Almost done, here...
Chapter Eight
Anubis chuckled, his baritone voice echoing off the slick walls of the cavern. The small lanterns on the antlers of the creatures bounced in the dark of the melting Alaskan sun, mixing with the glow that the Hourglass put off by itself from the tumultuous storms in its top half, reflecting off its smooth inner glass walls.
"What she is doing is wrong," Acheron lifted his head to the glass, looking right where the small fracture was. "Without his regeneration, the cracks never appear, Amelia Pond never meets him, River Song is never born, and the Silence cease to exist. Without River Song, he would've died in the library that the Vashta Nerada inhabited."
"She has seen to that," Anubis laced his hands behind his back, coming to stand next to his brother. "She is impulsive at times, but she's not stupid. Hardheaded and stubborn, but very calculating….much like you."
"She's created a paradox, then," Acheron growled, laying the long ears a top his head back. "How does she plan on holding it stable?"
"Displaced time and separate dimensions, along with the help of a natural anomaly in time inside the library," Anubis whispered.
"No wonder the Hourglass cracked," Acheron grumbled. "Has she any idea what could happen?"
"You ask that question as if you don't know. She knows the possible outcomes," Anubis sighed. "But her will is set, and she will do anything to protect him."
"And I will do anything to make this set event happen," the rabbit like creature turned his head to look at his jackal like brother. "Would you aid her should I cause chaos?"
"If you are asking whether or not I would stop you from trying to kill him, then no, I will not aid either of them," Anubis bared long fangs in a snarl as he continued, "But, if I feel that your actions could bring about fatal harm to the Keeper or endanger the true position of the Hourglass, then I will step in by whatever means necessary."
"The Egyptians pegged you wrongly as the god of death," it was Acheron's turn to chuckle now. "Bastet's title may have better fit you."
"And Seth's would have better fit you, the one who never got named," the jackal snorted.
"I was smart enough to keep myself away from the humans," the rabbit turned his head away. "I will not severely injure her. I am not as cruel and cold blooded, not like you think my reputation should see fitting anyways."
"You are aware that if she ever sees you while you're going after him, she will not hesitate to kill you," Anubis raised a brow at his brother.
"And here if we kill her, we might possibly be breaking some law that has been around since the beginning of time, yet she may come after us if she pleases and we will simply fade into mythology," Acheron shook his head at the thought. "Others before her were treated the same way, but those certain ones still hunted them down."
"You have strange ways of thinking, brother," Anubis smirked. "If you already know that you cannot get near him, why bother?"
"Because, brother," a demented smile started to spread across his face. "Because there are others who can sense that time has gone wrong. I will only go if I can see that another being is going to have a go at him. I want to be there to make sure that the job gets completed this time around."
"He has made many allies in his travels, you know," the jackal whispered. "Not all view him as a person to be lost. The Wolfrem are in gratitude to him as are the Negatherium."
"For every ally made he has made two enemies," the glow in the black rabbit's eyes grew in intensity. "The Daleks, Cybermen, Slitheen, Sycorax, and the Krillitanes, to name just a few, are some of his most powerful enemies. And he has yet to meet the others."
"You forget, he has yet to meet his most powerful allies as well," Anubis raised his muzzle gracefully into the shine of the lightning within the shapely glass. Out of the corner of his eye he caught the rabbit grimace and bare long incisors in distaste.
"You have glimpsed the future?" he questioned.
"No, but I can predict what will happen," the jackal replied. "If you think she showed me, then no. Neither the Keeper nor I would ever look into our future."
"I think she fears it," Acheron said.
"I think that she prefers it to be a surprise, rather than being told the end of the story," Anubis smirked. "You fear the allies he will make, don't you?"
"I am just as able to predict the future as well as you. Though they are few, he has made and will make some very powerful ones," the rabbit turned and started to stalk off. "I fear only one thing, and that is not his allies."
"What do you fear, then?" Anubis asked, turning to watch his brother melt into the shadows.
"That, brother, is none of your business."
The large cat beast flopped down next to its indigo mate, turning and starting to rasp its rough tongue across its bloodied hindquarters. Its mate sat quietly beside it, head on its large paws and ears turned down. Both sets of eyes flicked up as a caribou danced through the trees towards them.
Orange lights threw their colors on the powdery snow around it as it slowed to a creeping walk. The lanterns hanging from its antlers swayed calmly with its movement in an almost hypnotic way. For a while it simply stood still, watching the two beasts with large and slightly glowing eyes.
Finally, the blue and gray mottled female growled. The caribou looked at her with subtle regret. Another growl joined hers as the indigo male swiped a large paw at the creature.
With a single push of its spindly legs, it leapt out of the way. Its breath fogged the air as it bellowed sweetly.
Both beasts blinked slowly. The mottled female moaned lowly and mournfully. She received a gentle nod and a guttural mutter from the caribou. It seemed to comfort both of them, seeing as they settled down into the hoary snow around them in a new contentment.
Death always followed the lanterns carefully, and the lanterns promised to follow him.
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