“We’re going to die!” Fly cried as we hurried down the dark hallway.

Dark indeed. I could barely see anything. The only thing that kept me from running into the walls was the faint layer of moisture everywhere… which gave me just enough of a reflection to see at least the walls and floor.

“We’re not going to die, Fly!” I shouted at her. She was right behind me, and was at least running on her own. She was running rather close to me though, telling me that she wanted to latch herself onto me again.

“We are! Master is…!” Fly started to argue, but I paused in my running just enough to turn around and glare at her.

“That’s not your master! Not anymore!” I shouted.

Fly flinched, and then ran into me.

The girl barely weighed anything… and usually, under normal conditions, her running full head on into me wouldn’t have done much… but it right now it was enough, with me as hurt as I was.

We both fell to the ground, and I landed harshly on my back as she fell on top of me.

I shivered as my whole body erupted into more pain, and I whined a tiny cry as Fly began to sob on top of me.

I shouldn’t have stopped…

Shifting upward, I shivered a little oddly as I sat up. Fly clung to me as she wept, her wet feathers made her feel heavier than she were.

“Fly… come on, we need to get out of here,” I said as calmly as I could.

Although Fly didn’t stop sobbing, she did at least nod her head. As I got us both back to our feet, I hoped Fly’s bad limp on her right leg wasn’t a sign of something horrible wrong with her.

Had she gotten hurt in our fall, or was that from the drop into the pit? She had acted as if she was unhurt, but it should have been obvious that such a fall would have hurt her.

It had hurt me…

Once on our feet, I reached out to put a hand against the wall to support myself as I took a few moments to catch my breath.

About to ask Fly if she knew where we were, or had a general idea on how to get out of here… I closed my mouth and gritted my teeth as the air began to vibrate.

Flinching, I nearly fell back to the ground and to my knees as a deep and bone shaking growl reverberated through the hallway.

Fly screamed, burying her face into my stomach, and I didn’t like how I had barely heard her. My ears were amplifying the sound, and it was painful and…

Then more than just the air began to shake.

Thankfully I still had a hand on the wall, or else I would have stumbled… especially since Fly jumped towards me in shock at feeling the ground beneath our feet start to tremble.

I closed my eyes as I felt the whole world shiver, similar to an earthquake… but I knew this was not the movement of the earth.

Had the Master been that big? Big enough to shake the whole world like this? We had ran quite a distance already… was it possibly chasing after us?

Surely not. Vim would not have let it do such a thing.

The loud growl started to fade, but other sounds began to replace it. I heard the sound of rocks breaking and falling, echoing loudly as if an entire hallway had just collapsed.

Looking down the hall we had been running down, I tried to make out anything to tell me if the hallway had actually collapsed or not.

The darkness was shifting oddly down there… but I couldn’t make out much more than that. Actually, we might have rounded a corner or two as we ran…

“Renn…!” Fly cried out as she started pulling me. She was trying to drag me down the hallway by pulling on my shirt. She had such a vice-grip on my clothes that I could feel them starting to tear and rip.

“Right,” I nodded and agreed.

Yes.

Time to go.

Stepping forward, I joined Fly as we returned to running away.

Now following Fly, I was thankful that she released my shirt… but instead she had grabbed my hand. That too wasn’t that big a deal, but her nails were a little long and they were digging into me rather deeply. She wasn’t aware of what she was doing though.

She was simply scared. Distressed.

Slowing as we approached the end of the hallway, I hesitated as another roar of a growl echoed down the hallway. It was fascinating that I could actually feel the growl as it rolled down the hallway and past us. As it reverberated around us, I felt the blood seeping out of my head pulse alongside my heartbeat.

Upon reaching the end of the hallway, where it diverted two different directions, I had to skid to a stop as Fly came to an abrupt one herself. Nearly knocking her over, I panicked for a moment as she stumbled forward from me running into her.

The only reason she stayed on her feet was because we were holding hands. I said an apology to her, but I wasn’t sure if she heard me over the rumbling roar still echoing around us.

