"Here, kitty kitty kitty." Jacob coaxed. He dangled one of the centipedes in front of him and slowly backed up.

The Dream Tiger followed him warily, padding forward on its big, fluffy blue paws, its silver whisker-tassels waving in an invisible wind. It eyed him, its eyes slightly narrowed. This thing was too smart to be a tiger. It acted more like what he thought a house cat would act like, though even then he was severely lacking in the knowledge department. His parents had never let him have a pet: 'too much dust and germs.' And even when he'd encounter one of the neighbourhood cats on his way home from school, mewing at him from the grass beside the sidewalk or crossing the street on some mystery feline mission, he'd avoided them because he believed that they would make him sick.

Magic washed over his senses. Yellow, green, dark violet impressions in his mind, making his eyes glaze over. That was good. That meant the others were still fighting.

"How far are we?" Jacob asked.

Camilla was scouting ahead of them. "Just over the next rise."

Jacob twitched with nervous excitement. "C'mon, just a little further. That's a good magic cat."

The crested a low shoulder between two rolling hills. Jacob glanced over to where the fight was going on. A flash of something shot into the sky, accompanied by a yellow sensation, but the rogue mage and the Rangers were still out from sight.

"It's right there." Camilla said.

Before Jacob could respond, the Dream Tiger let out a vindicated yowl of triumph, then streaked forward in a blur of silver. Jacob tensed, his gut dropping out the bottom of his stomach as if someone had opened a trapdoor in his bowels. Yep, this had been a bad idea, a really bad idea.

The Dream Tiger rushed by him, so close its tassels tickled Jacob's face. For a split second Jacob was surrounded by the silver stream the creature left in its wake. His body grew light and his head swooned.

The corpse of the massive chameleon creature lay sprawled on a bed of flowers, underbelly to the sky. Silver blood trickled from its jaws. There was a black thing attached to its underbelly, like a leech the size of a large dog. It pulsed and grew bigger. Spindly limbs began to extend from its torso. The Dream Tiger covered the distance in an eager second. It lunged at the black creature, ripped it off the chameleon with its jaws and pinned it down on the ground with its big paws. The leech struggled, writhed, silver light leaking from its body and into the Dream Tiger's mouth until there was nothing left. The Dream Tiger shook its shaggy head and without hesitation turned and bit into the chameleon creature's neck, its silver, blade-like fangs sinking into the scales. At first it looked like a small kitten hanging off its mother's neck. Then great sucking sounds filled the air, almost vampiric, and the big cat began to grow.

"It's working." Camilla said in disbelief.

Jacob went over and stood by her and watched with a morbid fascination. The Dream Tiger's eyes never left them while it consumed the magical energy from the chameleon. The chameleon shrank and grew paler. Meanwhile the Dream Tiger grew until it was as big as a bus. Its silver tassels lengthened, thickened, rippling in their hidden wind. More appeared in the air around the creature, floating alongside its flank like little fish swimming beside a whale. The tiger patterns on its face and body gleamed and pulsed silver, until they outshone the ambient light of the magical world around them and left patterned sunspots on Jacob's eyes. Its eyes flashed, changed shape, shone with an inner intelligence, and the patterns on its face grew more complex. Then the chameleon was just a little sun lizard in its jaws, and then it was gone. The Dream Tiger let out a roar. Jacob slammed his hands against his ears. A hurricane wind whipped up in the little valley, and the air around them warped, as if stretching around the Dream Tiger.

Now was the key part of the plan. If this didn't work then all he'd managed to do was get the Dream Tiger close to crossing over into a city that didn't have any defenders left.

Jacob and Camilla slowly backed up the hill to where the flashes of magic had come from. The miasma of colours had vanished. They had to hurry.

The Dream Tiger shook its regal head and eyed them.

C'mon. Jacob thought.

One moment it was standing next to where the chameleon's corpse had lain, the next a silver streak passed Jacob, spinning him around. The Dream Tiger halted at the crest of the hill. Jacob looked down into the valley below. Millicent and Xavier lay sprawled on the flowers. He couldn't tell if they were alive or not.

Sheriff Hueller dragged himself across the ground, a bloody scrape on his forehead, his movements slow, twitchy. The rogue mage strode towards him. His blood-soaked shirt had torn and was hanging off him like the upper half of a toga. His face was streaked with dirt and blood and he held one limp arm close to his body.

The rogue mage turned to them. His eyes widened.

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The Dream Tiger let out another hurricane roar.

The rogue mage grinned, his eyes wide with a mania that chilled Jacob to his bones.

"Come on then, you stupid tiger!"

The Dream Tiger blurred at the rogue mage. The man threw up a ward. The Dream Tiger smashed into it, jaws open, biting down on the ward. They hurtled back and crashed into the hillside. The Dream Tiger's jaws pressed further and further into the rogue mage's ward. Streaks of magic jumped away from the pair.

Camilla was the first to move. She ran down the hill to Sheriff Hueller. Jacob followed.

"What did you do? What did you do?" Sheriff Hueller rasped. He pushed himself to one elbow.

"Are you alright?" Camilla asked.

The rogue mage threw off the Dream Tiger with a roar of his own, and blurred away to the adjacent hilltop. The Dream Tiger followed, snarling.

