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Chosen

Chapter Eight

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Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

Commissioned by Chirmaya Nashaar

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Brambles caught at Tayna's leggings, tearing through, as she fled, tears streaming down her muzzle. To see her mother again and lose her so swiftly... She swiped at her face, a strangled cry bursting from her lips. Embarrassment at crying nipped at her heels but she thrust it away, boiling anger fighting it back. What did it matter? Who would see? She could cry if she wanted to.

On the other side of the mountain where Tuck and she had harvested essence together, she blinked and tried to take stock of her bearings as she bolted down the decline. Tears blurred her vision and she swore as she blinked them away, rocks giving way to dark trees as the shadows stretched.

Yet Tayna was not alone.

As she made frantic headway down the slope, quickly devolving into a V-shaped valley with a particularly aggressive decline, the shuffle of fabric and weapons set her heart hammering. She had not known how much one heart could pound before her life had turned into a tale told by bards; the vixen bared her teeth in a fit of defiance at the waiting pack. Made up of several different species, she could not discern one from the other cradled in the crook of a rock face, their backs defended. Except for one - the feline at the head with the spotted muzzle and carefully controlled smile.

Sellanda.

Tayna's lips twisted. She should have known.

Ears back, she dug in her heels and skidded to an ungainly halt, kicking up sods of hard earth. Twisting back on herself, she launched herself into the trees but a wolf howled and her heart sank - too late. Sellanda smirked and unsheathed her sword, resting it casually against her thigh. It looked as if it belonged there, perfectly balanced in her grip.

"We knew you'd come back to us sooner or later, little vixen," she crooned, her voice a sultry rasp that told of a long, hard trial in finding Tayna. "Your trail was an easy one to follow."

The vixen wrinkled her muzzle, words leaping to her lips before she could stop them.

"Then why did you have such trouble finding me?"

She tilted her head to the side, swallowing a laugh. It was hardly appropriate. The leopard tensed, tail flicking like a snake's head, questing back and forth for the hapless prey. Tayna sank back on her heels. She wasn't weak anymore. But they could think she was for as long as it pleased them.

The vixen's tail pointed back behind her, balancing her as she sought that store of essence within her, hunting for the inner skin like she had found around the plants. Weak? Her? She could have laughed. She'd faced down her mother - a godlike one who was probably hot on her heels already - and escaped from the Alliance keep, fending for herself until she had made true allies. What more could they do to her? What could they do to faze her? Setting her shoulders back, the vixen growled, white fangs glinting in the lowering light. She was ready.

Sellanda's lips twisted and she scowled, her pretty muzzle grotesquely muddied. Behind her, her ragtag hunting party levelled their weapons, steel in their eyes. Reline stood a pace or two back, a shield over her arm and broadsword clasped in her paw. At her hip was a dagger, deadly blade sheathed, while a mace hooked into her belt, jagged points jutting from the rounded head. Loops of leather attached a small bag to her belt in the small of her back and Tayna could only guess at what was in there. The wolf had always had a tendency to somewhat over prepare herself, even at the estate.

Tayna blinked, returning to herself as if retracting her vision back to her normal range, minute details abruptly fading. It had been too easy to take all of that in and a tingling thrill ran through her from her fingertips to the quivering points of her ears. Magic. She had no idea of the forces she was wielding but bit by bit she uncovered more and more of her own psyche.

Sellanda shook her head, dismissing the vixen with a flip of her paw, fingers slender and delicate for her job. A smaller leopard male - the one that Tayna had so crudely faced off against in the arena with magic fuelling her strikes - cowered behind her, shaking so badly that his oversized sword clattered against his wooden shield. The vixen frowned. Was he scared...of her? Or just fearful to be out and away from the safety of the keep?

Something told her that it was more than it appeared, nose twitching at fresh scents on the breeze. Thunder rolled, storm clouds turning purple as drops of rain spat and threatened to unleash a downpour.

Slamming her heel into the ground, Sellanda drew herself up tall.

"Seize her!"

Swords rapped against shields and Reline let loose a howl, throat vibrating as she lunged to be at the head of the pack, sword carving out a path before her.

Setting her stance, Tayna dug deep and readied herself. It was now or never. Blood roared in her ears as the beating of her heart slowed to a steady thump.

Da-dum, da-dum...da-dum!

