Entro opened his eyes surrounded by fur... again.
'This will probably be a common occurrence'
Sitting up, he felt different.
His lungs felt full with every breath he took, as if he was breathing through a straw before.
Holding his breath, the oxygen still reached his system, as if the forest became his lungs.
Muscles brimming with power and energy.
He couldn't help but laugh, the feeling his body gave was euphoric.
He glanced at Agricore and saw him in a new light.
His heart pounded with the force of thunder in his chest.
The coat of midnight from before now glistened with energy and heat, shifting when the wind flowed through; it was gorgeous.
Wind pressure could be picked up by the hairs on his skin.
Entro blinked; taken aback.
'What's happening?'
Agricore moved slightly, shadows dancing across his fur.
Entro's skin tingled as he felt the vibration of a bird landed on a tree.
'This is confusing'
"Father, you're awake."
Agricore was talking, or some form that went directly into his head.
The temperature was 40 degrees above freezing.
"Yes, I just woke up."
An understanding hit him, like a freight train.
'I'm thinking in parallels,' all three thought processes said at once.
It was as if the world was now opened up to him and his body was greedily drinking from the cup of knowledge.
He skipped around, feeling every fiber of grass between his toes, the casual breeze running in two different directions in his hair; the glow life had to it.
"Agricore, I want to run with you when night falls," he exclaimed.
Rising from the ground, Agri tilted his head.
"Excuse my stepping out of place Father, but it is night."
Confused, Entro looked toward the sky. The moon was bright and beautiful, a white maiden in the sky gazing down upon the nieces and nephews that are Earth's children.
Looking around again, the world still looked bright and full of cover, only covered by different hues than he was used to.
Laughter escaped his lips once more.
"Then catch me if you can!"
Breaking into a full sprint, Entro ran hard.
His body could detect South without the need for direction; a walking compass.
They ran all night.
Stopping only when they reached the coast, just outside the city of Salina Cruz.
Entro wanted to keep going but there were only a few more hours of moonlight.
Plus, they still needed to clarify their plan of action.
"So do we go over the water, straight to Ushuaia, or skirt the coast?"
He was lying on Agri's — who had somehow taken on the height of a horse at the same size —[1] chest. They were resting after a full night of running.
Without opening his eyes, Agri responded.
"You were asleep so you may not know Father, but crossing the border between the States and Mexico was quite difficult to do without drawing attention to myself."
Entro nodded in understanding.
"And just getting there would be crossing 10 borders, that would be a pain."
That still didn't answer the important question.
"How do we get across hundreds of miles of water?"
Agri didn't really have an answer, it sounded next to impossible.
Glancing at his hands, Entro felt the tingle that said a critter just ran up the tree a dozen feet away.
Clenching his fist, he felt the energy coursing through his veins.
"We're going to swim."
A lupine eye showed itself under Agri's eyelid before closing again.
"When do we leave?"
A smile found its way to Entro's lips, "Tonight."
They rested well, using each other's heartbeat as a lullaby.
Once night fell, Agri stirred, bringing Entro from the clutches of sleep with him.
Running to the coast, they stood on the precipice of a cliff, overlooking the calm waves that tried to lure them into false security.
Turning to Agri, Entro teased, "You ready?"
"Yes."
"We might drown."
Agri snorted, a hilarious gesture from a wolf, "You might."
Wasting no more time, Agri leaped from the cliff, clearing the threat from rocks below in a single bound and diving into the water.
Entro inwardly rolled his eyes.
'Show off'
Backing up, he got a running start and put all his newfound strength into the jump, easily clearing the rocks.
Wind bristled his ears as he rocketed head-first into the sea.
The water was surprisingly warm, but incredibly deep.
It was clear under the waves, his eyes easily adjusted to the new setting, granting him vision that stretched miles ahead; he still couldn't see the bottom.
Agri was already there floating along with ease; a Lycan mermaid set loose in the depths of Mexico.
Careful to keep his breath held, Entro began swimming, adopting the dolphin kick as the preferred stroke.
It was grueling work, pushing his body to its absolute limit.
His core was cramped, legs ached, and lungs were burning. An hour was his breath limit before needed to paddle on his back and replenish his oxygen levels.
On the other hand, Agri was pretty much in his element. Strong, consistent strokes allowed him to cut through the water with ease.
"Do you need to grab onto my mane Father?"
Entro, ignored him, afraid if he spoke, his concentration would be lost.
His will was unbreakable in the event that he went into autopilot and zoned out from the pain.
Being brought back would cause some issues.
They kept kicking in silence for miles.
Rarely did they have troublesome encounters with local sea life, Entro and Agri made sure to keep their presence unrestrained as they swam.
