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Chosen

Chapter 1

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Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

Commissioned by Chirmaya Nashaar

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Tayna blinked, the room slowly coming into focus through eyes bleary from sleep. Damp stained the upper right corner of the grey-walled room a sickly yellow as the door creaked in its frame. It had clearly been forced into place. Tayna inhaled and instantly regretted it, coughing into both paws as she convulsed. The whole room stank of mildew and another odour - something more pungent - that she couldn't quite put her finger on. It reminded her of what hung around a bloodstained butchers yard, rivulets of questionable matter trickling into the gutter. The fox shuddered at the thought, tail twitching.

Looking down at herself, she smoothed her paws along a thin, threadbare blanket covering the slim outline of her body. There was a chip in one of her short claws and she lifted her paw up to her muzzle, turning it from side to side. It didn't look like her paw anymore. The fur was well groomed, besides that one crack. She frowned. That wasn't right. The russet fur should have been scruffy and rough from work on the estate. A servant couldn't afford to keep her paws clean, not like a noble. She stroked the back of her paw, feeling the fine bones move with the twitch of her fingertips. It was soft too, her fur. Her frown deepened. Since when had she used any manner of potions on her fur? It was never so soft!

"I see you have rejoined the land of the living."

Tayna leapt to her paws - away from the voice. The door trembled, sawdust shivering to the ground, and a tall leopard with strikingly spotted yellow and black fur stepped inside. Wearing a leather tunic that buckled at the waist, the leopard's muzzle was sharply cut with defined cheekbones. Tayna couldn't help but trace the line of that cheekbone down to the spot of creamy white on her throat where it vanished into the neck of her shirt. There was nothing fancy about her clothing and the brown pants covering her long legs spoke of hard times.

Her long tail flicked back and forth and Tayna had to shake herself, too tempted to follow its hypnotic path. What was it about feline tails that was so captivating?

The leopard tucked her paws neatly behind her back and surveyed the vixen from head to toe with a critical eye. Trembling, Tayna's teeth clicked together and her tail fluffed up like a pine tree, hackles tingling at the back of her neck. Where in the name of the church was she?

"Who_are_ you?"

Tayna shrank into the crook of the walls where two joined, moisture seeping through her tattered tunic. Her lips parted, harsh, panted breaths scraping her lungs raw.

When the leopard said nothing, she pressed on, fear darkening her tone. Her ears slipped down, eyes showing a rim of white as she pressed the palms of her paws forcibly together, taking solace in the nip of pain.

"What do you want? Where am I? And who are you?"

The leopard shook her head. Her blue eyes seemed to pierce through her body like a kitchen knife and Tayna shifted her weight, unable to rest easy in any one position.

"Those are questions I have heard many times before, yet they never grow old hearing them from fresh lips."

"You must have taken lots of prisoners."

Tayna met her gaze as boldly as she was able, hiding the shake in her legs. The leopard looked back over her shoulder, long lashes flirtatious as she glanced through them. There was nothing sweet, however, in the pommel of the sword at her hip, something in its tilt saying that it belonged there.

"Not as many as you may think. I am not the evil-doer in this situation, Tayna. I am not the evil-doer in this very room, even."

What could she even make of that? Tayna frowned and fingered her tunic, tugging it down over her thighs as if she could make it cover more of herself.

"Where am I then?" The vixen tucked her tail between her legs. "Why do you even have me here? Last I remember, I was on the estate. Working. Like always."

The leopard's ears twitched.

"The estate? So it is true."

"What's true?"

"What estate are you talking about?"

Tayna shook her head, tension slipping from her shoulders. Her tongue flicked out against her lips leaving a sliver of shiny saliva in its wake.

"Lord Barreth's estate. It was once a highly defended keep. Shouldn't you already know that? Now the lord and lady swan about...I mean, enjoy the privileges of their mansion. My mother left me there as a servant." She looked down. "That is a good time ago now."

Tayna's brow furrowed.

"The estate is well known. How can it possibly be unfamiliar to you? The Barreth family is small and of little great importance in the grand scheme of Devris, but most know of their home. It is beautiful - known across the land. Surely you must have heard of it?"

The leopard exhaled, nostrils flaring as the vixen bounced on the balls of her hind paws, toes flexing. Tiny grains of dirt and grit wedged between her toes and she wriggled them, muzzle wrinkling. Clean paws were a must. At all times.

