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Title: Run For Cover
Song: We Are Broken by Paramore
Back in Chicago the city was covered in snow piles where the roads had been cleaned. We were both tired so I opted to just crash at his place to lessen the driving time. In the house his answering machine was blinking away, so he hit play as we plopped onto the couch.
“Alastar. The wolves have been trying to contact you and Lydia. Lydia has apparently left town. Call a man named Gabriel as soon as possible,” a voice I recognized as Lily's said, giving a phone number. Lydia was the other weretiger in the area.
We exchanged confused looks before he pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number, putting it on speaker phone for me to listen. It only rang once before being answered.
“I swear on chocolate, if this unknown number I isn't a certain weretiger I will hunt you down and eat you,” Gabriel growled into the phone.
I shivered at his voice, memories of the interrogation flashing through my vision along with uncertainty as to his involvement.
“What's going on?” Alastar asked without preamble.
“Thank the caribou. Where the hell have you been? Canada?”
“Out of town. It was a full moon, as you know, and not everyone has a pack owned territory close by.”
“I know, I know. Look, there's a rogue tiger running around. It already killed someone. There might even be two, we couldn't be sure. We're going to need your help to hunt it. The other tiger abandoned ship as soon as she caught whiff of a rogue.” I could practically see him running his hand through his hair like he did when he was upset.
Alastar made a hm sound. “Fine. Nightfall in the neutral place?” he asked.
Gabriel agreed and hung up. Before I could even get my sentence out he looked at me and said, “No.”
“I—what do you mean no? You need all the help you can get!” I protested.
“You're new, inexperienced. You'd just be in the way.” He stood and headed to his room with me trailing along.
“But—,” I started but he shut the door in my face. I narrowed my eyes and glared at the wooden blockade. Fine, if he wanted to play it that way. I went to my guest room and dug out a pair of dark wash jeans, a black tank top, and a black jacket. Dressing quickly I pulled my hair back into a ponytail as I leaned against my closed door listening.
I heard his open then footsteps that paused at my door a moment then went on. I waited a minute after the front door closed then quickly followed. I must have had some luck left in me since there was no wind. I had to be careful with my footsteps because the snow crunched softly as it compacted under my weight.
He stayed in human form and didn't take his car, instead heading into the woods on the outskirts of his neighborhood. Here I feel back even further and let my tiger mind take over the tracking, using slightly heightened senses to match my footsteps to his and stay upwind in the rising breeze. The same wind carried the scent of several wolves further in the woods.
I trailed along half a mile before we finally stopped. I found a huddle in some bushes so I could watch, hear, and stay out of the wind. In a small clearing was a group of wolves—maybe 6 or 7—led by Gabriel and Zaven. Alastar stopped on the edge and surveyed them.
“Any idea where this rogue is?” he asked.
“In this area. We caught some tracks that had been partially filled in by snow. Some of the trees are marked with scratches as well,” Zaven answered. My heart clenched as I looked between him and Gabriel wondering which, if not both, of them had placed me so lowly in importance.
Shaking my head I focused back on the conversation. “--hopefully it's just one but if it's two then you'll have to take one and the pack will take the other. That's the only way a wolf could take down a tiger,” Gabriel was outlining.
Alastar nodded. “Fine. Let's get this show on the road then.”
En masse everyone began to strip and I averted my eyes out of a sense of politeness even if they didn't know they had an audience. Only when they had shifted did I look back, struck by how big Alastar really was in tiger form compared to one of the wolves. They would look small even next to my tiger form.
The wolves fanned out in a show of precision coordination and Alastar ambled along. Then again, he didn't have much to fear. I waited until they were out of sight then followed the sets of paw prints being quickly covered in new snow. At this point I was so numb I couldn't feel my extremities but I refused to just give up and go back to wait when I'd come this far.
My breath was coming out in plumes of mist and quickly disappearing among the almost blizzard like conditions. Figures. The night I'm tromping through the forest it would come a freaking blizzard. I was half tempted to shift to tiger form but I knew that would cost me time and might give me away. A human can hide easier than a tiger. Especially in snow. Or maybe not. I didn't really know but regardless I stayed in human form because it was familiar.
I was so lost in thought that I damn near tripped over Alastar who was crouched in a snow drift, his vibrant fur camouflaged by the powdery substance. I went head over heels and landed on my back with an thud that knocked the breath out of me. A tiger face leaned over and peered at me with a serves-you-right expression.
“Damn it, that hurt!” I complained when I got air back in my lungs. He huffed right in my face. “Uh, tiger breath.” I sat up, shaking snow out of my hair. Using him as a prop I pulled myself up.
“Going to turn me in?” I asked him.
He shook his head and headed off, pausing and looking back at me. I ran to catch up to him and he began walking again. We got about 40 feet when the sounds of fighting erupted. He shouldered me behind a tree with a look that said stay-there. I was happy to oblige, though I did peek around to see what was going on.
There were two tigers—three now the Alastar had joined in, but I could recognize him easily without thinking about it—and they had been separated. Alastar quickly took on the largest of the pair with the wolves joined up against the smaller one.
It was a battle between speed and strength. The wolves outnumbered the smaller female but that just made the odds even instead of significantly improving them. Their battle would be one of skill and luck, just like Alastar's. He had about 50 pounds on the male rogue but other than that it was a battle of strategy.
