The Beast Within Us

Chapter 26: ⑄ Chala

⑄ Blood trickled from the gash along her face as Chala held down the apothecary while Yara began her interrogation. The man trembled beneath her form, from both fear and pain, her teeth remaining locked onto his shoulder. There was no way the tigress was letting him get away after attempting to take the life of her warden. The anger she felt burned brightly without ceasing, much more so than if her protection were just a job to be done. No, she took this attack personally, as if it'd been her own life on the line.

A single glance from Yara was communication enough, and Chala clenched her teeth. The huntress ignored his screeches as she ignored the squealing of the boars she hunted in their death throes. Her steel eyes were cold and glinting, and she stared her captive down. He would spill his guts willingly, or she would spill them for him.

Unfortunately, they learned nothing new from their would-be assassin. Fear flashed in his eyes as Yara ordered his execution, and his fevered pleas fell on deaf ears. The tigress strove to make it quick if not painless, releasing his shoulder, snapping his neck with a well placed bite, and letting his body drop lifelessly to the floor. His blood dripped from her muzzle and mingled with her own as her wound continued to bleed. It was not the first life she had taken, and she had a feeling it would not be the last.

• • • • •

Chala spent the next week healing, guarding, and thinking. Soon after the fire had been put out and they'd taken inventory of the supplies they'd lost, Yara wasted no time insisting that the tigress be looked at. Of course the hewan woman insisted that she'd be fine, but her Warden was steadfast in her worry. The two returned to the village to find the healer they needed - it turned out the apothecary was the only active seditionist there, though his sentiments might've been shared. Nonetheless, the tigress was treated by one of the elder wives. The cut wasn't as bad as it seemed, and it remained superficial enough to leave her eye undamaged by the blade. It would scar nicely, Chala had been told.

The following day, she stubbornly continued her duties as the Warden's bodyguard. There were protests of course, but the tigress was staunch in her way - especially now that she was the only immediate protection Yara had. When Chala was made aware of Darryn's failing health, she was devastated. The two had grown close over the weeks they'd been together, and the soldier had become the friend she never expected to find. Every morning she'd visit him in his sickbed whether he was conscious to greet her or not. It pained the tigress that there was nothing she could do to help her ailing friend, and it left her thinking often times on seemingly futile ways to save him.

That wasn't the only thing constantly turning the gears of her mind, however; the other object of her deep thought was the one she shadowed at almost all times.

The very odd relationship she shared with the warden had come a long way in the month that they'd known each other. To think the woman, the human, she'd despised so much upon their first meeting would've become so close. The feelings involved had shifted across many spectrums, from hate, to tolerance, to friendship, to a confusing tangle of emotions she'd yet to unravel. There were a number of things that'd caused the emotional yarn ball to form over the past week, and it began with their cuddling in bed.

Being in such an intimate position caused intimate observations, which lead to intimate actions. For example, how Yara would shiver cutely if Chala's tail brushed across exposed skin when they settled in bed for the night. It prompted the tigress to mischief, performing the action whenever she could without getting caught, always feigning bemused innocence. Another was the warden's eyes. At night when they would chat, the two would always be close enough for Chala to see the little swirls of deep brown that mingled with the coal color of her irises, and she treated the knowledge like a guarded secret she'd been trusted with.

The last thing was a bit different in its nature, and perhaps the hewan woman was the only one in the world who might've taken heart from it. On occasion she would catch Yara staring at her collar, the dark band of enchanted leather that stood out so starkly against her gold fur and skin, her expression reflecting a veiled displeasure. It reminded her that the warden was different, that she was just as angered by Chala's enslavement as the tigress was, and that she cared. Surrounded by hatred, open hostility, and prejudice as she was, to have two people that cared was all she needed.

Unfortunately, those same two were causing the most inner turmoil she'd faced in a while.

She brooded as she walked to the inn for breakfast, entering and taking her seat with a heavy sigh. The other soldiers gave her a wide berth, largely ignoring the tigress as they were forbidden from antagonizing her. Chala didn't mind. It gave her even more time to think.

It was easy to tell when the warden arrived. She could pick out her footsteps in a crowd, and her scent had long since become familiar enough to be prominent anywhere she may venture. The tigress swallowed her nerves as she greeted her warden, and they fell into the pit of her stomach as a cold and heavy ball of unrest. It might've made her squirm if she were a lesser person. They ate their food in an amicable silence, and Chala finished easily as Yara picked at her plate, largely because the tigress knew what it was to starve; her nerves wouldn't keep her from appreciating a meal.

And then Yara spoke.

To say that Chala was worried would be an understatement. She gazed back at the other woman without words for a long while, a million different thoughts flashing through her mind at the revelation. It wasn't all negative, no, of course not. A very large part of her was incredibly happy that her feelings (as she had deduced and come to terms with the night before) were reciprocated. That alone had been an impossibility she'd prepared herself to completely discount. And for Yara to be the one approach the topic? Even more of an anomaly.

However, she couldn't help but hear the little voice in the back of her mind. It whispered of the captain and her warden's affections for him. That he'd been the recipient of her feelings before Chala and for much, much longer. It wondered how the other woman could leave him behind so readily. Their relationship had been no secret to the tigress, and it gave her pause now, as she considered her words.

"But...what of Darryn? You two were... together, weren't you?" 'Would you be quick to leave me in the future too?' She shook her head to clear her thoughts. "How can I know that I'm not just some passing fancy? While the one you truly love is sick and unable to give you the attention and care you want?" Danger and scandal was alluring to some people, and the number increased when it was romanticized. Yara didn't seem like the type, but Chala forced herself to ask the hard questions she needed to. To be sure. To be safe. But, as she thought of safety, the tigress realized something else that made it all the worse. She looked down forlornly at the table.

"Even if...even if he were not here, if you two weren't together, you would become a target if anyone ever found out; ridiculed, hated, and looked down upon by others for being with a beast." Her nose wrinkled at the word she knew humans would use to describe any and all of her race. She kept her eyes downcast, well aware that it was a rarity if not a first when interacting with Yara in the time that they'd known each other. There was so much uncertainty and fear she didn't want her warden to see. "I-..." Chala swallowed; she'd never wavered so much as she was now, "I couldn't do that to you." ⑄