Fly though didn’t even seem to register that I had ran into her, or that she had almost fallen over. She instead was looking left and right… seemingly trying to decide which way to go.

Taking a moment to catch my breath again, I too glanced down the two options.

Neither looked any different, honestly. Both were the same dark, grimy and wet looking stone hallways…

Though…

When had the stone became so… clean cut? I could barely see the grooves on the walls and beneath my feet I felt as if the ground was a little too slick. Was that why I had bumped into Fly? Where was the traction that stone usually gave?

“I think it’s this way!” Fly shouted over the roaring and rumbling of the stones, pointing to our right.

I nodded, and the two of us returned to running.

Running hand in hand, I did my best to not notice how slow I was actually running. I felt exhausted beyond measure and weak… but it was still alarming how slow I was moving. Fly was running ahead of me, and based off the feeling of her tugging on my hand she’d be able to pull ahead if she let me go.

“I’ve never heard the Master so angry!” Fly shouted.

“It does sound mad,” I agreed. The growls weren’t as loud as earlier, but they were still there. I could only imagine how bad Vim’s ears must be hurting right now, being in the same room with that thing.

I wonder if I’ll know when Vim’s finished by the sounds alone.

Huffing as we ran, I couldn’t help but smile a little.

So I didn’t even doubt that Vim would kill it, did I? Even though it should be something I should really worry about.

After all, that thing had been huge. And…

“Wait!” Fly skidded to a stop, and I nearly bumped into her again. Luckily I stopped in time, and I groaned as I realized I had gotten lost in thought.

Don’t do that Renn. Not here. Not right now.

“Not this way… here!” Fly turned and pulled me back a bit. I wasn’t sure what was wrong, until we came to another intersection. I grumbled at myself as Fly led us down another hallway. I hadn’t even noticed that we had not only passed other hallways but had rounded a corner too.

I needed to focus…

“Should be stairs right over here and…!” Fly sounded excited as we picked up our pace, and I couldn’t help but also grow excited. The sooner we got out of here and back to the Society the sooner I could…

Rounding a corner, I could feel Fly’s tension through her hand as we both slowed to a stop… as we both stared at the two down the hallway.

They were standing in front of a stairwell, which was dark… but only because they had lamps lit just outside of the stairwell. The lights illuminated them, but made the stairwell dark from shadows.

I didn’t recognize the two people, but it looked as if they were women. One of them had long hair, which looked to be even dragging on the floor. Why would she let it do that? This place had puddles and was nasty and…

“Humans,” Fly whispered.

Humans. Right. There were humans here too…

“I can handle humans. That’s the way out right?” I asked Fly. I hadn’t talked loudly, but my voice must have carried enough for them to hear me even over the rumbling of the distant creature. The two startled, and turned to look at us.

“I definitely know that stairwell. It goes up near the docks. I live… lived near it,” Fly whispered with a hush.

“Then that’s the one we use. We can’t keep running around and get lost,” I said to her.

Fly nodded but she didn’t take her eyes off the two.

Stepping forward, I took the lead as we walked towards the stairwell.

The growling of the Master seemed to quiet down a little, but it didn’t stop. In fact loud banging could now be heard mixed into the rumbling. Was that them fighting or something else?

“I don’t know them,” Fly whispered to me.

I nodded, and said nothing as we drew closer. It didn’t take long before the two could see us as well as we could see them.

The woman on the left, the one with long hair, looked elderly. Thin. Worried. She looked sickly almost, but it was probably just her stress. The woman on the right however wasn’t just younger, but healthier. She had weight to her, and was taller than me. She had a small knife in her hand, but it had a leather sheath on it. It looked more like something one would use to cook with than fight with.

“It’s the bird girl,” the stout woman said, which caused Fly to come to a stop.

I stopped too, but wasn’t going to just stand around and wait. We needed to get out of here before I simply collapsed.

“Holy… You got away from the Master?” the older woman didn’t seem to be able to believe it, even though we were right in front of her.

