Her gaze drifted toward the partly hidden tattoo on the inside of her wrist, the number
7 permanently etched into the skin of her left arm somewhat concealed by the assortment of
bangles and accessories that currently adorned her. She couldn’t remember when the Kaminoan had etched it there, just another of the many muddled memories that composed the hazy period of her life after Dara had been forcibly removed from it.
”The other cats had many different colors of fur, but none had fur so dark and blue that it looked like the midnight sky.”
Golden eyes trailed towards the starry night above, drawn to it as he spoke. Hearing the events of that time from his point of view brought a clarity that had been missing before, and a heavy weight that pressed sharply against her chest.
Burden.
Despite the pain that single word had brought her Mahsa knew he’d been right to think of her as such. Her presence in his life had only made things worse for Ayhan in the Cage, to the point she had almost cost the Firronthix his very life.
”Instead of being eaten though, the silver wolf was saved by the midnight cat.” The gruesome silver scar on his chest was undeniable proof of it, and it had been nothing short of a miracle that his story—
their story—hadn’t come to an abrupt end that day.
". . ." She still remembered it clearly, as if the red of his wound had banished the foggy haze that had clouded her memory until then. She had fought with fang and claw to keep both of them safe and fed, and at night she had used the same stories Dara had loved to keep the nightmares away.
”Something else happened too though… The silver wolf realized he had a friend again.”
The admission had brought her gaze away from the stars and the depths of her own thoughts, a mixture of emotions rippling within those golden pools that manifested in perplexed ambers and curious citrines through the curls of her hair. She had almost thought her ears had been playing a cruel trick on her, before the idea was quickly debunked once she noticed the ghost of a smile that lingered in his lips.
It was gone before she could even think to say a thing about it, replaced by furrowed eyebrows as his gaze drifted towards the floor and the story continued.
”But the silver wolf didn't want to ruin the snowy cat's happiness. So he was mean to her, so that she might leave him alone and play with the other dogs and cats instead, and be happy.”
She had wondered again and again why things had changed between them, trying to figure what she might’ve done wrong and if it was still possible to repair the broken bridge that had once connected them.
At first she had thought him overwhelmed by the change, and had done her very best to act as the buffer between him and the new reality they had stepped into. When others bad-mouthed behind his back she had stepped up to defend Ayhan, and when it had looked like every master was determined to pass him up as a padawan Mahsa had done her best to vouch for him… because he deserved this chance as much, if perhaps not more, than she ever had.
Mahsa knew she was the reason he kept acting out, Ayhan hadn’t minced his words when he had told her as much years ago, but she had never considered he could’ve been
lying about why that was.
"I don't know how the story ends yet." The silence that fell between them threatened to stretch into eternity, until the Firronthix found the courage to break it first.
"A-Ayhan you… y-you…!" Her voice cracked as the words seemed to hitch against her throat, handfuls of fabric gasped tightly between her fingers as she struggled to keep her feelings in check.
"You i-idiot!!!"
Her arms wrapped around his neck just as the dam finally broke, pulling him closer until her sobs were muffled against the fabric of the Epicanthix attire he wore when the Kazelrrian buried her face into his left shoulder. Deep ambers and turbulent ochre hues mirrored the tempest of emotions coursing through her tiny frame, the edge of them dulled by a sense of relief that rippled through her hair in soft highlights of golden yellows as one thought reigned above the rest.
She didn’t know where their story would take them next, but he didn’t
hate her... and that alone meant the world to her.
Jack Wright
