FSE

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Ty dreamed softly, for the first time in what felt like forever. He dreamed he was floating on the ocean. Tigers, unlike house cats, have nothing to fear of water. It was soothing to bob gently with the waves. Soon though, he knew something was wrong. Suddenly he was in an abyss, under the water. He started coughing and woke up.

Smoke hovered over everything, orange light flickered from under the door, and he could hear a faint crackling sound. The tavern was ablaze. Ty stood, running and grabbing Kaya. "Feria, wake up!" he yelled, making her jump out of bed and stand at strict attention. Then she coughed, and her face lit up like the sun. "To the window, we have to get out!"

Feria ripped open the drapes, and with his free hand, Ty threw the window open, jumping out with Kaya held against his chest. He rolled as he hit the ground, and when he looked back to the second story window, Feria was still standing there, afraid to jump. Ty set Kaya on the ground, even when she was clutching the fur at the back of his neck. "I need you to let go," Ty said, calmly. She did as asked, curling into a ball in the grass, hugging her knees. Ty nodded, walking closer to the building. "Feria, you need to jump! I will catch you!"

Feria looked behind her, towards the door to their room. She looked down at Ty again, climbing onto the window's outer ledge, and jumped. For Ty, time seemed to slow down as fire blasted through the window above him, right behind Feria. The second she hit his body, Ty fell backward, absorbing the blow, while his arms wrapped around her.

"Now, Ty!" the tiger heard Jade's voice yell. "Get up! You will not just send me home! It will be more difficult than that to get rid of me."

"Ty?" Feria said, worriedly.

Ty let go of the tigress in his arms, wanting to assure her everything would be alright, but when he rolled to look at Jade, all thoughts of reassurance burned away, just like the tavern. The angry tigress held her dagger against Kaya's throat. "First, I burned down that old house to get rid of your sister," she said, her eyes wild with rage. "I never once thought you would run in after her. Did you ever find out who pulled you out? Well, now you found someone else to hold above me. Why should I let this one live?"

For the first time since his sister had died, Ty understood why she had. Jade's jealousy had eaten her sanity over the course of her entire life. Now, she thought she had exactly what she wanted, until what she wanted walked away. Then, two years later, she found him again, and again, he had someone else. She had murdered his sister, and almost killed him in the process. "Jade," Ty growled, coming to a stand.

"Stay right where you are," Jade growled back. "If you move even an inch, I will kill this girl." Ty stood his ground, waiting for Jade's demands and planning. "Untie your weapon from your waist and let it drop." Ty did. "Now step toward me until I tell you to stop."

"You killed my sister," Ty growled through gritted teeth as he followed her order. "That idea failed. Why try it again?"

Jade bared her teeth at Ty, pressing her dagger closer to Kaya's throat. The young wolf-girl flinch, as Jade ordered, "Stop!" Ty listened, stopping just two of three feet in front of her. "She was in the way, and needed to be removed."

"But that failed," Ty retorted. "It was never who was in the way, but what. You let your pride get the better of you. Instead of being a stuck up daddy's girl, you could have just talked to me. Instead, you decided-"

"Silence!" the green eyed tigress screamed. "You have no right to judge me! When life started getting difficult, you ran away! What right do you have to say that I let my pride rule me?!"

"If you had never murdered my sister, I might have had a reason to stay after my father murdered my mother," Ty replied coolly. "By our laws, I could never have married her. Any one of the women of our generation could have filled that role, even you."

"Enough!" Jade yelled, letting her temper flare, and finally making the mistake Ty had been waiting for.

Jade pointed her dagger at Ty's chest, allowing the other tiger to grab her arm, spin, and throw her. Before she hit the ground, Ty was pulling the dagger from her hand and moving to where she would land. Ty pressed the dagger to her throat. "How does it feel to be on the receiving end, bitch?" Ty growled in her face.

Jade glared past her shoulder at a tree that had apparently earned her disgust. Ty moved to look at Kaya, just for a second, and received punch to the jaw that sent him tumbling backwards. When he continued all the way, rolling over backwards, he could see Kaya and Feria as they watched after a running Jade. In one motion, Ty stood, twisted, and threw Jade's dagger at her retreating form. He missed, imbedding it in a tree a ways ahead of her. Just after that, Ty noticed Carly peeking around the side of a tree.

Ty briefly looked at the burning tavern. It could only be burning that harshly if, and only if, someone had lit it intentionally. Jade planned this. Feria and Kaya, moved closer to him. "What will you do now?" Feria asked, looking at the grass.

Ty looked at the sky. Besides the smoke, it was perfectly clear. The stars were out and the air was warm. There was no need for a blanket. Carly walked up to them. "Um, Ty, right?" she asked in her drawl, twiddling her thumbs. "Uh, ah heard Garr screaming from his room, before I got out. I think he..."

Ty watched Feria's face closely. This news could cause any number of reactions. "Good," she said after a few moments. "That fat bastard made me live in my personal hell for seven long years! If he did die in that fire, than I have one less demon haunting me."

Carly looked up at Feria, tears threatening to flow down her face. "Ah care as much about him as ah do a rock. Now, ah just wonder what will happen to me."

Feria's eyes softened some as she looked down at Carly. "Katelyn has a kind heart, and I doubt Hal would mind you mixing drinks for him and the other guys," Feria said, pressing a hand on the coyote's shoulder. "Knowing him, he might even start a bar in his house!"

Carly looked up at Feria, smiling. Ty sighed, looking to where his axe was still laying. "If you want, I can talk to her in the morning," he said, begrudgingly, thinking, Goddess, I am going soft."Until then," he continued, turning in the direction of his axe. "I think we all still need sleep."

Ty picked up his axe and led the others a few minutes into the forest, Feria and Carly looking around, jumping at every little sound, until he found a small clearing, covered in grass, where he started setting up a few minor branch traps that would make enough noise to wake him. He thought for sure Jade would be gone after that previous incident but you can never be too careful.

After the traps were set, he lay in the grass, staring up at the stars. Carly stood over him for a moment, before looking around and lying down against him. "What are you doing?" Ty asked, tiredly.

"Just getting comfortable," she replied innocently.

Ty rolled away from her and put an arm under his head. For a tiger to sleep with another creature symbolized a level of trust he did not yet feel. Maybe I overreacted before. I might not be going soft. He thought, inwardly pleased. At least until he heard a quiet sobbing. His chest, suddenly heavy, caused him to groan in frustration.

"Carly?" Ty heard Feria say. "Oh, um..." she sounded like she was considering something that she really had to think on. She whispered something Ty could make out as ancient Tiggren, the original tiger language, traded out for a unified language during a war several thousand years ago that the tigers had been instrumental in, because of their raw power and skill on the battlefield. It was a curse to the mother goddess. Translated it meant, Damn you, goddess, for my weakness. "Come here, Carly," she finally said. "You can sleep beside me."

It was a comfortable night in the grass. The stars, insects, frogs, mice, and bats, made a scene so soft, so soothing, sleep was inevitable. Ty dreamed of a scene over a decade old, except that he was standing in his bedroom doorway, watching as his mother sang him and his sister to sleep.