Memories of the Reaper

Chapter Eighteen

Kendra Lynx and Derek Grey were sitting at the edge of the lake, just listening to the sounds of the water flowing through the landscape. A few owls hooted from the trees despite the time of night and even a few crows moved between the branches to fight for territory, adding to the sounds of nature. Derek was trying to sift through the memories and visions that had flooded his brain, but it was like a mist. It was all there, but he was having trouble accessing it.

"So, what is your title?" Derek asked.

"The Lady of Beasts," she told him. "I've never been particularly fond of the name, but it fits me well enough."

"So, as Lady of the... Beasts, you can shape shift into any animal?" he asked her with curiosity and proceeded to throw a small rock into the lake with his fight hand. It produced a satisfying plop! in Derek's ears, although Kendra seemed indifferent to the sound.

"Not any animal, no. As the host of Tavre's spirit, I have the ability to change my physical appearance to mimic many different beasts, but not all of them. It would take too much essence and energy to shift into, say, a dragon, or a spider. Sizes and anatomy relatively close to our own is always the easiest, which is why I mostly shift into felines. Black panthers, lionesses, tigresses. I can do smaller cats too, as you know, but it's more time consuming the more drastic the change is."

Derek grunted, not in disbelief but in amazement. "Does it hurt?" he asked.

"Yes, but I've gotten used to it over time," she explained with a shrug. After a moment of silence, she asked, "Did any of this help you to... remember?"

"A little," Derek said. "I'm beginning to remember bits and pieces, but mostly everything is stuck in a haze." He looked at the creek and could vaguely see himself skating on the water's surface.

"All of us felt that same way when we first got here. I still remember how it felt to have that fog over my mind. There's nothing you can do but wait."

"Yeah," Derek said. He looked at her and then back at the water. "Did I, uh... Did Chris freeze this creek one summer? I remember skating on it." He frowned. "But I don't think we had any skates."

"Yeah, Chris landed on his ass so many times I couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard," she said. "We skated on the ice until the sun warmed it enough to fall through. I thought we were going to get trapped under the ice until I realized that the water only came up to our chests." She tossed a rock into the water.

"It must've been fun. Just the two of you," he said.

"It was better than what I could have asked for," she told him, standing up. "But like all good things, it had to come to an end, I guess."

"Who said it did?" Derek said, also getting to his feet.

"Fate. Destiny. Some cosmic bullshit like that," Kendra told him. "Don't know. Don't care."

"Why not?" Derek asked. "This seems like something you should care about."

"When you've been around for as long as I have, you stop believing in humanity, positivity, and mercy. There is no fairness—only luck decides who lives happiest the longest. Luck and cruelty."

"And mercy," Derek said, not completely certain if he had said the words if somebody else had.

"Huh?" Kendra had picked up another rock to throw but now held it in her hand as she stared at him.

"You saved me back at the house party," Derek said quietly. "You saved my life. When I fell unconscious, you were there for me."

Kendra stiffened. "So what?"