Chapter Two

Mud Clung to Cierra's legs, weighing her down, making her feel as if she had gained fifty pounds. She looked around, trying to place where she was, but the fog made things hard to see. When she went to bed earlier, she had done so with a plan: she was going to go back to the place where the tiger was and confront him. Nothing in a dream had hurt her before, but then again, very few beings had tried to speak to her. Maybe she could find the tiger from before and ask them some questions. She ignored the fact that if dreaming was all in her subconscious and none of it was real, that she would technically be answering her own questions. Something inside of her wanted it to be real and she had no one else to ask or talk to.

Now was her chance to get answers.

Or at least that was what she had thought when she drifted off to sleep imagining the wind caressing the grass under a much too large sun, tigers sunbathing in the distance.

It seemed as though she was not dreaming of the same place as before. This new place was too dark, and something about the fog around her reminded her of the word miasma. It felt as if the very air itself could poison her from the inside out. Around her, all she could discern were the twisted shadows of what she hoped were trees. Their long trunks looked misshapen as if someone had come through and scooped out uneven chunks and the branches drooped down as if waterlogged. Which might explain all the mud, now that she thought about it.

Every now and then she could see things moving in her peripheral vision, long bodies prowling close to the ground. Despite their large size, they somehow escaped her gaze when she tried to look at them straight on.

If she didn't know better, which she was starting to doubt she did, it almost seemed as though the very tree's themselves where moving, twisting around as though to purposefully confuse her. Each step forward was a struggle, fighting against the mud pulling at her legs and threatening to take her shoes. Every few steps it felt like the world shifted a few degrees clockwise, the trees in front of her moving slightly to the right. To test this theory, Cierra tried to focus on a single point and painstakingly move towards it, only to find herself staring at an empty space three steps in, with the tree she thought she was looking it off center to the right.

Cierra tried to steady her breathing, which was threatening to half gulps. Something about being stuck in the dark, legs half encased in mud, was starting to make her heartbeat race. What if she never left this place and was sucked into the mud and forgotten forever? It was a half-second thought that strengthened her resolve; she was not going to die some mud bog surrounded by partially gutted trees.

She tried to clear her mind and remember the advice people gave in nature documentaries and adventure movies. People always talked about how important it was to keep a level head and to not panic. She took a deep breath, held it, and released. If she couldn't keep track of where she was because the surroundings kept moving, then she would become one of the surroundings.

In the darkness, her hearing had become amazing. She could hear the flaps of winged things and the cracks of branches coming from everywhere in the muddy bog. She concentrated, trying to pin down where any single noise was coming from, but no matter how hard she tried it just seemed as if it was coming from somewhere above her in the trees, then below at ground level, then right in front of her a few paces off.

Glancing around, she tried to focus on finding the nearest tree. This time she moved forward slowly, deliberately. Anytime the tree seemed to slip to the side, she adjusted her own angle to match. By the time she reached the trunk, she was exhausted. Despite running track for three years, she had never experienced this daunting of a leg workout.

Looking at the tree, she knew she was going to have some problems. The holes she had noticed before were worse than she had imagined. It was like looking at a bruised banana; there were purple soft spots in areas that worked their way up. Some were bloated, looking fit to burst like some sort of blister. Cierra shuddered realizing that the open areas must be where the blisters had popped open. The soft spots that had collapsed had released pulp and sap that sloughed down the trunk.

Now that Cierra was so close to one of the trees, she noticed there were parts that were white. Not the pristine white she had seen during calculus, but still, it made her suspicious.

There was only one way to find out.

Cierra looked for a branch or area that she could grab onto to help lift her feet out of the mud but struggled to find anything. The trunk part she was eye level with had a few bloated sections that looked as though her foot might sink right through if she tried to climb them, and she was unsure if she would be able to completely remove both her feet from the mud without some sort of leverage.

Trying not to think about it, Cierra hit at one of the lower bloated areas. Her hand sank in a little, the texture surprisingly spongey, but didn't break through the bark. She tried again, this time putting as much force as she could into punching the tree. The blister exploded; sap, pulp, and, Cierra gagged, maggots came rolling out. She had only ever seen maggots once, when her biology professor had showed a video of the lifecycle of flies. There was a smell too, off something rotten and wrong.

Suddenly Cierra wanted to run away to somewhere with cleansing sunlight and water. Just standing there in mud with the trees made her feel as though at any moment she too could blister and pop.

