The rhythmic, powerful stride of the great black panther was a hypnotic pulse beneath Eris. She was settled firmly onto Roy's broad back, her fingers on one hand buried deep in the dense, midnight fur of his nape, keeping herself balanced gracefullyon top of his back. A sense of peace had begun to unfurl in her chest as she watched the scenery around her move.
Despite fighting so hard to keep her home, having to leave Timo behind, walking out of the Shrine and ending her sanctuary, Eris felt that if things could continue so peacefully like this, she wouldn't mind if time stopped just for the moment. If she could watch Uri grow up in an environment such as this, how wonderful would it be to just see him continue smiling everyday.
The forest was alive with the crisp, sharp sounds of winter, the snap of frozen twigs, the distant cry of a mountain hawk soaring high above in the sky, the steady reassuring crunch of the soldiers' boots or the soft pattering sound of paws on the frost-hardened earth, even act of the snow flattening into the shape of their feet make Eris's heart fill with immense joy.
Uri, nestled securely in the crook of her arm, was a beacon of pure, untainted joy. The cub watched the world go by with wide, gorgeous brown eyes, reaching out his chubby soft form hands to swat at passing frost covered leaves and branches, giggling at the way the sunlight danced through the canopy.
Eris found herself marvelling at the sensation of the journey. In the Margay tribe, being carried in a male's shifted form was a gesture of profound intimacy, a privilege almost exclusively reserved for mates. Even her own father her eldest brother and even Timo, had ceased carrying her the moment she could navigate the mountain paths on her own two feet.
To them, she was a Princess who needed to show strength; to Roy, she was something else entirely, a prize, a prisoner, or perhaps something more, that he hadn't yet named.
Regardless of the label, the warmth radiating from his massive body was a comfort she couldn't bring herself to reject. Being protected rather than protecting was an indescribable warm feeling for the usually tense and alert Eris.
Roy, however, was far from feeling at peace. His mind was a hyper-focused instrument of strategy and war, tuned to the slightest discord in the environment around him. He moved with the calculated silence of a hunter, his ears swivelling to track the rustle of a squirrel or the shift of the wind.
Beneath the physical sensations of the trail, Roy was listening to the life forces he carried. Although he had never carried anyone on his back before, he realised it wasn't as terrible as he had imagined. Roy used to scoff at males begging to carry their mates on their backs and fighting with others for the right, and yet, the seasoned warrior could now understand why.
He could hear the steady, melodic thrum of Eris's heartbeat, a rhythm that had finally slowed from its earlier frantic pace. Beneath it was Uri's inconsistent pulse, a rapid pitter-patter that spiked into a crescendo whenever the boy giggled or squirmed, only to settle back into a restful hum.
It was a domestic symphony that Roy found strangely grounding. He noted, with a flicker of grim approval, how sensible Eris was being. She hadn't uttered a single word of complaint, nor had she questioned his pace. She followed every sharp command with immediate, quiet obedience. It was a trait he valued above almost all others in a world where hesitation meant death.
The peace was shattered in a heartbeat.
The silence of the woods didn't break; it exploded. From the dense thickets of grey-barked trees, a chorus of guttural, sub-human roars erupted.
"Feral beastmen!" Bryant's voice cracked through the air, sharp with sudden urgency, terror laced in the undertones of his voice. Looking wide eyed at the beasts, eyes flickering back and forth between his leader and the attackers.
Eris felt the muscles beneath her bunch and tense into iron coils. Feral beastmen were the scourge of the borderlands, they were beings who had lost their complete "soft forms" to madness, living only for the carnal desire to breed and to kill.
There were two ways to become a feral beastman; one was when a female forcefully dissolved a mating contract by dripping three drops of blood on their mating seals, located on the female's body; and in the event they male couldn't withstand the backlash of the severed tie, they would turn feral. Another method was if a beastman gave into desires and consumed the heart of another beastman.
Once a beastkin turned feral, there was no turning back, they became scavengers of resources and, more terrifyingly, kidnappers of females to bolster their dying, fractured packs. Creating armies to burn cities and tribes to the ground, wrecking chaos at whoever crosses their paths.
"Form a defensive circle!" Roy's sharp decisive command was a physical force, vibrating through Eris's very bones. He didnt yell, and yet every single soldier rushed to obey.
The Claw Kingdom soldiers moved with lethal efficiency, snapping into a tight defensive ring. Roy remained at the centre, a towering obsidian fortress, ensuring that his King's "prize" and the cub were shielded by a wall of pure muscle and predatory instinct.
The ferals hit the line like a wave of filth and fury. They were a sickening sight of half-shifted nightmares; scabrous wolves, mangy boars, and at the head of the charge, a hulking, one-eyed Rhinoceros feral. The beast was a mountain of grey, scarred hide, his single eye milky with cataracts and bloodlust.
The skirmish was a chaotic blur of silver blades and dark blood. To Roy's left, one of the younger soldiers—a two-star warrior with more bravery than experience—leapt forward to deliver a blow, baring his sharp claws intimidatingly. He was far outmatched. The three-star Rhino feral didn't even use a weapon; he simply lowered his massive head and caught the soldier in the chest, tossing him aside like a ragdoll.
The gap in the circle was momentary, but for a seasoned fighter, it was an eternity.
The Rhino feral fixed his eerie milky gaze on the bundle in Eris's arms. He didn't aim for the female, not yet. He wanted to ensure she was fixed in a helpless position first, so he targetted the very thing that could put her in that position, the cub.
With a deceptive burst of speed, the brute lunged, his horn aimed directly at the sweet bundle of joy Eris held protectively in her arms.
Roy reacted with the instinct of a god. He didn't strike; he dodged, twisting his massive feline body in mid-air to pull Uri and Eris out of the path of the devastating charge. The movement was violent and sudden.
Eris felt the world summersault in ways that she would have never imagined. Her grip on Roy's fur failed as the centrifugal force tore her from his back. She had just enough time to tuck Uri into the hollow of her shoulder, the crook of her arm curling his tiny frame like a protective shell.
She hit the ground with a sickening thud and a ragged "Oof!"
The impact sent a jolt of white-hot pain tingling all the way through her spine. She landed flat on her back, the breath driven from her lungs in a wheezing gasp. For a moment, the world was nothing but a mere blur and the smell of the damp earth. Uri began to cry; a shrill, terrified wail that pierced through the roar of the battle.
Eris tried to move, but her limbs felt like they belonged to someone else. Her vision began to blur at the edges, the vibrant, white, greens and browns of the forest bleeding and blending together to warm a whirlpool of earthy colours through her eyes. Eris's hearing became dull, going silent entirely, the clashing of swords and the screams of the dying falling into a muffled, underwater silence.
She managed to tilt her head just a fraction.
Through the haze, she saw him.
Roy was no longer a protector; he was a demon, a killer, a predator. He had reached the Rhino feral before the beast could turn for a second pass. The black panther was a shadow of fury, his jaws locking onto the Rhino's thick, leathery arm.
Eris watched, her eyes wide and glassy, as Roy didn't just bite, he tore. With a savage, neck-snapping wrench of his head, he mangled the brute's limb, the sound of snapping bone and rendingtough, fibrous connective tissue, somehow reaching her through the silence.
Roy ripped the entire arm from the Rhino's body in a spray of dark, hot crimson liquid.
The sight of the carnage was the last thing Eris saw. The vision in front of her deepened into black, the weight of the fall finally dragging her under. Her head limply lulling back against the frost, and the world vanished entirely.