Wait. She's got to wait.
Lady Kaltag leaned to a thick door. She could hear the guards rattling their arms outside – the guards her husband had appointed to look after her, lest she should come out.
"Mama!"
Kaltag turned around. Jeefra's voice was clearly calling her in this morning. Of course she couldn't see him! She shouldn't have let her husband take the children away to the barracks. Riggu Felis was not the only one to blame in their son's death.
She was, too.
What's the point of living now? Revenge… was the only thing left in this world. So that Jeefra wouldn't refuse to be with her in the Dark Forest.
Kaltag put her paw to the chest to calm down her pounding heart. The murderer of her son was a few steps away from her, and she couldn't get out. Sorrow and hatred were choking her, she started to suffocate.
Wait.
Memories flooded over her like the tidal waves, striking her in her chest and her brains.
There she is, so very young, sailing to her fiancé, a strong wild cat named Riggu Felis. Her heart stops as she anticipates something new, a new life, her own family, a beloved husband and their kids. Did she love Riggu? Back then – yes…
Wait.
The next memory was even more painful.
They are standing with Riggu, hugging each other, watching two kittens play on the wooden floor.
Kaltag opened her eyes. After Jeefra's death, there was something in Pitru that scared her. She asked him what had happened, how his brother had died, but still even distinct replies of Pitru held some awful mysteries. Kaltag was afraid to question him. She had put all the burden of guilt over to her husband and hateful Leatho Shellhound.
But who would take revenge, if not her? Riggu Felis was playing some games, as though he didn't care that his son had recently died and the murderer was in his paws. Felis was carefully searching for Atunra. Kaltag bit her paw to the blood, suppressing a grievous moan.
Everyone in the fortress had completely forgotten about Jeefra. Everyone but her.
Kaltag came up to the mirror and glanced at her figure with unseeing eyes. Crone! She had turned into a crone during these days – sorrow had completely drained youth and vigor out of her. No lovely family – her son had died, and the others thought she had gone mad and just wanted to get rid of her. Pitru and Felis had a different concern…
She doesn't belong here anymore.
Wait.
Go to the end.
Take revenge.
Kaltag remembered how she always used to protect her sons from a severe father, cover up for them, trying not to make them quarrel and respect their father, always used to keep her family safe. Why had everything come to nothing in the blink of an eye? What had gone wrong?
"Jeefra must be scared all alone in the Dark Forest," Kaltag thought. "And I wouldn't come…"
Suddenly there was a loud noise behind the door, and someone started to command orders. The guards ran downstairs.
Kaltag cautiously went out of her dungeon.
"Mama!" – this time Jeefra's vision clearly stepped out of the shadows.
"I'm coming, sweetheart," Kaltag whispered and reached for a torch.