But there was no way to know how to get out of here, not from the bottom of the trees stuck in the mud.

She grabbed an edge of popped trunk a bit further up, ignoring the wriggling beneath her palm, and gripped it tight, before forcing one leg out of the mud and into the hole she had just created. When both her legs were free, she started to climb, using the open sores as foot and hand holds. The further she climbed the less sores there were. It was as though a disease was working its way up the tree from the roots.

Now, as she reached the top, there was no mistaking it. The sky above was clear, the sun was still there taking over half the sky, but before where it had felt almost comforting, it now felt like it was looming, waiting to fall. It emitted no sunlight, or at least, it didn't emit any light that reached her eyes. Instead, it was as though a see-through darkness had settled over the sky. It reminded Cierra of those colored filters camera crew used to make a scene look as somber as possible.

Cierra tried to see further out, maybe there was a place in the forest that wasn't corrupted yet. Even at the top of the tree she couldn't see very far out, the grass plains weren't visible at all, and all around her were trees slowly rotting to nothing but maggots and worms.

One area, not too far from where was looked darker than the others. It swirled slightly, like a slow vortex and Cierra wondered if this darkness was what she had seen sneaking through the trees earlier. An anger blossomed in her chest, how dare this darkness take away a place she had been visiting since she was a child?

She tried to discern a path through the woods but saw none. If she was going to get to the vortex, she was going to need to walk there herself. It felt impossible, her legs were already too heavy, too exhausted and coated in mud and maggots to make the trek down this tree and further into the woods.

She eyed the branches around her, maybe she could swing from branch to branch like some modern-day Tarzan and reconnect with her monkey ancestors. A quick look told her that wasn't possible. The branches were too thin and the ones that might have been think enough looked as though they were growing purple patches like the main body. Who knew if those would be able to hold her weight? Not to mention she had no confidence in her Tarzan skills. She had only barely been able to climb the tree, she doubted she would be able to jump from one branch to another with any sort of confidence.

She glanced down and her breath caught in her throat. At the trunk of her tree, it looked like the dark creatures from earlier were gathering. From here they looked patchy, but familiar. The fur Cierra had always known as white was now as dark as her own hair, and it looked patchy in places, like it had started to fall off in great clumps. She wondered if the same thing happening to the rest of this place was happening to them; if the great missing sections of their fur were also maggot filled blisters that had popped, only instead of sap they were now losing flesh and blood.

Cierra tried to steady her breathing, remembering the rule that had gotten her up the tree to begin with: stay calm, don't panic. Nothing here had ever hurt her before; even the tiger from earlier had only pinned her down and she had woken up before any major damage was done. Maybe it was the same now, maybe they were simply passing by and would move on after a few moments rest.

Still, it was unsettling to see their large bodies waiting at the base of the tree.

She glanced in the direction of the mini-vortex, checking to see if it was getting any bigger. It was hard to believe that this place, a place that she had once considered hers was on the verge of collapse. She had first found herself transported here when she was five or six years old and had made a game of rolling down the grassy slopes. It wasn't until years later that she had visited again. After that, whenever she had a bad day, she would go to bed thinking of the feel of the grass under her feet and the wake up to find herself breathing in the semi-sweet air.

Every ounce of her being wanted to be able to come back to this place as she knew just a few hours ago, even the forest that she had never had the guts to enter. What had really been so scary about the pale trees now that she thought about it? It wasn't like anything had ever bothered her. She felt angry at herself, she had been too dense and controlled by her own fear to explore what was now rotting away. She would never be able to see what this part of the world held.

An even worse fear struck her—what if she was never able to come back to this world at all?

Something shifted under her and looking down she was shocked to see the trunk of the tree was starting to look normal again, taking on its usual pale pallor. As she stared the branches themselves started to thicken and stand back up to their original positions. The tree itself felt solid again, and the open sores were slowly healing themselves, pushing the leftover rotten pulp and maggots out. She was now sitting in a beacon of light in a once dark place.

Cierra didn't have time to think about what had just happened, as her tree's color came back, it caught the attention of the creatures under it. The fog clinging to her tree had now cleared, and Cierra could now see the tigers, or what used to be tigers, with striking clarity. It was obvious that her assumption about what had happened to the missing fur was true. In some places the blisters were so deep that bones poked through, and their eyes, once such beautiful galaxies, were clouded over with a grayish film, as if they had cataracts.

