Barry couldn’t believe his ears. He was lying on the ground, panting for breath, as his whole body teetered on the edge of consciousness. Perhaps it was the delirium that had made him imagine what Kajou had said. The fever was causing his body to feel far too cold. The winged monster at his side kept looking at him with wide, blue eyes. She was hurt, too. Barry wasn’t sure how he knew; he just knew there was pain in her arms, erm, wings.
“As soon as Pan deals with the ferals, I’ll ask her to heal you.” Kajou spoke the words with intent.
“I don’t…” A long silence as a shriek was heard up above. What was happening?
“That wasn’t her voice.” Kajou let out a slight smirk, a deep sigh of relief following her proclamation. There was even a slight cocky grin on her lips. “Doubt any of the ferals will be able to stop her.”
“KAJOU!”
The dark-skinned woman used her hands to louden her voice. “OVER HERE! IN THE HOLE!”
“I’M COMING FOR YOU!”
The other’s voice was a loud roar, and another shudder made the earth vibrate all around them as if a hammer had come down upon it. This time it was closer, and for a split second, Barry could see a flash of yellow light up above. In that brief instant, he realized the abyss that’d been hanging above them had led to a cave of some sort, its ceiling so far up that his phone had not been able to illuminate it.
The blue-eyed girl at his side tightened, her face also turning upwards. She was nervous, afraid, her expression shifting as her gaze returned to him. When the phone screen turned off, she let out a tiny squeak. “Bahr-ee,” she whimpered.
“Hey, turn that thing back on.” The light came back right as another thud bounced off of the walls. Several whines followed by a howl.
And then, silence.
“Kajou!” the voice from earlier rang out. It sounded winded- not as much of a roar. “Talk to me!”
“Over here you blind bat!”
“Oh, there’s a li-” A head popped over the edge, looking down at the three of them. Gold hair framed the wild, unfocused look on the face of the woman with a terribly sharp gaze that focused on Barry instantly. The intensity of the gaze made his whole body drop a whole degree. “Kajou, do I need to kill someone?”
Kajou hastily spoke up. “No. We need some healing. How much juice do you have?”
“Enough. I offed their leader, sent those mutts packing, but they’ll be back. Might try to track us down if we’re not careful.” The hazel eyes of the gold-haired woman lingered on the shivering young man for only a second further, as if to confirm he was indisposed, and then she jumped into the hole.
The winged girl at Barry’s side shrieked and held on to him hard enough his bones creaked and ached. But past the pain and confusion, Barry could only gasp as pure, glowing white wings emerged from Pan’s back. They spread just enough to cover the hole from one edge to the next, slowing down her descent. Heavy metal boots slammed against the dirt and a sword lingered in her right hand. Those sharp, distrusting eyes stared at the young man with a darkness that starkly contrasted with the woman’s wings.
“Who’s the human?”
The hunk of metal she wielded was almost over a meter long, and it should have been something far too large to be held with one hand. Yet in her grasp, it may as well have been no heavier than a feather.
“He’s an off-worlder,” Kajou declared in a rush. “We need him alive. He’ll be dead if you don’t heal him soon.”
“And the girl?”
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“A feral, a tamed feral.”
“What do you mean ‘tamed’?” Pan tightened on her sword, pointing at the winged blue-eyed creature with its tip. “She has no collar.”
The nameless winged woman froze, lowering her head into his shoulder and whimpering.
“She said his name,” the dark-skinned one proclaimed. “They barely spent the night together, and she said his name. Pan, the elder was right.”
“Did you get your head conked or something?”
“Heal me first at least.”
Pan turned to meet the other woman’s gaze, her eyes moving downwards to Kajou’s swollen red ankles. She scoffed. “I fucking told you to take guard rotation seriously.” She knelt next to her as she spoke. She shifted the aim of her sword at Barry, but the other shifted to press against Kajou’s ankles.
“I know. I didn’t expect two Hounds. One caught me by surprise.” A sigh of relief left her as Pan’s left hand began to glow a dim yellow. “That’s better.”
