Solar Song, Frozen Fate ✓ | lion girl, frenemies, frost curse

Chapter 5: Ambush

Sovanna looked around for something to stick him with and maybe try to fight him with a weapon to bide time, but he came at her in a leap. She tore up the tree and he hit his head, just missing her.

"You're cheating!" he shouted up at her.

"There's no rules in fight," she grumbled.

The branches tipped and swayed under her weight. A high-pitched primate chatter erupted nearby and three thorntails with their long bulbus noses and spikey tails swung from the tree to the next one over. She clung to her tree as it dipped under their weight and popped back up.

Dip-trees, all around, she realized and an idea clicked. She could swing them around and fling herself from tree to tree, getting there faster and Rokki wouldn't get to her.

Sovanna rocked her hips back and forth, making the tree sway. Below, Rokki was climbing up after her, clinging hard as the entire tree began to move.

"Get down and let's fight," he said, swiping a paw up at her, but she tucked up her tail, wrapping it around her arm. The tree swung and dipped all the way forward at last and then all the way back. Sovanna leaned all her weight as close to the ground as she could. When it sprung forward at full force, instead of holding on the whole as she would usually do, Sovanna leapt from the branch, flying through the air. The wind whipped in her face and she saw the hint of dawn on the horizon already.

She yowled as she landed on the next tree, crashing through the branches. Claws unsheathed, she grabbed whatever she could and her claw grazed the bark and slid down few branches, snapping them off.

Screaming, she slid down the bark, unable to stop herself. Sovanna dug hard into the bark with her feet and tried to strain against the pull to the ground. Her claws felt like they were being ripped out of her paws, and her face stung from the branches hitting her and her wounds. 

A sound thundered above her and the tree swayed and tipped forward, backwards, swinging her around and around. She clung hard as she still slid. The fur on her stomach scrapped off and she cried out when a branch stabbed her in the side.

Zipping through the dip-tree, she gritted her teeth, squinted her eyes, and clung on until at last she landed heavy on the bottom. The air knocked out of her and she fell over on her back. But when she looked up, Rokki was sliding down after her.

"That sav—" She rolled out of the way but didn't look where she was going. Her body tipped and she began to roll down a steep hill. Stones flung into her face, dirt stung her eyes, twigs and leaves lashed relentlessly in her face. She tried to grab something, anything but her paws only met with a rock or branch that hit her as she passed. Sovanna's body flung down the hill until she flew up into the air, arms flailing, legs kicking, and landed with a giant splash into water.

Sovanna couldn't swim.

"Help!" she called, hoping that maybe she was close enough to Rukkatukin and someone might sense her distress. It was a risk with the enemy close by. But water made her weak and she could already feel her muscles relaxing as the magick in her body went numb. The longer she stayed, the heavier she was with the water seeping into her fur. 

Kaunlutha fur was not like the fur of a thorntail or a mussa that could withstand water. Kaunlutha spent all their time indoors during the monsoon season unlike other creatures that went out regardless.

It had been that way for centuries. This made them vulnerable to floods if they were to ever happen. Sometimes, it rained so much that the ground would pool in places where the land dipped or hollowed out.

Sovanna paddled as best she could trying to keep her head above water. She did know how to survive in the water if she did fall in, but that was all she could do. Sovanna didn't know how to move in the water to get back to shore.