Wolf Girl

The Death of a Beast

Chapter 28

Leah was frozen. Every muscle was aching to move but seemed unable to no matter how hard she tried. Everything was quiet, still, and frozen in time with her. Her eyes were fixated on the place where Percy had disappeared and her mind was trying to compute the fact that he was gone. Unsuccessfully of course. She couldn't believe it, how could she? He had been there a second earlier and now he was gone—gone forever. Her imprint, her love, her future had all been snuffed out like the flame of a candle in a strong breeze.

If she looked deep within herself she could feel as if he was still there. For some reason she felt that same part of her trying to leave her body to go be with Percy. She took hold of that part, locked it in place and refused to let it leave her. But it longed to leave her and join its better half in the crystal prison. Leah just held on tighter. She wasn't going to let whatever this last connection to her imprint was leave her. She tugged back on that strange part of her and when she did her soul seemed to pull on something in the bright crystal.

She—she could feel his presence in the blinding light, he was there, he had responded to her tug she just knew it. But how was that possible? She pushed the question from her brain. She didn't care how it had happened, only that it meant there was a chance he could come back. Inside it, he was there! She heart jumped at the thought, she could still save him. She looked through the wall of mist at the bright star in the center, her vision had been slowly getting worse over the course of the battle and she could now only see roughly ten yards in front of her.

She raised her head up to the heavens and howled. The sound cut through the silence and cracked the frozen motion of the world. She called out to him, begging him through her howl to come back to her. A bird chirped on a nearby branch, a breeze gently ruffled her soft fur, a chill swept through her body and she could feel Percy draw nearer to her.

"He's gone." Tantalus seethed. "There's no bringing him back from that. He's completely gone!"

Leah only gave a low growl in response.

"Any effort you make would be futile. Like wind on a dry branch." Tantalus began walking towards the crystal. "There's no leaves to stir, there all gone. He's all gone."

She would shake the whole damned tree if she had to.

Leah refused to believe that Percy was gone forever.

She kept her eyes trained onto Tantalus as well as she could with her limited visibility. He slowly walked to the crystal while she picked Riptide up with her mouth. Her mouth was dry and the dust that now coated the pen form of the sword did not help it one bit.

Percy was still alive in there and was still fighting for her, she knew it with every fiber in her being. She would fight for him too.

Her paws dug into the soft earth and she sprung forward. Sprinting to come in between the ghost and the crystal. She was there in a moment and she barred her teeth at Tantalus, letting loose a feral growl. He would not take one more step towards the crystal. Her back leg brushed against the smooth surface of it.

The light that burst from the star silhouetted her wolf body and her shadow stretched long and dark across the ground. Her grey fur glowed in the light around the edges.

Tantalus laughed. "You naïve fool. There's nothing to protect! Nothing to save! He is nothing but energy to use now."

She let loose another howl, this one was filled with determination and rose into the air, but just when it reached its highest peak it turned, it turned deep and hollow and sad because—suddenly she knew what she had to do. Tantalus had no need for her, he would just shoot her and take the crystal. That meant that Percy's sacrifice would have been in vain. There was only one thing she could do to stop Tantalus. One option left, and she had to take it.