10.06.1675; 00:13; the shaman's cave:
Little Panther sat on her parent's bed, smelling the well known scent and reading the magic book, one of the easy Grimores that her mother had somehow become owner of. It was not one of the large magic books that her mother had often explained about, nothing like the Grimorum Arcanorum, but it had some illusion spells and minor tricks in it, so it was the best for a beginner in magic to learn in.
Little Panther came to the last page, originally just empty space, but her mother had written down some spells she knew out of her memory, 'Fulmeos Venite,' as an example.
Maybe she should go through what she knew about shamanism again, but Little Panther knew that she would rather forget something on this way than rather learn something she maybe didn't know.
"My love?" she heard a voice calling her and when she looked up, she saw Wolf standing at the entrance of the cave looking seriously on her. "It is time."
Little Panther tried to give him a smile, but failed miserably and to hide this, she put the book back in the shelves.
"Seemingly." she responded and took the bag with the dried leaves, made to powder, she would use for the ritual.
"Don't fear." Wolf replied, now with a soft smile, touching her shoulder. "I know you will make it."
"Thank you." she replied, now with true happiness in her voice. "What would I do without you?"
"Come, we have to go." Wolf said. "They already wait on us."
Little Panther nodded and side by side they went down the way to the centre of the plain where nearly the whole clan was gathered.
~ This should be a happy celebration ~ Little Panther thought; ~ every ascension has been, according to the elders, to strengthen the spirit of the apprentice and to show him or her for what they fought. ~
But there was no celebration, nobody laughed, nobody danced. Sure, it was mainly due to the fact that the leader had died not so long ago and had not yet to get a farewell and that the second was missing... No, no one wanted to celebrate now, but somehow Little Panther couldn't banish the thought that they didn't celebrate because they all, even the hatchlings, knew that she would fail.
She passed down the way, looking in some of the faces around her, the most looking hopeful and smiling, but some serious and Little Panther could feel how they studied her, thought about if she would be able to manage what she had to do.
Finally, she and Wolf came to the place where the tent had been set up. It was a large tent with ceremonial paintings on it of spirits and signs. Smoke came out of the hole at the top, showing that they had already started the fire.
Their siblings were already waiting there.
"Sister, I know you will do it!" White star said, embracing her.
"You will be the shaman here!" Ghost Owl assured her, embracing her too and smiling all over her snout.
"Good luck sister." her buffalo-like brother told her, giving her the hand in the way the second had taught them was usual under warriors. "You will find your guardian."
"When you're out, we'll celebrate." Muskrat said smiling. "And no Hunter of the world will be able to stop us."
"Yes, we all will together!" her German-looking brother assured. "This will be fun!"
"Until then." Her sister with the appearance of a Leopard, called 'Spotty' due to her spots and much to her disgust, said.
Little Panther gave them a large smile and nodded, even when she wondered if they truly believed what they said, or if they already had said goodbye to her in their minds.
She turned to Wolf and regretted not having declared their love in front of the clan... but it wasn't the time for such and they knew it.
"Don't you wish me luck too?" she asked silently, but Wolf shook his head.
"No, I know you need no luck." he explained, smiling slightly and stroking her hair.
In this moment, Little Panther would have died for his embrace.
"Are you ready?" Elk asked, standing before the entrance of the tent and looking seriously on them.
Little Panther nodded, left her love and her siblings behind and looked on Elk standing before her. He had two warriors standing at each side and the ones standing nearest to him had the Angel-Swords, even when they hid them under their wings.
"Child of this clan," Elk said, speaking the traditional words that the leader should speak for this. "You know the risk and are willing to go on the trip between the worlds to come back to serve your clan anew?"
Little Panther nodded, unsure about that come back.
"I do and I know the risk." she explained, unknowing where she took the strength from to speak so strongly.
Bear nodded in return and stepped aside to give her free way to enter the tent.
Little Panther entered the tent without looking back one time and when the door, made of leather, closed behind her she felt the hot air on her skin at once.
~ What am I doing here? ~ Little Panther asked herself, looking in the fire which burned hungrily. ~ Wolf should be here, not I! ~
But there was no way back now, she couldn't go out there and ask Wolf to do it... She would sooner die by embarrassment.
Sighing, she sat herself before the fire and loosened the bag of her belt, weighing it in her claw. This was her entry into the world of twilight... the world of limbo how some called it.
Little Panther and her brother had been led into this world by Shaman and the second some times already, but this was her first trip alone, a test that every apprentice had to make before he or she became a full shaman, with the necklace as sign of the bound with their animal-spirit.
She looked on the bag and made the decision. While sitting down in front of the fire, which was so hot now that she felt the sweat running from her skin. She put the dried leaves on the back of her claw and then threw them into the fire.
The result came at once, in the form of green and blue smoke floating not just upwards but raising its tentacles sideways, but more determining was the scent she smelled. It was a pleasant scent, which somehow didn't have as much similarities with the scent of the plants she had made the powder of, but it proofed useful since she felt at once the world of limbo claiming her soul.
One thought raced through her mind while she drifted over. Her drifting was different from what she had seen when they were lead into this world by Shaman or the second, since it didn't change at once, but the two worlds seemed to overlap first before the world of limbo became dominant and the *real world* had vanished completely.
~ I am not as good as them ~ Little Panther thought ~ Wolf would make it better! ~
But there was no way back now, it hadn't been since she had declared in front of the elder that she would make the ritual and certainly not since she had entered the tent. There was just one way now, failing by trying or failing by giving up and the second had taught them that the first had definitely more honor than the second.
Slowly she stood up and looked around, knowing both that this was all real and that what she felt, saw and heard was all too real. She was there with her body like that, although her body still sat in the tent before the fire... It was just in another world.
In the world of limbo the fire was even greater so there, as a sign of the point where she had entered and as a sign of a place where the world of limbo and the real world, a false name since both were real, were so close that someone who had the potential and was trained in this could easily change, but Little Panther didn't need to look around to know that everything else was different.
It began with the fact that she couldn't say which nighttime it was since there was neither moon nor stars nor the sun, which beams she always saw when it raised in the east shortly before she became stone. All she saw was an indifference... twilight ruling there. The second was that there were places in this world where the light was brighter or it was darker, but she couldn't call anything of this day or night.
While she looked further around, Little Panther noticed the other specific differences of the two worlds. Seemingly, everything seemed to live here. Sure, she normally saw no spirits or just those that wanted to be seen if they wanted so, but alone the shadows the trees threw through the light of the fire seemed to live, like the trees itself. Little Panther couldn't show it, she just felt it on one indescribable way which showed her the borders of the language in her world.
Normally, when they had entered this world before, it was other. There were no trees, but even grass just outside the woods, but this place seemed to be in the middle of a large wood and it seemed as if the trees had grown around it.