As Cierra looked at them, they looked at her, growling, great jowls lifting to show the sharp teeth she had always expected. Awkwardly, two of the mid-size cats started to try and climb up the tree, long claws coming out to grip the bark. Wherever their paws touched they left purple soft spots, as if the rot they carried with them was contagious.

She racked her brain, how had the tree returned to normal? If the tigers had never shown interest in her before, why were they so interested now? If they went back to normal, would they lose interest again? Cierra had read articles about controlling dreams, but she had never really needed to put it into practice before. Plus, she wasn't even sure if what she had could even be called dreams.

A tiger fell, twisting to land on his feet, balance thrown off when he tried to lift his paw and instead left a claw and joint embedded in the tree trunk. From the claw, another blister was forming, spreading up and out.

Something needed to be done.

Cierra closed her eyes. All the articles she had read had mentioned visualization. She imagined a light spreading through her hands and into the tree, she saw its orange leaves, felt the soft wind, pictured the dirt below as solid, and the tigers as the ones she had seen earlier in various sizes and shades of orange and white with eyes seeing into the unknown. She tried to spread the image further to the next tree, but something stopped her. It was like a wall was surrounding her on all sides, refusing to let her attempt to purify the area any further.

She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. The tree was back to normal, though it only offered a few orange leaves. The tigers below seemed cured of their cataracts, but not their blisters. Or at least not completely. They stood at the bottom of the tree trying to console each other, soft mewling like a newborn's cries barely audible as they tried to lick each other's wounds, tongues turning purple, then black, leaving them pawing at their own faces in pain.

Cierra's heart broke for them. She started making her way down the tree, imagining in her mind the healthy tigers she was used to seeing. By the time she made it most of the way down, most of the blisters were gone, and the tigers were nuzzling each other, rubbing their faces on one another in affection.

Cierra briefly remembered being pinned down by one of their brethren and tried to banish the thought. If visualization was power, she didn't want to bring an attack on herself. When she planted her feet on the ground, the tigers made room for her, spreading out, watching her cautiously.

Looking around it became obvious that Cierra had only fixed the problem for her tree and the inhabitants under it. All around them were mud pools and the same fog as before. Hesitating, Cierra closed her eyes and tried to imagine the forest as whole but was once again pushed back by the nameless wall.

She stepped forward, and the tigers stepped back not growling this time, but not friendly either. She stepped towards a mud pool and pictured it as solid. To her surprise, when she stood on it, it supported her weight. In this way she tried to push forward, little by little. She found that she had to focus on healing the ground immediately beside her, or else the wall would come back and block her out. She tried to feel around the wall with her mind, but it felt cold and lifeless, like a pitch-black void that even the brightest star could never hope to illuminate.

Glancing back, she saw that her tree was already dilapidating, the leaves gone, blisters puckering. The long-haired tigers must have caught on, choosing to follow her closely rather than turn back into whatever it was they were before. It was only now that Cierra noticed how pack-like these tigers were. They nudged the youngest ones closest to her, keeping them clear from the rot while the oldest and largest of them stayed back, constantly in a state of half-blistering. She tried her best to keep the healthiest figure of her unexpected entourage in mind, pushing as hard as she could to keep the older members eyes from glazing over like before.

As they pressed forward, the mist deepened and keeping things alive became a herculean task. It was draining to keep the image of health and clarity in her mind. At first, she hadn't noticed but now it was obvious that the void was pushing in on her, trying to take back control and spread. She gave up on the trees first, mentally apologizing but too drained to continue trying to remember how the sun reflected off the leaves and made each tree shine.

When she saw the darkness thicken into a swirl up ahead and caught the foul stench of what her mind immediately labeled 'death,' she was forced to give up the ground and trudge once again through the mud. The tigers, forced to stay by her side for survival, went with her now close enough that if she reached out a hand on either side, she could pet two of the youngest.

Circling in on them all around were creatures that Cierra could at best describe as walking corpses. Their meat and fur had completely fallen off in most places, revealing skulls and teeth for some, and half rib cages on others. Cierra tried to will them back to life, but found they were too far gone.

"I'm sorry," She whispered. Helping them was beyond her.

She kept stepping forward, hands in front of her, feet dragging through the mud. If she kept creeping forward, she was sure to get out of here and back into the sunlit field she had been hoping to return to when she finally went to bed. The mud got deeper, to the point that the youngest tiger, still a bright orange color with no trace of white, struggled to keep moving. Cierra stopped and looked at him helplessly. She didn't want to pick him up and risk being attacked, but she also wasn't going to simply leave him there to become yet another undead.

