Trees tower as sentinels above us, casting long shadows from the sun at the horizon.

The barn is quiet. Too quiet. No birds chirp. No chickens cluck. A scent comes from within. A rotten stench. The warm barn I played in as a kid is now cold with a feeling of… death. The old wood door creaks, then flaps languidly in the breeze. A nonexistent breeze. Besides, we always leave the door latched. Too many predators to get the chickens and the chickens are too precious to risk.

A man comes out. A huge mountain of a... man? His legs and arms are too long for his body, and what I thought were fur clothes is actually hair that's matted and oily. The scent of rot drifts on the wind towards us from this creature. He glances and sniffs around before stepping out of the barn. He’s chewing on the fresh bone of some poor animal.

The slight breeze shifts. He cracks his neck and lets out a roar of challenge as he scents us on the air. The sound is abruptly cut off as Momma snaps a knife that slips into his neck. He gurgles, teetering for a moment before crashing to the ground. He pushes himself back up to his knees when Momma's footsteps approach.

Momma stalks to the creature, pulling the blade free in a spray of blood. The creature releases a strangled gasp as he snarls at Momma, trying to hold his lifeblood with one hand and reaching for her with the other. Momma steps back as he crashes into the earth for a second, and final, time. Blood soaks the dirt, making a growing dark puddle.

Momma wipes her knife clean on the fur of the dead creature.

A curse comes from inside the barn. “Get back here. Darshius commanded me to find it and get its essence. You can have the meat after I kill this... wolf thing. Then we're going home. You'd like that, eh, Drash? Drash?”

Darshius? That lilting accent from inside the barn and that name. The library. The enemy of the prince. Ran is who they're searching for. And, with the help of that goon who I killed in my bedroom, they found her.

My guilt over slitting his throat rapidly diminishes as my anger grows.

Ran is Ran. She is not a thing. She is not to be fed to a monster. She is my family. My bond. Perhaps, most of all, she’s my best friend.

The barn looms before me, and my legs race the twenty feet to the barn itself.

"Aria! Be careful," my mother admonishes, but it's too late.

The barn doors splinter before my rage as I kick the doors with all my might. The broken and already rotten wood swings in with a loud crack against the empty stalls on either side of the hallway leading to the open area beneath the hayloft.

A man startles and glances up. His black cloak shifts with shadowy tendrils, each branching and wiggling. The red swirls in the material lends a grotesque appearance that would make even the fiercest of men cringe. A red brooch clasps the cloak around his neck.

I would be creeped out if not for the anger in my veins. The syringe in his hand burns a sickly green. It’s poised above Ran’s neck. A morose blue orb buzzes around his head.

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“Drop it.” I growl in such a deep voice I almost scare myself.

He quickly plunges the syringe beneath her skin and presses his thumb, dispensing some of the substance into Ran’s neck. A knife enters his shoulder and causes his fingers to spasm enough to drop hold of the syringe.

Yet not so much as a groan comes from this awful man. His other hand reaches for the syringe. What can possess this man that he wishes my bond dead so much?

I swing my sword and his head rolls. I force my focus on Ran. If I think of anything else, I’m going to melt down. Never have I faced losing her.

Nor have I had to kill. Ran has always been the one to take a life if we had to. She saved me from that burden. Now she's the one...

I shake my head to dispel the thoughts. I quickly grab the syringe and chuck it across the room. The glass breaks on impact and splatters the substance against our barn wall. It fizzles as it eats and burns the wood like an acid, but smells like roses. What acid smells like roses?

“Aria, duck!” My mother shouts. I jerk and roll as a twang of a string rings through the air. It glazes my arm but leaves just a scratch. “You. Don’t. Hurt. My. Family!” Knives fling with each word. A few miss. Three hit the lone man above. The body falls from the hayloft, and Momma goes to collect her knives from the body.

I kneel over Ran’s prone form. I feel no breath from her lips. Blood covers her pure white fur, and slight convulsions rack her frame. No, no, no.

“Come on, pretty girl,” I whisper through numb lips.

I frantically slice my palm, letting my life blood leak into wounds at her neck and back. The thing that sealed our bond when we met.

“Come on. I can’t lose you!” I lean my head on her forehead, begging her to open her eyes. To wag her tail. To feel her humor at the antics of us crazy humans. To knock me over and lick my face.

“Please,” I gasp. I feel no breath beneath my hands. A tear squeezes out of the corner of my eye. “Please, Great King. Don’t take her.”

A hand gently grasps my shoulder, and I look at my mother through swimming eyes.

"Aria, look," Momma whispers.

The blue orb turns to us, and the back of my neck prickles as if someone or something is watching me.

I swear I hear a voice in my mind, something like a gentle thank you.

The orb buzzes over to Ran, hovering over her prone form. Something burns in my chest as she goes still, the convulsions stopping. The blue orb turns a light green, then bursts into a yellow so bright it burns into my retinas. I duck my head and hold up my hand to shield my eyes.

When my eyes adjust back to the dark barn, the orb is gone.

With hope, I glance down, but Ran is just as still as before.

I close my eyes, my heart breaking into numb pieces.

Momma gathers me to her bosom, my eyes dry even as I tremble. Tears patter upon my head, the warm drops soaking into my hair.

"Oh, sweetheart." Her voice breaks, her arms tightening around my trembling form.

I ease from her warm embrace to move to my bond. I burrow my head into her matted white fur.

Warm breath tickles my cheek. I pry my eyes open to see the most beautiful thing ever to grace my vision. Ran's eyes peering at me through a half-glare, even as her tail wags in a soft patter upon the dirt. My arms won’t move, but a tear slides down my cheek.

“I... I thought I’d lost you,” I whisper, my voice catching.

Couldn't... you have come sooner? There is a deeply warm affection in her voice, negating her words.

Her fur is still slicked with blood, but the wounds are steadily receding. She nuzzles my cheek and crawls over to wrap herself around me, much as I have seen a fox curl around her young ones to protect them. Ran lays her head beside mine and wraps her tail around me. My heart about melts.

The adrenaline fades from my system. I feel the bruised ribs and my head... it hurts again. My vision tunnels and the edges grow black as my fingers become weak.

A hand presses against my forehead. I meet Momma’s eyes. “Sleep. I’ll keep watch.”

"Thank you." I whisper, not exactly sure to who. Perhaps the orb, perhaps the King, or perhaps Momma.

My eyes drift closed even as Ran’s breathing evens out beside me.

The deep and abiding Love from my bond warms my heart and brings warm and fuzzies to the depths of my soul. Darkness consumes me as a smile grows on my face.