Little Panther could now see a way... No, a path leading into the woods, vaguely into the direction of the mountains she saw in the distance over the tops of the trees.
She felt that this was her way, her way to her destiny and since in this world the feeling mostly counted more than knowing, since this world appealed more to the soul than to the brain, she had no reason to doubt on this.
She should go now, there should be no hesitating on the way to become a shaman, such had been taught to her by the second, but she couldn't do it until five seconds had passed, the darkness she not really saw, but felt was more than present.
"Don't think it is easy," her mother had once told her. "The path of a shaman is often dark and difficult, more difficult than you might imagine."
This voice of her mother was what let her make the first step in the direction of the path and when she had made the first step; the other was much easier even when her tail lashed around nervously.
She entered the forest and while walking slowly further she felt a coldness claim her soul when the doubts came back. Maybe she would go the way to an end, despite all the horrors which waited on her, but what then?
What if there would not wait her animal-spirit at the other side of the path?
Her mother had told her about this. Sometimes, despite all the worthiness that an ascendant might have, the spirits decided that it wasn't his way and that so there was no spirit waiting on him, giving his promise to help him.
Sure, these ex-apprentices were treated normally, they even often became healers through the knowledge they had gained during their training, but this was nothing like true shamanism.
~ Maybe this is my way? ~ Little Panther asked herself, feeling colder every minute.
*Crack*
Little Panther froze when she heard this sound and looked around believing to see something in the shadows before her, a pair of blue-yellow eyes looking on her in hate just to vanish back in the woods.
She swallowed, simply standing there, looking in the darkness which, other than the darkness in her world, didn't exist from the absence of light, but from a substance by itself.
~ Go on ~ the voice of her mother said ~ you can't go back! ~
Little Panther bit her lip and moved on, listening hard to the forest, but not hearing anything anymore, yet she felt she was studied from something.
But just before she felt her last reserves of courage swindling, she noticed the light or better yet the twilight coming from the way before.
As fast as she could, but trying not to run, she walked down the path until she reached the clearing and breathed out a sigh of relief when she saw the empty sky about her.
By doing so, she didn't see the creature standing directly in front of her at the clearing, leaning on a tree not far away from a small lake near this.
"You shouldn't be so happy about being here..." a voice said coolly and with contempt. "You know you have no reason for it."
Little Panther looked ahead and saw something she hadn't guessed to see here of all things.
"Mother."
She whispered this unbelieving while staring on the gargoyle with the red hair whose face was hidden in the shadow.
"What has become of the second?" Demona asked and Little Panther believed to see a cynical smile on the usually hard face, "Or of teacher? This is our way!"
Little Panther stumbled, looking on the teacher, more shocked about what she herself had said than what she had heard.
"You... you aren't her!" Little Panther said, realizing the truth of this. The creature that looked like her mother came forth and revealed her eyes... Eyes as black like the night. "You're a fake!"
"Mhhh, this would be fitting wouldn't it?" the creature, which looked like Demona, said laughing... "Especially since you're a fake too."
Little Panther swallowed at this.
"What do you mean?" she asked, even when she knew exactly what the creature meant.
"You are here even when you know you shouldn't." the creature said crossing her arms. "This isn't your place, it should be your brother's... your love's, you took it away from him."
"NO!" Little Panther said, desperately trying to justify herself in front of not just this creature, but herself. "This isn't true! I do it for my clan, for...."
"Tsk, Tsk, Tsk." the creature made, copying something the second had ever made to calm Little Panther and her siblings down when they were young. "Lie before you, but please not before me."
Little Panther bit her lip, she knew she shouldn't, but despite the black eyes she couldn't help but see her mother in this creature and somehow these eyes had always figured out when she was lying.
"You did it for you! Or better yet to please me?" the creature said, despite the fact that she didn't even try anymore to fake to be someone she wasn't "But you know you will never fulfil the expectations of the second, she will never be proud of you and claim you as her own."
The shaman-apprentice looked shocked on the creature with her mother's face, who had just revealed her greatest secret, a secret she would sooner die than to reveal it to anyone.
"And that is it what you want?" the creature said, despite the fact that she knew it "That after you save the clan by binding the guardian spirit, she will praise you, take you in her arms and say to you how proud she is that you are her daughter, her flesh and blood."
Little Panther tightened her fists until the claws cut into her flesh. Then she relaxed, knowing very well that when she would come back to the other world, her palms would be wounded.
"Yes." she replied weakly. "This is what I want."
The creature grinned from one part of her beautiful face to the other.
"But, my foolish child," the creature explained with false compassion and love in her voice. "This will never happen, you will fail and you know it."
This hit Little Panther like a beat and she stiffened.
"You lie!" she said anew, more to convince herself from this than the creature since the largest part of her heart agreed with this. "I will become a shaman and you won't stop me."
The last words came out much harder and with more strength and security than she believed to have, but the creature simply shook her head as if she wanted to say that she knew the truth and indeed she knew.
"You have already nearly turned your back on this path when you saw the creature on your path before and believe me, if you go any further there will be more such creatures." the creature noticed. "And they won't go away so simply."
The creature scratched the top of her nose.
"And even if you go down the path to its end, do you really thing that your animal-spirit, your guardian will wait there on you?" the creature mocked. "Since we both know the reason why you are here, I doubt this." the creature didn't give Little Panther time to defend herself. "You will leave the tent with nothing and become a healer. Good enough to help your love maybe, or to guard the hatchlings, but nothing more. You think your mother would be proud of you then? Why should she be proud of someone whom the spirits don't see as worthy?!"
Little Panther looked on the creature and urged her desperation away in a last hero-like effort.
"NO!" she screamed on her and when she had calmed down a bit. "You are part of the path, a danger, a test to see if I'm ready to go on! And I will!"
The creature smiled and Little Panther realized one of the great differences between this creature and her true mother. In all the time she knew her, her whole life, she had never seen her mother smiling so much, not even by the leader.
"No, I'm not part of the path and I am no danger." the creature replied and walked towards Little Panther, who moved a step back.
"Afraid?" the creature asked, smiling with cold warmth. "You needn't be, of all creatures in this world, I'm no danger."
With this, the creature stretched her claws after Little Panther's face and as much as she wanted, Little Panther noticed that she couldn't turn away.
The blue claw came nearer and... Actually went through her face, without what Little Panther felt anything, but a bitter coldness.
"This wasn't so bad, was it?" the creature asked.
"You are an illusion." Little Panther noted.
"Just partly." the creature replied shaking her head while her red hair flew in a not existing wind. "I am here to offer you a gift."
Little Panther felt her heart beating in her throat.
"I'm not interested." Little Panther replied. "I know about the last time you gave this *gift* to one of us."
The creature smiled coldly.
