A Dramatic Exit [solo]

[Tara]

Winter 20th, 511AV.

It was nearing midnight and the white glow of the moonlight glinted on a silver cat’s marbled fur. The air was icy cold and frost gathered on the trees and on the ground. Tara was trotting through the streets of Syliras, her soft paws making no noise in the silence of the night. The only sounds for miles were the footsteps of the knights patrolling the city. Tara had left her bow and arrows, bag and clothes inside a tree outside of the city. She doubted she would be staying long after this.

Tara had come in the gate in her feline form, trotting nonchalantly in after another knight entered and the gates were opened. Nobody knew she was here and Tara hoped to keep it that way for a little while. Her ears twitched as the soft crunch of a knight’s boots shifted the gravel. Tara ducked into and alley and hide behind a large bin. The knight walked on by unaware and she crept out slowly, watching him continue down the street. She walked down after him, staying close to the edge of the road. Her silky fur brushed the wall as she stayed against it, her muscles tensed. Familiar scents rushed towards Tara as she turned the corner and her heartbeat quickened. Then she saw it: a large house at the end of the road, surrounded by evergreen trees that grew to enormous sizes and huge, bare deciduous trees. It was the house that Tara had spent the beginning of her life in. It was the house that she had her first bondmate and where that bondmate died. The thought sent a wave of grief throughout Tara, from her nose to the tip of her tail. She shook it away, she couldn’t be distracted today.

Slowly she approached the house. It was owned by a former Syliran knight. Maybe the reason that Tara was afraid of them, yet rebellious at the same time. She glared at the house, as if her hatred would bore through the windows and reach the man who slept unawares in the bedroom at the back of the house on the third floor. He would not be much older than Tara remembered. He retired a year ago when he reached the age of forty-five. Tara arched her back and hissed in surprise when a nearby dog gave a loud bark which was tinged with a snarl. Tara calmed herself down and walked closer to the house. It was large with a big front yard. The yard was surrounded by a wall and gate. It was situated at the very edge of Syliras and cost quite a bit to build, but the family had been quite rich. At the gate there was a large hound with cropped ears. It had deep brown eyes and black fur. It snarled at Tara menacingly. Tara sniffed the air tentatively. It’s a kelvic!. Realization hit Tara like a ton of bricks. They had replaced her after throwing her out. Deep-seated anger began to burn within Tara.

She walked up to the gates, just out of the snarling kelvic’s reach. There she quickly looked around for any patrolling knights and strained her ears. From what she could tell the closest knight was a couple blocks away. She walked by the gate to the wall surrounding the property. She backed up a couple paces and then leaped onto the wall, gripping the cement in between the bricks with sharp claws. Once she was up there she leaped onto a nearby tree which had bare branches covered in white frost. Then she shifted, a writhing swirl of bright white lights engulfing her and dissolving her from leaving a petit young girl in its place. The canine kelvic was still barking below the tree. Tara broke off a couple sharp branches and jumped down onto the ground. She landed squarely on the dog’s head making it let out a short whimper and back up a bit but it quickly started growling again, its hackles rising. Tara smiled tauntingly and the dog leaped for her. Tara stabbed the dog in the eye with a branch making it recoil with a yelp. In that short space of time Tara focused her energy into her palm and let it escape as misty res. She held it in front of her and let it burst into flames. Then she threw it at the kelvic, burning him. The kelvic whimpered and retreated with it’s tail between it’s legs. Tara sent a jet of water onto the fire which had started burning a small bush. She didn’t want to cause an accident yet. She shifted back into her feline form and headed for the house.

[Tara]

Tara walked up to the large house, tilting her head back to look up to the top. Taking a deep breath she walked onto the porch. Tara had never picked a lock before so she decided against trying to now. She made a mental note to learn how to if she came out of this standing. Tara walked back a few paces and scaled the wooden pillar that held up the porch. She now stood on the porch roof, looking into a guest bedroom. The Tara shifted into her human form, emitting a ghostly white light as she did. She decided to try something she’d never done before. She a small amount of res from her palm and set it on fire. She held it up to the window and increased its heat to unimaginable temperatures. The glass of the window began to melt, red hot molten material oozing down the windowpane. Tara began to feel the start of a metallic taste waft around her mouth. Damn… she thought furiously. Gritting her teeth she managed to keep the fire going for a couple more seconds before she had exhausted herself.

She wiped some blood from her nose and sat for a couple seconds. She felt strangely vulnerable, sitting here. She calmed herself down, promising herself that she would not overgive again. She couldn’t afford to be distracted by her own weaknesses. Silently she shifted into the form of a feline. She began to feel rather weak, as shifting took up a lot of energy. She stepped into the guest bedroom, hissing as she burned her paws on the hot glass. Get food and get out now. her instincts were telling her. Tara agreed with them on some level but she could not leave now. Instead she left the bedroom she was in and walked down a long hallway, her cushioned paws made no noise as they padded gently along the soft rug placed over wooden floors. She walked down the staircase situated at the end of the hallway and ended up in the main hall, facing the front door which Tara had been in front of just minutes ago. She turned on heel and walked down into the kitchen, where a wide array of pots and pans were hung on the walls. Tara crept inside silently, using her nose to search for where food would be kept.

