Indigo Wolf settled herself on a patch of grass and looped her arms around her knees. With a cleansing sigh, she leaned back to catch the rain on her tongue. Water streamed from the brim of her leather hat down the nape of her neck. She shivered and straightened her spine. Somewhere above her on the hillside, lightning struck. A tree, split asunder by its force, gave a loud pop and crashed to the ground. The rumbling vibration and the smell of scorched pine reached to where she sat. Her pet wolf, Lobo, whined and pressed closer to her thigh. Buffeted by the wind, she placed a hand on his rain-soaked ruff and closed her eyes to absorb the electrical rage that eddied in the air. For a moment, she didn’t feel quite so impotent against the forces that threatened to tear her life apart. Today had been one of the longest she remembered. Every minute she had spent up at the mine had seemed like an eternity, her thoughts centered on home and what might be happening there. Now that she had finished work for the day, here she sat, afraid to find out.