"Oh, you don't know child, you don't know anything except the stories from your elders, like they did from their elders and this from theirs, but no one knows what happened." the creature said. "All you know are legends."
"Do you want to tell me that all this hasn't happened?" Little Panther replied. "That not one shaman was infected by you, the Kole Nako, which nearly destroyed our world? That he killed nearly killed all clans of my continent?"
The creature shook her head.
"Oh, this is true," she said, but now not smiling. "But this wasn't me, wasn't my part of the deal."
"Do you want to tell me that it was the shaman who did this?" Little Panther asked more than doubting. "You lie."
"Oh come now, think about it!" the creature demanded. "If the shaman was such a good guy before, why should he come to me? All I can offer is power and such he desired, not for his clan but just for himself. After he came back, his clan did not take this so well and tried to kill him because he would be possessed."
Again, this creature laughed.
"He did what he needed to do to defend himself, but once he had done so..." the black eyes in the loved face studied Little Panther exactly, seemed even to look into her soul. "Once he had done so, he noticed that he liked what he had tasted and decided to go on."
Little Panther shook her head.
"You lie!"
"Has anyone of your elders ever told you a reason why he did it?" the creature asked. "No! He wanted my power and the knowledge of how to gain it and I couldn't neglect this, can't neglect it to anyone who comes to me and all he did with this power and knowledge was his freewill, not mine."
Little Panther did not want to hear this, yet a part of her doubted, maybe it was truly so and... She shook her head.
"Maybe it was his freewill to gain your power, but it is not mine." Little Panther explained. "I will go down the path... the path of a shaman, not yours!"
With this, she gathered the strength to go slowly around the creature looking like her mother who, much to Little Panther's surprise, didn't make any attempt to stop her and was halfway down the path to where the forest and the path... her path began anew when...
"You should think about this again, child." the creature replied from behind Little Panther's back, who stopped. "You will do a failure by going on this path."
Little Panther felt a cold shiver running down her back by these words and she turned around just to see the creature looking on her with somewhat of false pity.
"Why?" she asked. "Because you'll kill me if I do?"
The creature laughed again and Little Panther felt for the first time hate coming up in her heart for this creature with the body of her mother, who mocked her so openly.
"You truly learn slowly!" the creature replied. "I told you already that I am no danger, but if you go down this path then you will sentence your clan to death on every case, it doesn't matter if you come back as shaman or how you hope they'll accept you as a failure, which you know you are."
"What do you mean?" Little Panther snarled on the creature.
The creature cocked her head to one side and smiled, seemingly pleased by this reaction.
"The humans in the town plan to attack your clan the next day." the creature explained. "They will slaughter you all."
"You lie!" Little Panther said.
"Oh, always this mistrust!" the creature replied unhappy. "But I will proof it to you."
With this, the creature walked to the little lake.
"Will you come?" it asked with false happiness.
A part in Little Panther wanted to scream no, but her curiosity was larger in the end and so she walked to the creature kneeling aside of the lake.
"Look!" the creature demanded and waved with her hand over the water.
This proofed that the creature had indeed some power, since the water slowly started to show a scene, happening in a building that Little Panther knew of... Well it was the only building that Little Panther had ever been in.
"The church..." she whispered and knelt down to see it better, there were men gathered in the church.
"Yes." the creature replied. "Look and listen well!"
Little Panther did so and started to even so hear something, first a murmuring and then voices... or better yet, one voice whose owner she knew without seeing him before her.
"... Now it is the time to attack them." the preacher explained. "We will kill these demons of darkness with the help of God... We will attack during the day when these demons, since they are creatures of evil, can't move and are vulnerable by the grace of our lord himself."
"But we can't attack them on the plain!" one of the men on the banks said. "They are protected by a spell and..."
"A SPELL?!" The preacher demanded to know, as if even this word was a sin. "No Christian need to fear spells of dark creatures if he truly believes in God!"
On the silence he continued.
"I know what you think of, you remember the poor men who tried this once and whose corpses were given back to us, desecrated by them." he said and the looks of horror in many faces proved him to be true. "But they didn't have God on their side! They did it for money and out of their hunger for adventure, but not for their brothers and sisters."
He looked around in the doubting faces.
"Haven't they taken much food already and every year more?" he asked. "Haven't they proven often enough that they are dangerous? Don't their screams bring our children out of their sleep every night?"
He looked around and listened a moment, noticing the agreeing murmurs that were enlarging every second.
"And then their so called help for you and your children when they are ill..." the preacher continued with contempt. "Don't they always demand, as price, our supplies? I say they make us sick even so to rob us the rewards of our work! If they are so powerful then why can't they take care of their own? They are nothing, but parasites! And without their leader, they are helpless! I say to you, with the help of our lord, let us destroy them once for all, we will...."
This was enough for Little Panther, more than enough and she felt her mother's temper ruling her completely.
"ARRRRGHHHH!!!"
She screamed this so loud that many invisible spirits in the forests were stopped by what they were doing and looked most fearful in the direction of the voice.
Furious beyond words, she smashed her claws into the water, destroying the connection to her world, but it didn't matter for her, all what mattered was the anger she felt about the humans, which seemed to make her heart bleed.
~ Mother was right ~ Little Panther thought with red blazing eyes. ~ They are useless, treacherous and evil... They should all be killed! ~
Little Panther had never felt such anger before and even when she just imagined the preacher standing in front of her, she had to suppress a snarl. For some reason, she hadn't felt angry when she had seen Shaman dying, just shocked and sad, she had not even been so angry when her mother didn't come back, just worried, but as she now listened to these humans about how they were planning to kill her clan, and with this her love, how they called her clan parasites...
Little Panther turned her head to the creature with the body of her mother, noticing that she was smiling, truly smiling.
"Yes, it isn't a good feeling to learn how the humans are, is it?" the creature asked. "Believe me, I know!"
Little Panther tried to say something, but then she realized that she couldn't get out one word, so she first tried to breathe again.
~ Maybe it is an illusion. ~
But she rejected this idea at once. It had been real. She knew it in the depths of her soul.
~ The guardian spirit! ~ Little Panther thought.
"Oh now you come to the critical point." the creature mocked her. "You truly think your precious guardian spirit will protect you, your clan and your love, don't you?"
"He has ever done so." Little Panther replied, but she knew the creature knew more. "Why shouldn't he do so now?"
"Because he has been weakened." the creature replied. "Such it is ever, haven't you known this? This is the reason why your parents always did the ritual on the first night, because they feared that in the third night he wouldn't be there to be bound anew."
Little Panther swallowed, she knew this and the conclusion was something she didn't like.
"Why should I believe you?" Little Panther asked the creature. "Why should I believe anything of what you said?"
The creature took her claw to the part where her counterpart had her heart and looked as if she was hurt.
