“Pain is weakness leaving the body” For Valiksis
When she came to, Valiksis could hardly focus. The room spun, her head pounding, heart racing. Cale had left late last night, making sure all was well and that she and her whelps would stay warm for the evening. The fire had easily lulled her into a restful sleep, probably the best sleep she had in ages it felt.
She woke to noises outside, though. Feet crunching through the snow. How she heard it over the wind and crackling of the fire, she didn’t know. Instinct perhaps. She’d blinked away the sleep she felt lingering and curled around the twins a bit more, as though to hide them from view. Then she heard the voices, muttering, but she couldn’t understand what was being said over the outside noise. But she didn’t need to understand when she saw a figure come into the entrance nearby.
At first she thought it might have been Cale, but a breeze came into the cave, letting her catch the horrifyingly familiar stench of her former House. Valiksis shifted, moving to get between the intruder and her whelps with a growl. This man was obviously a Captain, maybe even a Baron, and he looked down at her with a scornful glare. He approached fearlessly, which frightened her as she backed up, still shielding her whelps and not looking away. And finally, she dared to muster the courage to speak.
“Who are you?! What do you want!?” She demanded, and he stopped, eyes scanning the room, scenting the air and not bothering to answer her. But then his sight landed back to her, narrowing dangerously.
“Seems the rumors were true.” He grunted, and she realized his eyes weren’t on her. But on the little lives behind her. She moved into his line of sight, hiding her babies with a hiss, and hearing little whimpers behind her in reaction to her stress. “You are the mate to Captain Halsis, the one who survived this damned wilderness long enough to have his whelps, no?”
Silence was his answer, and he nodded. “Very well. We have no use for you, anyway.”
The last thing she remembered was the stranger charging at her, and a sharp pain in the side of her head. She’d lost consciousness to the cries of her whelps. Now she was awake again, scrambling to her feet and swaying as the world blurred in and out of focus. Still, she staggered toward the mouth of the cave, sobbing, fearing the worst.
The wind brought her a familiar scent, and she fell into the snow, sobbing and too weak to get back up. She knew it was the guardian who looked after her, and she didn’t hesitate to scream out of her grief, hearing it echo through the barren valley.
“They’re gone! He took them!”