“You woke the Master up without feeding it! Fly, you’re crazy!” the other woman shouted at us. She pointed the sheathed knife at us and stepped towards us.

“Shut up! You go feed that thing! Let us pass!” I stepped forward, to put myself between the two and Fly. I didn’t like the way they were looking at her.

“You idiots! We’ll all die if you make the Master that angry! What are we going to do!?” the first woman screamed and grabbed her head, as if in pain.

“Let us pass!” I shouted again, and stepped forward once more.

I didn’t care about them having their foolish panic attacks over the current situation. Right now these people were far from my concern.

“We need to feed her to the Master, Lana,” the woman with the knife said sternly.

“Like I’ll let you,” I squeezed Fly’s hand as I planned on how I’d handle this. The first woman looked frail. Old. Scared. The second however, the one to my right, had the kind of look in her eye that told me she was going to be a problem. She was willing to not just hurt us, but get hurt herself.

A fanatic, like all the rest…!

“We don’t need to feed that thing anymore! We can live without having to—,” Fly spoke up from behind me, but a new presence made her go quiet.

Stepping down the stairs and emerging from the shadows, the large man had a weird looking smile as he stepped between the two women, who both shied away a few steps upon noticing him. I hadn’t heard him come down… I’d blame the roars of the creature, but they weren’t that loud right now.

“Fin…” Fly whispered his name in a way that told me she was far from happy at seeing him.

“Fin…” I studied the way the broad shouldered man’s shirt was torn at the sleeves. Yes. Those were very likely fins extruding from the underside of his arms. They looked like thin webs… were they connected to the side of his body? They were loose and floppy, dangling under his arms.

Fly’s hand squeezed mine, and I felt her start to tremble.

Glancing behind me, I flinched at the look on Fly’s face.

Great. She was terrified of this man. She looked more scared now than she had been upon seeing the Master.

Looking back at the large man, I noticed the way the two women were also keeping an eye on him. Especially the frail one on the left. She was focused on him more than us now.

“No one said she was so tasty looking,” Fin said with an oddly happy sounding voice.

Looking into the eyes of the man who was studying me in a way that made me shiver, I had a horrible suspicion that this man didn’t think I was tasty looking in the same way his Master probably thought I had been.

“Please… let us pass,” I begged them. A final plea.

“Fin… you can’t. Can’t you hear the Master? If we don’t toss them back into the dinner table, then!” the woman on the right stepped towards Fin, raising her voice. The rumbling growls grew louder, as if the creature could somehow hear us here in the hall.

Fin ignored the woman, his eyes still on me. “So much trouble over a couple of useless women. Are you the one who killed Aunt and the rest?” Fin asked me.

“And if I am?” I asked him.

“Likely not. You look broken already…” Fin spoke as he rubbed his chin, and as he did I was able to confirm the things under his arms were definitely his namesake. They were webbed and were partially see-through. They looked more like the ones found on the bottom of fish than ones found on the sides or rear.

“Fin!” the stouter woman stepped forward and Fin finally looked away from me. All he did was glance at her, he didn’t even lose his snarky looking smile, and she cowed. She took a deep breath full of apprehension and stepped back, looking away to the ground as if in shame.

How was I going to get past them? The women had been one thing, but this man didn’t just look dangerous… It was clear he really was. Fly being scared of him was one thing, but for the other two women to be so cautious of him too…

Plus he didn’t seem worried about his comrade’s deaths. He had come down here fully expecting to meet the one who had killed the others. Which meant he was confident in himself.

Vim should have come with us.

“The Master is pissed but he’ll calm down. There’s a bunch of bodies at the dinner table we can give’em. We’ll give Fly too. But her? I’m keeping her,” Fin nodded as if he had made a very rational decision, and the whole world should agree with him.

“Insane,” I whispered as I reformulated my plan. Originally my plan had been to just push through the women. Maybe hit the stouter one… but now I knew my only obstacle was him. At least for now.