"You still don't trust me? This hit me!" she explained. "But if you want to follow your path further, then do it. You will see that I'm right."
The creature smiled when she turned around to the path, which led to the darkness and when she had entered the path, she continued.
"You will prove to be not just a shame for your mother, but the downfall of your clan!" the creature prophesied when she vanished into the shadows, which seemed darker on this path.
Little Panther, still kneeling aside the little lake, looked back at the creature and thought about what it had said, what she had seen with her own eyes. The humans planned to attack her clan during the day, she had no doubt about this, but what should she do? Maybe she should trust the guardian spirit like how her clan did since they had called him the first time, but then... It was late to make the ritual and she couldn't know if he truly had still enough power to protect her clan.
Shortly she thought about summoning him anew afterwards... If she would come as a shaman out of the tent, which she doubted ever more.
~ Even if I become a shaman, I won't be able to perform the ritual before daybreak! ~
Little Panther closed her eyes shortly, she had often seen Shaman making the ritual and it had always cost time.
It was midnight the last time she had been in her world and she didn't know how much time had already passed, especially since time in the world of twilight flew other than in the real world, sometimes faster and sometimes slower.
~ But could I do it in time? ~ She asked herself, but neglected this at once, ~ no I can't. ~
She was too slow. She would need twice the time Shaman had needed, maybe... She would even ruin the ritual completely and leave her clan unprotected for one year.
Little Panther looked to the two paths. The first was the way deeper into the woods and she felt like if she would go this way then she would discover a clearance in the woods with her companion-spirit... or without anything, but a way back to her world where her clan would see how she had miserably failed and would die.
The second path was darker, not just because there seemed no light in it, but Little Panther simply felt it was darker, as she felt that what the creature had shown her was true and a part of her heart didn't want to go there.
~ Maybe I'll have luck ~ Little Panther thought ~ maybe my mother has already returned like she promised or maybe there truly waits my companion spirit at the end of the path, maybe I can make the ritual fast enough, maybe... ~
"Little Panther is, in my eyes, too unsure." The second explained. "She is back in her warrior lessons and the learning of magic and even her skills in the art of shamanism are a bit backward compared to her brothers. Often she is diverted during the training and she is much too less eager in this... She wouldn't make a good second."
This memory was all that Little Panther needed. Her mother didn't trust her to do this and since she knew her mother was the best to judge about this, she had no reason to doubt that she would fail.
~ I wouldn't make a good second ~ Little Panther thought ~ and I wouldn't make a good shaman. The reason why I'm here proves it. ~
Tears started to run down her cheeks and she started to run on all fours and as fast as she could down the dark way, leading her in the direction of the mountains.
~ I can't help the clan as a shaman or a second, maybe on this way~ Little Panther thought ~ maybe I can make her proud on this way. ~
Little Panther didn't know how long she ran, she had tried not to think over the whole way, feeling that she was studied from the creatures in the darkness. It was darkness, not the twilight of before, but true darkness like night and Little Panther remembered her mother once telling her that in different parts of the world of limbo, sometimes different times ruled. She could even see the sun in different parts of this world, but without turning to stone.
Finally she reached the end of the forest where it met the mountains.
~ Have I truly gone so far? ~ She thought while looking around.
It was a truly disconsolate place, rocky and without any plants but dead trees. Little Panther has noticed this before already, as the nearer she came to this place, the more dead these trees seemed to be.
"Not a nice place for a holiday is it?" the voice of her mother asked her from behind. "But that isn't the reason why you are here."
Little Panther looked around shocked, discovering her mother.... No, the creature that had her mother's appearance, smiling on her and leaning against a dead tree.
"Come." the creature said and went aside the breathless gargoyle, leading her further into the wasteland.
Not knowing what else to do, Little Panther followed the creature until she reached the lake. It was a lake, but not of water, it was a dark liquid which somehow just pretended to be water.
It made Little Panther shiver just to see it and she felt that coming here might be the worst idea she ever had.
The creature, even when she looked on the lake, seemed to feel that.
"Oh, there is no way back now." she said, turning her head to Little Panther. "You know that it would cost too much time! So why don't you show just some courage and come nearer? This is what you wanted!"
Little Panther bit her lip, maybe this was truly what she wanted, but it didn't feel so.
"I have to drink it?" she noticed and the creature nodded.
"Yes, do so and you will have all the knowledge and power you will need to save your clan." the creature promised.
Great Panther's daughter swallowed and looked down on the blackness, being careful to avoid touching it with her feet claws since she feared it might catch her.
Carefully, she knelt down and studied the blackness without reflection and somehow she believed that she was studied even so. Little Panther looked up to the creature.
"If I drink this," she asked "will I be myself? Will all decisions be my own and not yours... or whatever this darkness is?"
The creature grinned.
"I promise." she said.
Little Panther looked back into the dark water before her and slowly scooped up, with both of her claws, some of the liquid in them. When the claws came out, she held a small bit of the black liquid in her claws. It should flow away, but it stayed in her hand, calm, it wanted to be drunk.
~ For you mother ~ Little Panther thought and wished her last doubts away.
With one gulp, she drank it.
10.06.1675; 04:01; the tent in the real world:
Little Panther slowly began to feel again and sensed the world around her without her eyes. Such she felt the heat in the tent, which stayed even when the fire had long since burned down and noticed with her keen nose even some of the aromatic powder she had thrown into the fire some hours before, which seemed a whole life ago.
And indeed it had been in another life...
Little Panther opened her eyes, which were so black that they shone in the night and smiled evilly.
With a slight snarl, she stretched out and sighed.
~ Let's begin! ~
Her mind raced through what she had to do and what possibilities she had. The first thing was that if she would now go out of the tent, she would most likely be killed by them when they saw her.
~ When they have a bit of brain ~ Little Panther thought and started to giggle evilly, ~ oh yes and everything of my freewill. ~
Her mind worked faster now, better and such that she got an idea on how to deal with this situation.
10.06.1675; 04:12; outside the tent:
Wolf kneeled impatiently in front of the tent and tried to figure out how long he had been actually waiting. He looked again, like uncounted times before, to the two other gargoyles guarding the entrance of the tent, armed with the Angel-swords.
~ Waiting seemingly doesn't matter to them, as much as to me ~ Wolf thought, but looking in their eyes made him abandon such thoughts. It did, but as guards they took their job seriously, as it was their duty.
Nobody was allowed to speak, in order not to divert the ascending shaman in the tent. A silly order, Wolf thought since a shaman, gone over to the world of limbo, couldn't notice anything what happened around his or her body in the real world.
~ Maybe to not make each other crazy or scared ~ Wolf thought, even when he wasn't scared since he simply knew that his love would come back as shaman, maybe she wasn't as good as he was, but more than good enough.
