Pain and warmth blossomed as a massive shadow crashed into me. The darkness closed in like some—

A soundless scream echoed in my bones and tore my throat. I couldn’t see the scattered light any more. Even the quiet nothing of the forest was consumed as I the pounding of my own heart vanished. I could feel it racing faster. Feel warmth spreading from four curved hooks in my side as it pumped my life away.

I was going to—

No.

The world slowed as the force of my own thoughts centered me. I stepped outside of myself, my heart quiet and my mind still.

Focus.

The word was a commandment and in the darkness around me details I couldn’t see filtered in from memory. The trees and roots I’d passed. The lights slicing through the shadows like drawn knives. The impression of weight upon my body from something I couldn’t see.

Four claws were still lodged in my side, a paw two hands breathe across? Some kind of ambush predator? My mind raced through the stories I’d told my children about The Dark. An ambush predator. A paw nearly larger than my head. Smooth, sharp claws made for digging in and grabbing prey to prevent escape.

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My heart pulsed once, still frantic in this still world of thought. I could feel the blood warm on my skin and soft fur through my torn—

Fur.

A bestiary of images fill the void, each discarded one by one. Wrong kind of claws. Paw too small. Scales instead of soft fur. My heart pulses again.

Feline.

I have no idea what kind of cat could hit like a horse, with a paw the size of a dinner plate, but it clicks into place. I can see the shape of a cat in my mind, massive. It claws at its prey so that it can’t escape as its jaws clasp around—

Jaws.

It’s going to—

My hand is already moving as I curl my head toward my chest, bending my spine. I reach into my chest and grasp the hilt of my broken blade and instead of pulling I push. My hair is caught by something, teeth I’m convinced. My wrist reaches my shoulder and I cry out soundlessly as the jagged edge of a blade rips through the skin of my back.

A startled noise cuts through the silence as the sound of my heart pumping fills my ears. Two gold eyes, framed by a soft, white mountain of a cat. The mouthful of my hair and a cut across its nose almost seems out of place, something mundane added to the story of some fantastic beast.

As it stares at me, calculating, it grooms the blood from its paw. My blood.

“More spirit than I would have expected from one of your kind,” the cat rumbles, “You pass.”

Paw clean it turns and walks away. The darkness gathering at its feet as the the soft patter of its enormous paws cuts out completely and it fades into the—

Gloom.