Nightbound: Curse of Shadows

3

   "Don't worry about it. I'll be fine. I can still fly."
   I sagged glumly. "Yeah, but they said you'll have a limp forever."
   Thunderstorm laughed. "Who cares? We're both alive and well. I'd break every leg and both wings before I let you do something stupid."
   "We do stupid things all the time."
   "Nothing that stupid." she wrapped her wings around me. "That is by far the stupidest thing you've ever done. And I will hold you to that promise never to do it again."
   "It's my fault you broke your leg."
   "Don't blame yourself. Nothing good has ever come from blaming yourself for your frustration."
   I finally grinned. "Would you say that if I killed someone?"
  "Probably. And then I'd help you hide the body."
  "I'm touched," I said, dissolving into giggles before I could stop it.
   The cool water was refreshing, sliding down my throat and clearing my head a bit. Snow crunched under my paws. Sunlight glinted off every icicle. I tried my best to avoid looking at them. Sunlight burns Shadows. Direct light is painful, but indirect is still irritating.
   It didn't burn fur. That was one thing I was thankful for.
   I thought I heard something behind me. My ears pricked up, but nothing happened. It didn't really matter, anyway. Araktine only attacked at night.
   I kept drinking. No more sounds. I was alone.
   At least I thought so until something massive slammed into me and knocked my on my side.
   One gargantuan paw was at my throat. Another was dug painfully into my shoulder. I'd just barely avoided choking on water, but my breath was still knocked out of me and catching up with my body.
   All I could clearly see was a pair of saber fangs. The rest of the head was silhouetted by the sun.
   I tried to look at her without looking past her. I couldn't see anything other than faint stripes, so I focused on the water gently tugging at my fur to distract myself from physical contact and squinted to keep her from getting a good look at my eyes. Lunipian eyes stay the same as their main form no matter what we are, and blue hawk-like dragon eyes aren't especially common among leopards.
   "Who are you?" the cat growled.
   "Name's Alvara. How's your day going?" I said, trying not to show my panic. I don't think it worked.
   "Why are you here?"
   "Passing through."
   "I need a little more explanation than that," she said gruffly. "How are you just passing through now of all times?"
   "What do you mean?" I asked, surprised at my own ability to keep my voice steady.
   "Not important unless you happen to know about it."
   "Know about what?" I didn't want her to be talking about what I thought she was talking about.
   She looked away. "Sorry. Basically, I can trust you, right?"
   "Yeah." The lie didn't catch in my throat anymore.
   "Okay. Guess I'm just tense. Shadows can't be out in day anyway." She let me up, and I didn't bother fixing my fur. It wasn't ever messed up enough to warrant the excessive grooming most cats did. "Well, I'm North Sky. If you want somewhere to stay I can show you. We- I can show you around the camp if Sílier says it's alright. A bunch of us live together."
   "I don't know if that's a good ide-"
   "It'll be fine. We have food and shelter and honestly, you look like you need it."
   "Thanks," I said wryly.
   We walked for a while. It was nice being able to physically relax in company, even though Araktine would get everyone there if I stayed overnight. Or maybe just since I spoke to them during the day. I couldn't stay. I couldn't. But for some stupid reason the thought that just leaving would be rude kept me there.
   Finally we crossed a hill to find a cluster of woven stick huts. Lunipians of various types sat and walked among them. North Sky led me to the one farthest up the hill.
   "Sílier? You here?" she asked, peering inside.
   Sílier was a huge winged wolf, almost twice North Sky's size with black fur frosted with red and impressive scarlet dragon-like wings somehow almost touching her horns while folded. She didn't look like the type to be scared of anything.
   She studied me calmly. Without talking her eyes off me she asked, "So who's this?"
   "Alvara. Found her by the creek. If it's alright with you I thought she might stay a while, what do you think?"
   Sílier finally looked at her. "You know you don't have to ask me if people can stay here. Anyone who needs shelter is welcome. If you trust her even after... last night... I do, too."
   "Alright. I'll show you around, Alvara." North Sky motioned for me to follow her.
   "Actually, can I ask something?" I said quickly. North Sky and Sílier looked at me expectantly. "Ok... What about Phantom attacks? Is there anything you can do about them? Are people... safe here?"
   After a moment, Sílier smiled gently. "I and at least one of our strongest watch the camp from here at night. Nobody within sight of  this hill is going to die." She hesitated before continuing. "I can make no promises if you leave during the night. But for everyone here, I'll die before anything happens to anyone."