Suddenly, the door of the tent opened and Wolf, like the guards, went into action at once, he by standing up, his elders by raising their swords. Wolf looked at his love and saw in the first moment a shadow over her eyes.
~ No! ~ He thought gasping.
Luckily, one moment later the moon came out and revealed her normal emerald-green eyes and her necklace, the sign of a shaman, hanging on her neck sparkling with red gems.
Little Panther smiled lovingly at him.
"Seemingly the clan has a new shaman!" she explained still smiling.
Wolf couldn't say anything, but ran to her and embraced her, despite the looks of the guards.
"I wouldn't have been able to do this without you." Little Panther told him, stroking his coat. "Thank you!"
Wolf was at first a bit perplexed at that, as by showing her love for him in front of the clan was against what they had agreed to do. But finally he smiled and held her tightly.
"I never doubted that you would do it." Wolf whispered in her ear. "Never!"
Unseen to him, Little Panther's smile became devilish, but when she again turned her face to him, it was lovely again.
"Ähem..." Old Wisel coughed. "I think we should go to the clan and report them the happy news... or the two happy news?"
Now the couple divorced.
"Just one..." Little Panther said smiling to Wolf, "For now."
Wolf nodded and looked to the guards, who were now smiling by themselves, happy that their duty had turned out to be un-bloody.
"Come; let us go to the clan." Wolf said and Little Panther agreed
They walked side by side to the centre of the plain, when they arrived there they were greeted by the cheers of their siblings and the happiness of a clan, who for the first time since two nights, began to believe completely that everything would become good.
"I think this is enough." Elk said "Give them some space to breath."
When the circle around the pair had lightened, Elk went nearer to them, smiling in relief and embraced his rookery daughter.
"Lass, in the name of the clan I congratulate you and greed you as the newest shaman of this clan." He said this still smiling and seemed for one moment very young while he looked on the amulet in the form of the head of a panther... just slightly different of the one that Great Panther wore. "Is there anything you want to say?"
Little Panther hesitated then she nodded, as she turned to the clan.
"First of all, I want to thank you all for the trust you had in me!" Little Panther said, looking through all the faces who replied the looks, and her eyes stayed for one moment on the raven-like eldest before she looked further. "It is a pity that I can't bind the guardian spirit now, but it will be the first thing I will do tomorrow after awakening to once again make our clan safe. But for now..." she stopped shortly, hearing the total silence of her clan, until her lips spread to a wide grin. "For now, I would love to have a celebration."
"Thus you will have one." Elk assured her. "I think we all have earned one."
The last question was directed to the clan, who responded this with a cheer, especially the hatchlings who loved such especially.
Smiling softly and without turning to him, Little Panther grabbed Wolf's claw and held it tightly. Something in him shuddered by her touch, but when Wolf looked surprised on his love, she smiled a smile which promised more for the night than he had ever dreamed of in just a week before and this feeling was instantly forgotten.
10.06.1675; 05:24; the centre of the plain:
It was indeed a large celebration since the worry about the fate of the clan's former second and now leader was forgotten, at least for this time. The hatchlings especially seemed to enjoy it since they danced around the fire in a circle, lead by the rhythm the elder's gave them by playing a drum and a flute.
Wolf sat a bit away from the trouble, looking in the crowd of his clan with interested eyes and feeling how the worry of the last nights vanished completely.
~ There is nothing better than to know that your clan is safe ~ Wolf thought.
"My love." someone whispered in his ear.
~ Well there is one thing, ~ Wolf corrected himself.
He turned around and looked into Little Panther's deep green eyes while she slowly stroked his coat in a clear way.
"I thought we wanted to keep it still a secret for a while?" Wolf asked her, as if he wanted her to stop, yet he didn't want it to... ever.
Little Panther smiled and while she did so and looked deep into his eye's, Wolf felt again a cold shudder coming deep out of his bones, but fought it down, since it was bound to be a reaction on the fact that he felt the look of some of his siblings on them.
"Well," she began playfully. "I think we have a right for this after the last few nights, haven't we?"
Wolf nodded, even when he was not so happy at the moment, since he had just discovered his sisters Ghost Owl and White Star staring at them with wide opened mouth and snout.
"Maybe we should go somewhere where we have more place for our own." Little Panther suggested.
"It is your celebration." Wolf replied, but his love shook her head.
"No, it is the clan's." she explained. "And I don't think that anyone will mind that we take a little time for our own."
Wolf looked into his love's eyes and nodded, as they had earned this indeed.
So the pair went, claw in claw, away from the happy sounds, not caring for who studied them and what the person thought or said. And some of the clan aside of the young warriors did indeed see.
"And she calls herself a shaman?" The old raven asked indignantly. "Simply sneaking away!"
"Stop ruffling your feathers, old crow." Grey Wolf, who stood beside her, somewhat away from the mass of the crowd, admonished her with a tone which was on the face of humorous, but beneath his hard-like iron. "They have earned this time for their own and needed to wait on it long enough. We have others who guard the borders of the plane even now."
"Then they should have waited some time longer," the old raven said, "there is a town of humans in the valley that seeks our death."
"They always wanted our death." Grey Wolf corrected. "If Shaman's death had any good than it was that we remember this now. As for the young lovers, they shall enjoy the time they have, as I know Great Panther will mourn every second she hadn't been able to spend with her mate when she is back."
The female elder still looked after the young warriors, holding her beak closed.
"I am happy that Great Panther has taken over the training of our children." Grey Wolf continued. "I might not have agreed with her harsh training methods at the beginning, but now we see that this was necessary... Wolf's generation is already better warriors than we had been back then."
This retorted the old raven with a snort.
"Oh yes?!" she asked him. "You forget that it was a 'Hunter' who killed our leader. And from all we know, he searched for her, so if not for her then Shaman would..."
Her words were stopped by a loud growling, which shrieked both gargoyles and made them stare in shock on the source.
The source was indeed Blackbird, a female of Shaman's rookery. She had the attributes of a wolf, with her mainly brown coat which was striped grey while she had white circles around her grey eyes. The most of the clan said that her totem fitted well, not just because she was a gifted singer and even so gifted in playing instruments, but because she even so had a soft and compassionate personality.
An observer wouldn't have believed this since she was still growling, curling her lips and showing her whole impressive fangs while she looked with blood red eyes to the old raven. Someone could very well believe that she had rabies.
"Don't speak it out or I swear I will tear off your miserable beak." she growled and due to the way she said this and the words she used, many of the gargoyles who had celebrated one moment before, turned around to her "And don't dare to speak so of my sister and your leader again, she surely has been hit through the loss of her mate more than enough, she doesn't need to hear your idiotic accuses too." she emphasized this by showing her one claw. "The Hunter hunts every gargoyle and this one has already slaughtered a clan, don't dare to think so otherwise."
