeen winters," she said. "With this coming winter being my eighteenth. I am aware of my curse of blue, and how I am cursed to age beyond my kin."
The wolf stared at her for a moment.
Then he said, "Repeat after me, and watch how my mouth moves to say this word."
He spoke slowly.
"System."
In front of the wolf, his own blue screen appeared.
He continued to look past it at her.
She was skeptical, but she tried anyway.
It took a few attempts to say the word correctly.
But when she did, the screen closed.
For the first time in seven long winters, the cursed glowing blue was gone.
She stared at the wolf as a well of emotions rose in her chest.
The wolf repeated the word, and his own screen closed.
He looked her over for a moment.
Then he made his way to the door, opened it slightly, and spoke something to the people outside.
After that, he closed it and turned back to her.
"I think I know what this curse affecting you is."
She jumped up as a glimmer of hope shot through her chest.
"Really?" she demanded, running from her corner toward him. "What is it? How do I break free from it?"
The wolf looked down at her.
He took a moment before answering.
"You are something called a natural fullblood," he said. "And I'm sorry, but it's not something you can be cured of."