"Raye." A calm whisper reached Pax's ears. "Raye!"
Her eyelids fluttered open as she became aware of her surroundings. "You cannot die yet. You have so much more to live for. Neither can you let this child die."
With a stifled scream, her palm lifted up as she gained new found energy, sucking the life out of the creature that had already placed half of her body in its mouth. Its other friend was having a hard time chewing on Cloelia because the wolf would swipe at its gums steadily, causing it serious pain.
Yet they were both bigger than the females who were doing everything they could to not die.
The creature let out a low guttural growl that Pax could feel on her feet. She continued sucking the energy out but slowly the energy was starting to strain her body.
With a quickly whispered spell, she outstretched her one free hand to the other creature and began to feed the energy to it.
She centred the energy on its head so it did not flow in balance. Slowly, both creatures began to whine in pain and then finally, the one which was trying to swallow her slumped while the other's head exploded.
Cloelia immediately escaped from its mangled maw and used her snout to push apart the jaws of death that held Pax.
Once both were free, they slumped in tiredness on the floor. Their position reminded Pax of how exactly they had gotten into that situation.
***
It was night and the moon was nowhere to be seen which meant it was a pitch black sky that night.
Cloelia had no more energy left to shift into her human form and remained as a wolf. With slightly better hearing, she led Pax to a cave where they both slumped to the floor in tiredness. They had been travelling for long with nothing but the clothes on their body and a water skin that was nearly empty.
Pax had lost most of her things to a wild Jughan that had chased them. Those creatures had two thin webbed feet and arms with a long tongue that could snatch up it's prey without warning. The only warning you received was it's loud laughter but the farther the laughter sounded, the closer it was.
It's loud laughter still haunted Pax's mind.
As she closed her eyes to sleep, her hand grazed something furry. It wasn't Cloelia's fur because it was too short and felt different. It was also sticky. It felt like a newborn...
With a sudden surge of energy, she shot up.
The cave they were in belonged to a creature that had just given birth. A Dekerd. Large aggressive night creatures that chewed half their prey and left the rest for other predators.
They looked like dogs but walked on their hind feet. They had mad yellow eyes that unfortunately could see better at dark. They hunted at night and slept during the day.In place of paws, they had long skeletal fingers that had a firm grip on their victims.
As soon as Pax remembered this information, said skeletal fingers grabbed unto her, pulling her out of the cave. By the sudden yelp from the wolf, she knew the same was true with Cloelia.
The Dekerd slammed her once on the hard ceiling of the cave, completely messing up her entire system and almost forcing her to shut down.
With her entire body ready to die, the Dekerd brought them both out so as not to disturb the babies sleeping inside.
As soon as they were out, the Dekerd out Pax in its mouth
***
When she had finally confirmed she was not in another creatures territory, she finally closed her eyes to sleep. The sun was already rising, meaning she was safe from the night predators.
But then when she finally realised where she was, Pax noticed that she was in a dark space. And she was falling.
Cloelia was unconscious and was falling near her too. She couldn't breathe and a thousand images flashed in her head per minute.
Just when she was about to loose contiousness, there was a flash of bright light and her body landed roughly on a rocky floor.
She groaned, expecting another creature to be messing with her but instead heard voices that spoke in a language she knew all too well.
And the voice was very familiar.
"...forest floor. The wolf fought me but something had weakened it."
With a new found energy, Pax sat up and yelled. "Don't kill the wolf!"
As soon as she had sat up, Pax regretted her actions dearly. Her vision swirled and her head spun, several dark spots immediately filling the twisted vision.
They completey filled her vision and then began to clear out after an unmeasured amount of time.
"Drink." Someone whispered in her ears and pushed a wooden cup to her lips.
The coolness of the water seemed to calm her down and then she opened her eyes slowly to see an unfamiliar face.
Her saviour had a firm face with brown hair braided into a knot so it didn't get in her way. She wore breeches and a tight shirt with a few daggers sticking out of her belt.
In short, she looked like a warrior.