She looked at the closest full-grown tiger. Would they understand her? That one tiger had spoken to her mind, but these had said nothing, instead choosing to walk in silence.

"May I?" She nodded at the little one and made a carrying gesture with her arms, putting them together like one might to hold a baby.

The tiger watched her, flicking its shaggy tail. Now that Cierra looked more closely, the fur and tails reminded her more of a cat-dog mix. They had the ears and shape of a large cat, but the fur and shaggy tails of dogs, just in the downward slope particular to cats. Slowly the large cat lowered its head in a gesture that Cierra took to be a nod. It was unnerving that she could only assume the cat was looking at her but couldn't tell due to the nature of its eyes.

Slowly, she reached out and took the cat in her arms. His fur was soft, much softer than anything Cierra had ever experienced before. It was how she imagined touch a cloud must feel like. Walking forward, she started petting him absentmindedly, scratching him behind the ears. He purred, and realizing his error tried to twist himself to nip at her fingers.

Then she heard it, footsteps like her own, as if someone was gaining her, sloshing through the mud. She could tell it wasn't the twisting trees, they had never made an audible plop sound as if stepping through mud. She stepped a few more feet forward and so did whatever was behind her. The tigers growled, and the steps stopped. Cierra took her queue from the other cats, looking in the direction same direction off to the left that they were looking. She thought of hiding behind one of the twisting trees and waiting, using the fact that whoever it was probably couldn't see either to her advantage. There was no way to hide her group though, and she was pretty sure seeing living beings in a place of death would give them all away, even if the person only saw the tigers first.

She chose to simply stay still and wait.

She heard them step forward, slowly, as if they knew it could be a trap. Trying to be stealthy, she quietly slid toward whoever was following her, forgetting that wherever she went the tigers were forced to go too. Through the fog she was able to make out the silhouette of a person near her height. From experience she knew that most people as tall or taller than her were men. Could she overpower a man if he was an enemy? Would the tigers protect her? They let her hold the young cub, but it hadn't been permission given with overwhelming gratitude or cheer. There was no way to know if they stayed in part because they felt indebted to her for saving them or if they simply couldn't leave.

What were they doing here? How did they even get here? This dream world had never held any other people, at least not that she had ever seen. Whenever she had come across people, they were often humanoid only in shape. She remembered a whole underground dream once were beings walked on two legs but had hard exoskeletons and antennas. They spent most of their time eating dirt; it wasn't a place she wanted to revisit.

Their outline became sharper as the person stepped closer, and she could tell whoever this person was, their hands were empty, they weren't carrying any weapons. Cierra was only partially relieved. She still didn't know who this person was or how easily they could overpower her or vice versa. Years ago, her aunt had taken her aside and told her the fundamentals of what to do if she was ever attacked by a member of the opposite sex. Nothing was off the table when dealing with an unknown attacker—bite, kick, poke their eyes, grip their testicles until they popped like walnuts. Her aunt had spared no detail. There had only been two things Cierra had taken away from the conversation back then: 1) The most ineffectual thing was to scream for help, instead her aunt had drilled into her to yell 'FIRE' at the top of her lungs. People were more likely to want to watch something burn than help another human being. 2) Groins hurt when punched or squeezed.

Even if she screamed 'FIRE,' she was pretty sure they were the only two people here, so she settled on her second option.

Cierra was certain that whoever this was, they must have seen her silhouette just like she saw theirs. She half hoped they wouldn't have the courage to continue once he noticed the tigers. The only thing keeping her hands steady was the fact they were busy holding the cub, everything else inside of her felt like it was shaking. Her heart wracked chest, her legs, no longer sore from the heavy mud and tree climbing, felt like they were going to take off from underneath her. She was half convinced she was still standing simply because they hadn't figured out which direction they wanted to go in.

She couldn't stand it anymore.

"Hey!" She called out, willing her voice to be steady. "How did you get here?" She demanded, trying to push her shoulders back so she was at full height.

Startled, the person moved as though stepping back, as if trying to enshrouding his figure once more in fog. There was a pause that stretched between them like centuries. It seemed to Cierra that the person was calculating something, and she pushed her feet as far into the mud they could go to steel herself.

She was shocked when the person seemed to turn and then take off blindly through the fog. What the hell? How could he run when she was barely able to walk? How was he expecting to make it through this bog of twisting trees and mud if he couldn't see where he was going?

