Seril

Icarth opened his eyes to the sensation of free falling. The crippling sensation of fear produced by that purple blob of liquid was gone and was now replaced by a different fear of falling to his death.

Shaking his head, he found Mia gripping his hand with one arm and the rabbit with the other.

"Ica what do we do!?" Emmia panicked, gripping that poor rabbit as hard as she could so that it wouldn't escape

Not that it was in any state to escape either. Its mind had literally shut down in the current scenario it was in because its instincts didn't have a single use for the current situation.

Icarth couldn't speak, he was currently feeling very powerless right now. First the murky purple mass and now in this seemingly impossible situation.

Before he could drown himself in self-loathing, he felt a jerk from Emmia.

"ICA! Are you listening to what I'm saying?" Emmia shouted as hard as she could while shaking him.

Icarth turned to Emmia and saw only her panicked eyes. But in that panic, there was a strong will to live, to not die in these absurd circumstances.

"I said there's water a little distance away!" Emmia yelled at him.

Ica turned to the ground and tried to find the water. Fast approaching was a deep blue swathe of water that covered a significant portion of his view. From high up, it seemed to ripple and was filled with activity.

"Are you sure?" Ica shouted back at Emmia.

"What else can we do?" Emmia yelled back.

Icarth stayed silent before clenching his teeth. Emmia didn't have the necessary strength to push them towards the water nor the capacity to make sure they hit the water safely.

This wasn't some fun activity that he could challenge himself with. It was a life or death situation.

'It's all up to me,' Icarth shook himself out of his self-loathing and reached inside himself for that power boost.

As his hair grew and his nails and teeth became claws and fangs, a sense of excitement rushed through him even in this dangerous situation.

Icarth's pale red eyes started to glow even brighter as he scanned the distance below him. The wind howled last his ears as he estimated how much time was left.

He turned himself and faced upwards towards the sky and dragged Emmia on top of him.

"Let go of the rabbit!" Icarth shouted.

"No! It'll die!" Emmia yelled back at him, making sure that the rabbit was in between the two of them.

"Mia! Now is not the time!" Icarth roared.

"Just do what you're going to do! I'll make sure that he survives!" Emmia argued at the top of her lungs.

"Arrggh!" Icarth growled. He didn't have the time to argue with her.

Flattening out, he tried to catch as much air with his back as they fell. Falling into his instincts he waited until he sensed the surface of the water approaching.

Danger started to blare as his back tingled and the sound of the wind changed in his ear.

Utilising his new strength Icarth turned 90 degrees and made sure that his feet were positioned towards the water.

Hugging Mia and the rabbit, Icarth plunged into the water with a loud bang.

----

A lone adolescent lion cub wearily plodded through the forest. Her once brilliant golden pelt was dirty and matted with blood. Wounded and tired, she continued to drag herself across the forest.

She didn't know why she was even trying anymore. Exiled from her tribe, differing from the rest of her species, discriminated against due to her appearance, and finally hunted down and left to die in the forest.

A long gash was running down her belly. It wasn't meant to kill her immediately, it was so that she could have a slow and painful death.

As the shadows seemed to grow around her and her crimson red eyes dimmed slightly, she heard the sound of running water.

An acute thirst ran through her throat as she slowly started to turn towards the sound. Deciding that it was better to at least alleviate some of her miseries before dying, she made her way through the bushes towards the small river.

Lapping up some water, she satiated her thirst as well as some of her hunger and laid down there. Her thoughts wandered to her tribe and why they hated her so much when she heard a splashing sound.

Turning her gaze, she found two young cubs that were in their humanoid forms. One of them was unconscious and the other was desperately trying to swim while holding the other.

The young lioness, Seril, pitied the two cubs. No matter how much she wanted to help, she was in no state to do so. And on top of that, acting on her kindness was what got her exiled from her tribe in the first place.

Steeling her heart, Seril prayed for the girl cub to get themselves to safety. Her heart clutched as the struggle became less fierce indicating that she was tiring out.

'Don't do it. You can't do anything,' she thought turning away. Seril could no longer watch when the scent of the two cubs hit her nose. Even before the scent could register, she found herself moving, diving into the river and paddling fiercely.

'Crazy, I've finally gone crazy,' Seril thought as she paddled furiously.

Her wounds burned and stabbed into her as they came in contact with the water. Ignoring the burning sensation of her wounds, Seril finally reached the two cubs. Grabbing the girl cub by the neck, Seril started to paddle towards the other side of the river.

Each moment felt as if she was filled with lead, while her injuries gave out excruciating pain.

Seril finally reached the other side. Tossing the two cubs onto land, she lugged herself up as well.

Seril's stomach burned as if it was on fire. Due to that absurd move she had just committed, her cut had opened up even further and was leaking blood.

While Seril was strong even for her species, she didn't think she was going to recover from this one. Resigning herself to her fate she gazed at the two cubs that she had just saved.

It was a boy and a girl. Both seemed to be siblings with the same golden hair, slick from the water. The boy, who had partially transformed back into his beast form, seemed to have broken his legs which were bent at an unnatural angle. The girl on the other hand was laying unconscious, exhausted from struggling to stay afloat.

Miraculously, there was a fairly large rabbit in between them. It was clutching onto the boy cub's body, shivering heavily.

'I must be seeing things. A rabbit? Definitely not.' Seril thought deciding that she was delirious from blood loss.

Thinking for a moment, she moved closer and lay beside the cubs. Using her tail to bring them closer, she felt her head drop. At least this way, the cubs would have some warmth until they woke up.

'My final act of kindness,' Seril mused as she laughed at herself for being so soft. Suddenly she had an odd sensation.

Taking a whiff of their scent once more, she felt absurdly sure that if the cubs' eyes were open they would also be red. Of course, that was only part of her wild imagination on the verge of blacking out....right?