Reline bore down on her with the fury of a whole pack of wolves, teeth flashing and a snarl on her lips. Leaping clear backwards up the slope, Tayna found her footing and launched herself bodily at the wolf, using her magic in the only way she knew how. She sensed intimately, the passage of time slowing about her as adrenaline coursed through her veins, magic pumping from that inner store to her grasp. She crowed as she caught it and pushed it crudely into her muscles, forcing them to become stronger than they were.

When her fist hit the side of Reline's muzzle, her head snapped around ninety degrees, spittle flying from her jaw. The wolf staggered and shook herself, momentarily stunned, and swiftly recovered, despite the dazed look in her eyes.

Far from dissuaded, the wolf set her jaw resolutely and advanced one step at a time, chin tucked to protect her vulnerable throat.

She could have struck in that moment of hesitancy and yet the vixen gulped, the reality of what she was doing crashing over her like a tidal wave. Reline growled and wiped blood away from her mouth, spitting out a lost tooth.

"Stay back!" Tayna barked, voice cracking. "Reline! We don't have to fight!"

Tayna stepped back, paws raised and muscles trembling as the wolf advanced again, flanked by a dun equine, so similar to Tuck that she had to look twice. His black, braided mane fell in a line down his neck and his grey-black muzzle turned down at the corners, the whites of his eyes showing. When Tayna raised her paw, he ducked behind his shield, the tips of his ears twitching over the top.

Part of Tayna, tucked far away from the light, giggled.

The horse charged and Tayna braced herself, paws raised for impact. Rather than bringing up his sword, he smashed his shield into her and she screamed as she was forced back, putting all her strength into her paws. Skidding back in the dirt, Tayna growled, arms trembling, and leaned into him, locking her gaze with that of the dirty yellow equine with his ears pinned back. He snapped, flashing a set of blunt, herbivorous teeth, and she came to a halt, tail spiky as sweat trickled down her back.

Tayna smirked and he baulked, a nervous nicker vibrating his lips.

"Get out of here."

She shoved the shield with all her strength and watched in abject awe as the equine took flight. Like a rag doll, he flew jovially through the air, arms waving, and Reline ducked to avoid his trailing sword, which fell into the turf point first and buried itself halfway down the blade, shuddering. The equine smashed into the ground like a sack of potatoes, head cracking sickeningly into the ground. Reline gaped and ran to his side, stumbling over her own paws as she flung down her weapons. Spinning on her heel, Tayna rasped for breath and fled up the slope, gaining height and advantage.

She didn't stop to see if he got up again.

Sellanda's lips moved in a curse Tayna couldn't hear and gestured, instructing her 'soldiers' on. Magic tingling through her body, the vixen skidded to a halt and stared them down, ears back and stance set. One thing was certain: she wasn't going back.

She'd rather die trying.

The leopard sank into a half-squat, building up power and energy in her legs to launch herself into the fray. Her eyes locked with the fox's and Tayna growled, showing her teeth in return. Intimidated? Her? The vixen's paws curled into fists and she flexed them out carefully, painting as cocky a smile across her muzzle as was possible, head tilted smugly.

You cannot win, she tried to say.

Sellanda flinched and, for a moment, Tayna thought her ploy had shaken her, paws unsteady on uneven rock. But the leopard only drew a second sword from the scabbard on her opposite hip and pointed the two blades directly at her, their meaning all too clear. Tayna's heart hammered, vision swinging dizzyingly as if suddenly beyond her control. But she had to hold it together. It was do or die time.

As the leopard readied herself, taking her time as she clearly believed the vixen to still be hapless prey, Tayna took stock of her escape routes: down the valley, up the mountain. Neither looked particularly appealing or likely to succeed. How much essence could she funnel into her muscles, converting it to the magic of movement, now that she had a tiny, meagre inkling of what it meant to use magic? She bit her lip. The odds weren't good. That didn't mean she couldn't try. Or go up against the leopard. Either way, she'd have to act and act quickly too.

Yet there was change on the breeze. Ears twitching, Tayna twisted to catch a scurry of sound, only carried to her ears on the gusting wind by what seemed to be divine intervention.

Or perhaps godlike intervention. She swore she heard her mother laugh, coming for her.

"Hark! Who goes there?"

Sellanda's head whipped around, a snarl on her lips.

"This is none of your concern! Leave before I have your head!"

A polecat with white rings around his eyes and nose smiled as he left the concealment of the trees, a group of one, two, three - Tayna counted seven close on his tail. Unlike the Alliance, the group wore white clothing that was unusually suited to fighting, despite the bright colour that would surely be dirtied within the first instance of a scuffle. The trousers flowed with the line of their bodies, chests covered with chainmail. Their attire sang of quality and danger, but the glint of swords, spears and bows distributed between them set Tayna on edge, stepping back while the Alliance was distracted.

