Spirit Animal: Pride of the Panther

Ch. 3: Nightmare Night

After dinner, Luz headed back into the room. She shifted and jumped onto the bed. She curled up and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she was... back home?

"Huh?" Luz let out, looking around in surprise that she was now in her own room. "Was it all just a dream?"

Luz got up from her bed and going to her door. She tried to turn the knob, but it didn't open. Luz turned around and saw fire. Luz gasped at the flames, seeing them spread around her room and slowly burn everything she had. Pictures, books, clothes; everything was burning! In the middle of the flames, was a shadowy figure slowly reaching towards her. She was unable to move or even scream.

'No! Stay back! Stay back!' Luz thought as the figure just got closer.

"You'll make me a lot of money." The figure said.

The figure was about to grab her when a larger Black Panther pounced on it.

"Mom!" Luz shouted, finding her voice, seeing her mother fighting the figure!

Camila growled and knocked the figure backwards. She ran and tackled the figure through the fire, falling out of the window and to the ground below. Luz finally got use of her feet back and ran to the window. She shifted and jumped through to the ground.

Luz looked around for her mother as the fire spread, damaging the house.

'Mom? Mom?!' Luz thought as she began searching for Camila.

She saw her mom, on her side, bleeding heavily. Luz ran over and started nudging her. Camila didn't move and Luz started pawing her, trying to get her to move. Suddenly, she felt sharp pain in her side. She roared in pain as she looked and saw a dart in her side.

"Now be a good kitty and sleep." The person said, holding a small dart gun.

He pointed it at Luz's head, before Camila, in her human form, grabbed his arm and started to fight against him. She looked over at the large cat and looked sad at what she had to do.

"Luz, you need to run!" Camila said, "You need to get out of here."

Luz looked at her mom, fear in her eyes.

"Mommy will be okay." Camila said, "Just go!"

Luz closed her eyes before running into the woods. She heard the sound of a gun fire and stopped for a minute, she heard her mom scream in pain and turned around, wanting to go back, but the dart was starting to take effect. She went back to running before the dart became to much and she started stumbling. She fell down a hill and rolled down it, hitting trees and jagged rocks the entire way down, before landing into a lake. She didn't resurface, but the dart did.

Luz's eyes opened and she stood up, looking around, seeing that she was still in Gwen's house, and it was late at night. She jumped off the bed and shifted back, keeping her Panther eyes, which gave her great night vision. She opened the door and slowly walked down the hall until she was in front of Gwen and Dell's room.

"No, this is stupid." Luz said quietly, before beginning to walk back to her room.

The door opened and Gwen looked out.

"Luz? What's the matter, dear?"

"I-It's nothing. I just got up for a glass of water." Luz said, lying to Gwen.

Gwen put a hand on Luz's shoulder.

"Luz, you don't need to lie to me." Gwen said, "What's the matter?"

Luz closed her eyes, feeling tears fill them up.

"I... I had a nightmare... about what... what happened."

"Oh, you shouldn't feel the need to hide that from me." Gwen said, "Do you want to sleep with Dell and I?"

Luz nodded, slightly embarrassed.

"And don't feel embarrassed, my oldest daughter had to sleep with with me whenever she had a nightmare all the way up to 18." Gwen said, "You probably went through a lot in a few days, it's only understandable that you're still feeling upset about it. Come on."

Gwen got back into bed, with Luz shifting and curling up at the end of the bed. Gwen felt a hand on her shoulder and looked at Dell.

"You're still a natural at being motherly, if we weren't this old, I'd say we should try for another." Dell said.

Gwen let out a small chuckle.

"Shut up and go to bed." Gwen said, before looking at the Black Jaguar sleeping at the end of the bed, "Someone that age shouldn't go through something like this. It reminds me of Edalyn."

Dell had to agree to that, it was similar to what their youngest daughter went through at a younger age but in this scenario Luz still had control over herself. It was just the amount of trauma she had gone through that made it relatable.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine." Dell said, "We'll figure everything out tomorrow."

"I hope you're right." Gwen said, laying down and closing her eyes.