"That estate is many leagues from here, Tayna. Do you truly remember nothing of the previous five years?"

"Five years?"

The vixen barked a laugh, which echoed miserably around the tiny, dank room.

"Now you are pulling my tail. What is the real reason I'm here? Is this all some elaborate joke? I can see Jorro trying to pull one over on me, the lowly servant-fox. Jorro...I mean Mister Barreth, is still yet to grow into his father's boots. Or maybe it's Reline who has strayed from her duties this time."

The leopard studied her.

"Tayna, allow me to level with you. This is not the world you are expecting to see, clearly." She snorted, paws on her hips. "And you are not on the estate, the estate of this...was it Lord Barreth, you said?"

Tayna took a step back, shoulders pressed to the wall. Moisture dripped from the ceiling. The lamp by the door flickered, wick nearly dropping into the wax as the flame danced a little too merrily.

"What do you mean?"

"First of all, I am Sellanda. Sellanda Kakish." She drew herself up tall and proud. "I am the Devris Chapter Captain of The True Alliance, or simply the Alliance, if you will. Some find the shortened name slips more easily off the tongue."

She inhaled slowly, chest expanding noticeably beneath her loose clothing.

"It seems that five years, give or take a number of days - we cannot predict for definite - have passed in the absence of your true mind. You have not been yourself for these last five years, Tayna." Sellanda paused. "Have you ever heard of the Chosen?"

The vixen tilted her head to the side, her look guarded.

"Yes, everyone has."

"What do you know of them?"

"They're like gods. Always in such fancy clothes..." Tayna rolled her eyes. "I don't really know why those are needed. It seems like a waste."

Tayna screwed up her muzzle, wracking her brain for any information that may or may not be useful.

"They perform miracles. They can use magic. It's the only magic in the world that is 'good'. This is the magic controlled by The Church of the First Ray. The Church controls all magic."

She inhaled sharply.

"The True Alliance is the enemy of the Church."

Sellanda nodded solemnly, tail flicking.

"Very good. So you have been listening to the chatter of the world out on that estate of yours."

Rolling her eyes, Tayna folded her arms across her chest and stared the leopard down accusingly.

"I didn't believe you even existed."

"We like to keep our activities underground, so to speak. Currently, we are inside a keep set into the side of the mountain. It was abandoned many years ago and now serves our needs very nicely."

"Now, Tayna," the leopard continued, taking her time saying each word as if she was choosing them with great care. "What are your thoughts on the Chosen? These figures that are like gods to you and me?"

Tayna shrugged.

"I don't really have an opinion on them. I've never come across one. Aren't they more of a curiosity than anything else?"

Sellanda pursed her lips and shook her head, crossing one hind paw in front of the other. Her leather boots gleamed in the low light and Tayna eyed the candle; the pool of melted wax shimmered. Getting plunged into darkness was bad enough at the best of times, let alone with a leopard of all things in the very same room as her. And she didn't like the look of that pig-sticker at Sellanda's hip either. The vixen shifted, adjusting her weight so that she was braced, toes flexing. Although Sellanda had not made a visible move against her, she was ready.

"They, the godlike ones, are used as weapons, Tayna. And weapons take a myriad of forms these days. They do not always have to be metal and pointed to make their intention clear."

A look of distaste crossed the leopard's muzzle, but she brushed it away before Tayna could consider what it meant.

"Their so called miracles - half the time, they are mere alchemy and tricks - performed in public locations draw in donations and wealth for the Church. Their performances feed the Church's greed and supply those in power with a never-ending stream of coin. They care little for the form of wealth as long as it elevates their power." Her upper lip curled back. "They are corrupt. There is no other way to put it to you. And that is why we and only we stand against them."

The vixen ruffled her paw through her hair. It was sticking up in all direction - again.

"That's all well and good, the education is...useful?" Tayna spread her paws. "But why are you telling me this? What does it have to do with me being here? What does it have to do with what you want from me?"

"You are sharp, little one," Sellanda reluctantly commended her. "Very well then. I am speaking of the Chosen because, vixen, that is exactly what you are."

Tayna stared blankly, ears pointed back. Not a muscle twitched and even her tail was still.

"This must be some jest."

