Indigo's Owl [Indigo Rewrite]

Chapter 9 - Weaponised Turtle

Shift had stared down death enough times in his twenty-one years of life to be familiar with the feeling of his own mortality.

Nothing had ever come close to Rathe.

Rathe was every irrational annoyance, every urge to hurt that Shift had ever felt invade his thoughts. He was blinding anger, a rage so deep and old that nothing would ever satisfy it. He was vengeance and fire and fury — but worst of all, he was familiar.

Athira's grip on Shift's arm tightened as she pulled him to his feet. Even down on all fours, Rathe loomed above them, the crimson glow of his fire visible through the Black's monochrome effect on the outside world. Shift was all too certain that Rathe's gaze was locked on him.

"Uh," said Shift, waving up at Rathe as Athira tensed beside him. "Nice place you have here. Very, um, warm?"

Do you offer this child of the Celestials to me as tribute? Rathe's voice boomed inside both Shift's mind and his chest. It was a tangible, visceral thing that made his breath quicken, his heart beat faster. Rathe leaned in closer, the glow of flames flickering at the back of his throat as he bared his fangs. Or perhaps you dared think him your saviour.

"Unfortunately, I doubt he could save himself from a paper bag over that handsome head of his," yelled Athira. The Black dome remained between them, though it felt laughably thin. "Are you planning on just standing there and talking after that dramatic entrance?"

Rathe's tail curled around the base of the Black dome, its barbed tip scraping down the side. Bold words for one so weak.

Athira widened her stance. "What a coincidence. I was going to say the same thing to you."

Rathe snarled — a thick, rasping sound that raked down Shift's spine — and slammed the barb of his tail into Athira's dome. The Black buckled but held, though Athira's arm wavered ever so slightly. You cannot cower with your pet forever.

Shift risked a glance over his shoulder, half expecting to see Talon there looking offended but found no sign of him — which was when it clicked. "Wait, I'm the pet?"

Athira's smirk was all too smug for Shift's liking.

"Who said anything about cowering?" said Athira. "I'm just distracting you again, or are you still figuring that out? Talon, dive!"

Rathe placed a clawed hand on the top of the dome as he lifted his massive, skull-like head upwards to the empty sky.

As soon as Rathe's eyes left her, Athira's hand clenched into a fist. Her dome flipped, engulfing Rathe's hand, and before the monster had so much as flicked that obsidian gaze down once more, her Colour had swallowed his arm up to the elbow and crystallised.

You dare —

"You know the rule, Rathe," said Athira, releasing Shift's hand and unleashing a torrent of Black straight towards Rathe. "Sins who throw tantrums get put in time out."

The Black bound Rathe's arm to his chest with enough momentum that he stumbled backwards, tail lashing behind him. Stone and fire scattered in every direction as, from somewhere on the ground, Talon swooped upward.

The crow skimmed close to Rathe's form and dove into the Black. Shift lost sight of Talon until he emerged from the Black, a tendril of the Colour clutched within his claws. Talon flew up over Rathe's shoulder, disappearing somewhere behind his monstrous form as the tendril of Black went taut. Pulled off balance, Rathe crashed into a nearby fire lake, sending embers scurrying through the air.

"Chroma, he's predictable sometimes," muttered Athira. She shoved Shift towards what had been the back of their hideout, towards the crack that still lined the wall. "Get into the tunnels. They should take you somewhere safer than here."