"Dume?" I call out.

The white wolf flickers an ear in my direction but remains focused on the full moon high in the distance. His fluffy tail flittering back and forth.

"You're Ezra's Loth Wolf, aren't you? Do you know where he is?"

Suddenly, brightness closes in, and I raise a hand to shield my eyes. When I dare to look again, there is white everywhere. White fur, white fangs, white wolf.

The wolf growls as he bows his head closer to mine. A single word echoes through the expanse.

"Come."

"Where are you? How can I find you?" I ask desperately.

"Come!"

"But where?!" I shout as the dream dissolves, and I sit bolt up in bed almost knocking my head on the top bunk.

After being on the go for the past month, sleeping in random hostels, and crashing in the Phantom, I'm not used to being back in my own bed. It feels surreal. My art still looks the same with the light from my small lamp casting long shadows onto the walls. The mattress is still rock hard, just the way I like it. There's the familiar, ever-present metallic tinge in the air. Everything is just the way it's always been.

Except... He's still gone.

I feel a knot building in my chest, and it releases as something between a sob and a gasp for air.

I never missed my parents like this. It hurt to abandon my family, but I knew they were safe. This pain is different. It sinks to the bottom of my chest and rots. Ezra isn't safe. He's just gone without a trace.

*

"Sabine?" Ezra calls followed by light knocks on the metal bulkhead.

"Go away," I reply and turn over, wrapping the worn knit blanket tightly around my shoulders as I do.

Despite my wishes, I hear the click of my door opening as light from the corridor sweeps across the walls. Footsteps grow closer until the corner of my mattress dips with Ezra's weight as he carefully perches at the edge of the bed. I don't acknowledge his presence, though, being sure to keep my face turned to the wall.

"I heard you calling out for your parents."

"I told you to go away, Ezra," I mutter. "I don't want to talk about it."

A hand appears on my shoulder, but Ezra remains silent. The warmth of his touch is the final straw. All the sadness, all the pain, and heartbreak bursts through. I can feel the heat of sorrow behind my eyelids as I squeeze them shut willing myself back into the null.

"I miss my family, too," he whispers, hoarse and unsteady. "You'll see them again. Someday soon."

"Ezra.."

"It's okay," the warmth of his hand disappears and leaves my exposed skin cold. "I get it," he says as I feel the mattress shift. He's leaving.

"No," I say quickly as I finally turn to face him. "I... It's just hard for me to talk about them."

Fingertips brush my cheeks, cautiously, and sweep the wet trails from my skin. His fingers are dry and cracked from hours of training and ship repairs.

"If you're ever ready," Ezra's voice is barely audible above the gentle hum of the ship's engines, "I'll be here."

Something about those words pricks at my heart. I can feel a slight rise in my pulse, but... it can't be. Can it?

Ezra is like my brother, my little brother. That's how I've always seen him. I mean, I know he's always had feelings for me. That's obvious. But I always assumed that it was just a childish crush, that I was just the girl who's always around.

But in this moment, I can see how much he's grown up. Maybe it's not his time yet but soon.

"Um... Ezra?"

"Yes?"

Maybe one day these feelings could turn into something real.

"Can you..." I sigh. Oh, this is weird. "Would it be okay if you slept here tonight? There are extra blankets in the drawers, and the top bunk is open..."

I hear soft laughter coming from Ezra's dark shape. "You mean I finally get away from Zeb's snoring?"

And I laugh, too. "I'm telling him you said that."

"No! Please don't!"

*

I can't sit here anymore I think to myself as I clamber to my feet wrapping my worn-out blanket around my arms. The Ghost is — ironically — deathly silent as I head for the open air of the Lothal plains.

A warm summer breeze tickles my nose and fills my lungs, but the torrent of chaos in my head doesn't clear. Despite my best efforts, things still feel hopeless.

"Where are you, Ezra?" I whisper into the cloudless sky of endless stars.

Suddenly, the light breeze turns strong and cold drawing my attention to the tree line on the horizon. A flash of white streaks across the grassy plains. It's the wolf from my dreams.

Dume.

"He wants us to follow."

I turn to the source of the voice surprised that I'm not alone.

"Kanan?"

I'm literally screaming with excitement! I am finished with this story! (And I don't mean that this chapter is the end.) You can expect 25-26 chapters — I lost count — but it's done! And the funny thing is that I wrote chapters 1-20 in like a week and a half, maybe two weeks, but the last few chapters took like two or three weeks themselves.

Oh well, be safe!