The raven, having got back her calmness, studied her rookery daughter in a cool manner. She was just going to reply that maybe the 'leader' was the reason why the Hunter existed, but was stopped when another voice raised.
"What is the trouble?" It was Elk.
The large bear-like gargoyle looked around and could guess it from the way his rookery sister looked and who stood there.
"Sister, I think you are needed by the drums," Elk told her, laying one claw on her shoulder, "now."
Blackbird looked to her brother and for one moment he believed she would refuse, due to the fact that she was angry and that he had no official power given by the clan, but then she nodded and went away but not without throwing one last angry look on the raven elder.
When his sister was out of sight, Elk turned around to the ones of the clan looking on him. Luckily, there were no hatchlings amongst them since they were still dancing around the fire.
"It is okay," he explained to the clan. "Just a little conversation, so please go on."
He led his eyes directed onto the group until he saw that most of them had turned away and were going back to the centre of the celebration.
"What is this?" Elk demanded to know of Grey Wolf and the old crow. "Don't you think the clan has earned a bit of peace after the last few nights?"
Grey Wolf sunk his head a bit while the elder looked directly in Elk's eyes.
"And you, I know you don't like Great Panther, but when you have something against her as leader, call an assembly when she is back and discuss this there." he explained. "I won't allow you to plot against her when she is not here, clear."
His sharp tone had made some of the clan look to him again, but like the elder he ignored this.
"Certainly, and be assured that I won't call an assembly." she explained icily. "We don't need one more division."
With this, she grabbed her stick and walked away, the eyes of Elk and Grey Wolf on her back.
"Old crow." Grey Wolf hissed and Elk didn't deny it.
10.06.1675; 05:43; the plain a bit away from the centre:
Wolf let himself be led by his love to the place he wanted and indeed it was no surprise for him that she brought him to the place where they had confessed their love to each other.
So they finally stood in front of the moon, looking in each other's eyes when Little Panther laid her wings on his shoulders and Wolf did even so. Then Little Panther threw herself on Wolf's breast, ruffling his hair while he stroked through her hair, which was black like the night, which she replied by purring softly in which he joined in at once, following an instinct as old as their race was. At the same time he inhaled her scent, enjoying every bit of it and knowing that he wouldn't forget this scent like this night as long as time would pass.
Suddenly, Little Panther threw him on his back in the soft grass so that she laid about him, laughing genuinely.
"Hey..." Wolf began, but Little Panther placed one talon on his lips.
"Don't speak," she asked him. "Let us simply continue where the second stopped us."
Wolf agreed by taking his love's top with his teeth and then pulled it from her with this snout. Little Panther meanwhile skillfully removed her love's loincloth and in the end removed her own.
Wolf licked on her firm and well developed breasts, making her nipples rise and Little Panther herself breathing faster. They had sex as if it was their last and not just their first time and indeed it was.
10.06.1675; 06:42; the plain a bit away from the centre:
Little Panther, still naked until her amulet and such feeling the gold grass on her skin, studied her sleeping love smiling, seeing how little pearls of water ran from his coat.
~ This has been nice ~ she thought and was tempted to touch his face again, but omitted it since it might make him wake up. ~ A pity, but I have to work. ~
So she stood up carefully and grabbed her clothes, lying in the grass, dressing herself as fast as possible.
Little Panther threw one last look on her love and then sneaked away.
She went on all fours, fast, but without making any larger noises, as she was now better in sneaking than she had ever been at any time before, thanks to the fact that she now had better control of her body, but it would become better, much better indeed when she would have done what was to do.
Finally, she reached the rookery, which was unguarded as ever. For one short second she believed to feel a presence, like she had done often before and what, how the elders had told her when she had been a hatchling, was the guardian spirit watching over them, but indeed this presence was weak, too weak to stop her or to warn the others like her mother's mirror-image had told her.
Carefully, Little Panther went into the rookery, closing the massive doors behind her so as not to attract unwanted attention. Little Panther looked on the eggs, which were all supposed to hatch in three years, and sharpened her senses, not her normal ones but indeed the ones through which she had already contacted with the world between the worlds, even without a totem.
When ten seconds had passed, Little Panther smiled, having tasted something familiar just ahead from her. She went ahead, carefully making her way through the eggs lying there until she had come to one egg, lying amongst all of them and not being different from them in any form.
~ But you are different, ~ Little Panther thought, touching the egg's shell, ~ for me and mother... our mother. ~
Smiling evilly, she took the egg up and placed it between her arms, holding it securely since she didn't want it to be damaged in any way... It was too precious.
Slowly, she left the rookery and closed the door behind her.
~ By the Great Spirit, how easy this is! ~ She thought and wandered down the path she knew was the shortest way away from the plain.
Little Panther had nearly reached the border of the plain when a little voice stopped her.
"Big sister?"
Little Panther turned around and would nearly had let the egg fallen. It was Little Raccoon, his innocent eyes looking on her over his black beak.
"What are you doing with the egg?" the raven-like hatchling asked, curious but without mistrust in his voice.
Little Panther thought about it shortly. She could kill him, but maybe he would be able to scream before she was ready and this wouldn't be good, so she set up a large smile.
"The egg is sick." she lied. "I'm taking it to the large rock in the woods to cure it. You know that I'm a shaman now?"
The hatchling nodded, he had never seen an elder with an egg outside the rookery, but why should his sister lie?
When Little Panther saw that the hatchling seemingly believed his big sister, she added "And what are you doing here?"
"Ähh..." the hatchling scraped with his feet-claws on the rocky ground. "Well, I just wanted to glide a bit and..."
Little Raccoon looked up to her with a mischievous smile.
~ He has sneaked away ~ Little Panther realized happily. ~ How fitting. ~
"You know it is not allowed for you to glide out since the human threaten us?" she asked, her tone now hard which made the hatchling wince.
"I will go back at once!" the hatchling promised and actually went down on all fours to run back to his siblings at the celebration, but Little Panther's foot claw on his tail stopped him.
"Not so fast." she told him. "I guess you will get into trouble when you go back?"
The hatchling nodded sadly.
"You needn't." his big sister assured him. "Wait until I come back, then we'll go to the elders together and I'll tell them that you helped me so that you won't get into trouble."
"Really?!" Little Raccoon asked enthusiastically and Little Panther nodded.
"Yes, but you must stay here until then..." she asked him. "Promise?"
Little Raccoon nodded and Little Panther smiled.
"Until then, little brother." she said goodbye to him and turned around, heading to the border of the plain... If the hatchling could have seen the smile on his sister's face now, he would indeed have thought about if everything was well.
10.06.1675; 06:52; Wolf's position:
Wolf awoke slowly from his slumber and for one moment he believed it had all had just been a sweet dream. This was until he discovered the scent of his love still in his nose and, more obvious, that he was naked.