He was confident. Too confident. The kind of confidence that would let me get at least one hit on him, before he took me seriously. The question was…

Could my one hit be enough? With this broken body?

“Been awhile since I’ve had such a good woman. You look young, but not too young too! And since you ain’t human you won’t break easily… This’ll be great,” Fin stepped forward, and my heavy body suddenly felt a lot lighter.

Without any warning my pain disappeared. The arms and legs that had protested with every twitch became normal. My ears, which had been drooping enough to impact my hearing shot upward and alert. My focus and attention went entirely to the man approaching us, and I stopped thinking about anything else.

“Renn…!” Fly shouted my name, and I tugged my hand free from hers. Her long and sharp nails dug and cut into my hand, since she tried to stop me from doing so, but I ignored her protest and the injuries it wrought.

Fin was bigger than Vim. Not just in height, but size and weight. Every step he took closer made that clear… yet oddly, for some reason I didn’t think he was heavier.

I couldn’t imagine myself throwing Vim, yet I could see how I could toss this man.

Especially since he seemed to have an injury, or deformity. Either new or old. His right knee didn’t bend all the way while walking… and it wasn’t intentional. He was favoring it. His steps with his right leg were not as long of a stride as his left, nor did he let his full weight linger on it very long.

Fin smirked as he rolled his left shoulder, and I could see the way his eyes were focused on my body.

He wasn’t even planning anything. He was simply leering at me. His thoughts were clear on his face, and they were too disgusting to give any worth to.

“Renn!” Fly shouted one last time as Fin got close enough that I could finally smell him. He smelled like everyone else did down here. They stunk. For people who lived in a place that seemed perpetually wet they sure did seem to avoid bathing.

Although I couldn’t feel pain anymore… although I felt strong again, all of a sudden, I still trembled.

As if cold, my shoulders began to shiver. I held his gaze, but made sure to have my eyes wobble as well. I made sure to make them watery, and blurry. I made sure to not focus on him too hard, so that my pupils would expand enough to be noticeable.

Fin drew closer, and his smile grew larger. His eyes softened a little, and I knew it had worked.

It always did for men like him, after all.

“Let’s…” Fin reached me. He extended his hand, to grab me by my right arm, near the shoulder. His hand was large, big enough that I knew he could break whatever bone wasn’t broken already just from his grip.

“Renn!” Fly screamed, and stepped forward. I heard her bare feet slap the wet stone as she did so. She was about to get between us… maybe to grab me as to run. Maybe to protect me, even.

Her action had been enough though. Fin’s eyes finally left me. They didn’t harden, nor did he startle… but I knew it was because he didn’t fear Fly. He wasn’t worried about her at all. Her outburst drew his attention, but nothing more.

He knew full well she wasn’t capable of hurting him. Judging from the way she had trembled and said his name, he likely knew from experience.

Yet her sudden outburst had still made him look away. Only further cementing the fact he was discounting me, as well.

Still, his hand was outstretched. Still heading for my arm. Then… right before he actually grabbed me… I charged forward.

Ducking under his arm, I put all my strength into the two steps it took to get right up next to the man. Even with the cold blood pumping through me, and most of my pain missing… I still felt the tinge of agony in my legs as I stepped down. I felt coil of muscle protesting in my calves, and I felt the lack of strength in my knees… as they almost buckled from my burst of movement.

And still, I didn’t let my injuries or frailty stop me… nor did I let myself make the same mistake twice.

I’ll not let what happened earlier, with that Kapli woman, happen again. Especially not when my failure didn’t just mean my life… but Fly’s now as well.

I ignored Fin’s face, that I saw slowly turning into a frowning expression out of the corner of my eye, as I stepped right up next to him. He really was taller than Vim. He was also much wider. Yet thanks to his height, and my half crouched position, my target was in perfect positioning.

I sidestepped, and put my hands together, coiling my fingers together into a tight ball of fists, and then… as if I was swinging my sword… with all my might, weight and momentum, I swung my balled up fists into the man’s groin.