The polecat stopped with a good bit of open distance between him and Sellanda, the seven lining up on either side of him. Metal glinted in their paws and the leopard glared.

"You being here is a...complication." He pushed the hood back from his head, revealing a pair of small, rounded ears. "But we shall take great pleasure in wiping your existence from the face of this continent."

He smiled darkly, a dagger flashing in his paw.

"You should have stayed safe in your keep, Sellanda. And you should never have taken what was ours to begin with."

He ran his finger down the blade, his eyes locked with Sellanda's.

"You..."

Sellanda pulled herself back, a yowl bursting from her lips.

"We took nothing that was not already sorely stolen!" She shrieked, feline vocal words forcing her words to rise to a painful pitch. "We destroyed her church - the vixen is ours!"

"Oh, Sellanda." The polecat's smile fell. "You never take anything from the church. It was never yours to take. Did you think we would not come for it?"

He paused, running the tip of his tongue along his lips.

"It is a pity that it is too late for you to learn this."

The Church hunting party regrouped as if acting on some silent command, protecting their arches with a line of spears. Ears pricked and growls rolled threateningly as silver bows flicked up into position, their arrows nocked and ready. Sellanda called her closest fighters - and a shaking Reline - to her side, every inch of her being tensed and readied. Her tail lashed. The polecat shook his head as if saddened by her decision, yet Tayna could never have seen the proud leopard throwing herself on the mercy of the Church.

Raising his dagger, the polecat hissed.

"You will never learn the true wonder of the Church, Sellanda - not you or your Alliance. Your fate is sealed."

Bowstrings tightened and arrows twanged through the air. The Alliance either scattered or raised their shields to keep the barrage at bay. Reline cowered beneath her oversized shield, arms trembling so badly that it nearly crashed on to her head despite her fragile effort to keep it raised. More than one of the Alliance squealed and screamed as arrows sank into unprotected calves, the wounded scurrying into cover to snap them off with as much stomach as they could manage. Sellanda ducked under her shield, muzzle twisted and contorted.

Reline's lips quivered in a whimper.

Gulping, Tayna reached out a useless paw, wishing she could shield her friend - no, her old friend. Reline had made her position quite clear. She couldn't think of her like that anymore.

The polecat looked up, met her eyes and mouthed: we'll come for you.

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Tayna shuddered. As much as it pained her to do so, she half-turned, seeking escape while the faction hunting parties were wrapped up in forcing one another back. Let them have their fight - it didn't have to concern her. What could she do to help them? And who did she even want to help? She grunted, anger flickering back to life. Neither faction had done anything for her, only hindered and harmed.

Maybe it was for the best.

"This is your fate, daughter."

Tayna froze, crouching and spinning about to find the source of the voice. Expecting to see her mother standing triumphantly over her shoulder, she growled and clenched her jaw, spotting her some way up the side of the valley. The vixen stood on an outcrop of rock, legs braced, with her paw touching her throat. Tayna's nose twitched. How could she hear her so clearly from so far away?

Magic. It was the answer to everything in the dark twist her life had taken. Tayna wrinkled her nose. The scent of petals was back on the air - clearly not only something she caught when harvesting essence. Only, this time, the petals were tainted with deep-set rot.

Lillian strode down the hill as if she had all the time in the world, the fight beyond her concern. What reason did she have to involve herself? She was a higher being. One of the Chosen. One of the strongest magic users the Church held in its clutches. Tayna put her back to her as she neared, eyes locked on the skirmish as Reline howled and charged into the fray, sword swinging and forcing those who opposed her back and back and back.

The older vixen put her paws on Tayna's shoulders, tremors running through her body as she watched the fight, hind paws constantly shifting. She glanced back, flinching from the brightness of her eyes, the way her lips were ever so slightly parted. Tayna fought down a shudder. Was the vixen...enjoying it?

"When the Church, our Church, come for you, they will drive every single one of their remaining arrows into your body," her mother whispered, paws tightening on her shoulders. "You shall scream, feel every second of pain. Why, you may even come close to death."

She paused, eyes bright.

"It shall all be for the best, my daughter. You shall rise, reborn, as the Chosen you truly are - your power returned!"

Tayna stiffened.

"Maybe I don't want that power!"

