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This pit resembled the old traps humans constructed to capture tigers on a hunt, before we took control of their land. It was a miracle I hadn’t broken my legs if I fell down here while unconscious.
Claw marks riddled the dirt walls, and it was only then that I saw the severed head of a large Panthera with a distorted smile, its coloring resembling that of a tiger, body covered in orange fur with white stripes.
Bracken flicked his hands, blood splattering my legs as he grumbled, “I said watch your damn step. Such an unruly pet. Charging ahead like that, all emotional, and look at the mess we’ve created.”
“I had no choice! How was I to know it was leading me into a trap?” Sun demanded. “The storm separated us, and I had to save Clem. You saw him, ranting and raving, barely escaping its claws. Now get Kiar out of here. Can’t you see he’s hurt?”
“Huh?” I asked, barely keeping up with that fact that I must have caused this chaos, catching the glossy eyes of the slain predator once more. Kiar rose, the panthera’s dead body tangled in his tail.
He surged toward me flexing his arm, and I gasped, seeing that he had three deep scars dripping blood, with some matching wounds on his tail. He frowned down at me, panting, hair disheveled. It was like my reimagined fights had become part of real life… But it had been real. I knew what I had seen.
I had dreamed not of Sun but as Sun.
“Wh–what happened?” I stammered.
“You were dreaming of something,” Sun told me. “First, you started shouting. Then, you stood and ran.”
“The noise drew out a panthera who attacked you swiftly,” Kiar said. “But luckily, we were close behind, to save you.”
I shook my head.
“No… you were hurt. For me.”
“It’s alright. I’m alright. Besides, Sun is right. It’s our fault for not accepting Clem had been strange last night and tonight. Muttering and moaning in his sleep. We should’ve taken it more seriously before he dashed off like a lunatic.”
The tip of Kiar’s tail flicked in the air before settling on my head, patting it thrice too roughly as he murmured, “Give us a moment. This pit is deeper than a naga’s nest… We’ll scout on the ground and come back for you two shortly. Heal me then, Clem, and we’ll find safer, higher ground to retreat to.”
He was comforting me, but it made me flinch, remembering the version of Sun who wanted me dead in a similar pit.
Still, I nodded, and my mates and friend looked at each other with matching worried expressions. Reaching down to rub our heads, Bracken tried to soothe me now.
“You’re right. I’m letting my emotions get the better of me,” he told Kiar. “It’s on us to protect them, not the other way around. Still, Sun, mind Clem for a little while. We will be back. And this time we won’t be late to your defense.”
With that, Bracken took off with Kiar wrapped in his arms. And for a moment, total darkness eclipsed the moonlight as he spread his wings to lift them to salvation.
Left alone in the pitch blackness, I clung to Sun like my life depended on it. Because it did, and because of my spell he needed me too.
But now I sensed something was wrong, something was off. I gasped, seeing a trail of light emerging from his chest, connected to a similar light piercing my heart, winding around our bodies, shooting into the sky.
I had seen it only once, when his soul cried out to me on the battlefield as I shed my dying breath, a physical manifestation of the tether, our spirits and destinies bound as one. And it was beautiful and broken, the thick rope-like glittering substance slowly unraveling into four distinct tendrils.
Sun pulled me off of him then, holding me far enough to gaze into my eyes.
“Did you remember your mother?” Sun asked me as finally a shard of moonlight pierced the pit, splitting his face between that of a serene smile and a hidden part, one that seemed enraged.
And that part of his face looked different too, blackness flooding his iris and his suddenly green pupils flickered flaming red for a moment.
“My m-mother?” I wondered why, once again, Sun was asking such strange questions at the worst time possible.
I pushed away from him, shivering, volts of magnetic energy swirling in my gut. This slain noc was the largest to be killed since we left the prison, and I felt the difference in energy flowing through my veins. That and endless nights of on and off mating should have made us stronger, together.
And yet, instead of strengthening our bond, it was fraying. Sun stood, smiling at me as part of his soul split off again, lifting, shooting into the forest in the opposite direction of Bracken and Kiar, as I reached to reconnect it. I caught it and stitched it back to him at the very last moment, as my heart thudded with fear.
Sun’s hand stopped me from fidgeting, rubbing my bruised cheek with his knuckles, crushing my fist in his, all our fate lines thinning once more.
“You cried out in your dream, before your screams alerted that noc and the battle begun. In your nightmare you begged her to return… To reconcile.”
Sun’s face softened, eyes misty and distant, as if he too were gazing through the veil of his memories.