The blow happened quickly, and I didn’t wait to follow through. Before the man even finished releasing a moan of a groan, I swung my right arm down… right as he started to arch forward. His eyes were now wide, and his face had gone pale… hopefully from the pain more than shock, and he was starting to buckle and collapse forward. As his head, and thus his face and jaw, started swinging downward, I slid my whole body along as I swung upward.

Upper-cutting the man right in the mouth, I flinched at the impact probably as much as he did. I felt bones shatter and break, and not just the man’s jaw and teeth. The ones that I really felt break were the ones in my fist. His head hadn’t been anywhere near as solid as Vim’s had been, but I had put far more momentum into the blow… and…

And I actually wanted this man hurt, unlike when I had hit Vim.

The second blow had connected even better than the first had… thanks to the man having fallen into it. His head snapped upward, all of the momentum of his earlier frontal fall now reversed. His head, and upper body flung backward, and the man’s lower body fell downward. He landed on his knees, but they crumpled beneath him. He fell in a bundled mess, with his legs bent under him, yet his body trying to lay backward as if to lie down.

“Run, Fly!” I shouted at the stunned girl behind me. She was frozen just a foot behind me, with her hand out… she had been in the middle of grabbing me, likely.

She startled, and I grabbed her outstretched hand with my left. My right was throbbing so violently that I knew it was useless now, even though I still couldn’t feel the pain just yet.

Running past the man, who was already moving and twitching, I pulled Fly towards the stairs. Both of the women shied away as we ran past, even the stout one with the knife backed away and put her back to the wall.

We ran up the dark stairwell, and I did my best to not slip and fall as we did so. The stairs were oddly slick for some reason and…

Rounding a corner, the stairwell turned and rounded itself. I slipped and hit the wall, but luckily didn’t fall to the ground. I gathered myself quickly and returned to climbing the stairs with Fly.

“Renn…!” Fly cried out as we reached a new floor. One that had lights.

Yet Fly didn’t let us run out into it, instead she pulled me up the next flight of stairs.

“You bitch!” a man roared angrily behind us, and my stomach knotted as I recognized the voice.

He was up already? He had crumpled! He had even been twitching!

Huffing as we climbed another flight of stairs, I glanced down to my right hand… and wished I hadn’t.

My fingers were bent oddly. It was already far bigger than usual, swelling quickly. And…

Rubbing my knuckles against my side, I flinched as I felt a piece of something hard dig out of my knuckles and fall out.

Hopefully that had been a tooth and not a piece of my bone.

“Just a few more…!” Fly shouted as we rounded another corner. This floor was dark, like the one we had come from.

As we climbed, I noticed the roaring from the Master was starting to grow distant… but every so often I still heard and felt the shaking. The shaking of stone.

Maybe it wasn’t actually shaking the earth, but it was the roars that were making the whole place vibrate? How did sound do that though?

“Fly… you said you live near here?” I asked her, and as I did I noticed I was out of breath.

“Huh! Yes! I think so!” she didn’t sound as exhausted as me, but she did sound stressed. Hard to blame her for that, though.

“You’ll need clothes. Or at least something to cover yourself before we get to the city,” I warned.

Fly glanced at me as we reached a new floor. Her face scrunched up in a way that told me she thought I was being ridiculous, but then her eyes hardened in cold understanding as she nodded. “Right…” she agreed.

I nodded back, and realized I too was going to need something for my ears and tail. My tail I could wrap around my waist, but the ears were a little too noticeable especially when running…

“This way,” Fly pulled me up one last stairwell, and then we exited the stairs.

Running into a new hallway, I realized we were back to the stone I was familiar with. The stone of Lumen… and we weren’t alone again.

Fly didn’t even hesitate to pull me right past two people. We ran past them so quickly I hadn’t even been able to notice if they had been human or not.

“What…!” a man’s voice shouted in shock behind us, but we ignored them as we ran down a familiar sewer hallway.

We were back near the surface. Maybe only a few floors beneath it. Good.

