Hiraeth -- Eleceed FF

Chapter 1

If this fails, I will go to university and become a vet. Cain almost laughed when that thought crossed his mind. If this failed, he'd be lucky even to interact with an animal again.

He pressed as close to the wall as his bag would allow. Stolen heirloom jewellery sat heavy in it, nestled amidst packets of money. He reached out with his Awakened ability, calling out to the panther he'd once owned, hoping that something would respond.

There was always Atsali, the osprey from the menagerie whom he'd surreptitiously begun communing with, but she was young and inexperienced, and no match at all for an animal like his grandmother's Phoenix. He needed Lancelot for his plans to work. And his sister didn't deserve him anyway.

Something stirred inside his sister's room, but nothing that he could pull on. He kept trying, increasingly conscious of the sky beginning to lighten outside. Come on, come on... Somehow, he sensed Lancelot awake, stretch even, but there was nothing to hold. I'm stronger than her and she knows it. Damn it, this shouldn't be taking so long.

A dull ache started throbbing in his chest. It had been from that time- and here his mind met blankness, and his breathing quickened. Cain closed his eyes, trying to calm himself. It wouldn't help to try to remember now, at any rate, and so he tried to ignore the pain and concentrate on Lancelot.

Cain sensed another consciousness on the edge of his mind then, and turned around in fear- don't tell me someone knows! - but relaxed as he saw the corridor still empty. His mind's play with Lancelot's jarred at the presence of an intruder. Anala. As predictable as ever. His sister had taken Lancelot, after he had lost to that abominably fat cat and been disinherited- again, he wouldn't think about it, not now. His sister reached to the panther, snatching the threads he had been tugging at back.

Desperation made Cain pull again, and this time harder, despite the mounting pain in his chest. I will not think about that now. It's Lancelot that matters. He felt something give, and for an instant he felt something like the bond they had shared before everything had happened. He tried to adjust his grip on it, but just as quickly it was snatched back away. A lance of pain shot through him, and he had to let go entirely, leaning heavily against the wall.

Tentatively, he reached out again, and Lancelot's consciousness came more easily to him this time. His sister pulled Lancelot back towards her. Cain gritted his teeth. Lancelot, I've known you longer; come on!

They had reached an impasse, and it was all Cain could do to maintain his hold on what part of Lancelot's will he had. He was tired; his eyes closed, and a memory floated to the front of his mind unbidden.

It had been when he was young, before he'd entered the World Academy. They had owned more land then, a few hectares of forest among it. Somehow, he and Lancelot had slipped off into the forest, even though he'd been warned repeatedly not to. They had found a grove of wild mulberry trees. He'd been barely tall enough to reach the lowest branches, and after less than an hour of tiptoeing and attempted tree climbing, he'd gotten tired and fallen asleep in the sunlight.

Lancelot's growling was what woke him up, he remembered. He had opened sleep-dazed eyes to see the panther pacing in front of him, baring its teeth at a tiger. I didn't know there were tigers in these woods. The tiger had snarled and thrown himself at Lancelot, and Lancelot had moved too fast for the eye to follow, even without his master's bidding. When the two big cats had come apart, the tiger's fur was stained red around its eye. Even I can't stop Lancelot once he's been attacked.

The memory of the last time he had used that turn of phrase brought a smile to his lips now. All that had seemed so long ago. I'm delirious. The mental effort was starting to exhaust him; he hadn't slept in more than a day, and he was still healing from his injuries. He pulled even harder on Lancelot, and through it more memories of the animal came to mind, too many to count. If I lose him-

That thought went unfinished, interrupted by a sudden, triumphant feeling of wholeness, and suddenly he could feel Lancelot's every thought, his sister's intrusion gone. He exhaled and grinned despite the pain, savouring the long-missed communion with Lancelot that he'd now regained.

Time to move. Open the door; let's go. It seemed like his bond with the panther had never been broken; it came back to him so easily. Almost instantly, there came a loud crash from the room, and the door swung open, the broken deadbolt falling to the floor with a tinkling sound. Lancelot came bounding out, and stopped for a moment in front of Cain, rubbing against his legs.

A shout from inside the room- that would be his sister, and they would have to leave now. Cain crossed to the other side of the corridor, where high French-door windows allowed a glimpse of the two-storey drop into the garden below. Fear of being caught- never mind discovered, that had already happened- making him reckless, he threw open the window and climbed onto the sill.

He called to Atsali, whom he had let out of her cage earlier, and he could feel her presence growing closer. His sister would undoubtedly be realising what had happened. It was time to go.

Lancelot went out of the window first, landing soundlessly, and then Cain jumped, absorbing the impact as he had learned, while Atsali dived by close enough to him for him to feel the wind made by her wings.

There's no turning back now. Cain pulled his coat around him as the predawn chill wrapped itself around him. They would be raising the alarm anytime now. He looked back, a good long look, at the home he had been brought up in, blinked harshly, and walked off into the surrounding forest with Lancelot at his side.