"I'll live." Sheriff Hueller said. "Xavier, Millicent..."

Jacob thought quickly. "Can you make a portal? Get us out of here? I might be able to carry both of them."

Sheriff Hueller shook his head. Jacob realized he was just barely keeping himself conscious. "I don't have anything left. He... Goddamnit." He swallowed and gathered himself.

The rogue mage punched a massive cone of magical force at the Dream Tiger. It danced away then lanced forward again.

"He's... Have to kill him, knock him out, something." Sheriff Hueller coughed. "He's weakening, I can feel it. But, but I don't know if it's gonna be enough."

Jacob whirled. The rogue mage and the Dream Tiger fought back and forth around them. Already he could tell they were slower than they had been just moments before. Sheriff Hueller was right, the rogue mage's magic didn't feel as strong, and he moved with a ragged fatigue. But the Dream Tiger was already visibly smaller, its fur no longer shining.

"What do we do?" Jacob whispered.

No answer.

He turned back, but Sheriff Hueller had fallen unconscious.

He met Camilla's scared eyes. What were they supposed to do? What could they do?

Jacob swallowed. They couldn't run again. He tried to summon up courage, tried to think about what he'd done last night, tried to not be afraid. A small weight had settled in his gut, that no matter what they did they were going to lose, the rogue mage was going to kill Camilla and kidnap him. Christ, he'd killed Jimmy and the other deputies. Why was this happening? He wanted to run for help. There had to be someone who could, right? There was always someone there to help, whether it was his parents, or a teacher, or a policeman, or even the clerk at the grocery store helping him find a specific item.

But the help was lying on the ground behind him, unconscious.

He wanted to lay down on the ground and curl up into a ball, hug his knees to his chest and squeeze his eyes shut like he had last night. He wanted to be back in his room in his bed with his door closed.

Instead he tried to engage his magic. It took him several tries; several useless, impotent attempts as the rogue mage beat away on the Dream Tiger. Doing it, picturing green, reminded him of Jimmy. He squeezed his eyes squeezed shut and clenched his fists. Christ, Jimmy. All he could do was that resistance spell across his body, so he did that. He was useless. Maybe if he'd been able to help, maybe if he'd been able to cast offensive spells...

Jacob opened his eyes. Camilla hovered over Sheriff Hueller, terrified.

"I'm going to fight him." He said, and the moment he said it an elation filled him to the brim. A voice in his head screamed at him that he was being a fool, that he was going to get himself killed. He didn't care. He wasn't going to be a coward anymore; he wasn't going to let all these people die for him and just be a useless whelp.

Camilla's eyes widened. She grabbed his forearm. "No, Jacob, please. Don't be stupid. There has to be another way."

"Fight me with him, or don't." Jacob said. He tore his arm free of her grasp and turned away from her to where the rogue mage was beating back the Dream Tiger, now almost the size of a normal tiger. If only he could use magic like Camilla. Then he could actually do something useful.

"Hey!" He yelled at the rogue mage.

"Jacob, no!" Camilla hissed.

The rogue mage leapt away from the Dream Tiger and turned to Jacob. A bloody gash had opened on his chest and he was breathing heavily. His shirt was little more than a rag.

"If you want me, come get me!" Jacob cried. A little thrill shot through him. He engaged his magic, casted the resilience spell, and turned and started stumbling at an angle away from Camilla and Sheriff Hueller.

The Dream Tiger lunged forward at the rogue mage. The rogue mage didn't dodge this time. He blocked the Dream Tiger with his bad arm, then shifted its momentum against it and kicked it in the side.

He's almost out of magic! Jacob thought.

The Dream Tiger went sprawling to one side, tumbled over itself like a flipped car, and lay still. The rogue mage turned to Jacob.

"Close, but no cigar, kid."

The rogue mage closed the gap between them in the blink of an eye, even though Jacob was augmenting his speed. Jacob tensed, his bowels dropping out from beneath him in fear. He'd totally forgotten how fast the man was. He'd totally forgotten and now he was fucked. But the fear lasted only a moment. It didn't matter. He'd wanted to fight and now they were gonna fight. He almost laughed. Without realizing it he intensified his resistance spell.

The rogue mage jabbed Jacob.

Jacob desperately threw up his forearm to block. The rogue mage's jab smashed into Jacob's wrist. Unlike the hits he'd taken while training earlier, sharp pain shot down his arm, making him cry out. The blow smashed his forearm against his torso and sent him sprawling back into the ground.

At the same time, yellow magic flashed across his sensation. Something smacked the rogue mage in the back. He grunted and tumbled forward, losing his balance, his momentum carrying him head over heel. He smashed into the ground, flipped, smashed again, bounced up one final time, then ground to a halt and lay still.

Behind him and to one side, Camilla stood with her hand out.

Jacob got up and ran.

"Please please please." He whispered, knowing it was futile, knowing but not wanting to believe.

Jimmy lay on the crest of the nearest hill amidst blood splattered flowers. Jacob skidded to a halt and fell to his knees.

"Jimmy!"

Jimmy's eyes were glassy. The ragged, bloody hole in his abdomen left no question. Jacob covered his face with his hands and cried.