The chill in the air whispered of winter's approach. Frost laced the edges of the long grass, crunching softly under Azrakai's paws as he moved through the thinning woods, a silent ghost of black fur and muscle.
His breath came in slow exhales, visible in the cold, but his pulse remained steady.
This far from the village, few dared to wander, too many things out here hungered in ways even beastmen feared.
But Azrakai had one thought driving him forward: Bloom.
She hadn't asked him to gather prey. She never did. And yet, the image of her curled in the cave, peaceful and warm, pushed him harder through the underbrush.
He would bring her meat for the cold days. She wouldn't have to ask. She wouldn't have to worry.
A rustle ahead snapped him from his thoughts. His pupils narrowed, ears twitching. A doe, with sharp fangs produring out of it's mouth, stepped into the clearing, delicate and unaware.
Azrakai leapt.
One clean, quiet kill.
He was binding the legs with vine rope when the wind shifted, and with it, the scent.
Rot. Musk. Male.
Several. Not from the village. Not familiar.
He dropped the carcass and spun just as shadows emerged from the trees.
"Well, well," drawled a scarred boar beastman, tusks chipped and yellowed. "A highborn tiger, all alone."
Another snorted, his eyes glowing faint green. "Bet he's carrying food. Or maybe something better."
Azrakai's stance shifted. Low, ready. His claws unsheathed slowly. "Leave." he growled, his usually low and gentle voice was now a guttural threat.
They laughed. Then they attacked.
The fight was a blur of fangs and fury. Azrakai moved like a storm, sleek and brutal.
Claws tore, teeth snapped. Blood sprayed across bark. The ambushers were strong, desperate...but uncoordinated. Wild. Abandoned males with nothing left but hunger and rage.
He took three down fast, but one gouged his side with his infected claws. Another nearly dislocated his shoulder. Pain sharpened his instincts.
In the end, only Azrakai stood, chest heaving, blood dripping from his jaw.
Around him lay the crumpled bodies of those too foolish to provoke one of the last members of the black tiger tribe.
He staggered, grabbed the prey with his mouth, and began the slow journey home.
But his vision blurred. The wound on his side pulsed with heat. Infection? Or just blood loss?
He wouldn't make it back before nightfall.
Is what he thought as his consciousness faded.
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Something was wrong.
She stood at the mouth of the cave, her instincts kept screaming at her that. The wind shifted, and her gut twisted.
Orion's soft pulse at the edge of her mind offered no reassurance.
"Bloom?" Crypt slithered out from the shadows, his voice as smooth as ever.
Carmen leaned against a nearby rock, arms folded, amber eyes sharp.
"Azrakai's late." Rhaëlya said.
"He's hunting," Carmen shrugged. "Tiger probably took his sweet time posing in the snow or something."
"No," Rhaëlya murmured. "He doesn't look like the type to be late."
The scorpion and the snake exchanged glances, then nodded.
They left together, with Rhaëlya in the lead, Crypt flowing beside her, Carmen trailing with a blade at her hip and irritation in her step.
Rhaëlya wanted to ask her why she had blades when her claws and tail were enough but right now, her mind was on finding Azrakai as fast as possible.
She didn't feel real worry, it was more like a feeling of her plans getting disrupted.
Since she decided to accept Azrakai as her mate, she has to make sure that nothing happens to him.
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From the depths of the trees, something stirred.
Tall. Too tall.
It moved without sound. A shadow, darker than night itself, with eyes like coagulated blood.
Where it stepped, the light seemed to falter. Where it looked, the world held its breath.
It followed her. Silently. Intently.
Not a threat.
A guardian
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The wind shifted again, but no scent came from the shadow. No warmth. No malice.
Only focus.
Only her.
It felt her presence first before seeing her. It was asleep at the time, in hibernation even.
But when she stepped near it, it almost immediately woke up. And for the first time in all it's years, it felt the need to mate.
When it saw her, it immediately knew that she was the one. Thought something was off about her, there was no harm in discovering her slowly.
But it cannot show itself yet, it had been asleep for a few years and didn't know what it looked like, it'll go check on his appearance after he made sure that she goes back safely to her cave.
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Rhaëlya was running through the woods as easily as a bird would fly in the clear sky, thanks to her abilities as a snow leopard.
That's when Carmen, now fully transformed into her beast form, caught up to her, "Why aren't you transforming fully? It'll be easier." She said, though her voice was now lower than her usual one.
...right. She could do that.
'Orion. How do I shift?' She asked her system, wanting to get there faster. She smelled blood. A lot of it.
Crypt was slithering below the forest ground. Unbothered by the small, earth type beasts lurking in the mud.
"Just think about shifting, I'll work with Ariel to mask the pain." Orion answered.
"...sure let's do that." Rhaëlya agreed, though she wasn't a fan of pain.
Then suddenly, a light glow envelopped her as she jumped in the air. Carmen was watching with unblinking eyes and even Crypt came out of the ground to see it.
He wasn't sure what Bloom was, so this was the opportunity to see it.
Then, a 1.73m tall snow leopard, with white fur and dark, black-blue-ish dots on its body and paw tips gracefully landed on the cold and slightly chili forest ground.
Carmen caught her breath while Crypt simply stared in admiration.
Snow leopards have long been extinct, thus not even those fanatics from the temple had any remainings of what they could've looked like.
But this? The feline they saw in front of them exuded the air of the owner of the snow itself.
Black claws, black paw tips, slightly pigmented fur on her snout and the ears on her head were tinted with the same shade as her spots.
But most importantly, the deep pink predatory eyes that now glew slightly silver due to the snow.
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Two chapters only because the author (me) is still recovering from a wedding->school combo (= attended a wedding then went to school the next day) and it was brutal 💔