Perhaps resting had been a bad idea. 

Maren watched the fight – battling to keep her neck from lolling. There was no way her dizziness would allow her to keep up with Mav and the Bird Titan. She could have whipped the Cat’s eyes a few times, but she’d eventually trip on her own feet from the world continually trembling around her. 

So maybe resting hadn’t been a mistake. Sitting down in a dark corner had. 

Her eyes drooped, any movement she attempted was sluggish. She couldn’t have run all the way to the water faucet, drink her fill, then get back in time to help the Cat, but there were no sources of water nearby that she knew of. 

Until this ended, dehydrated she’d have to remain. 

“Maren!” 

Mav’s voice jolted her awake. He and the Cat were thirty feet away, grappling. The Bird flew overhead, reaching for the Cat’s frill. Before this, the Cat would have simply thrown Mav aside and dodge the Bird. Now, she couldn’t. 

Maren hoisted herself to her feet, took several deep breaths, and ran. 

The Cat struggled in Mav’s grip, and even more so in the Bird’s. Maren, praying the world would cease turning under her, leaped upon the Cat’s back. Her hands met Mav’s wrists, onto which she clung as she pressed her face behind the Cat’s frills.

Focus... 

A weight pressed against Maren’s chest. A loss so violent she desired to make the world feel her pain. No. It wasn’t a simple desire. It was a need, a driving compulsion that wouldn’t release her. Surely, once all who’d caused her suffering succumbed to her vengeance, she’d feel a modicum of peace. 

There! Maren held onto the Cat’s loss. It brought up memories she’d rather ignore, of her own loss and pain. A sight Maren never wanted to see again lay plastered before her vision: an empty, dark room, with nothing of import but a written note atop a pillow. Maren hesitated, tears falling onto the Cat’s back, then she let go of the Cat’s fur.

She shied away, but Mav’s hands gripped her wrists and pulled her in. 

Maren wanted to scream, hurl insults and abuse. How dare he make her relive this? Then the Cat shuffled, trying to throw everyone off. Right, they had a mission, and something was in greater pain than Maren at the moment. 

Thanks, Mav. 

She channeled the Cat’s emotions, letting them swirl within her, then reached for Mav’s connection. His determination fueled her, but hers and the Cat’s agony hit him like a wave. He didn’t buckle, but his fists squeezed Maren’s wrists, making her grimace. Another image, too quick to make out details, flashed in Maren’s eyes: a small flame in a dark cave. 

Maren and Mav squeezed the Cat Titan tighter, pouring their essence into it, trying to connect. Another image flashed: a cat, the back of its neck jutted with a tiny frill, bounding through a meadow, trying to catch a butterfly. 

The Cat Titan roared, but didn’t try to throw them off any longer. Maren and Mav pressed further, trying to gain a deeper connection. 

Then the scene shifted entirely. Maren looked out from a cave, the bright sun illuminating the verdant trees below. Her friend Thekon was swinging through the trees, hooping and hollering, while her other friend, Aetr, flew overhead, the winds rushing through the forest. It wasn’t their normal play. Something large was approaching. 

It turned out to be Kayben, one of the Great Lords. Proud and majestic, the figure pranced to her, his mighty mane flowing in the breeze, his wings longer than her body, his three tails swaying this way and that. 

It was a great honor to be chosen as a Great Lord’s mate, if only for a short while. After their cub had been born, Kayben bestowed a blessing upon him, then vanished. 

Instead of sorrow for losing her mate, pure, unadulterated mirth engrossed her. Their little cub, Razkin, grew so quickly and happily. She ran with him through the mountain caves, playing along as he pounced upon her, what he thought as mighty chomps only being little nibbles. 

Thekon and Aetr joined along, either swinging through trees while Razkin darted through the forest, nipping at his feet, or securely holding Razkin in place while he soared through the sky. 

Her cub wanted for nothing, enjoying life with all it had to offer. So she brought him farther away from their mountain home. Through deeper forests, into valleys and meadows, and even close to cities and towns. 

That’s when Razkin met the human child.  

The kid was young, but so was Razkin. She had never found a child to interlink with in her youth, but it was a miracle her cub had found one so early! She gave Razkin her blessing, bestowing as much love as she could. Little Razkin rubbed his face along her legs, purring. He was excited to leave, but also morose. She placed her forehead against his. This was a miraculous moment, one that should be celebrated with no feelings of regret. Razkin need not worry; he would live a blessed, fulfilling life, then eventually reconnect with her when they reached Mother. 

Excited, his wide, joyous eyes thankful for the short yet blessed life he’d lived with her, he bounded away, toward the town with the child. 

And she had left, hurrying home before her strength faded and she turned around to bring Razkin back to the mountain. 

Her connection with Razkin should have filled her with bliss from his wondrous rebirth, after he interlinked with the child. Instead, more than a day passed before anything happened at all. That was not strange, as it was known young cubs wanted to connect with a human child while they were alone. 

However, instead of joy, a devastating horror, confusion, and agony struck her. She paced, eventually gouging a depression in her cave, as a terrible cold and incredible pain pierced her, over and over, day after day. She yowled, frustrated and angry, unable to rid herself of this horrible feeling. 

Then more humans encroached on hers and her friends’ land. They established a settlement, so close to their sacred spot. Fury enflamed her. How dare they? First they took her cub, tormenting instead of blessing her, and now they wanted to take her home? 

She howled, calling for action. Thekon and Aetr, agitated in their own right, forced her to wait. Not all of these humans deserved death, only those that attempted to desecrate their home. 

They’d destroyed human feats of engineering, but that didn’t satisfy her. Her agonizing pain ended, yet a dreadful loneliness replaced it. It wasn’t until the human ambush that all her reservations ended. Humanity took her cub, tried to steal her land, and nearly murdered her friend. 

Humanity deserved to perish.