TALIA : ANGEL QUEEN (STORY ONE)

DEALS

"Are we supposed to wait for her to come back?" Masara shivered as she gazed towards the waterfall.

"Yes, Masara." Talia snapped. "We came together. We leave together."

Masara huffed, then flopped down onto the cavern floor. Leaning against a honed area of rock, she motioned for Bisa to join her. The two cradled together for warmth as Talia paced in front of them, refusing to take her eyes off of the entrance. 

"She'll be back soon. I just know it."

Masara scoffed. "Yeah, after she's full."

"That's not necessary, Masara. Besides, Bisa said Jema was going to be fine."

"Who said anything about Jema? Amara's a Shadow, those things will eat their own foot if they can't feed."

"My sister's not like that."

"You mean the one who snarled at you, then bolted outta here practically foaming at the mouth? Yeah, okay."

"Why are you acting like someone pissed on your rainbow?"

"Because I'm not comfortable lying in wait for a creature that feeds off of angels, that's why. And if she wasn't your sister, you wouldn't be either.

"She would never hurt me."

Both Bisa and Masara stared at Talia.

"Or anybody." She declared. "She wouldn't hurt anybody."

Masara sucked her teeth as she pulled Bisa close, then whispered in her ear.

Offended by the act, Talia asked. "What's that about?"

"Nothing." Masara scoffed. "Nothing at all."

***

"You thought changing into your pale skin would somehow make her less afraid?"

The sun positioned itself in the noon sky as Amara crept up behind Jason standing idle as Jema scrambled away.

"What makes you think I was the problem?" He spun towards Amara as she began shifting back into her human form.

"You don't seem surprised to see me, or to have me see you." Peering at him with a smug expression sprawled across her face, she circled Jason, daring him to run.

"The conjuration is only useful for cloaking my Shadow when I'm in this meat suit, and it was only a matter of time before you sensed me during a hunt."

"Humph, and here I was thinking you were a one in a million kind of guy."

Jason raised his hands as he rotated within Amara's orbit. He smirked as he replied. "I just let the ultimate prize go free. So, how could you believe that I'm not ?"

Amara watched Jema frantically scamper as she disappeared within the forest brush. With his palm in the air, Jason raised his hand in the direction of her vanishing act.

Ignoring his irritation, Amara enquired. "What do you want with my sister?"

"Ahh, Talia, the Angel Queen." He paused, then crouched close to the thick brush beneath their feet. "Well, before I got to know her, I actually wanted to feel fragments of her bloody corpse lingering on my teeth." 

His hand lurched forward, grabbing a large, unlucky rodent from the weeds. He tilted his head from side to side, then opened his mouth as the gnawing mammal writhed within his bone crushing grasp. Upon the final snap of its vertebrae, it squealed, then fell limp in his hand. Amara's head reared back, her eyes wide.