   I could have laughed at the thought that I was worried about being killed by the Phantom. But I had a feeling she was right about nobody in sight being in danger. I know I would have never messed with her. For once, I decided not the over think it and just trust her.
   "So, what exactly happened last night?" I asked once we were outside, trying to ignore the part of me that knew I wouldn't like the answer.
   Her gaze darkened, and my gut was right. I should really start listening to it more. "Phantom attack. We heard something about an attack somewhere near here and went to see if we could find her... About a year after they started Freeze came up with this theory that the Phantom was good and not actually evil. Sílier got a message from a friend who lives a couple days' walk away and took Freeze and me and a couple others to visit. There had been an attack there. We were there for a few days. Freeze looked at the body and the place over and over. I do too know how he did it for that long. He said the marks looked more feline than dragon. The two are pretty similar, but something about the dewclaw was in the wrong place. I don't know. There were clearly dragon and somewhat feline footprints, and he said it didn't look like the dragon was attacking. I sort of believed it for a while, but then last night..."
   She swallowed. Her voice lost its steadiness. "We were out in the woods. There had been an attack nearby, and we were looking to see if another happened. To prove his theory right. We split up for a second, and then the Phantom... killed him. I looked back and he was dead and the Shadow dragon was flying away." She shut her eyes. "You don't realize how fast death happens until you turn around for a moment and someone you love is gone. At this point it doesn't matter what happened. The Phantom is going to die for it."
   I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach and pushed the whole explanation down in my mind to process later. I was going to try to console her anyway, but someone trotted up behind us.
   "Hey, North Sky. Hey... you."
   I looked back. It was a tiger, white with hints of gray and light brown around his stripes that reminded me of a tabby alicat. He had ice blue eyes that seemed to pierce through me in a way I saw but didn't really get.
   "You must be new here. Interesting timing. Guess you were just lucky to get here now..." He muttered the second part under his breath. I barely understood it, and North Sky showed no sign of noticing.
  "Uh, yeah. I'm new," I said, pretending not to hear the second part. "Name's Alvara."
   The tiger nodded slowly. "I'm Tandi'makir. Just call me Tandin. No use in long names when you can have shorter ones." His eyes flicked away from me for a second. "You're staying here a while, I'm guessing? How long?"
  "I- I don't know. However long I end up staying. Probably not long." I'd never been the best at understanding people, but I had been on the run as the Phantom long enough to know when someone wanted me to leave fast. He was probably paranoid. And rightfully so, I thought. If they lived long enough they'd all see he was right about it.
   "Oh," he said. He sounded almost disappointed, but I couldn't miss how his shoulders loosened a tiny bit at that. North Sky missed it only because she was looking at me. I forced myself to calm down.
   Neither of us spoke. "I'm giving her the tour," North Sky said, breaking an awkward silence that would have stretched longer. "Want to come?"
   "Maybe," he said uncertainly, but came anyway.
   North Sky pointed out anywhere of significance as we walked past the woven dens. There was a building where extra prey was kept for anyone who needed it, one where various energy crystals were kept, one filled with books, and others which I promptly forgot the location of. It reminded me vaguely of Razerali with the books and crystals, but it didn't have the echo, the damp stone, rooms humming with concentrated energy from five thousand years of gathering and charging, the library with rows and rows of books on shelves so high you'd think it took up half the mountain. Razerali had my father. My friend. At least, it did before. Both had vanished after the attack. Cloudstrike was probably dead. Kazra was probably dead. I could see clearly how that would have happened, me saying something dumb and her not reacting like I hoped. Maybe they were just captured for some reason. Wishful thinking. I wish she wasn't dead. I wish I could break into wherever the Shadow Guardians were keeping them with Thunderstorm and Moonshade and free them. I wished I could be with Thunderstorm and Cloudstrike and Moonshade again. I wished I could be with Kazra. I wished Cyclone was alive. I wished Freeze was alive. I wished I wasn't a Shadow. I wished I wasn't a murderer. I wished a lot of things.
   I wished I hadn't dissociated from the present to the past throughout the entire tour. Then I might remember how to find the stick den North Sky led me to.
   I barely remember going inside and falling asleep. I suppose I should have been happy that tomorrow is a new day to start again, but tomorrow is a day Freeze and a hundred and six other people are never going to get.