"I promise you, it is no prank. This is serious, Tayna. You need to listen to me."

Sellanda stepped towards her and the fox retreated, scrambling up on to the bed with her paws outstretched.

"Stay back! I don't know what kind of herbs you're on but you're not coming anywhere near me! That's insane! You're crazy!"

The leopard's lips twitched, expression otherwise remaining completely blank.

"I am far from insane, Tayna."

Sellanda's gaze hardened and she approached in a feline stalk, sinking into a half-crouch; her paw rested on the pommel of her sword.

"I have seen things, too many of them. I'd like to say that I've seen things that you could never imagine, but I doubt that's true anymore. You're all innocence here with me, yet the strength you wielded..." She growled, whiskers shivering. "The lives lost to your paws..."

Tayna gaped, mouth opening and closing.

"You've lost the plot..." The vixen scowled. "Whoever you are. It doesn't matter to me. This is all insanity. You're insane. It's a joke. It has to be!"

"Oh, is it?"

She snarled, setting the hairs on the back of Tayna's neck tingling.

"Was it insanity when you picked off my snipers, one by one? You didn't seem to mind that blood on your paws, did you, Tayna? Was it insanity when you drew in more to your church, calculating their effectiveness to be used as more Chosen? Your eyes showed no remorse when they failed the test, burned to a crisp through the sheer volume of raw, unfettered magic _you_pumped into them. Was it insanity when you played to the crowd outside your church, dancing and spinning like a child's top? Magic was but a toy to you."

The leopard drew herself back, eyes narrowing.

"You don't know the harm you've caused, little vixen. If not for your usefulness to us, I'd cut you down right here and now. The money your little shows have poured into the church has brought us to the very brink of destruction - annihilation! The power and strength of the church, your church, spells our demise."

Tayna shook, paws clenched into fists as she faced Sellanda's tirade head-on. How dare she? It was lies - all of it! The vixen's jaw clenched harder and harder, a dull ache spreading through her muzzle.

"I don't believe you." The tremble in her voice spoke a different tale. "This can't have been me and I know you're lying. That's all your Alliance does. Lie. What do you think you can do with only lies?"

Her lip quivered.

"Let me go. I want to go home!"

Bringing a balled up fist level with her muzzle, the vixen advanced, ears pinned back. Stepping away, Sellanda set her shoulders and surveyed the fox, nose crinkling in on itself. Standing a good head and shoulders taller than the vixen, she appeared as if she could wrap her sinewy, muscled form around Tayna and dispatch her in the blink of an eye. Tayna's resolve shivered. What did she think she could do to the leopard? Nerves roiled in her stomach. Yet she couldn't just stand there and let her go on with her accursed lies!

Growling, Tayna shoved her hair out of her face, brown strands clinging to moist lips. One of the Chosen? Her? Yes, that was it - the leopard was crazy, she had to be. There was no other explanation for her behaviour, the lies rolling from her lips as sweetly as drops of honey. Her muscles shook with barely constrained energy and her body shifted into a fighting stance without conscious thought, lips parted to show her fangs. Yet the leopard didn't even flinch.

What if she wasn't lying? Tayna's heart pounded painfully and she pushed away the urge to press her paw to her breast. If it was a joke, it was an exceptionally elaborate one. Tayna's heart twisted. Even Jorro would not go so far. He would never take a joke to this point. Or would he? Her head spun, room lurching around her. How did she know what was real or not anymore? Had five years actually passed? What had happened? Was she actually one of those Chosen? Could she have done all the things Sellanda said she'd done?

Tayna swallowed, though there was no moisture left in her dry mouth left to swallow. Was her mind no longer to be trusted?

Shaking herself, she raised her paws as if ready to strike. Sellanda eyed her up and down but did not draw her sword.

"If you go for me, cub, you'll regret it."

Tayna laughed, the sound wild and crazed, half-formed on her lips.

"What difference do you think that'll make? What will you do? Kill me? There's nothing you can do to me if you've got me locked up - your prisoner!

Tayna wrapped her arms around her torso, squeezing tight.

"Maybe I'm crazy either way. Insane. Lost. Five years?" She scowled, looking to the closed door. "It can't have been five years. You must be lying. You're lying to me!"

Her voice rose in pitch, searing to a shriek that made Sellanda's ears twitch. Tayna opened her muzzle to go on when another voice cut smoothly across hers.