As fast as he could, he searched for his loincloth and put it on, fearing that any of his siblings or worse, any of the elder clan members would see him like this. When he was ready, he looked around.
~ Where is she? ~ He asked himself.
Surely Little Panther would be in the cave since there was work to do for tomorrow night and she had let him sleep.
Wolf smiled. He would go to her and see if he was able to help her, if just to be with her.
While he went through the small woods of the plain, up to the cave, he had the opportunity to think about his relationship with his love.
Would they become mates?
~ You do this too fast ~ Wolf admonished himself ~ we have just mated the first night. ~
But it was more than just one mating for him, it was...
He had reached the entrance of the cave, forgetting for the time, when he felt it. A cripple in the bones that was a sign that something was there, something whose home was rather the world between the worlds, or the worlds behinds those instead of than in his world.
When Wolf looked up, he saw it, a flickering in the air that was forming slowly into the form of a gargoyle.
"The guardian spirit." Wolf gasped.
"Yes," the spirit spoke. "Hear me, child of this clan..." he stopped, seemingly coughing heavily. "Your clan is in danger and I... I can't fulfill my oath.... too weak..."
Wolf felt at once a heavy pack of ice in his stomach.
"The humans." he concluded. "The humans will attack again?"
"No!" the appearance told her. "Your sister... is infected... she has an egg and will sacrifice it... she will kill the clan!"
Wolf stared unbelieving and totally shocked on the spirit.
"You are lying!" he whispered "Little Panther is..."
"She is going to make the ritual far away from here in the woods..." the guardian spirit said. "Go, you have no time...." the last words became whispers in the wind. "My last reserves... I'm sorry..."
With this, the guardian spirit faded away completely, having given his last energy, which should have brought him over the next night, to warn the young warrior.
Wolf, on the other side, stayed looking unbelieving ahead until he regained control over his limbs and ran into the clan leader's cave, hoping to find his love there, hoping that the spirit had lied or was just an illusion, but the cave was empty.
~ What if he spoke the truth? ~ Wolf thought, even when he wanted to banish this thought from his mind, he had to be sure.
As fast as he could, he raced down into the cave, grabbing one of the angel-swords from the table, praying that he hadn't the need to use it. Racing up again, he felt the weight of the sword in his claws, still praying that he was wrong.
When he had reached the entrance of the cave, he asked himself if he should inform the rest of the clan, but somehow he believed he hadn't the time for this and what if he was wrong, how he prayed with his whole heart.
Quickly, without thinking about it, Wolf ran the way down to the border of the plain he knew was the shortest.
~ It can't be true ~ he thought while running on all fours and as fast as he could. ~ Her eyes are normal, she can't... ~
Wolf was so sunken in his thoughts that he literally fell over the hatchling that was sitting on the way down.
"Ahhh..." he screamed, stumbling and finally falling in the dust and hitting the ground with his right shoulder, which was nothing since he had just missed the fate of killing himself by his own sword by centimeters.
The hatchling just looked on his older brother totally shocked.
"What..." Wolf began, massaging his aching shoulder. "What are you doing here?"
The hatchling winced, as he knew he shouldn't be here, but at least his big brother didn't sound angry, just totally surprised.
"I'm sorry." Little Raccoon said with a small voice "Our sister said I could wait here."
"Our sister?" Wolf asked, as he felt ice racing through his veins. "Little Panther?"
The hatchling nodded
"Yes she had the egg and..." Little Raccoon continued, but was stopped at once by Wolf.
"The egg...." it was more a whisper coming out of Wolf's snout, but the hatchling looked in fear on him, fearing that he might have said something wrong and would get now into even more trouble.
"It... It is okay." Wolf assured his little brother so as not to scare him completely, even when he knew exactly that nothing was okay, and that maybe it would never be again. "Just tell me where she went to."
"To the large rock in the woods, there she wants to heal the egg." the hatchling explained confused. "Why?"
Wolf didn't answer, he couldn't.
"Wait here." he ordered the hatchling and ran off to the border of the plain and where Little Panther had headed to, praying by all what was that it wasn't too late.
10.06.1675; 07:32; Wolf's position before the rocky plain in the woods:
Wolf glided as fast as he could, but still a voice inside him told him that he was too slow, much too slow.
~ I can do it ~ he thought ~ the egg will slow her down and I will arrive maybe even before her! ~
His hope alike the part of his mind, which constantly tried to assure him that all was well, had gone more and more silent while he glided to his destiny, but it completely vanished when Wolf saw it.
His sister stood behind a rock formed like an altar, now being used as such, but now in a form of the Christian cult of the flesh and blood. But unlike the Christians God whose bloodlust had been satisfied by the flesh and blood of his only son, the being Little Panther worshipped still longed after such, if just to give something and in a much crueler form than the Christian God had ever longed to.
Wolf saw it and let all hope went off since he saw that the egg had already been split by the same sort of dagger he wore as a shaman in practice and that the blood and innards of the egg and its content flew down the natural altar.
~ Perhaps I'm not too late to stop this ~ he thought, banning the image of the egg's large and now dead contents out of his mind, ~ perhaps I can surprise her and... ~
His hope proofed foolish since in this moment, his love looked up, noticing him with her absolute black eyes and smiling a vicious smile, which proofed to him that she knew very well that he could never reach her in time.
Despite all this, despite the dead fetus lying on the altar, despite the fact that if she had success, Little Panther would very likely destroy the world and kill every life on it, beginning with their own clan, he couldn't but think of if that maybe he could still save his love.
~ If I can capture her, I might try a ritual on her to cleanse her of the evil ~ Wolf thought while the wind blew against his snout. ~ Or Great Panther might do it when she is back... Surely she can! ~
But Little Panther never gave him the possibility to end this thought. With the same bloody dagger that she had used to destroy the egg, she painted a circle of blood just between her little chamois-like horns on her forehead. She spoke some last unholy words, which Wolf couldn't understand due to the distance and the wind. Then it happened...
The gates to the world between the worlds opened and Wolf could feel it, but it was other than what he had felt before, when Shaman or Great Panther had called the spirits. It was far more brutal, nearly a constant rift, which came out of the remains of the egg.
Whatever happened in this moment, the Angel-sword in Wolf's claw started to glow white of an unbelievable intense. In the same moment, the wind became too much and Wolf saw himself to land on all fours just ten meters, ten short meters before the altar with his sister.
Meanwhile, out of the mass of blood and flesh, came a tentacle that was blacker than the night itself, hitting Little Panther in the circle of blood she had painted on her forehead.
"AHHHHHHH!" Little Panther's scream echoed through the night and for a second, Wolf thought the earth itself would shake, but this was until he saw the changes occurring in his love's body.
