[Part 1]
The sky was ceaselessly leaking, showering the mountain range in liquid cold. Normally, she'd love the feeling of heavy water droplets running down her skin, or even just tapping against the ground outside, but now? Now it brought this dull, constant pain that made it really difficult to sleep.
Not that Inabayama was sleeping.
She barely slept lately.
With an enraged roar, a mass of brown fur and overgrown muscle slammed into the ground where she was just a moment ago. Then, a couple of massive claws each the size of her entire hand swiped dangerously close to her face, as she kept narrowly dodging.
After evading another swipe, she gave her opponent another quick, light poke in the snoot. Not enough to concuss the poor thing, but it probably was disrespectful and enraging. According to another furious roar, it absolutely was. The giant bear - what, twice her size? - was trying to tear her to shreds in a bout of nigh-unstoppable frenzy.
Good. As long as they were angry, they would not flee. Which made it a good enough exercise.
Why did she need exercise?
First, she was getting kinda rusty. Too many close calls lately, between the swarms of enemies when she was leaving the human city, several level 101s afterwards, and her bout with humans in the last attack. In that last one, she managed to pace herself, but… … Yeah, it was not enough. She might've had all the physical strength she could possibly need, but her speed, stamina and toughness kinda lagged behind it. And it was due time to try to remedy that.
Second… She needed to get used to fighting with a significant blindspot in her previously omnidirectional vision. As soon as possible, even.
Case in point, that claw just nicked her face, dangerously close to another eye. The bear must've noticed. Clever.
She went back to dodging.
Normally, her natural regeneration was good enough for nearly any wound she received. If there were too many scrapes, it might've taken a while to properly heal, but a single deep cut, or a broken bone? Those were usually healed pretty quickly. Hell, she had previously lost an eye on two separate occasions, but the thing grew back in just a few days!
This time, though…
Ah, crap, another swipe nicked her. She really needed to concentrate. Or… No, the giant bear was quickly loosing steam. Oh well.
This time, she went for a quick, less restrained jab to the poor thing's forehead, the strike caving the bone in, and laying the huge body into the dirt. Well, at least she caught enough food for… Two or three days? Yeah, the meat would probably go bad after that.
Heaving the massive carcass onto her back without any difficulty, she went back to the cave.
Normally, she'd be able to regenerate a lost eye in a few days. But not this time. This time, it took over a week for everything to heal. And even then, it healed wrong, leaving two deep grooves of scar tissue on her face, and rendering her blind in one eye.
And she hated it.
She hated the dull, constant pain in the scars when it was too cold. She hated the resulting blind spot making it much more difficult to fight. And she hated how powerless she felt when this wound was inflicted upon her.
It did not take long for her to come back to the cave. Of course it didn't. When leaving, she always kept it within her line of sight, at least one of eleven remaining eyes always trained on the entrance. She'd rather go without food than leave it unprotected. And the reason for that was simple.
A bit deeper into this cave, on a makeshift bedding made of loose foliage, and under her favourite blanket, laid Hiei. She was asleep.
She was yet to wake up since the attack.
[Part 2]
They were in a beautiful, ephemeral field of flowers that stretched into the milky horizon. It had this soft, nostalgic smell that was difficult to pinpoint, and even harder not to miss. The warmth of this - this everything - filled her lungs, spreading through her entire body, slowly but surely dissipating the tiredness in her bones. With a sigh, she sunk a bit deeper into the petals, before raising her gaze to the only other being around.
"Those mechanical… 'Things'… Have you thought why humans made them?" the pink eyes calmly looked at her. There was this unexplainable warmth in them.
"I have. These abominations were clearly made to be slaves to humans in our stead."
"Maybe not. They could be made to honour our kin. To instead serve the humans as a reminder of what they have done to us"
"I honestly doubt that," she bristled, "They are made for battle, with built-in weaponry and all. Hell, they don't even look just like our kin, more like an accursed crossbreed between us and Gallades!"
"Gallades are part of our kin, sister."
"No, they are not. They could've been our kin, if not for the human meddling, but they were forced to be a kin of their own. They're not even fae anymore"
"Are their kits not the same as ours?"
"They are. And that's what hurts the most"
Her sister just hummed quietly in return, causing her to take a deep breath and try to calm down.
Unlike her, her sister was not very confrontational. When the discussion got too heated, to dark, too unpleasant, this warm visage just took a figurative step back, either dropping the topic entirely, or trying to approach it from another angle.
She appreciated this.
"By the way, have you finally found someone?" her sister smiled.
"That obvious?"
"I can see it in your eyes"
"I see…" she smiled, looking into the milky white haze of the sky, "She's a dragon named Inabayama. A Goodra."
"A dragon, huh? Is she pretty?"
"Verily so. She has these beautiful green eyes…" a pang of pain shot through her head for a moment, before disappearing without a trace. Not entirely sure what was that about, she continued, "…and she's very strong too. Sometimes when we hug, she almost literally melts in my arms, and thinks I don't notice. But most importantly, she gets me, like nobody else."
"Better than me?" her sister smirked.
"Yes. No contest, even," she rolled her eyes, "She's also very smart. Not knowledgeable yet, I'm working on that - but really smart"
"Are you a pair already, or have you been hiding your feelings from her?"
"Why would I hide my feelings? It wouldn't make any sense," she furrowed her brow, only for bright, melodic laugh to sound out in return.
"Did you at least wait for the right moment to ask the poor girl out?"
"Any moment can be the right moment. I am not wasting my, and her, time on pointless trifles"
"Yeah, that does sound like you…" her sister smiled, then looking somewhere to the side, "Looks like you need to go."
This… Was an inevitable, yet regrettable part of it all. She could not stay here forever, not with Inabayama waiting for her. Still, she could not help feeling reluctant about leaving this warmth behind. She extended one arm towards her sister, but stopped halfway.
This was difficult enough as it was.
"Good luck with your crusade. At least I know that your girl will have your back," a soft smile, soon faded into the all-consuming white.
It was at this point, that Hiei remembered something important.
She almost wished she didn't.
[Part 3]
Bear meat was not tasty by any means, but at least there was a lot of it, giving Inabayama something to do while she tried her best not to fall asleep. Not while it was so dark outside. Once the morning came, she'd be able to snooze for a hour here and there when it was safe enough.
When the nightmares were a possibility rather than an inevitability.
These nightmares were not even creative - she just dreamt of being hunted by that shadow in the human building. Of being torn apart by it. Of being devoured by it. Couldn't her brain at least thrown in some new material? Like hiding from a horde of giant, dragon-eating, icy Pokemon? Or falling out of a flying human thingie and into a volcano? Why was it always that shadow?
…
Probably because she still was not over it, huh. She still could not help but tense up whenever something moved in the shadows. An annoying, but persistent part of her brain still expected, that the moment Hiei woke up, she would've been consumed by those horrible shadows once more. That she'd attack her again. That this time, she would've wished to escape with just one eye missing,
And regardless how much the dragon wanted to believe in Hiei, this tiny voice just refused to shut up. Ah, and here it was again.
With a groan, she smacked her own skull a few times, trying to clear it of all the nonsense.
"Please don't do that."
With a shiver, the dragon snapped her head to the side, to the source of the voice.
"Hiei?.. You're finally-"
"I am sorry."