Lunar Heart, Shadow Bound ✓ [when the moon lies]

Ch.21: The Other Soul

Note: Underlined words are Kathula tail sign language. The above art is by me.

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Pinti flinched from a touch on her arm. A far away, muffled voice entered her ears. She struggled to open her eyes. Darkness receded from her vision, but what her eyes met was more darkness. She couldn't make out what lay before her.

"...sigelei," came a deep voice. "Authna."

The commanding tone sent shivers up and down her body. A warmth glowed on her right. Burnt wood permeated her nose.

Fire? Where am I? Pinti blinked, trying to focus. Her vision still blurry, she could just make out a silhouette of a Kathula with an azure glow surrounding their body. The light pulsed a few times then faded.

Sniffing the air, she found fresh soil, the rawness of recently caught prey, and something else lingering. Taking a deep breath, she filled her lungs with the crisp air. The scene before her became clearer from the edges. A silhouette of towering pine trees framed a starry sky above, and the myriad of twinkling stars took her breath away. She panned her gaze down, following the edge of the forest.

A soft orange light of a fire pushed some of the dark away. Dirt and leaves packed into the ground around her in the flattened clearing. As she tried to move, her arms brushed against dried grass. Under her head was something soft, and in her mind, she pictured a makeshift bed.

Sweet scents of some kind of flower rode on a cool breeze that swept from within the depths of the forest shadows. Her ears twitched at the hoot of an owl answered by another. Crickets chirruped and there was even the scurrying pitter patter of a small creature.

What happened to me? She wondered. A vast water place filled her memory, and she remembered the salt. Curiosity had gotten the best of her and she wasn't looking where she was going or paying attention to the drop ahead.

Over the salty water's edge and a fire pit to burn me alive, but then what? The memory was vague thereafter, but she did recall one thing—a dark blue figure in an azure light. Her held her breath, realizing now what it was.

A Kathula! But how? Deel? It was impossible. How could he have saved her?

"...knew it would happen!"

Bristling at the high-pitched voice, she turned her head to where flames flickered and ate wood. Beyond the fire, facing their backs to her, were two Kathula. One was larger and the other was smaller, like an adult and a child. Firelight revealed their dark blue, bushy tails were connected at the tip. Was her mind playing tricks on her? She rubbed her eyes, but the scene before her didn't change.

"Deel," came a deep velvety voice of a male Kathula and the bigger one turned to face the shorter one. "I told you," he said in an apologetic tone as if talking to a child, "The magick from the stone was preventing my Faud from coming out."

"But you said, b-but now I can't be whole again!" The smaller Kathula turned his head. It was Deel, she realized with wide eyes. He was in his Kathula form and she had seen those blue eyes before. But he was so much smaller now, just like the child he acted as. But why was he connected to this other Kathula and who was this other? Pinti kept still, watching the scene unfold.

"I thought we could go back and get it. You know I wouldn't have let this happen," the other said in a low voice as if trying to keep quiet.

Deel whined. "You left it behind on purpose, so you could be free."

The bigger one turned his head. His eyes were light blue with a grayish tint. It was the ones she had seen in Nuaka when she first met Deel! It was two different Kathula in one body!