Lillian chuckled and squeezed the vixen's shoulders, fingers digging her in as she forced her to watch as another of the Alliance fell - the leopard she had fought and bested too easily. Tayna flinched as he smacked into rock and didn't get up again. The horse who she had thrown away from her with magic still didn't move, a trickle of something she did not want to acknowledge staining the dirt around his skull. She squeezed her eyes closed. She couldn't think about that. Not if she wanted to survive.

"Do you think you have a choice in the matter, you stupid girl?" She countered. "You did not just happen to be injured on the estate - it was all a test. We needed to see how much you could take before we took you to the city to be reborn! You should understand all this?" Her lips twisted. "Or have you lost your sensibility too?"

Tayna ripped her shoulders away and faced her head on, paws balled up into fists as if she was about to start a brawl.

"What the hell are you talking about?" She snarled. "You said I had an accident!"

Lillian snorted and waved her paw: irrelevant.

"Lord Barreth agreed to take you in - it was all planned. Do you think I would have, truly, as a mother, left you alone on an estate in the middle of nowhere, far from me, if we did not have a greater plan in mind for you?"

Tayna was hot - too hot. Heat seared through her veins like boiling water, liquid rage flooding her to the very tips of her fingers. The ground rocked beneath her while remaining perfectly still and the vixen's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits, ears pinned back as far as they could possibly go.

"It was you?" She snarled. "You the whole time? You left me... So everything in the cave... It was a lie?"

Her mother smiled serenely, paws clasped in front of her stomach.

"You could call it a lie. It was all for the greater good."

Tayna rolled her eyes and stamped. The ground cracked beneath her heel but she did not take pause.

"Oh yes, the greater good of your Church-damned Church. I've heard all about your Church and I'm far from convinced, Lillian."

Her mother's face became a little more fixed in her smile, eyes tightening in at the corners.

"You should have been. You were an advocate for our cause. One of our greatest. Our best. Once."

The younger vixen laughed, yet there was no humour in it. Making a crude gesture, she smacked her fist into the palm of her opposite paw.

"Not anymore. I'm never going back and that is final. There is nothing you can say or do that will make me be a puppet of the Church once more."

One of the fighters - the polecat? - screamed and Tayna resisted the urge to look. Buzzards circled above, the mountainous vulture seeking carrion. It was a hunter but also a scavenger, as versatile as the vixen wished she was.

Folding her arms, Lillian inclined her head, confidence unwavering.

"You don't have a choice in the matter if you don't want to see your little friends disappear."

Her mother smirked and snapped her fingers, pointing down to the skirmish. A body clad in dirtied white cloth - it had to be one of the Church - lay motionless and her mother frowned just the tiniest bit, a chink of weakness in her mental armour. As her fingers clicked, magic fizzled from life, revealing a sight that the vixen had never wanted to see.

"I think your little friends missed you, Tayna. They were not so eager to come with me, however. I cannot imagine why."

Tuck and Fayla cowered on the makeshift battlefield, a shimmering dome that was evidently Lillian's magic sealed tightly above their heads. The horse and Estrel clung to each other, Fayla's white muzzle buried against his chest. Tuck stared out with wide eyes at a member of the Church who suddenly locked their gaze with his and bared their teeth in a savage, wolfish grin. He slammed a hoof into the translucent barrier, lips moving with words that they could not discern from the outside. Near the prison-like dome, a member of the Church brought his bow down with an almighty crack across a leopard's skull. He dropped like a stone and laid unmoving, eyes wide and glassy. Tuck held Fayla close.

Tayna leaned forward, reaching out as if she could snatch them up from the skirmish in the palm of her paw. They had had nothing to do with either side! Her stomach churned. And she'd dragged them into it. They wouldn't be in the middle of the fight, prisoners of the Church, if she hadn't gotten them involved.

"They are of no concern to me." Her mother studied her fingernails, smoothing her thumb over each in turn. "If you would like them to continue breathing, you had best drag them up here."

She twitched her ear, one eyebrow lifting.

"Hurry, daughter. I shall not hold the shield for all that much longer, so be swift on your paws." She grinned fiercely. "Let's see if you even have enough magic to do that small task. How much will it take for your magic to show itself in its true form?"

Cursing, Tayna knew she was left with no option but the one laid out before her. She glared, felt for that inner skin of magic and sprung into action, forcing raw magic into her muscles. As crude as it was, she could only hope that it would be enough as Fayla chanced a glance out through the glassy dome with fear in her eyes.

Her mother laughed.

