the seventh god, titans

𝟬𝟬𝟯

VALERIA AND RACHEL RAN through the forest, desperate to get away from the Catholic Church. Out of nowhere, they stumbled upon a tiger, that was...green?

Valeria had suspicions for two reasons:

1. Tigers are never seen in a type of city like the one they're in.

2. Tigers aren't green.

The tiger circled them, and the girls watched it in fear. Suddenly, something started to happen to the tiger. They glanced at each other in confusion.

The tiger then ran off. The girls heard a distorted growling and squelching. They glanced at each other again. Suddenly, they heard a groaning that sounded like it was from a boy.

They gasped as they saw a boy with green hair, the same one they happened to meet at the roller rink.

Valeria was too shocked to speak, so Rachel spoke, "How...How did you—"

He held up his hand in surrender. "Don't worry. I don't bite." He grabbed his backpack and ran over to them. They instinctively took a step back. "Well, come on."

They ran off with him deeper into the forest.

"IT'S NOT TOO FAR from here." Garfield said to them while the girls were warming their hands up with a fire. "We'll just warm up for a bit."

"What's not far from here?" Valeria asked. "Where are we even going?"

"Someplace you guys can chill." He replied as he sat down next to them.

"We can't chill." Rachel said. "You don't understand...we're changing. In different ways, but we're changing. And it's getting worse. For both of us." Valeria nodded in agreement.

"Well, no worse than the crew I live with. Trust me. We're, uh...special, too."

"We're not special." Valeria said. "We're dangerous. You saw what I did back there. I—"

"And you guys saw what I did back there." Garfield cut her off. "You guys aren't scared of me right?"

"No. No." Rachel replied.

"I blew the roof off a church." Valeria added. "And you're still helping us, so..."

"I got green hair." Garfield said with a smile, then chuckled and started to break a stick into small pieces and throw them into the fire. "Freaks all around, I guess."

Then they heard a gunshot. They got up, opened the door to their hideout, and walked outside.

It was a deer that had been shot by a hunter. Before she could think, Valeria moved in front of the deer and towards the two hunters. "Leave it alone."

"What the hell?" One of them asked with a smirk as he looked at her. "Where'd you come from?"

"Leave it alone." Rachel added.

The other one chuckled. "Go home, girls." When Valeria didn't move, he repeated, "Go on. Get!"

A growl was then heard. The hunters turned around to see Garfield in his tiger form, growling at them. Their eyes widened.

When he roared at them, they both fell. One of the hunters ended up accidentally shooting the other one. "You shot me!"

"Get out of here!" Valeria shouted. "Now!" Garfield roared again as they ran off.

As Garfield started to shift back into a human, the girls bent down next to the deer. "Hey." Valeria placed her hand gently on it and calmed it down. "Shh..."