She concentrated trying to hear footsteps. If he had decided to circle behind, she wanted to know. Despite straining her ears, all she heard was the odd creaking and cracking of the trees. Sighing in frustration, she wanted time to think about what had just happened, but instead she pushed forward. She didn't have the luxury of thinking things over.

Then she had a frightening yet relieving thought—she wasn't alone anymore. She may not have any idea who this mystery person was, but she now knew she wasn't the only one anymore. That thought alone made her feel a bit better.

Hopefully they would meet again, and they would prove to be a friend and not a foe.

The group pressed forward, into the vortex. Cierra's hair started to whip around her shoulders. She looked at the animals around her and it was almost comical to see their long fur tussling about in every direction. If it weren't for the smell of death and blinding fog getting stronger, she would have laughed. Towards the back of the group there was now a new tiger, or at least Cierra thought it was a new tiger. It was curious, she could have sworn there were only three adult sized cats with her. Maybe she had healed one without realizing and they had joined the group.

She wondered vaguely how long she had been here, walking towards whatever great darkness this was. It felt like hours had passed, and all her muscles were straining to keep going. What was she going to do when she reached the center if she was already this tired? She gnawed on her bottom lip, trying to come up with a strategy.

No matter how she looked at it, if this wasn't a natural phenomenon, she was going to have to fight someone or something and she wasn't sure her aunt's tactics would work here. She wanted to stop and think, but there wasn't any time for that. Instead, she chose the plan of 'come what may.'

It was obvious now that everything here was dead. The dying was done and all that remined were fallen trunks of trees and their mulch. The rotten animals were nowhere to be seen, but neither were any evidence of their corpses. There were no bones or even leftover claws. They were just gone.

Then they heard it, steps heavy enough to make the earth quake. Cierra found herself thrown off balance, her only saving grace a medium sized tiger who caught her with their head.

"Thank you." she mumbled; a bit embarrassed.

They weren't afforded the luxury of pleasantries.

From the right came a creature the likes of which Cierra had never seen before. It was gigantic, easily towering over her, and nearly as wide as a car. It looked as though it had been sewn together from different rotting skins, like a nightmare quilt. Some areas were clearly skin turning to leather, in different stages of tan, while others were from creatures that had fur. Cierra though she recognized some of the furs from other dreams she had over the years.

The smell was unthinkable—if before this had been the smell of death, this was the smell of whatever came after. Every fiber of Cierra's being told her to run, but her breath caught in her throat and all she could do was stare. He lunged at them, and she felt teeth ripping at her clothes as she was dragged out of the way by one of the larger tigers.

The tigers around her hunched down and growled. When the monster leapt at her again, they pounced, tearing at its legs, ripping at the back of its ankles. It cried out in pain, an unearthly howl high pitched howl like nothing Cierra had ever heard before.

Cierra felt useless, all she could do was concentrate on keeping the tigers whole, and that wasn't going well. It was hard to keep them close enough to her but to also stay out of harm's way herself. The abomination flung one of the cats back, into the darkness, when he slunk back into view his fur was already falling off with blisters rising.

The ground started shaking again, harder than before, and it was as though the world stopped. Three more abominations appeared, creating a grotesque wall of flesh. Cierra's heart sunk. Where one monster seem possible to defeat, four did not.

"Run!" She screamed as loud as she could, taking off in the opposite direction, pushing further into the darkness. Even if the tigers wanted to fight, she was their lifeline, they would have to come with her. Her legs, already aching before, were now screaming in protest. Already the tigers had caught up to her, and if anything, seemed to have slowed down to match her pace. The abominations were gaining on them, their long strides making up for their slowness.

An abomination reached for her, and the tiger that had allowed Cierra to hold its cub lunged at the creature's arm, sinking its teeth into the rotting flesh before being tossed off into the darkness. The tiger didn't come back.

A large tiger grabbed at Cierra with its teeth, sinking its teeth into her shoulder and tossing her on its back. For half a second, she thought it was going to eat her and she screamed. Cierra barely had time to grab a handful of fur with her hurt arm while clutching the tiger cub in the other.

Finally relieved of the burden of keeping up with her pace, the tigers took off at full speed. The thunderous steps still echoed behind them, but they were fading further and further away until finally the group found themselves out of the and in a field. It was not the field that Cierra was so familiar with, instead this seemed to be a large clearing in the middle of the forest. The fog here was lighter, and the ground was solid again.

They slowed their pace, feeling somewhat put at ease by the change in surroundings.

