Shooting star

Eirlys opened her eyes slowly, dragging her sluggish thoughts from the darkness where they had hidden. She lay motionless for a long time, summoning the strength to raise her face from the gritty surface it rested on. Whe she did so, her head spun, making her feel nauseous, but she dragged her body into a sitting position before stopping to rest. After a few moments she lifted her head and glanced around at the featureless grey landscape. Her lips curled in a humourless smile of satisfaction. She had made it to the netherworld in one piece. She looked around more carefully, sudden concern giving her energy.
"Zephyr?" She scrambled to her feet and scanned the ground once more, desperate for a glimpse of the girl's red-gold hair. There was no sign of her. Eirlys went cold. Where was she? Had she been lost before Eirlys had stepped through the gate? Or was she trapped in the void between worlds?
Eirlys, Help me! The voiced carried to her on the air, hauntingly frightened and achingly distant, it seemed to come from every direction.
"Zephyr!" Eirlys spun round frantically searching for a clue to the direction the cry had come from.
"Zephyr where are you?" She screamed into the dull lifeless air. There was no reply.
A sudden gust of icy wind whipped through Eirlys' fur, chilling her, and she looked to the sky in despair.
"I've lost her." She whispered to herself. tears pouring from her liquid green eyes and streaking the pale skin of her face. Through her tears she saw a light flash in the darkness above and watched it as it streaked down towards the earth. Just for an instant it illuminated a line of hills in the far distance before it was extinguished. Eirlys' breath caught in her throat. A sign! The sign of a soul being cast from the void into the netherworld. She hardly dared to hope as she set out across the grey expanse toward the hills. Doubts niggled at her mind, that maybe she was going the wrong way, maybe the light hadn't been Zephyr at all. She shrugged them aside...with no other clue to her lover's whereabouts she had no choice but to take the chance.