"How deep is your loyalty, daughter?" She whispered as Tayna threw herself down the valley. "How far will you go?"

Tayna folded her ears back but not in time to miss her mother's final words on her descent.

"We shall have you and your power back, Tayna. Have no doubt about that."

The world around her seemed to push itself back from her as she focused on nothing but running. She couldn't have explained to anyone what she was doing, dragging in as much essence as she possibly could, but, somehow, it worked. Her muscles thrummed with energy and she sped up until her paws pounded the ground, swapping from rock to grass.

Leaping with all the energy in her grasp, she hurled herself off a sloping rock, using it to propel her higher into the air than she could ever have imagined or thought herself capable of. The vixen's jaw clenched, tingling as she ground her sharp teeth together, almost upon the skirmish.

"Tuck!"

Tayna screamed, the words tossed away on the wind. She plunged down right to the very bottom of the valley where the two hunting parties forced each other back and forth across the stream, neither side holding the advantage. Water splashed around boot-clad paws and Reline's tail brushed Sellanda's protecting her back as she trusted the leopard to protect hers.

Tayna flew past them all, but a blur in her simulated flight. She barely saw the opposing forces, barely took note of the bloodshed and barely calculated their reduced numbers on both sides. Many more Alliance bodies covered the battlefield, however.

Reline gaped as she raced by and looked up for a brief instance before returning her attention to the blade of an opposing wolf bearing down on her with fierce intent glazing over his eyes.

Tayna slammed her shoulder into the dome, not expecting it to give way. Her fingers tingled as the magical barrier seemed to push back at her, but she forcibly threw her weight into her push, using her magically enhanced strength to prevent herself from shrinking away like a paw from a naked flame. Inside the dome, Fayla and Tuck shrank back, the Estrel hiding herself within the equine's arms. The vixen inhaled as much air as she could cram into her lungs and braced herself.

Slamming both paws into the dome, Tayna screamed as she funnelled her power, imagining that she was pushing raw magic out of both paws. She had no idea if she was managing to convert her essence into magic, but she had to keep trying, pounding the dome with all the force she could muster. Fayla and Tuck shrank away to the other side of the barrier, backs pressed to it as it throbbed, blue light spiralling across the surface as if the dome itself was cracking like an eggshell.

A blue, hairline crack spread across the pristine surface and Fayla shrieked as the dome erupted, steam hissing as it splattered into the ground. Fat drops of steaming water splattered into the earth as the dome dissipated and Tayna threw her arm up in front of her muzzle an instant after Tuck curled his body over Fayla's, head ducked against the deluge.

The Alliance and Church paused in their fight, coughing and hacking as the shimmering vapour obscured their vision. Tayna flinched from the shower of dissolving shell, expecting the sizzling mass to burn, but it merely fell warmly, soaking through her clothes to her fur, fabric clinging to her sodden form. Above, the storm clouds spat a steady drizzle, making tiny droplets of water drip from her eyelashes.

"Fayla!"

She wheezed, eyes bulging as she dragged the mist into her lungs like sludge. Hacking it up, she shot a look at a member of the Alliance - a short-legged goat that she hadn't seen before - who had gotten too close for comfort. He backed off hastily, dropping his sword in his rush. Tayna almost smirked.

When the haze cleared, Tayna's heart leapt into her throat, a paw wrapping around Fayla's neck and squeezing until each and every breath was only drawn in through sheer force of will.

Chosen.

Her mother murmured softly as her paw closed around the Estrel's throat. Fayla kicked, lips moving in a soundless scream, as her struggles became weaker and weaker. Tuck clawed at her legs but the fox merely kicked him square in the jaw, knocking him surely back on his haunches. The equine scowled and swore as one of the Church touched the point of their sword to the back of his neck.

"Let her go!" Tayna shouted, voice trembling.

Her words sounded weak to her own ears, her paws rooted in place as if they had suddenly become part of the ground itself. What was a Chosen, stronger than her in every way, going to do if she shouted at her? Her mother answered the unspoken question with a smile that curled up the corners of her lips but failed to soften her cheekbones or warm her eyes.

As Fayla's head slumped in unconsciousness, legs and tail dangling, Lillian tapped the side of her nose, a giggle burbling up from her throat. Her eyes danced and she parted her lips breathily as if eager to divulge some secret that she'd held close for far, far too long.

"She looks just like your father did."

Her mother smirked, eyes narrowing.

"A pity you couldn't see his death too."

And the vixen's world imploded.