It's like being in the eye of a storm.

The voice was clear in her head. "It's you!" Cierra let go of the fur she had been holding onto and slid off. "You attacked me!"

The tiger lowered its head, feigning guilt.

I had never seen someone shine so bright. There was a pause. And you don't carry the ring. I don't think you're supposed to be here.

"Ring?" She was confused, "What ring? What do you mean I shine? I've always been here, why am I not supposed to be?" She rapid fired questions at him, wanting as many answers as she could get.

For the first time she noticed that the tiger had a small gold circlet wrapped around one of its claws. Was that the ring he was talking about?

She was about to ask when a voice called out behind them.

"There you are," It was a voice that grated, the pitch changing from high to to low and back again. Everyone spun around to face this new threat, "I've been looking for you."

A twisted form of a man stood at the edge of the clearing. His body was darker than the darkest night and his arms were too long, hanging past his knees with fingertips as sharp as knives. His eyes were like two moons, large and silver, and they never left Cierra.

"Who are you?" Cierra tried to sound strong, but instead her voice broke halfway through. How much more of this could she take?

"I am known as Menace," the tiger next to her took a step back, "and I am but one of many Bringer of Nightmares."

He bowed his head in greeting, crossing an arm across his chest. As he did so, the four abominations from earlier gathered behind him.

"I am curious," he stepped forward, "How have you kept these creatures intact when my nightmare has all but taken over this realm?"

"What do you mean?" Realm? Nightmare? Menace? Cierra struggled to wrap her head around it. "I don't understand any of this."

She desperately wanted everything to go back to normal, to see the emerald grass with the sun shining too large and watch the pale white trees with their orange tops from a distance. Around her the grass tried to come back to life, flashing color, before fading back to a dry brown. She tried again, willing life back into the world, but failed.

The tiger gasped, What, he seemed lost for words for a moment, What are you doing?!

"Yes!," Menace, Bringer of Nightmares strode forward excitedly, with each step the brown grass sloshed to mulch and the ground turned to mud, "That is why you shine to bright!"

A tiger lunged at him as he came close. "Now, now," He flung his arm out catching the tiger mid-jump. Cierra gasped as the tiger lost its fur, blistered, and popped into nothingness in the matter of seconds. "It's time for you all to go."

One by one the tigers expanded into nothing.

"How…," Cierra's voiced trailed off to nothing.

All the remained were her, the tiger cub, and the tiger that had originally attacked her.

"Hmmm…" Menace, Bringer of Nightmares posed dramatically, hand under his chin. "Are you Watchers?" He shook his head, answering his own question. "No, Watchers rarely interfere…"

He looked them over thoughtfully a moment more before shrugging his shoulders.

"Either way, it's time for you to go." In one long stride he closed the gap between him and Cierra, grabbing her by the neck, one knife-like finger digging caressing her jugular. From this distance she could see his teeth, all fine razor points, stacked in rows of threes. She closed her eyes instinctively. She wanted nothing more than to wake up and be at home, to forget about all of this and never have to worry about it again. Why had she been so intent on finding answers? Why couldn't she have enjoyed her life the way it was, carelessly wandering through her dreams?

I'm sorry… The voice sounded remorseful. Cierra wanted nothing more than for him to pounce at this monster and tear him to shreds, but she had seen the fate of the other tigers. What use would this one be? And how could she ask him to risk his life for hers?

She remembered the tigers and the way they had tried to protect her, and for what? She felt anger course through her. Thy had protected her and she had let this thing kill them off in just a few short seconds. She opened her eyes. She wasn't going to die with her eyes closed dreaming about going home, she was going to force this creature to look her in the eyes while her life left her. It was the only thing she had left to do.

In her arms she felt the cub struggle, catching the attention of the Menace.

"Were you planning to keep a skogkatt as a pet?" His eyes half-mooned and he chuckled, entertained, "Too bad I caught you first. You could have preserved the last of the once heavenly race."

"Curious though," his eyes lifted to hers, "That you were able to lift even one this small up yourself as a mortal being." He tilted her head to the left and right, as if trying to discern her real being.

He shrugged, "Anomalies are known to exist."

"Let's handle this one first." He reached for the cub with his other hand.

"No!" A blinding white surrounded Cierra, pushing the creature back, leaving both him and the tiger behind her shielding their eyes. Her body felt white-hot, like every synapse was now connected and she felt the hum of the world all around her.

Her eyes glowed golden and her hair, now a light brown, floated out behind her.