"Do you require my assistance, Captain?"

The muffled voice grunted from the other side of the door and Tayna sank into a low crouch, her tail as stiff as a rake. Sellanda seemed unperturbed by their eavesdropper and barely flicked her ear at the evidently male entity.

"That will not be necessary, Wenton," she said, a low purr colouring her tone. "As always, I appreciate your concern."

"Come now, Sellanda..."

The man stomped, sending vibrations through the floor beneath their paws. Something scraped over the wood of the door. Tayna trembled, frozen in place.

"Wenton, there is no need for your presence. With the artefacts from her Church in our grasp, she cannot harm a whisker on my face."

Sellanda smirked.

"Not when we hold the last remaining scraps of her Church, the final ties to her home. She's ours for as long as we need her."

Sellanda grinned, a feral, white snarl of a smile that had Tayna taking a step back, ears down.

"Did you know that would happen, cub?" She chuckled cruelly. "Chosen are tied to their churches. I suppose you don't remember that either. If the church is destroyed, the Chosen belonging to it falls too, often in an exceptionally destructive fashion. In the past, there have been too many deaths due to this breaking."

The leopard's eyes misted over.

"Only you survived. And why? We ripped your church to the ground, took away your power and yet here you stand..."

Sellanda rubbed her forearm.

"Tayna, you are a mystery to us. When we saw that you still lived, sprawled in the rubble of your church, we simply had no choice but to bring you back to the keep." She leaned forward, a bend in her knees. "There's no telling what leverage you may have for us - how valuable you may be!"

Tayna trembled, holding herself as still as possible that her knees didn't clack together. She was as good as their prisoner. Although, they did not seem intent on killing her... She gulped. Yet.

"If I'm alive now..." She rolled each word around her mouth before releasing it. "No. Why do you need me here? Are you only looking to use me? I don't remember anything - if any of that is true - so what good am I to you?"

Sellanda pursed her lips, whiskers twitching.

"In a sense, you are very useful to us...though it would be crass to have it phrased so."

The leopard sighed, gaze distant. The male on the other side of the door gave a heavier sigh than hers that carried the weight of an age behind it. Shuddering, the door swung inward, revealing a heavy-set brown ox with a ring through his nose and two white-grey horns curving from either side of his skull. Rolls of fat bulged through his grey shirt, ragged around his neck, but his leather jerkin sat snugly over uncompromising muscle. For all his size, the ox bragged power in every step. Setting himself beside Sellanda, he folded his arms across his broad chest and looked down his nose at her.

"She doesn't look like much."

Sellanda stiffened.

"I told you to stay outside."

The ox looked at her as if challenging her to move him herself. His bulk took up half of the admittedly small room. Sellanda huffed, tail lashing.

Although she should have been intimidated by the ox - terrified, even - the tension slipped from Tayna's shoulders and she stood taller. Being of farm worker descent, those in higher stations of power than her always set her back teeth itching. Wenton, on the other paw, had a more familiar air. There was nothing kind in his eyes, however, as the black, beady orbs raked her body.

The vixen took a breath. He could not be so bad. Just like the farm hands that needed a clip behind the ear to get them back to work.

Big voice, big voice.

"Wenton, was it?" She murmured, eyes wide and innocent. "You aren't one to listen to this Sellanda, are you? Why should you be locked outside - on your own and for no good reason - when there's so much going on elsewhere? I'm sure there is much work for you to do."

His ropey tail, tipped with a tuft of scraggly hair, twitched.

"You'll not have me under your charms so easily, Chosen," he grumbled, half-lifting a hoof from the dusty floor. "Your words are nothing more than lies from a silver serpent's tongue and I'll not be having any of it now, you hear me?"

He glared, hoof thudding back down with a sharp clack: Tayna jumped.

"I know your kind."

Tayna frowned and ran her fingers through her hair, set to try again, when a tremor shook the floor. But it wasn't like the light shake when Wenton walked; it was much stronger. As she stepped away from the pair, another tremor rolled forth, hard enough to shake the walls as if the room was being tossed about by a gigantic paw. The vixen yipped and dropped to the floor, hugging her knees as her eyes scanned the hooves and booted paws before her, searching for a threat that she couldn't see. Something sizzled and cracked like kindling flung on an open fire and Tayna screamed, tail fluffed up.

