Beast Tamer

XIX

Fauna stared at the light before everything exploded. Nico knocked her to the floor before she could even realise what was going on.

The sound of paper crinkling filled the air and she peeked up from under Nico to see paper gently floating down to the ground.

"Nico," she said. "You can get off me now."

Nico hesitated before looking up and around, spitting the paper, before clearing his throat and getting off Fauna. He gave her a hand getting up.

Fauna smiled at him in thanks before bending down and picking up a piece of paper from the floor only to see her handwriting scrawled across it.

Nico too was picking up papers from the floor. "Damn, how long was this correspondence going on for?"

He was right. There were papers strewn all over the floor - some in her handwriting and some in another's.

Thanks for the news, Fauna read, I'll be over shortly. You know the drill burn all of them in the Pit. Never know who could be watching.

"We burnt them all," she murmured to herself.

"What?"

"We had to burn all the letters because we were afraid that someone was watching us," Fauna said, slightly short of breath.

Nico ran a hand through his hair as his other seemed to unconsciously move towards his sword. "Okay, now we just need to figure out who..."

Nico droned on but Fauna couldn't hear him. It was like she was underwater.

Her mouth parted slightly as she bent down and picked up a piece of paper from the floor.

There was no writing on this one - only a drawing.

Fauna stared at it as she furrowed her eyebrows. She'd drawn a woman with sleek, flaming red hair that went down to her hip.

Her blue eyes were bright and yet wasn't bright in the way of childhood innocence but instead the light of intelligence, cunning.

She had sharp features and lips pressed into a tight line with her high cheekbones being the most defining feature of her face.

Fauna gasped and clutched her head as an image flashed through of that woman staring down at - at Fauna.

The paper fluttered to the floor and Fauna felt like screaming as the pain banged against her skull over and over again. The same woman.

She couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't feel anything - apart from the splintering pain in her head.

She'd fallen at some point, her legs giving way, and someone had caught her... well... she thinks someone did.

∞

The woman stared down at Fauna while she cradling Orion, trying not to cry... again.

The woman waved her index finger and tsked. "Now, now, Fauna, you know the rules. You don't eat until you've finished your homework. You don't drink until you've finished the chores. And you don't draw until you've finished your training, both physical and mental."

Fauna whimpered slightly as her stomach growled with hunger. The woman always said she would feed her but Fauna still went to bed starving because she hadn't done things 'properly'.

The woman grabbed Fauna's chin and yanked it upwards to look at her while giving an innocent smile but Fauna knew better.