Page 15 of When Death Called Life Home (When Deities Awaken #1)
Chapter 15
A Battle Between Two Creatures
ALORA
E ach step Alora took away from the field with the headstone with her name on it, was accompanied by the comfort from the puma. She had bounded into step beside Alora the moment she entered the bulk of the trees, offering her companionship for a second time. Her hand fell onto the puma’s head and then slid down to rest between her shoulder blades as they slowed to a walk. An anchor that kept Alora grounded with safety.
She had no clue where she headed, just that it was away from the only truth she might have found since diving into that portal. She only knew that seeing that headstone had a deep throbbing ache weighed on her chest and spread to her bones. One that, if she thought about it too much, made it difficult to breathe. Her leaving and heading in whatever direction lessened the ache, felt as natural as she imagined a sailor would on a ship. Like she’d experienced this before.
Yet, she could only know it as a feeling . There was no visual within her mind to combine it with. Perhaps if there was, she’d know exactly where she needed to be. Until then, she could only follow the overwhelming pull in her chest in the direction it demanded her to go. For she feared if she didn’t, she might just suffocate, and she couldn’t imagine a fate worse than that.
Night approached quickly, and Alora fell to her knees before a giant dead tree stump. Her head hung low, fingers spread in the grass like nature would provide her with the comfort she so desperately needed. The tightness in her chest seized her, constricted the air from entering or leaving. She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t breathe.
Breathe.
Fur brushed against her face, loose pieces of it sticking to her cheeks. She lifted her arms and wrapped them around the muscular neck of the feline. Breathed in the smell of pine, lilies, and evening dew.
Breathe.
It hurt. Each draw of oxygen into her lungs hurt. She missed the gardens at Lexington Manor, the too-sweet cupcakes and lemonade. She missed Rosalie. Missed their exploration of the gardens, missed spotting animals with her and coming up with ridiculous stories about their lives. God, she wished she could go back now. If this was death, if it was the afterlife, forever lost and roaming, Alora wished to return back to her boring life.
You will not.
Alora’s breath hitched, her tight grip around the feline's neck loosening as she drew herself back. The puma did not press into her like she’d imagined, like she’d thought. No, before her sat a stunning jaguar with emerald eyes and iridescent flower and vine patterns shimmering over its black coat. It stared at her with a determined gaze, sharpened by the sun sinking out of sight.
“Did you just … talk to me?” Alora swallowed a soft sob.
The beast didn’t answer her, only sent a slow blink her way and wrapped its tail around her body. Her attention dropped to the tail, a barrier between her and the forest. A protection she didn’t realise she’d wanted. She looked back up and offered the jaguar a small smile.
“I’m not dead?”
It shifted its head side to side. How had it spoken before, but now would not? Unless it couldn’t, which didn’t make any sense – but neither did her jumping through a damned portal into a magical forest. But at least she wasn’t dead. Yet.
Alora looked past the jaguar to the tree stump, the top pointed towards the sky with blackened, jagged edges. Almost like a lightning bolt had struck and fried the rest of the tree into ashes. She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind as she stood and walked towards it, discovering an opening that she slipped through. She didn’t need the stress of thinking it’d happen while she was in it. Lightning never struck the same place twice, right?
Inside wasn’t as hollow as she’d expected it to be. More so a circular maze she had to crouch in, and as much as it provided her with cover and safety, there was no room whatsoever for the two felines to join her. An issue that made her almost abandon the stump’s safety in order to find somewhere for all of them. The jaguar, however, planted itself beside the opening in a way that told Alora they were going nowhere, and neither was she. Nor did she have any energy to truly fight the decision.
Alora would return to the field in the morning, pray that her mysterious stranger returned also, and finally get some answers. Even if she had to threaten violence to get them.
Sleep didn’t find her. Not in the hours the moonlight leaked through the crack from above and shifted across the floor. A shadow did, though. Its shape passed over the moonlight, blocking it for the smallest amount of time that Alora might have missed it had she not been staring at the opening already. It sped past again, the patter of paws with it this time. Soft thuds in a steady rhythm across the ground.
Alora pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, crawling towards the moonlight shining through the exit. It was another stupid idea, she told herself that, too. Every horror book she’d managed to get her hands on told her as much. Kallias’ warnings rang in her ears, a silent threat upon lips that were nowhere near her.
Not the best thing to cross her mind for it only pushed her forward further. A rebellious spirit only nurtured from her time on Earth being forced to follow ridiculous rules set by old men.
She heard it then, the quietest chirrup. Alora paused, lips curving into an amused smile.
Chattat. Chatatata.
A giggle escaped her and the sound cut off. So did her giggle when she finally peeked outside and took in the scene. The jaguar stood frozen in shadows, hackles raised as it faced a large, white scaly beast. The very tip of the feline’s black tail twitched in agitation and focus, the bulk of its dark body moving to block the moonlight from entering the trunk. It remained that way, the golden-eyed puma beside it, until the white beast in front of them broke its stare with a hiss and slithered off into the depths of the forest.
A serpent, like the one Alora saw on her first day here, only ten times bigger and with more hunger in its eyes. Her brows pulled together as she stared after it.
Both felines' bodies slowly relaxed, their tails growing still until Alora guessed they could no longer hear the serpent that had wanted to get past them. To her . The realisation had a tiny whine leaving her and the noise caught the attention of both large cats. Were they hunting her? One could be random, but two?
The jaguar and puma turned to her, the latter returning to its spot beside the trunk’s entrance while the former approached her. Immense youth in its face greeted her under the moonlight's shine, contradicting the age its size suggested. A teen, perhaps, but only a quarter smaller than the other feline. Alora hadn’t noticed it before.
“Thank you,” she whispered, voice feather soft. It drew the feline close enough to touch, and Alora reached out a hand, scratching between its ears. Its large eyes closed, head stretching out so that her scratching shifted to under its chin and loud purrs vibrated from its throat. Alora smiled. She drew her hand back and watched the emerald gaze open and pierce into her soul once more. Then, with a soft chuff, he returned to the space beside the trunk opposite to the puma and crouched low.
Alora retreated into the trunk and lowered herself back to the ground. With two large predators guarding her, she didn’t think twice about the serpent returning. Barely five minutes later and the moonlight, as well as the tree trunk walls around her, disappeared from sight, replaced with dreams of a battle between two creatures; one scaled, one furred.