Rounding a corner, we hurried down a smaller hallway. One that was too small to run side by side. Fly ran in front of me, and our hands separated thanks to the new positioning.

“Just around this corner, Renn!” Fly said as we ran to a lit up hallway.

I nodded, and flinched when something dripped into my left eye. Either blood or sweat.

Rubbing my eye, I slowed a little as we rounded the hallway… then had to come to a stop as Fly did.

“Shoot…” Fly grunted as I forcefully opened my left eye, and through the blurry redness I saw the three people. They were all sitting on wooden boxes and crates, in front of what looked to be a small door.

“Oh!” Right as one of them noticed us; Fly grabbed my hand and pulled me back. We hurried away, heading down another hallway instead.

“Was that your room, Fly?” I asked as we picked up our pace. There was shouting behind us.

“They were waiting for us…!” she shouted in worry.

How though? How’d they know we had survived the fall, let alone the Master…? Was it just because the Master was making so much noise? Even up here its roars could still be clearly heard. Did they simply know something was wrong only because of that?

“There’s a trash heap this way…!” Fly dragged me along, and I followed dutifully.

“Maybe we should just get up top first, Fly. We could hide until the night, if we have to,” I said.

“There’s a stairwell near the trash pile…!” Fly answered.

Good. We could always just find a dark alley, or an empty warehouse or something and hide in it… I could really use some rest too and…

Rounding more corners, Fly guided me to a dark room. One that stunk so badly I could barely think thanks to it.

We entered the room and Fly immediately went to one of the corners of it as to start shifting through what I only hoped and prayed was just trash.

My head thumped and rung in pain as I glanced around the room, and knew it wasn’t just trash.

So this is why these people stunk so badly.

How did it get this bad when they lived in a literal sewer? Surely there was a better way…

“Here!” Fly tossed something at me. I barely grabbed it in time, but the moment I got it in my hand I wanted to drop it again. It was slimy.

Fly continued digging around, and as she did I noticed she was starting to put things on. Whatever they were, were clothes at least…

As was the thing she had tossed at me. Some kind of jacket, or cloak. It was large, large enough that I knew if I put it on I’d not need to worry. I’d stand out, thanks to the thing being so disgusting, but no one would think I was anything but some kind of homeless vagrant. They’d not be able to see my tail or ears…

Taking a deep breath, and regretting it quickly, I went ahead and put it on. The thing was a cloak, and was heavy… and not just because it was wet. It was made of thick leather, and felt rough. I fumbled with the strap that tied it to my neck, since my right hand was messed up, but I eventually got it tied.

I didn’t put my arms through the two holes, since it didn’t seem to have sleeves anyway.

“Ready?” Fly asked as she ran up to me.

I nodded down to the dark silhouette in front of me. She was now fully covered, in what looked to be some kind of poncho. It looked like she had wrapped it around her several times, since it was too big for her.

“The stairs around the corner lead to a warehouse. One that is only used in winter, so we can exit there and not be noticed. This way,” Fly hurried out of the room, and I was more than happy to follow her out.

Unluckily the smell of the room followed us… likely thanks to what we were wearing, but I kept my discomfort at bay as Fly took me to a new stairwell.

One that had a handrail, and was circular. Spiral. I was thankful for the handrail as we ascended it, since it made me dizzy.

“Come on, Renn, hurry!” Fly ushered me as we neared the top, and I realized I was slowing down.

“I know,” I said to her and myself.

Vim had not said it… but I knew what he expected of me.

He expected me not to just survive… but to make sure Fly did, too.

Reaching the top of the spiral staircase, I nearly couldn’t catch my breath… as Fly stopped right before opening the door that led outside.

Huffing, I stared at the back of Fly’s head. It was covered by her strange poncho cloak thing, but I knew what kind of face was hidden past it.

One of worry and distress.

“How many?” I asked with what little breath I could gather.

“I… I don’t know. But…” Fly turned, and thanks to the angle I was able to see her expression.