"What's going on?" Tayna shouted over the dull roar. "What in the church is that? An earthquake?" She gaped at the stoic duo as the room trembled around them. "Get down already! What's the matter with you?"

To her shame, she cowered against the narrow bed and covered her ears with her paws, huddling down as the world rocked around her. Sellanda threw her head back and laughed - a wicked cackle that played with her dancing tail as if the two were connected. The ox merely shook his head and snorted, judging from the light flaring of his nostrils. Tayna couldn't hear the exhalation of breath with the explosions and snarls of what had to be a monster, released from its tomb by the quake, above her head.

"I see that they have found our keep, or at least one of their hunting parties has. Quicker than I'd expected." She exchanged a look with Wenton. "That will not concern our forces, however." Her paw curled into a fist. "We are better defended than they shall expect."

Tayna gulped. They?

"The Church?" She chanced, barely able to raise her head from her arms.

"Of course, it's the Church, silly cub."

Sellanda rolled her eyes, sparing a glance back over her shoulder as the flame in the lantern dipped and bobbed, melted wax sloshing onto the floor. Somewhere in the keep, a lady shrieked like a gutted pig. Tayna fought not to shrink away and held the leopard's gaze, heart hammering against her ribcage.

Let me out, let me out, let me out...

_ _

A voice whispered through the back of her mind like it had the right to be there and she pushed it away, quelling the tremble of her lower lip. She was no petulant cub. Sellanda shrugged.

"I have more important matters to tend to than dealing with you. Your powers are non-existent now and are of no threat to us. As you were bound to your church, you are now bound to us and you will do as we say. That is all you need to know for now." Her tail stiffened all of a sudden. "Without fail, you will do as we order. I trust you do not need me to elaborate on the consequences of failure. Or do you, Chosen?"

Eyeing Wenton, Sellanda paced into the doorway, framed there like a noble-born in a gold-framed painting. Although Tayna had never posed for a painting like Lord Barreth's family had, she had often wondered what it would be like to be captured by an artist's brush. Sellanda exuded that effect in her living form.

Wenton scratched his jaw as the leopard held up her paw, bidding him to stay where he was. And though her attention was elsewhere, her gaze never left Tayna's as the stubborn fox struggled to her paws, holding on to the bed for balance. Her resolve was not to be reckoned with and she wanted the leopard to know that. She would not be pushed down, no matter what fate had brought her to the dreadful place. Let Sellanda see what she was capable of, Chosen or not. A smile tickled at the corner of her lips. A servant fox was a force to be reckoned with.

"Tayna, you will obey."

Oh, will I?

_ _

She smirked, lips quirking on one side. They'd trapped her there against her will, after all, and what right did the leopard have to say she had to obey instructions. For all she knew - for all her mind knew - they'd ripped her from her home, bundled her up and told her she was a murderer. Where was the proof? Tayna had faced worse trials than a whippet of a leopard that thought she had a hold where she did not.

Muzzle twisting, Tayna fought down her derision.

"I have no reason to disobey," she hissed. "Not until you give me reason to."

"Oh-ho-oh - she is a right little firecracker, isn't she?"

Wenton bellowed and slapped his thigh with a meaty paw, leaning forward with candlelight glancing off his wet nose.

"You think you're as strong as we are, missy? Think a Chosen is powerful enough to keep us on our toes? Well, I have news for you."

The ox pushed his muzzle close to hers and jabbed a finger with a blunt, hoof-like tip below her collarbone. Pain jarred through bone and the fox stumbled, seeking space to move before her mind had even caught up with the ox's coarse approach. She cursed mentally. Just where had he come from anyway? How'd he moved so fast? The vixen frowned and eyed him with greater respect.

"There's nothing you can get by me. I've been here a damn side longer than you and I bet I will be for a good many years yet after you've been long gone."

The ox puffed up his chest and snorted. Hot, moist air washed over Tayna's muzzle, yet the vixen didn't flinch.

"After all," he added, as if struck by an afterthought. "The walls aren't about to crash down around our ears because of me, oh no. It's you, pretty young thing. They're after you."

Tayna did gulp then, tail pinning itself over her buttocks.

"That's... The Church of the First Ray outside? In the keep? Attacking the keep?"