“Don’t fucking move until I’m done, or I’ll have to break your ankles again so they can settle properly. That won’t be fun for anyone.”
“Who… what are you?” Barry could only pant in disbelief, his eyes traversing up the sword and to the armor-clad woman. The dull grey metal of her armor was stained with blood, but her blade was spotless. Her hair was drenched, her clothes soaked and her metal boots muddied, but her wings were dry. Both sword and wings had an ephemeral glow to them. It was almost warm.
The woman’s head snapped in his direction, hazel eyes glowing with power. “Speak again, human, and I will cut your tongue. You can live just fine without one.”
“Pan-”
The woman’s head whipped back to meet her partner’s gaze in an intense glare. “Do not fight me on this, Kajou. We can’t take risks.”
“The elder gave her orders.”
“He’s still breathing.”
An uncomfortable silence fell upon them. Barry remained still. The fever had made him start sweating, but the presence from this woman made heavy beads roll off his forehead. His mind kept trying to spin out of control, even as he fought to keep it still. He had to struggle against a slippery surface of panic, the adrenaline not helping any. His swollen ankles kept throbbing in pain, the stabbing sensation pushing his consciousness to the side to let instinct take hold.
A soft whimper brought his attention back to the winged girl that hugged him. She was scared out of her wits, paralyzed and clinging to him as if to dear life. She dared not look at the armored woman directly, instead attempting to press herself and Barry down into the dirt, to turn invisible and remain out of sight.
“There.”
The proclamation was accompanied by Kajou being aided onto her feet. The dark-skinned woman grinned as she glanced at her ankles. The swelling was gone entirely. “Much better.”
“How’re your reserves?”
“I can kick a mutt.”
“Great, snag the bird.”
“Wai-!”
Barry’s word was rewarded by a swift kick to the head. All too suddenly, the world was spinning and completely out of control. There was a ringing in his ears, loud enough to muffle whatever words the blond woman spoke next. He couldn’t hear anything, but he could sense the winged girl that’d been hugging him, shrieking and fighting as Kajou yanked her off of him.
“BAHR-EE!”
The voice rang loudly inside his head, louder than everything else.
“BAHR-EE!”
She thrashed and kicked, and Kajou dug in her heels and pulled harder, fighting to remain balanced while the winged girl kept trying to break free. With a throbbing pain and blurry vision, Barry saw as the angel turned away from him and towards the feral girl.
Her sword rose, pointed at the creature. The sword began to glow brighter. “She’s going to break free and put us all at risk. Keep still.”
“Wait, NO!”
The voice was spoken by Kajou and Barry at the same time. The young human reached out towards the panicking blue-eyed winged girl. Kajou tried to move out of the way, to pull the feral outside the blond’s reach. The blond was faster, a mere forward thrust covering the distance in the blink of an eye.
The world ground itself to a halt, steel meeting flesh. For a split second, it seemed as if an invisible force kept it at bay, a wall that gave pause to the sword’s tip. The next moment, with the sound of something shattering, the sword pierced through, pushing forward one inch at a time and all at once. The chain of events had taken less than a second.
And the second afterwards, agony stabbed into the center of Barry’s chest. It was fire that drew a line into his heart and out his back. His lungs and heart felt as if they were about to burst into flames, a singular red hot searing fire that burnt his chest from the inside.
But he couldn’t look away from the nameless woman’s blue eyes. Their eyes were locked with each other, their breaths trapped in a tight constriction. Her mouth was partially open, but no sound came out. The light within those brilliant blues dimmed, losing focus, losing life. With a sickening yank, the sword was pulled from the girl’s chest, steam rising from the wound and not a drop of blood.
The nameless woman fell to the ground with a thud that shook the universe. Her lips moved quietly, she uttered one last word before she became still.
And with her death, a void snapped into place, piercing through the delirious human’s mind like a lance. Barry realized he was screaming with every fiber of his being.
The boot made everything go dark.