It was 122 miles and 36 hours later that Entro finally couldn't swim any longer.
Unlike Agri, who was built for this, Entro was struggling to find his sweet spot.
Floating in the middle of the sea, he clung to Agri's mane, resting his legs.
There wasn't much resting happening while sitting in the middle of the ocean, far from any semblance of land, but it was all that could be managed.
Entro was exhausted and in pain.
Every stroke of his legs brushed a new limit, only the last few were a wall he could not overcome.
Grasping Agri's fur between his fingers, savoring the texture, Entro silently pressed into his chest.
Words wasted what little energy they were conserving, the only method of communication they had while their lives hung in the limbo between sinking into eternal slumber and salvation, were their heartbeats.
Although the physical exhaustion ailed him, Entro needed the mental break from this hell.
At times, he considered whether he should just give in to the beckoning voice of the ocean. The promise of rest and release called out to him, growing more deafening with every kick of his legs.
But whenever he heard the beating in Agri's chest, saw the life in his eyes, he remembered why he was suffering; why he had no room for failure.
Mere hours later, Entro was swimming with stronger kicks and a new limit to test.
Their aura, being unregulated to avoid unwanted run-ins with sea life this deep in the ocean, actually attracted attention, albeit not in the way they assumed.
Marine life of all sizes trailed behind them in whatever way they could.
The more creatures they passed, the more followed, snowballing.
Whenever Entro peeked past Agri's fur during a rest period, the image left him concerned.
Fins, flippers, and tentacles of every shape chased after them. Some easily paced with the duo, while others struggled.
Periodically they bit and swiped at the trail of splashing bubbles left behind him.
What they were trying to eat, he didn't have the energy to ponder, he kept swimming.
122 miles in 36 hours turned into 167 within the same window, and he was only getting faster.
The ocean broke him down in every aspect he could imagine, but just like Earth's great forge, the more you put into it, the more you get out.
Tears of agony turned into cries of conviction.
Every time Entro emerged from under the waves, he left another portion of his humanity behind.
Each dip into the most unforgiving environment on the planet sharpened his blade of will further.
Days piled onto each other, merging into weeks.
A steady repeat of the same routine blurred everything, life was swimming, because without swimming, life would cease.
67 days from their starting point, Entro and Agri washed onto the shore of southern Chile, beaten and exhausted.
Crawling across the beach, they didn't stop until they felt grass between their fingers and paws; until the Earth deemed them safe.
Panting and eyes glazed over, they looked at each other before Entro began laughing, Agri wagging his soaked tail rapidly.
Turning to the sea, Entro stood triumphantly in front of the same waves that threatened to swallow him just hours before.
Locals in the area that night claim they heard a man yelling at the top of his lungs as a wolf howled.
---
A long-haired man was chained alone in a cell, wrist bleeding over scabs that tore.
His eyes were closed, breathing slowed to a stop. If anyone uninformed about the situation found him, they would assume he died that way.
For the first time in days, the door to his cell was opened, a rotund man in a suit waltzing in.
Still appearing unbothered, the man did not open his eyes.
The suited man sported a triumphant smile as he approached the chained man.
Squatting to his level, the suited man looked over the prisoner with a trace of pity.
"You know, I gave you every opportunity to cooperate."
Whether the chained man heard his words wasn't clear.
"I warned you about placing your loyalty in someone without power, now we've found him ourselves."
These words awoke the prisoner.
Focusing his gaze on the person before him, the prisoner remained silent, glaring.
Something about the way he was being looked at, sent chills down the suited man's spine.
"That's right," pulling a tablet out, he turned it so the prisoner could see, "I don't know whose boat he commandeered, but we found him through satellite imagery."
A huge grin sprouted on the suited man's face.
"Do you see those patterns? Those are sea creatures following his boat, outing him. We'll have him and the dog captured in no time, you lost."
The prisoner stared at the screen showing dots numbering in the hundreds of thousands. So many it appeared to be a single entity spanning hundreds of miles.
Out of nowhere, the prisoner smiled knowingly and closed his eyes once more, not bothering to pay the suited man any more attention.
Confused, the suited man's smile disappeared.
"What," he said grabbing the prisoner's chin, "Why are you smiling."
But his audience was over, the chained man refused to acknowledge his presence.
Now angry, the suited man stood and stormed out of the cell.
"Decrease his food ration, see if that will teach him."
Then, the cell door was closed once more. When it would be opened again, no one knew.
Sitting in the dark, a smile sprouted on Aurelian's face as he opened his eyes.
Glowing bright gold.
[1] Hope I used these em dashed right...