She leaped onto a table-top, probably used for preparing food and found a bread bin. She walked behind it and grabbed the front of it with sharp white claws, pulling it open. Looking inside she found a fresh loaf of bread, probably made just this morning. Tara was definitely a carnivore but she was also a starving one. This would have to do. She devoured the loaf of bread and leaped down off the table. Now that she had satisfied her hunger she could do what she came to do. Tara crept back up the stairs and to the landing. She walked down a long hallway and up another set of stairs. Now she was on the top floor. She walked down the narrow hallway, which had rooms on either side. She quietly opened each door to survey what was inside. The first two doors were empty bedrooms, but the third door had a large sleeping man in the bed. How the hell did he manage to sleep through that fight with the dog? Tara wondered in surprise. She slipped into the room and climbed on top of the bed, looking at the slumbering man. He looked peaceful.

A wicked thought crossed through Tara’s mind and she acted on it. She gently pressed her paws to the man’s throat, prodding around until she found what she was looking for. It was a particularly soft spot just in front of the windpipe, protected only by skin and weak tissue. Tara unsheathed her claws and dug them into that spot, ripping a gaping hole in the man’s throat. He awoke with a gasp, his neck bleeding heavily. He saw the cat sitting in front of him and his eyes widened in surprise. Tara licked her paws, cleaning off the blood which had stained the white tips. With a strangled breath the man fell back down on the bed. Tara lay on his chest to check if he was still breathing and when she was sure he wasn’t she left the room. She vaguely wondered where his wife was, but didn’t dwell on the thought.

Tara headed up the hallway and opened some more doors until she found the one she had been looking for. It was Léoné’s old room. The couple had left all her things exactly as they had been down to the last detail. She pushed away the small pang of guilt that she felt for her recent victim, not wanting to dwell on what she had done.

[Tara]

The room was tidy enough, despite the small amounts of clutter dotted around the room. It was what you’d expect an eight year old child’s room to look like, really. Eyes wide, Tara walked through the room carefully, looking at everything with an almost caution. It had been so long since Tara had been here that she’d nearly forgotten what it had looked like. Then she remembered what she was here for. Before Tara had been thrown out Léoné had given her a silver necklace but her father had taken it off Tara before getting rid of her. Now Tara was back to retrieve it, for sentimental value if nothing else. She rummaged through the chest of drawers and scouted the room but could not find it. Then she noticed a small glimmer of light reflecting from underneath the bed. Tara crawled under and sure enough she found what she was looking for. It was a small silver chain with a heart charm hanging from it. Taking it gently in her mouth, Tara crawled out from underneath the bed. She slipped the necklace over her head, it just about fit.

It was then all of a sudden that Tara heard a shrill shriek. It was Léoné’s mother. Obviously she had found the dead body of her husband. Tara was filled with fear and ran to the window. She pushed it open and prepared to leap down onto the ground. Then she saw the canine-kelvic from earlier, barking at her from the ground below. Tara couldn’t shift now and scare him away like before. She stood on the window-pane, frantically trying to come up with a plan when a thirty-something year old woman burst through the door of the room, eyes wide with fear. She saw Tara perched on the window and realization came to her. Tara hissed. Somehow everything had gone wrong, and now the woman recognized Tara. She turned back and looked outside the window. The hound was still there and she could hear Syliran knights approaching from a little bit away, obviously having heard the piercing scream.

Having no other choice Tara shifted in a flurry of light and balanced precariously on the windowsill. Now she was a human and could use reimancy. She leaped down off the windowsill and while she was in the air she let a small amount of misty res flow from her hand, and set it alight. She threw the ball of fire at the dog-kelvic once more causing it to back away with a whimper. Tara started to run for the gate but was stopped when a couple knights had come to investigate the woman’s screams. The woman was now looking out the window, down at Tara. Tara was trapped and really did not know how to get out of a situation like this. She made a quick and somewhat irrational decision.

Suddenly she let a vast amount of res expel from her palm and she threw it at the house while setting it on fire. It burst into flames and set the house up with it. The flames spread fast and ate away at the infrastructure of the house. Tara shifted once more into the form of a cat and ran like hell. She ran through one of the knights legs and leaped up into a tree. From there she jumped onto the wall and down onto the ground outside it. Now she was in the public streets again but she knew she had to get out of Syliras fast. Her paws ached from burning them on the glass earlier but she tried to ignore it. Something she couldn’t ignore was the growing pain that seemed to appear from inside of her. She had to explanation for it but it felt like she was being burned alive from the inside. She let out a yowl of pain before gritting her teeth and setting off running again. It wasn’t long before she had reached the gates of Syliras, but the pain was becoming hard to bear and the knights who had come to the woman’s rescue were now pursuing her. Tara was short of breath and her vision was becoming blurry. With her last ounce of strength she climbed over the wall of Syliras and ran into the trees. She found the tree where she had hidden her belongings and crawled into the small space she had left them. There she shut her eyes and squeezed them tight. The pain was becoming brutal and did not seem like it was going to stop soon but Tara had to remain quiet or she would be found.


The pain lasted through the night and subsided early the next morning. Tara was sleep deprived and now did not have a nearby city to seek shelter in if needed. She was also probably ‘wanted’ by the Syliran knights. She had to move quickly but her brush with overgiving had been somewhat traumatizing. It had never happened to her before and she had experienced some pretty harsh consequences. She suddenly felt extremely alone. To distract herself from this new, empty feeling Tara shifted back to her human shape and dressed herself. She took her bow and arrows and went deep into the woods to hunt for some real food. After that she would try and find someone who could help her get out of this predicament.