Being a spectator rather than a participant, the fighting seemed to last for hours. I was glancing between the two groups when a flurry of activity from the weakened fighters left me gasping in shock. On one the side of the clearing Zaven was being held by his throat and shaken like a rag doll. Opposite them Alastar was on the ground with the other tiger batting him with it's paws.
It wasn't a conscious decision of whose life I would save. Time seemed to slow as I looked between them both. My heart tore as my body began moving to the left, shifting into a wolf to my surprise. I had been picturing my tiger form but wolves were on my mind.
The shift was awkward since it was new. The arrangement of the body was similar to the tiger but I was smaller now, and slimmer. I had brown fur with a red tint as well as an exaggerated scruff around my face, and I knew I was a different species than any of the pack in Chicago.
I landed on the back of the wolf battering Alastar, digging my teeth into the back of the neck. My teeth met the bones and ligaments of the spine and I grasped, shaking my head vigorously. Because it was bigger than me I couldn't get the required grip to break the neck. I was thrown off and pounced on by the injured tiger. My back legs came up and dug into the belly fur, leaving furrows in the skin. A furious roar echoed in the woods and it snapped at my neck.
Rolling to avoid the dangerous teeth the tiger ended up on the bottom. I quickly hopped away from it's back legs, whose claws were more dangerous than mine. I used my smaller size to my advantage, dashing in and out to make superficial bites on it's sides. It was getting tired and the wounds Alastar had opened on it were flowing freely with blood even in the frigid cold.
In fatigue it made a fatal mistake, taking it's eyes off me to check on the other tiger. I dashed in and grabbed hold of the throat, sinking teeth into soft tissue. It whipped around and latched huge claws onto my sides but I refused to give in. I shook my head, tearing the flesh and opening up the vein. The taste of blood in my mouth I pushed forward and slashed the artery as well.
Letting go I jumped back, blood dripping from my muzzle to paint the snow a bright red. The tiger had a look of shock on his face, his legs collapsing. The body made a soft thud and was quickly surrounded by an arch of crimson that stood out eerily in the white out conditions. I padded over to the corpse and made sure it was truly dead before going to Alastar's side.
There was a second thud from the female dying. A moment of silence then a round of sorrowful howls told me the consequences of my choice. My head hanging low I shifted back to human form. Looking over the two tiger bodies I saw a pitch black form stretched out on the ground in a halo of red snow.
Gabriel had shifted to human as well and was crouched next to him, his hands in his fur as he begged him to wake up. Tears streamed down my face, for my own heartbreak as well as that of Gabriel. It was my fault.
I walked over and knelt in the snow, heedless of my nudity or of the blood. I dug my hands into Zaven's fur wet with blood that blended into the dark color. I looked up at the same time as Gabriel and met his gaze. His blue eyes were clouded over in hurt.
“I—I'm sorry,” I said quietly. What could I say? I could apologize until the day the universe ended and it still wouldn't bring him back. Even if he had personally tortured me with his own hands, I would have brought him back right now just to get rid of the look on Gabriel's face.
“Please. Just leave. Just go,” he whispered.
I opened my mouth to speak, closed it again, and nodded. When I removed my ands from Zaven they were stained bright red. How appropriate.
Alastar had shifted back to human form then passed out. I managed to lift him in a fireman's carry thanks to my new were strength and sheer adrenaline. The walk back to his house seemed twice as long, carrying him and my guilt on my shoulders.
If I'd acted faster could they both have lived? Why had I chosen Alastar without even thinking about it? But that made me feel even more guilty that I wanted to have chosen Zaven at the cost of Alastar's life. The tears clouded my vision and made my skin feel weird as they froze on my face.
How had I gotten to this place? A place where I had to choose who would live and who would die. No human—no being—was supposed to make that decision. Even if they thought they were. No one should be the cause of the amount of pain Gabriel's eye had shown me. But we were just mere mortals. We made mistakes and choices with only the hope that it could all work out.
I didn't know if this would work out. I didn't want Gabriel to hate me but I couldn't blame him for it. I had killed his mate. No, I had chosen someone else over his mate. Which, to me, was worse. Inside Alastar's house I laid him on the bed and cleaned his wounds, before tucking him in. He'd probably be down until tomorrow night.
I went to the guest bathroom and stepped into the shower to warm up and wash off the blood. Even as the pink tinted water swirled down the drain I could still feel the sticky dried substance marring my hands. I didn't think that would ever disappear.
The water was cold by the time I stepped out, my skin pink from trying to wash away the night. I dressed and found a pad of paper and pen, scratching out a quick letter to Alastar. Leaving it on the kitchen table I grabbed my duffel bag and called the airport, booking a one way ticket. I was going to do what I was best at: run away.
The Letter
Star,
I know you've just wok up and probably don't remember what happened last night. Zaven is dead because I chose to save you instead of him. I can't deal with this while surrounded by memories of him and you.
So I'm going to go find out more about this dragonborn thing. And maybe I can figure out what the hell is going on in this head of mine. I'll call when I'm ready, so please don't freak out and come hunt me down.
Kaida
Author's Note: So here it ends for now. I know some questions have been left unanswered and issues to be dealt with, hence the need for a sequel. First I'll be writing an interlude between this story and the next about Kaida's discoveries in Japan. I hope to answer almost all the questions about the dragonborn in it as well as focus more on Kaida alone. I want to develop her personality more, which will be easier without any other main characters around.
And yes, Zaven is dead. I know, it shocked me too. I had planned on everyone surviving. Then Gabriel was going to die. Then it changed to Zaven. This just showcases how a story can take on it's own life.
