Spirit Animals : Empty

Prologue

Kalshara sat on the floor of a large room, fidgeting with a thread that had come loose from her skirt. Golden tapestries were hanging on the wall to her left, and on her right was a wall of mounted animal heads. Kalshara firmly kept her back to the glassy-eyed stares, instead choosing to watch the thread grow longer and longer as she gently tugged the navy string outward.

This was when the girl was young- eleven, perhaps. She had abandoned her boat for a time, instead choosing to sneak away and see if it was possible for her to carry on a normal life. After finding that the world didn't work well for you if you didn't have enough money, she found herself desperately trying everything to survive. She had flown into a state of panic and, maybe if she had been thinking clearly, she wouldn't have tried to steal from an important advisor of Zhong.

Kalshara had no idea what was going to happen to her. So far, she had been thrown into several different rooms, rather roughly, and eventually ended up here. Her eyelids kept trying to close against her will, and she couldn't shake the feeling that maybe whoever had brought her here had forgotten about her. It had been midnight when she was brought to this new room, she knew from the sharp clock she kept in her mind that many Oceanus people had.

Footsteps echoed around the room, soft but magnified by the sheer space around Kalshara. She shrank into herself, the skirt thread forgotten, as her mind whirled. Her dry lips tried to wet themselves, but nothing about her worked the way it should have after a couple of days without water.

A figure stepped into the light. It was a girl, her hair pulled back into a hasty ponytail with fly-away strands floating around her face. Kalshara couldn't make out much about her, but the girl raised a finger to her lips and winked at her from the shadows. Kalshara blinked. It didn't seem like she was someone sent to punish her, no, it seemed like. . . A prison break? That didn't make sense, because Kalshara currently wasn't in a prison. But maybe the girl knew something that Kalshara didn't.

The Oceanic girl slowly pushed herself to her feet, wobbling a bit as blood rushed to her head. She staggered, but in a flash the girl had crossed the room, latching onto her elbow and stabilizing her. Kalshara's vision was hazy, and she let out a hiss of air through her teeth as the girl shook her as if checking if Kalshara was still alive.

Soon, Kalshara was tugged forward. She stumbled after the girl, blindly following where she led. The minutes passed by in a blur. The two passed through many hallways, eventually leaving the grand building. They found themselves running- or, in reality, staggering- down alleyways and twisting complex pathways through the city. The only details Kalshara remembered were blown away as a breeze smacked her in the face. She gaped and froze, still silent, but breathing in the salty air as it flowed past her. The ocean spread out before her, blue and green and gray and sparkling.

The girl yanked at her, reminding her to keep going.

"Now isn't the time for that." The girl hissed, but Kalshara only distantly caught her words. The girl continued. "We need to get you somewhere safe."

Kalshara didn't move. Her eyes were stinging and watering, and her lungs seemed to be wheezing the way a wounded animal would. She stumbled forward when the girl tugged her a second time, though, and the two made it to a small cave far enough away from the docks. It was very close to the sea, and when the tide came in, it would probably be flooded. Water flowed in through tiny trickles through the entrance, pooling at the bottom, which was lower than the cave mouth.

Kalshara grunted and sunk to the floor, looking up at the girl. She still couldn't make out many details, but in a sharp and short flash of light, a red panda was hunkering down by her feet. Kalshara couldn't help staring in awe at the creature, but she was cut off from her amazement by a cough. Then another cough. She leaned over, wheezing and hacking, her vision cutting from side to side as her head swam through murky thoughts.

She looked up at the girl through her watering eyes, gasping but managing to convey the fact that she needed water. The girl crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, and Kalshara couldn't help noticing that she looked a lot less friendly than she had an hour or so ago when she was persuading Kalshara to escape.

Nonetheless, Kalshara got her water. She greedily raised the waterskin to her lips, only realizing that maybe she shouldn't have drunk it all when the last drop had escaped down her throat.

Somehow, it didn't do anything against the roaring nausea. Kalshara wiped her mouth with her sleeve and bent over to spit on the cave floor, trying to rid her mind of the sharp but groggy pain in her skull.

There was no doubt now, the girl looked a lot less welcoming and kind. Now she crossed her arms and looked down at Kalshara with one eyebrow still raised.

Suddenly, Kalshara gasped. A light flashed behind her eyes and, a moment later, sparked throughout the cave as well. She blinked when it disappeared, her mouth open and a squeaky gasp escaping her lips. Her gaze wandered up to the girl again, but her focus was on the pool of water.

A thrashing, teeth gnashing, hideous creature was darting through the water. The pool was large, large enough for the animal, but Kalshara couldn't shake the feeling that it was shrinking before her eyes.

I have better things to do. I don't want this. Look at it- it hates me, I hate it, nothing good is going to happen. Her eyes strayed to the face of the girl again, who was smirking triumphantly. Don't say it. It's not real. Put me back where you found me, because I don't need this grotesque mistake in my life.

All the same, the girl met her gaze. "Congratulations," she crowed.

"Looks like you just summoned a spirit animal."