Mara - The Lady Grief (Completed)

17 I'm Going Insane

2651 B.C.E., City of Tmari-on-the-Euphrates

Late Summer, Month of Abu, One Year and Five Months after Mara's Rebirth

Thelios

My bellow of fury matches the ferocity of the storm. Wind lashes me, but I have control of my wings. I know how to fly against a storm. The storm is relentless, raining so hard that it's as if the Euphrates is lifting into the sky to try and drown me.

I clutch my beloved Flame to my chest. "Please," she whispers. Her haunted gaze strikes me like an arrow through the heart.

"Nanto!" I roar.

"Captain," he tumbles through the hole I ripped in the roof. Like me, his feet immediately begin to sink into the mud under the floodwaters. "Fuck, Thelios!" he shouts, eyes so wide I can see the whites all around.

"Get control, Recondite," I snap. I have no time for panicking assholes. Not with my sweet female in my arms.

With one arm clutching her tight, I use the other to pry the beam off of the drowning male. Grabbing his shirt, I pull him back to the surface of the water.

"Can you shift?" I shout. My wings extend, battling the cruel wind and rain for me, keeping my balance.

"Claws," he gasps.

"Then fucking extend them and start climbing," I snap. "Nanto, take the babes."

"No, want my pa," the little female chokes out.

"Do what he says, now," my female says in a faint voice. I look down at her with a soft smile that probably makes me look like an idiot.

Her face is too pale. Her eyes... as dark as night with an elfin tilt at the corners. They hold secrets that my entire soul yearns for. I can't wait to learn them all, preferably naked.

The house starts to slide, mud and water bubbling up from the floor.

"Fly," my Flame whispers.

"Don't worry, Sprite. I'm not ready to meet your father, yet. We should have dinner first. Get to know each other."

She blinks at me with not even the slightest amusement flickering in those eyes. I guess it's not the time to make jokes?

"Captain! Wind's too strong!" Nanto shouts. He's trying to fly out of the roof, but the storm is beating down through the hole, trapping us in a watery tomb.

Turning on my heels, I kick at the wall opposite the river. The panel goes flying out, revealing the face of a half-shifted cat. The smile Belen sends me looks more like a threatening grimace with the fangs, but I just laugh.

"Belen, rope!" I order.

My friend is fast, thank fuck. I catch the rope, tieing it to Nanto, then the male. Nanto has both babes clutched in his arms, their faces white in fear.

"Pull you fuckers!" I holler at the males standing on more solid ground.

They yank, and the piece-of-shit shanty my sweet Flame decided to play hero in rips apart and falls into the river.

I have to fight the wind. Exultant, I roar again, taking my female into the sky with me with her scream ringing in my ears.

Water whips into my face, threatening to blind me. I fold my wings, knowing that it's a fight I'll lose if I don't go on the offensive. That's the key, use what your opponent tries to throw at you to your advantage.

I tuck my Flame close to me as the ground comes up, fast. The water is a torrent of muddy whirlpools just below us when I let my wings unfurl again.