Thirty-Three: Wolf Days

Fitz, merged with Nighteyes, lives wholly in the present as a wolf, content with hunting, eating, and sleeping. Time loses human meaning as the pair revel in the immediacy of survival and the satisfaction of cached meat and a warm den.

A persistent summons intrudes: Heart of the Pack calls—Burrich. Despite resisting, Nighteyes approaches a moonlit burial ground where Burrich digs while Chade stands by with a lantern. The men haul Fitz’s corpse from the frozen earth, its stench and wrongness repelling the wolf even as the summons compels him closer.

Burrich insists, naming the body as Fitz’s, placing its cold hand on Nighteyes’ head and gripping his scruff. The command to “come back” forces a crisis of identity. Nighteyes bares figurative teeth, declaring Fitz is not Burrich’s—and not his either—then breaks away and flees, howling his protest at the tearing of their shared life.

The point of view shifts as Fitz regains a fragmentary human awareness. He is freezing, burning with brandy, and brutalized by Burrich’s relentless efforts to keep him conscious. Burrich and Chade rub life into Fitz’s limbs, shake him awake, and refuse to let him slip away until breath and being return. Burrich, overcome, weeps and calls Fitz “son,” as Fitz is pulled back fully into his body.