Hmm, yes. Before we get to the actual story foo, there are a couple things I'd like to answer. And I figured other people than just the questioners might like to know, so why not put those answers here? ^_^
1) Yyira is pronounced 'year-ah'
2) If you've come to the conclusion that Yyira and Laarn are forming a Mindmate Bond, you're completely correct.
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Laarn continues to shield Yyira from her memories, but is a half-trained pup strong enough to guard against insanity? Or will she draw him into her nightmare reality instead?
Will Shadowhawk be in time to save them both?
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Nightmare Visions
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Yyira was hiding again, locked away inside her shields with only her memories for company. Laarn could hear the frantic whispers of her thoughts fluttering like trapped butterflies in the back of his mind. It seemed like he could always hear or feel the human-cub, lately. Most of what was in her mind merely confused the young kyree, but some of it frightened him.
It frightened Yyira too; that was why she hid so often. But the memories found her no matter where she went, locked inside her mind forever, unless she could find the strength to let them go.
Bad girls deserve to be punished, the thought whispered inside Laarn's mind, simultaneously rough and masculine and high and feminine.
Fear pushed the cub into a loping run as he searched the caverns, following the tenuous link that connected him to Yyira. It kept fading in and out, sometimes so strong he could all but see where she was hiding, sometimes so weak it was all he could do to sense even the barest hint of her presence. His mother was afraid that he was forming too tight of a bond with the human-cub, kept warning him to let the link lie fallow in the hope that it would eventually fade away into nothing. But he couldn't do that, couldn't leave Yyira alone to face the nightmares.
Bad girl. Bad girls deserve to be punished. Punished, punished, punished. Bad girls deserve to be punished.
The images that accompanied the silent mantra made Laarn feel sick and filthy. Big, ugly males hurting young female cubs. Terror permeated the images, blood tainted them red. So much blood, so much fear… Yyira's blood, Yyira's fear.
Bad girls deserve to be punished.
Finally he found her, curled up in a niche near the hot springs, veiled from sight by the billowing steam. Laarn forced himself into the niche beside her, nosing at her arms and face until her got her to withdraw enough from her tortured shell to respond to his presence. Thin, trembling arms curled tightly around his neck as she buried her face into his furred shoulder and cried.
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He was small, and his body felt wrong, somehow. He was pressed into a corner, crouched on hind legs, front legs spread to either side, trapped by chains. He curled his hands into fists, struggled against the chains.
Hands? Fists?
He was human-shaped. A small human-cub.
Yyira. Yyira's nightmare.
He cried, tears burning hot against raw cheeks unprotected by fur. The taste of blood filled his mouth, salty and metallic.
Dreaming. Only dreaming.
A snarling male was in the room. A human-male. Lips thinned back, showing large, flat teeth in a vicious snarl. Dark eyes glinted red. He whimpered, pressing tighter to the wall as the male walked towards him. The chains scraped against stone, slicing the fragile flesh at his wrists. The male had something in his hand, something that glinted in the red light. Something sharp and cruel.
Just a dream. Only a dream. Yyira's dream. Yyira's nightmare.
He flinched as the male touched his hair, yelped as the male slapped his face.
"Are you a bad girl?"
Nonono!
"You're a bad, bad little girl. Bad girls deserve to be punished."
Nightmare. Real. Nightmare. Real. Nightmare. Realrealrealreal.
He cowered as the male stroked and petted him, touching him in places he never wanted to be touched. Terror pounded against his mind, shredding through his fragile barriers until he didn't know what was real and what was nightmare. The male jerked him close, wrenching him around cruelly and forcing him to his knees.
"Bad girls deserve to be punished."
:NO!: Laarn awoke with a mental scream, panting and terrified. Beside him, Yyira moaned and squirmed, locked inside the nightmare Laarn had only barely escaped.
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Laarn and Yyira slunk through the kyree caverns side-by-side, eyes both yellow and honey-brown bearing identical haunted expressions. Yyira's autumn brown hair was matted and filthy, straggling about her face in greasy tendrils. Laarn's once glossy black fur was now dull and shedding badly, small bald patches spotting his hide.
:Laarn?: Huorra Mindsent tentatively, fear clouding her mindvoice and lending it an acrid taste.
:Bad girl. Bad girls must be punished.:
Huorra fled the chamber, unable to bear what had happened to her son.
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Shadowhawk walked out of the chamber where the child and cub had been confined, her eyes filled with tears. Winterstar and Huorra both gazed anxiously at the Mindhealer, the kyree pressed up tight against the male Hawkbrother's side.
"Can you Heal them?" Winterstar asked, his voice a broken whisper.
Shadowhawk took a deep, shaky breath. "I can try."
