She had smelt it, smelt that monster.

The scent of indifferent persistence.

How had it found her? How had it not stopped hunting her? What had she ever done to it?

She was asking stupid questions. She already knew the answer.

It was a monster.

Even after chasing her out of her only home, destroying any semblance of safety she’d ever felt.

It hadn’t stopped hunting her.

Even after cycles upon cycles had passed, the monster’s scent hadn’t waned or gone adrift.

She’d used every trick taught by her mother.

Burnt her tracks.

Hid her scent.

Running faster than even the forefathers of legends.

Even using precious brætt líf to fuel her flight cycle after cycle. Avoiding the stops that gave birth to dreams.

Dreams corrupted by that monster, turned to terrifying moments reliving what it had done to her, to her only home.

But none of that had mattered.

For she had strayed, thought she had been safe, thought she had flown far, far away.

Taking a single break. She remembered how much she felt that she needed that break.

Using a cave that looked so safe, so inviting.

A break that turned violent and bloody.

She had escaped, barely.

Sounds louder than even her mother’s roar had come from the trees during one of her hunts, stinging her with pain worse than any fire.

An ambush.

Fast as the wind, she had escaped.

But she quickly realized the fault in her plan. The fault being the hole in her stomach.

Mother always told her to fear the most dangerous beast of them all.

The beast being humans.

She always told her to fear their power over the mind. To not let her guard down even once, even if they seem puny and weak.

Mother always knew best, even if she had been wrong on one thing.

They were not beasts, but monsters.

For this monster knew, just as she knew, that she was about to die.

Bleeding to death in foreign lands.

She didn’t want to die.

Energy seeped to nothing, brætt líf being but an ember in her chest, barely able to help her move.

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She had moved fast, slower than slowly.

She could not think properly.

From mighty to, this. It was such a disgrace.

It was scary.

She was afraid.

Then she had stumbled into that cave again, finding it illuminated and occupied.

She had failed to smell it.

She remembered how defeated she had felt, how terrified she had been.

But a fire was aflame in her chest, a flame that did not let her go restlessly into that final goodnight.

She had wanted to attack. Knowing her speed was her best chance.

But a wound too severe did not let her.

Then suddenly, a new opponent had crept out from the shadows, being struck by her mighty paw for it's offence.

A strike that made her wound cry out in anguish, her last bit of energy and brætt líf being used up. Licked away like the last drops of blood from prey.

She had been defenseless, useless and practically-

Dead.

But she had managed to kill one of those monsters before she herself had died.

Until she hadn’t.

The monster had glowed green, then it had reformed itself with the help of the human monster.

Turning out to be a wooden baby bear, a strange and rather ugly beast.

The monster had seemed elated that the wooden bear had been brought back to life.

A horrible last thought came to her at that moment.

The thought that she’d been useless.

The thought brushed aside as the same green light and new warm brætt líf had invaded her body. Forcefully pulling it back together and filling her with endless energy.

She had felt reborn.

She remembered clearly how confused she’d been from that.

And she remembered how guilty she had felt upon realizing that the little wooden bear had saved her after she had just tried killing it.

Not an it, she told herself. But a friend.

She remembered that after the realisation of who was her savior, she and that monster had fought over who’d get to keep her friend.

A match she could have easily won. A slit throat solving many problems.

But she remembered that her friend had, in turn, been saved by that monster. For it had done something to her friend that had healed her friend. And if it hadn’t healed her friend, then her friend wouldn’t have healed, her.

Killing her friend’s savior seemed, wrong when she thought like that.

A conundrum.

So, there had been a stalemate.

Solved by food.

She had forgotten how tricky human monsters could be. Monsters with powerful minds, using trickery and food to fool her out of escaping with her friend.

She remembered how peeved and annoyed she had felt after that.

Promising herself to get revenge.

Knowing that her superior body could prevail at any task.

Knowing that she was by the entrance of the cave, and that the monster had to pass her if it wanted to leave.

She knew she was a patient hunter.

And her confidence wasn’t in vain. For the monster eventually fell asleep.

His trickery to bribe her with food was but, in vain.

Even after eating several fills of that tasty meat.

Though, once the human had fallen asleep, and she’d tried to escape with her new friend. Her friend hadn’t budged.

Instead, her friend had tried to play with her, to fool around.

She had tried to stay focused, she remembered. Tried to convince her friend to escape.

Finding the hours playing around by the warm fire an awfully more fun thing to do.

But only realizing how much time she had wasted once the monster awoke, waking awfully quickly, too quickly, hitting its head on the back of the cave and dropping back into slumber.

She snorted at how pathetically weak the monster was.

But her friend didn’t look happy, instead looked horrified. Wobbling up to the monster and, saving him.

Using brætt líf with the light of green. Using too much as her friend suddenly grew stale and lifeless.

She had been terrified at first.

Then remembering how the monster had, somehow, saved her friend before.

The monster could probably do it again. She thought to herself.

So, she had waited.

Accidentally falling asleep in the process.

Dreaming of running away. Dreaming of Death.

A terrifying dream.

Waking to the monster once again trying to fool her with food.

Such a stupid monster, thinking she’d fall for the same trick twice.

She had tried to tell herself that, ignoring the fact that she remembered falling for it, again.

And remembering how she had pounced on the monster, grabbing the meat out of its grabby hands.

Remembering how she had had it beneath her.

Remembering smelling the monster for the first time.

It smelt like terror and guilt.

She remembered how she froze, how she stared in confusion down on the monster.

How could a monster feel what she felt? She remembered thinking.

It was puzzling; it was weird.

It felt comforting- in a strange way.

She remembered sitting atop the monster, staring down and feeling, safe. Feeling, connected.

She remembered how she started purring.

A thing she thought she had forgotten how to do.

And she remembered how the…

Human

Had held her.

And how soft it had felt.

She remembered her mother.

She remembered how she had told her they were alone in the world. The last great ones.

She didn’t feel that alone anymore.

She remembered falling asleep.

And dreamt a nice dream.