It was as if she could hear Vitri's words again.
"Save the cat."
Gods, he had predicted this. So, was he really a god?
Shai was so stunned that she forgot about the lion. A roar behind her brought her back to her senses. She immediately dodged to the side, not even bothering to check where the beast was. Luckily, she picked the right direction to run. She wasn't fast enough, though.
The lion's sharp claws tore through her leather armour like paper. A wave of pain washed over her. It wasn't the stinging pain of a scrape. It was the gut-wrenching, heart-pounding pain of tearing through layers of skin and muscle. In that moment, spots of red and black covered her vision. She knew immediately that it was bad.
Shai panted hard, fighting to avoid passing out, and rolled. Of course she couldn't pass out here! If she did, perhaps the next time she woke up, she would be half inside the lion's mouth.
Her shoulder burned like it was on fire. Blood dripped, hot and thick, pooling between the cobbles. She avoided looking at it. She knew it would only serve to make her sick. However, she didn't have time to bandage her shoulder, either. The only thing she could do was cross her fingers and hope that she didn't bleed to death before the beast was dealt with.
The lion looked at her, and even seemed to smile in satisfaction.
A bubble of anger filled her chest. Save the cat? Ffffs! Why don't you do it yourself, you shameless bastard? Like hell she was going to save this stupid beast.
However, the tamer lady's sorrowful words stopped her in her tracks. "...Maltese is my only family. I raised him myself for seven years! My parents abandoned me and the orphanage soon became penniless and closed. Do you want me to be alone again?" she wailed. "I'd rather die myself than watch my baby die!"
Oh gods, shut up, Shai cursed in her heart. Who do you think you are, the protagonist of some melodrama? Why do you get to have a touching monologue now? She side-stepped unevenly, almost slipping in her own blood. Huh, it was really red...
It was entirely the fault of that tamer woman! She must have tied the lion up loosely, or forgotten to close the cage properly, and that was why they were here.
Despite this, the crumpled figure sobbing hopelessly at the guards' feet really was heart-wrenching. Her sobs rang out across the mostly-empty market square. It sounded as though she really was prepared to follow her lion into death. Before she knew it, Shai found her traitor body turning toward the huge crossbow.
As if time was moving in slow motion, she could suddenly see everything. The guards fired. In her heart, she immediately thought, shit, this was a bad idea.
She knew she probably couldn't it the crossbow bolt anyway. Automatically, she adjusted her stance, drew her sword and swung with a quick twist of her shoulders. And the bolt was deflected. It hit the centre of the white moore flower on a banner and tore the thin fabric in half on its way down to the ground.
Shai was stunned. She actually hit the arrow. The briefest stirring of excitement began in her heart. Was she some sort of sword genius?
In reality, the crossbow bolt was huge. That made sense, since it was shot from such a huge crossbow, but she still didn't expect to hit such a quick object and accurately deflect it.
After a moment of stunned silence, the guards all randomly started shouting obscenities at her. Some of them even looked like they were going to charge over, but the lion started rushing toward Shai again, and they thought better of it.
Watching the lion, Shai paused to think. Wait, she hadn't actually considered how they would save her, if she saved the lion. It would have been better to let the beast just die. Still...
Looking at the pathetic destruction which was all that remained of the Marshwaters' travelling provisions gave her an idea. They had one cart left intact. It was loaded with sacks of what looked like grain and dried beans. More importantly, it was covered in a rope-and-wire net to keep the birds from digging into the food.
Shai ran toward the cart decisively. Her shoulder sent out sharp stabs of pain as she went, and she was starting to feel a little lightheaded, but she couldn't stop now. The lion turned from the soldiers and bounded toward her.
Yeah, she was so dumb, she finally decided. Maybe it was the blood loss. She usually wasn't so sentimental. Shai dimply observed, as if she was watching the scene from above, that she was starting to babble and not make sense, even in her own head.
A few more steps.
Weird, she couldn't really feel her feet anymore. It was like running in slow motion on a cloud. She'd always wanted to live on a cloud. They just looked so peaceful...
She reached the cart. Abruptly, she ducked around it. She ran a few more steps before pivoting on the spot to look back dreamily.
The lion roared again and again, to no avail. Its roars sounded a bit tinny and echo-y in Shai's ears. Huh. She let out a wide, goofy smile. The lion was hopelessly tangled in the net, and strangely, its head was sticking out of the side of the wooden cart, while its body was stuck within.
The lion still seemed to be roaring, but Shai couldn't hear it anymore past the buzzing in her ears. Eh?
The guards seemed to be converging on her, with various shocked and worried expressions. Ah, she should warn them not to slip in all the blood on the ground. Huh, since when did all that blood appear? Instead of the cobbles of the market place, the ground before her looked like a shallow puddle of blood.
Shai swayed unsteadily. She watched as the guards hastily approached the still-tangled lion. The tamer had no such reservations and quickly slipped her arms around the lion's neck to give it a hug. She cried freely into its huge, fluffy mane.
Cat. Ha ha. Shai felt a giggle bubble up. There, I saved the cat, she thought vindictively. Happy? At least it was all okay now. The world around her swayed precariously.
She could...rest...now.
Her vision finally faded to black, and she collapsed.