song of the forest ♪ [OLD VERSION]

꓄ꅐꄲ

ρ͢σ͢ѵ͢:
ꋬꇙ꒐ꁴꋬ

Sleep for me brought vivid green, orange, and red-tinted flashbacks to my time with the Misura. I watched the terriers with their ruby hurricanes rip limbs off of human girls over and over and over and-

Pastel pink and rose crept into the edges. That wasn't normal.

It wasn't part of my dream. I recognized the scalloped, wispy edges of the emotions I'd felt yesterday.

Riven?

My eyes jolted open to a silhouette at my window. Two silhouettes. Three silhouettes and a scarlet scream.

What was up with scarlet screams and this week?

The scream jolted me from the deep mahogany of sleep into orange-red alarm. Terriers. And that tempest of emotion couldn't belong to anyone else.

What did the terriers want with my new neighbor? Unless... no. The Fai had disappeared ages ago. The terriers were just out of control.

"Asiz-" Riven's scream, muffled by the closed window, cut off as a terrier attempted to get to her mouth. Her mouth. Though I wasn't sure I could completely trust her, I couldn't watch her get dismembered by the terriers. I unlocked the window and cracked it open enough for Riven to get a grip inside with her legs. "On six," I warned. Neon confusion whipped my hair back- this was a whole new box to unpack- but I gripped the sill. "One..." A terrier shrouded in red mist snapped at Riven's hand. "Two..." It snapped again. "Three... Four..." It snapped again, this time clamping its jaws over her forearm. "Five... Six!" I yanked at the window, pulling Riven's legs inside and slamming the window shut on one of the terrier's long, skinny mouth stalks.

I produced a dagger from under the mattress and severed the flapping tentacle of the terrier's mouth. Before I could assess the damage, I threw a shirt at Riven. "Pressure. Now. Then identity."

"What?" Riven's voice was shaky as she pressed the shirt to her arm.

"I need to know who you are. The terriers wouldn't want you if you were human. Now shut up." I closed my eyes. I hadn't fully trained myself to do this yet- I'd left the Misura before I could- but I was confident I could drive off the terriers. Swirling neon colors into a cyclone, I pulled more from the thickly clouded hues in the air and launched all I had straight at the terriers. They fell, but so did I.

I woke an estimated five minutes later, strangely calm. With no particular interest, I noticed the green t-shirt had turned red. Right. "Let go of your arm. I think- I think I can fix it. Probably.

I concentrated again, pulling soft pinks and sharp spikes out of my mind as I forced myself to look. The wounds the terrier had left weren't pretty, and I was pretty sure it had gotten a hand snack. Terriers had tiny, spiraled tri-edged teeth that dug into your flesh then ripped it off. The healing energy in my mind could only do so much. I pushed it out, gritting my teeth but not feeling any pain. This was a side effect of my incorrectly executed emotional manifestation. Riven clenched her teeth but nodded. "Thanks," she said in a strained voice.

"No problem. Now we need to get out of here."

"What about my dad? Your dad?"

"I'll take care of it." I tore through Lyza's closet, finally finding a stash of bags. I threw a duffel at Riven and stuffed some extra clothes in the remaining one. "What are you sitting there for? Grab some stuff."

"Isn't that... stealing?"

"Yes." I continued to grab anything we might need. "Liam's asleep. We need to get out before reinforcements get here."