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

Chapter 25: Leaving (Part 1)

In the dream, Sovanna saw her father but couldn't touch him. He kept slipping through her fingers, turning white like the frost fog. Her mother was there, too, but when Sovanna touched her, she crumbled into myriad chunks of snow. Beyond the fog, a figure stood tall with a mane like her own—Rathana, but most of her face was hidden in shadow and only her mouth was visible.

"The title is mine," Rathana snarled, "and my child's. I will fight you to the death, Sovanna. Then I will have the Ater and the Guardian's power. Then I will kill the Guardians and use the sun to my will. I will be queen of the world."

Sovanna gasped Rathana was suddenly upon her, squeezing her throat. She coughed and choked, kicked and swatted, but to no avail. Every attack went right through Rathana's body. 

Then Bristya was next to her looking on with a cold gaze. Her eyes turned black. Her chin stretched to her torso, and her mouth filled with sharp teeth all around. The air tingled with heavy magick as Bristya's fur turned black and her veins were rivets of liquid flames. A gust of hot, searing air burst into Sovanna's face as Bristya was replaced with a long-limbed creature.

Rathana didn't have time to scream. The creature gnashed down on her, swallowing her head whole then the rest of her body slipped in after. Sovanna squeaked and tried to move, but she was achingly slow.

Then an idea snapped into her mind. Consciousness grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her as if to say, "Wake up!"

Of course. I'm dreaming. She thought with a sigh of relief. Come then. Wake up! She told herself but she couldn't. Dread shuddered through her body as cold as the snow she sat on. And she could feel it. The wetness beneath her butt where her body temperature melted the snow, the chill in the air and how the frost collected on her fur and whiskers. But it was impossible. This was a dream.

"Wake up!" she said, now out loud to herself, finding her voice within her dream. Why wasn't she waking up? 

The creature began to advance. Its haunting eyes were as black as an abyss that stretched deep into a forever darkness. It didn't cry or scream, but opened its mouth and the black fur turned into spikes along its back. The long limbs dragged in the frost. Sovanna scrambled backwards as fast as she could make herself go.

"Hurry, wake up," she said over and over, now clawing at the slippery ground, but the more she clawed, the slower she became until she couldn't move her arms at all. The creature got down on its stomach and, kicking its legs out behind, shoved itself across the ice and swung its long neck toward her.

"Wake up, wake up," Sovanna cried out, "Please, please." Tears pooled in her eyes as she twisted her body and saw behind her, the silhouette a figure that looked like it had wings. Was it Taro? Could she call out?

"Help me," she said, but her voice came only as a whisper. She couldn't even scream anymore. The creature grabbed her ankle and its hot claws dug into her skin. Sovanna slipped underneath it and searing drool hit her. She gritted her teeth as it stung her cheek.

Then, she looked up into the creature's mouth. On all sides in a circle, its teeth were like rows and rows of sharpened daggers. The opening of its mouth had a long black tongue folded many times. Black ooze leaked out and onto her body.

"Savat," she whispered as fear gripped her chest. She told herself to move and fight, to burn its throat and throw it off, but her body wouldn't listen and her magick hid.

"A...z...rk," came a guttural sound from deep within that hole of a throat. In that instant, a streak of yellow smoke blew over her head and into the mouth of the monster. It shrieked and snapped its neck backwards almost in half. Sovanna ducked when another gust came over her head, this time blinding her. She blinked her eyes and twisted her body away.

Then she realized she could move. Quickly, she scrambled to her feet, slipped, unsheathed her claws, and trekked towards her savior as fast as she could go. The closer she neared, the more she realized the figure was much taller than Taro.

"Behind me!" called the male. She couldn't see exactly what he looked like, but the frost fog was rolling around her, obscuring the vision.

"Quick, run to the tunnel!"

"Who are you?"

"We will meet again in Dark North. May light guide you, Sovanna."

"Who are you?" she said, but then he vanished and so did the creature. She was alone on an icy plain. 

Her eyes caught something glinting on the ice. Sovanna picked up a silver chain with a stone carved into an oval shape embedded in a silver casing at the end. White-blue swirling patterns etched on the gem's surface and she could make out a runic symbol pulsating softly with cream-yellow light.

The air filled with a heaviness again. Sovanna jerked her head up and searched the clearing. She found the tunnel the male told her about, barely visible through the fog. Holding the chain tight in her paw, she ran for the tunnel. Her back tingled as if someone were watching her.

Sovanna snapped out of sleep.

"Vanna, you okay?" Taro was standing over her. "You were crying out in your sleep." He pulled up a chair and sat next to her.

"Just a dream," she whispered.

But was it?

She let out a slow breath as the dream lingered on her mind. Rathana, Bristya who turned into a monster, then the male who saved her, it was all so real.

Gem? Chain? She swallowed as she realized that she did, indeed, have something in her paw. She could feel its smooth surface pressed against her pawpad and the indentation of the runic symbol when she pressed her fingers into it. 

Somehow, she brought it with her through the dream. Her heart thumped because she knew this was a Guardian's stone. It had to be. What other creature walked around with a gem?

But which Guardian? And gave it to me or drop it? I've stolen it then? Sovanna bit her lip. She was already in trouble with Bristya with the emerald. She didn't want to anger yet another Guardian. He saved her in a dream, too.

"What's that?" Taro asked.

Before she could show him, the door burst open and in came Stopha with Naja and two other Scales talking loudly. Another figure hung in the back.

"Time to go!" Stopha called with a laugh in his voice, "Fate waits for no one."