First and most obvious was her two little horns that enlarged and turned until they looked like that of grown up rams. The one spike on her shoulder grew even so and got two smaller spikes by their sides with them. On Little Panther's tail, which lashed wildly in the air, grew four times large, sharp and deadly spikes and Wolf believed to see her while body enlarging.
When it was over, even the body of Little Panther had changed, fitting to her soul and she looked to her love with a smile, studying him with totally black eyes.
"Ahhh, you have arrived!" Little Panther noticed smiling, walking around the altar and still with the bloody dagger in her claw. "I really hoped you would do so."
Wolf couldn't do anything, but raise his sword in a defensive position as Great Panther had taught them, but it was more an instinctive reflex than anything else since the greatest part of his mind had stopped thinking.
Slowly, Little Panther came nearer, pliant like a wild cat, until she stood shortly before the blade of his sword.
"Come on, do it." she told him... offered him. "One push and it is all over."
Wolf tried, he tried to give his muscles the order to lead the sword against her and kill her with one hit. But his muscles didn't obey and before he could gather the strength and the will to do it, Little Panther kicked the sword out of his claw.
"Oh, you held the sword too softly," Little Panther criticized. "Our teacher would be angry, but luckily she is not here."
"The amulet, your eyes..." Wolf began with an emotionless voice. "How were you able to hide it?"
"Good old magic." Little Panther explained, tapping on the part of burned wood on her breast, fixed with a part of her own black hair. "One of the tricks Great Panther taught me, even when I doubt that she ever thought of that I would use it that way."
Little Panther laughed and spoke a spell.
"Illusionare!"
Suddenly, she seemed to be in her normal form again, complete with the amulet, even her eyes had returned to green and Wolf knew that she did this to torture him even more.
"Ironic really?" she asked him. "If you had worshipped magic a bit more then you would have known of this, maybe felt what I did, but you didn't… you chose to concentrate on becoming the shaman of the clan and that was it."
Wolf didn't say anything, but studied the gargoyle he loved or better yet, the creature of darkness she had become.
"Mhh, shall I tell you a little secret?" Little Panther asked by softly touching Wolf's snout, something Wolf shuddered from. "You should have become Shaman!"
Wolf's eyes enlarged, but he still hadn't said anything.
"Oh yes, I accidentally heard our leader and his second talking about this and just guess what they said! You should be the next shaman because I was back in my lessons...." she stared on him with pretty dark green eyes, which were now just an illusion. "Oh, how I hate you for that!"
"You lie." Wolf replied, this time stronger, he looked shortly to the angel-sword lying on the ground, but he knew he would be too slow to take it up before his love would attack him. "You don't hate me... And for all what you did or what you do, I forgive you, since this isn't you."
Little Panther smiled viciously, stroking the hair on his breast and despite all what had happened and what was about to happen, Wolf began to feel a lust on her again.
"Oh really? Maybe you aren't the right one to give absolutions like the good preacher in the town would say, since you are guilty on all this too." she explained to him. "If you would have checked me a bit better when I came out of the tent, or if you had simply listened to the little voices in your head, then you might have discovered what had happened, but you didn't." The last word she whispered into his right ear. "You were too horny to fuck me than to think of that."
Her eyes were now directly in front of his, seemingly trying to drill into his soul.
"Yes." Little Panther concluded. "And since you didn't kill me when you had the opportunity to do so just some minutes before, you have betrayed your clan and delivered them to death. Isn't this bad?"
Wolf stayed silent, looking straight ahead, he knew she wouldn't become stone at day, nevermore.
"You haven't warned them, have you? You have told nobody of your suspicion?" Little Panther asked and answered the question through her staying look into his eyes. "No you haven't. What a pity! I would have had no problem to find them everywhere in the radius they would have been able to flee to in this short time until daybreak and the look of fear on their faces would be priceless."
Wolf couldn't, but thought on Little Raccoon, sitting on the way and waiting on him and Little Panther to return, had he gone back to the elders already? Wolf doubted it and the idea that his little brother would die alone made him sad.
"Well," Little Panther sighed, looking to the horizon which had started to become red as a sign of dawn. "Any last words?"
Wolf looked directly into her eyes, as much as it pained him to do so.
"I love you and always will do so." he said, a tear dwelling out of his eye while he felt his body turning to stone for his last sleep, his last thought was that he had failed her.
Little Panther studied him with dark eyes and then, she captured the tear which ran off his snout, now turned into stone in the air with her right claw. Slowly, she led this tear to her nose and mouth and inhaled its salty scent, afterwards licking her claw.
"Mhhh, tears of pain taste sooo good!" Little Panther told the world in general and Wolf especially. "But why not, since you have given me your heart!"
Suddenly, faster than any observer would have believed it to be possible, Little Panther tightened her left claw into a fist and hit Wolf on the place of his breast she knew the stoned heart was in, making a large hole in it.
She returned her claw out of the hole, looking on the stone she held in it.
"But my love." she said to Wolf who would never wake up again. "You have a heart of stone!"
Little Panther laughed her mad laughter wide over the plain and began to destroy her love's body completely, as warm up to the slaughter to follow.
Somewhere somewhen
Somehow the life-movie was stopped and Lucifia was happy about this. She sensed that something was missing, something important....
When she had killed her love back then, him and her whole clan except her mother, Lucifia had felt joy which had been near the border to ecstasy and she had nearly even so wiped out the town before she realised that her mother was near and such she had the opportunity for an even better game. It had been fun, but now....
Now she felt nothing like this, no satisfaction about Wolf's last tear, no joy about feeling her love's chest torn to rubble, just an emptiness in her heart Lucifia couldn't explain herself and a feeling...
~remorse?~ she asked herself and the emptiness surrounding her, but this was impossible, ~this would be feelings for Little Panther, not me~
And when Lucifia returned her concentration back on the live-movie it continued, showed her how she slaughtered her clan inclusive the eggs in the rookery, how she slyly placed the death fetus which would have become her brother in the rookery and most of her death love's rubble beside that of their siblings and how she placed the angel-sword back into the cave and the 'evidences' for the human attack where she had been sure that her mother would find them.
It had been much work indeed and it proofed as bad investment since her mother somehow discovered that she had been the one responsible for the massacre.
~I should ask her once how she has found it out~ Lucifia thought.
She lived once again the moments of the battle with her mother and finally with her whole clan concentrated in Great Panther and then the imprisonment in the rock... not being able to move, to breath or to do anything but thinking.
Sure she had told her mother that she had trained all the years of being caught in the rock and indeed she had, by thinking of the scenes of the fight again and again, analysing what she had done wrong, why someone so weak like her mother could defeat her.
Finally she had concluded that she had simply been to self-secure against her opponent and sworn to make it better if she would come out. And then, 320 years after her defeat, she had got her second chance... thanks to the humans.