"Thank you." Pax said to her and then tried to sit up. The warrior didn't help her but did not show any disgust either.
"Is she awake?" She heard a child speak and suddenly the temperature around her felt a bit denser. She shifted backwards on instinct as a child with bright eyes and black messy hair approached the warrior. His upturned eyes studied Pax with disinterest and then without warning, disappeared into a silent wisp of smoke.
This sudden action startled Pax. She then noticed she was in a large tent and then the warrior immediately began to leave the tent without a word.
Pax followed after her since she knew nothing of where she was.
She exited the tent to see she was in an open space in the forest.
She looked to her left to see a man sharpening the edge of sticks and placing the finished works into a pile. Beside him was a woman. An extremely familiar woman.
As soon as her eyes settled on the woman, the woman's silver eyes slowly turned to focus on her and then the grin that followed assured Pax of exactly who she was.
She staggered back and then found someone she knew would have been the exact cause of this surprise.
A certain purple eyed woman with a frown directed at her. "You are awake." She said and then ignored her completely.
At first, Pax thought it was strange that Wara was being hostile. She knew the lady did not like her but she still treated her with respect. This hostility however, was only one Wara gave to strangers.
Then the realisation hit her. Pax was not in the form Wara had grown accustomed to. As Wara walked past her, Pax immediately called her name out of habit.
"Wara Tislijiet?" Pax said. Unfortunately for her, Wara's reaction was not what she had expected.
"Who are you?" The woman hissed in anger. With Pax's current appearance, she looked quite young. Younger than even Wara. And she had spoken in Āsimati informally.
A greeting elders gave when they saw a younger person pass by them.
"I did not bring you here out of the kindness of my heart so do not think that I will spare you if I do not like your answer. I have had enough of unknown people knowing who I am!"
Wara's outburst seemed to startle Pax and slowly her eyes drifted to the silver eyed woman who was watching them with an amused smile.
Then she noticed that all others seemed to be confused. Of course they were, Wara had spoken in a language that none of them knew. Āsimati.
Pax narrowed her eyes, there was one who did not look confused.
There was a bow in his hand and a quiver of arrows behind him. And he had Āsimati markings. He was staring at Pax too because of her markings.
"You!" Pax said before she could stop herself. "How are you still alive?"
This did not sit well with either Wara or Nak.
Wara immediately grabbed Pax by the throat, causing her eyes to widen. Wara's violent nature had been suppressed so why?
"Who. Are. You?" Wara said with clenched teeth. Nak had produced a knife which no one had seen him bring out and with one swift movement that surprised even Zelda, his knife was pressed against Pax's throat.
"Answer her question." Nak hissed out, glaring at Pax with all the hatred he could muster.
Pax could not speak as Wara's grip on her was quite tight. A sense of fear she had not felt in a long long time had hit her because she had realised that if Wara's violent nature was no longer being suppressed then she could very well loose her life at that exact moment.
She immediately croaked out, tapping on Wara's hand to allow her to breathe. Wara's grip loosened but it still very firm around her neck, reminding Pax that it could tighten if her answer was not favorable.
"My name is Raye Pax. I watched over you with Frenvír for almost fifteen years. This is my true form. I will explain better if I am allowed to be more comfortable."
With each sentence, instead of understanding, Wara's grip was getting tighter.
"All the more reason for me to end you then." Wara whispered and Pax's eyes widened in fear. As the grip got painfully tight, her neck was suddenly released but the knife was still there with Nak staring at her with complete focus and determination.
"That does not explain why you know me." Nak said, pressing his knife closer to Pax's neck.
Before Pax could reply, the voice of someone Nak wished so dearly to stab in the throat chided him. "Now now Nak. I may not know what you had said with her but we need her. Alive."
Nak would have killed Zelda a long time ago. The only thing stopping him was the fact that if he tried, he would be dead before he knew what had attacked him.
He clicked his teeth and then stormed off into the forest, no doubt to hunt another animal.
Pax let out a sigh of relief watching this.
She could not wait for Dies Lucis to be over.