She was still crying. Sobbing.

She’s been sobbing this whole time, hasn’t she?

She was just a girl. A child.

Like Lomi.

Stepping up past Fly, I closed my eyes and tried to steady my breathing as I angled my head just enough to poke my ears out from under the cloak.

Yes. Beyond the door I could hear voices.

“Sure they’re not humans?” I asked. This led to a warehouse, didn’t it?

“I smell Tarvin. He’s Kapli’s slave,” Fly whispered.

I flinched. Kapli? Why’d that name have to pop up now…? And she could smell someone? All I could smell was the horrible stuff we were wearing.

And slave…

“Is he strong…?” I asked quietly.

“I… I don’t know. I thought Fin was strong too,” Fly said.

Great.

That might also mean Kapli is beyond this door too…

Were they waiting for us? Or…

“Are there other exits? Like this one? Nearby?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “Not nearby. This warehouse is the best one around here,” she said.

Great. That would at least explain why they were in it then. Maybe they weren’t waiting for us, in a trap, but instead were just congregating in a place they all knew and found relatively safe.

Stepping down the stairs, I tried to listen for any sounds behind us. This stairwell wasn’t big, but it circled around in an odd way… it made sounds sound odd, and distorted. I heard the Master’s roars, but felt like I could hear other things too. Were those voices coming from beyond the door behind me, or down the stairs?

“Beyond the door, Fly… how far to the exit? Of the warehouse?” I asked Fly gently.

“Huh? Not far. It’s to the right. In fact it’s only a few seconds away,” she said.

“We’re going to rush out. I want you to run straight for that door. And get out, and then run to the Society. To the Animalia Guild. Go to Merit,” I said.

Fly’s face contorted into cold understanding, far beyond her age, and I hated the sight of it. For her to understand so readily told me just how horrible her life has been up till this point.

She understood sacrifice well.

Too well.

“Renn…” She started to sob again, and I smiled at her.

“I’ll be right behind you. I’m not going to just give up… but I’m slowing down. I want you to go get Merit, so she can come help me if I stumble, okay?” I asked her. Begged her.

Fly’s face scrunched up even more and her mouth started to wobble something fierce as she nodded.

“Merit. Or Brom. Or Reatti…” I whispered… and wondered if I’d even last long enough for them to get here.

Fly was quick. She could run to the Animalia building rather swiftly, especially with such emotion powering her legs. But…

But it’d still take time. Minutes. Many minutes. Then she’d have to guide Merit or whoever came here…

If they even came.

“I came back to get you, Renn. It isn’t supposed to be like this,” Fly cried.

Ah. Right.

She had come back. For me. After hearing I had been captured.

Reaching out, I wrapped the young girl in a hug. I knew she had feathers all over under the cloak, so I knew I probably wasn’t being gentle and was causing her discomfort… but I still squeezed her, with probably a little too much strength.

“You did great. Now… promise me Fly. You’re going straight to Merit. Don’t stop. No matter what,” I said to the girl crying in my arms.

She nodded, and I heard her try and whisper something but couldn’t through her sobs.

“Welcome to the Society Fly. I’m sorry it happened like this… but you’ll see it’s worth it. In the end, it’s worth it,” I said.

It had been for me, after all.

She nodded again.

“Move!” a man’s voice filtered up the stairwell. Far enough to echo, but close enough to make my heart heavy.

That was Fin. I didn’t like how I recognized his voice so easily already.

“Alright. Let’s do this,” I said as I separated from Fly. Before I did, I patted her on the shoulders. As I did, I realized how… small she really was. She was thin, too thin. Even with layers of grimy cloaks on her, she felt far too tiny for one covered in so many feathers.

“Stand tall, Fly,” I said to her.

She stared up at me, and I could tell she wasn’t really sure what I meant. But that was okay. It took me awhile to figure it out too.

“Right,” Fly nodded, deciding to simply agree.

I nodded back… then turned as to open the door.

Yet before I could, someone else opened it.

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