Bonded

Chapter 2: Mysterious Voices

Midnight has struck, the exact time of my birth. Tonight felt different. The hairs on my arms raised up as if I was cold; but in fact I wasn't cold. The night was surprisingly silent considering the awakenings were suppose to start now. Something wasn't right and somehow I could sense this. My animal was pacing in my head, the action startling me since she rarely made her presence known. I'd had her with me since birth which normally didn't happen; normally our animals pick their chosen during the awakening. My animal forced her way forward, something she'd never done until now.

Pain started to slither its way around my body. The intensity of it caused a piercing scream to claw its way out of my throat. Cracking of my bones left me breathless as I dug my fingers into the carpet. Unknowingly I'd ended up on the floor, the severity of the pain had me crumbling to the ground.  Other screams rattled my ears, others had started their awakenings. My animal surged forward causing me to fight with her. My awakening had started first since other screams had followed mine, my animal was trying to distract me from this fact.

It wasn't right. With my birthday being last naturally my awakening would be last; however, mine was first. I'd struggled against my animal even more. I needed to prolong my awakening until the others finished theirs. They didn't know me though, so to them the awakenings were happening accordingly. If I'd thought the pain before was intense then I was totally wrong. Struggling with my animal caused my body to shake violently. My ribs started to crack leaving me gasping for air.

Squeezing my eyes shut I'd fought back the tears, I refused to cry. I'd released a breathless laugh one that showed years of solitary. After everything I'd been through tears never threatened to fall but intense pain forces my emotions to surface. Well FUCK that. Pain or no pain I've worked too hard for too long to cry now. And I'll be damned if I cry now. Opening my eyes I gazed through the window to see the full moon. Memories of my mentor brought me to say "Megami Runa, Megami Runa, I humbly implore you." He'd taught me everything I know and before every struggle, fight, or important event he'd say those words. As I gazed at the moon the pain didn't seem to matter to me any more, my mentor was a wise man and when he passed he'd left me with his sword. A treasure that he didn't want to leave without a proper owner, in some aspects I guess that is why he started training me.

My head pounded and dots darted my vision; If I died from this awakening then maybe I could see my mentor again. I missed hi-- A startling scream pulled me from my thoughts. The scream caused a sharp throb to assault my mind. A female voice weakly pleaded "Stop your hurting me." and after she had said that a male voice gritted out "Stop fighting it, your going to kill us." Shocked the moments distraction allowed for my animal to take over leaving me with strange images.

Three babies born on different days all died within 2 minutes of life in the small town of Lafayette. The mothers in morning cried to the spirits that resided within the forest. Three spirits complied to their requests, however choosing a person who has a slim chance of coming back to life the spirits were risking everything.

By bonding with these three babies the spirits were intertwining their souls together meaning that they would forever be together in life and death. A fox, jaguar, and leopard made a pact to protect the three babies. And in their wait of the awakening a kinship was formed between the three kids so that each animal could monitor the babies. Unaware the mother's thought nothing of their kids suddenly bursting with life.

However the five leaders of the packs carefully watched the children to see if they'd somehow gotten spirits before their awakenings. If the leaders found that the babies had spirits they would kill them before their eighteenth birthdays to prevent an uproar among the communities. So as the babies grew up and got questioned by their parents about voices in their heads the kids lied about not having animals in fear that something bad would happen to them.

*Thank you for reading!! And I hope everyone has a good day!*