She fumbled for words, muzzle heating up as the ox laughed, his great chest vibrating. The ring in his nose bobbed as if also amused by his mirth.

"It is - surprised you had to ask. Chosen are supposed to know everything and be so powerful, aren't they?"

He grinned and Tayna retreated inwardly, the glint dropping from her eyes. He was right. She didn't know anything and even if she'd had power before she certainly didn't have it now. That's what Sellanda had said and, truth be told, she didn't feel any different. So she had no power, the same as she'd always been. She was Tayna from the farm. Tayna the servant from the estate.

_And now someone with a past._She blinked away tears.

Hold it together, vixen, just hold it together. It's all going to be okay, just hold it together. Just a little bit longer, come on, girl.

"That's enough, Wenton." Sellanda cut in sharply. "I trust you will be well enough with watching our prisoner. Keep her occupied, would you?"

The ox grunted by way of the only reply she was going to get and Sellanda turned on her heel, marching promptly from the room. Tayna supposed she really did have something to be getting on with if they were under attack. It made sense. Maybe she was one of the Chosen if they were after her. Yet she couldn't trust the leopard.

She sat on the bed and stared between her paws, toes dusty.

"Are they really coming for me?" She said in a very small voice as the steps of the leopard faded away down what sounded like a long corridor.

Sellanda's steps didn't disappear, however, as Wenton staunchly ignored her. The steps stopped growing fainter, replaced by another set of paws walking in the opposite direction. Tayna's ears pricked. Boots, definitely boots, a heavier tread.

She sat up and the ox frowned, looming over the door. Whoever was about to walk in was going to get an unpleasant surprise. Tayna thought she would have squealed like a maid all over again if she walked into a room to find that brute standing over her. Perhaps she would have even dumped a chamber pot on him too for good measure. She was sure he deserved it.

The unknown figure in the corridor paused and Tayna's caught a sharp inhalation of breath. Two sharp knocks sounded as knuckles connected smartly with wood. Whoever was out there was not attempting to be discreet. As Wenton stared her down, she clamped her jaw shut and froze in place on the bed. It was just someone from the Alliance...right? Not the Church? Her heart pounded, mouth dry and palms sticky with oozing sweat.

"Who's there?" He asked gruffly, one paw on the door.

Whoever was on the other side gave no response but to sigh and thump it again with what sounded like a closed fist.

"Do you really think I'm going to open it without knowing who's there?"

Wenton leaned on the door and crossed one hoof over the other like he had all the time in the world to wait.

"Just let me in, you oaf. It's me."

The ox grumbled, muttering curse after curse under his breath as he opened the door.

"Would it have been so difficult to introduce yourself?"

The grey-furred wolf stepped inside with a smirk, practical but close-fitting trousers and loose, baggy shirt the first thing to catch Tayna's eye. Her eyes travelled up the wolf's body from her tattered boots with the toe rubbed smooth to the curve of her breast, barely visible, and the soft swell of her cheekbones. Her stomach dropped. She knew those cheekbones. The room spun sickeningly and she clapped her paw over her lips to stop herself from vomiting, bile bitter in the back of her throat. She didn't know whether that was from another explosion or the world imploding around her.

The wolf frowned, comprehension dawning in her eyes. Tayna rubbed her throat. Wenton looked between them, ropey tail swishing.

The last person she had expected to see was Reline. Reline from the estate, the servant she'd worked beside since the day she'd been left there. And Reline had not had breasts last time she'd seen her. Tayna groaned and pressed a paw to her forehead, trying to wipe away the throbbing headache that had sprung up there. No, no... She forced down bile for the second time. It couldn't be possible. No, it wasn't possible. It could not be so.

When she looked up, cold seeped through her, chilling her bones. Reline pointed a dagger at her, both paws clasped around the plain, bound handle.

No...

Tears threatened to spill but Tayna forced them down, extending a paw to the wolf. Reline was her friend. Reline was always there for her. She was always there for the wolf when she whimpered under the covers after a bad day on the estate. But Reline had changed. She had changed.

The vixen whined, ears splayed. Reline snarled, a ferocious sound that did not seem suited to ripping itself from her throat. Tayna held out her paw, palm up: an offering. A tear rolled down her cheek to soak into her fur.

"Reline?"