Emberwood [m]Reach for light.

He loomed above her, descending with the wrath of a cyclone, teeth bared and dripping with crimson rain. Her heart surged as she readied herself, her hind legs uncoiling like springs to deliver a resounding kick to his underbelly—an explosion of force that hurled him away.

With the grapple broken, she retreated, the world spinning from the ferocity of the brutal blows. A delicate pink tongue traced over obsidian lips, tasting the intoxicating tang of iron, and a grin, only slightly too wide, dawned upon her blood-stained countenance. It was a wicked visage, one that seemed to revel in the chaos of the battle, and a tinkling laugh burst forth, cascading through the clearing like a haunting echo.

Emerald eyes, as piercing as shards of shattered glass, remained locked onto those eyes that shone like a sun-kissed bottle of whiskey.
Good boy

It was her turn to oblige him, to give and pleasure, and she did not hesitate. Her logical mind was retreating into itself, letting her body move on its own accord. To dance in the sparking embers with this man she did not know the name of, free and unrestricted.

Here in this deeper self, in this place where she knew herself as a childish coward, she faced her enemies. Here, where they could inflict no harm on her, she could unleash all the pent-up words and screams that had festered since the darkest days of her past.


The sneering scorn that had greeted her on her first day at the camp when she was but a four-month-old pup.

The vicious strike from the Theta she had insulted, leaving a wretched scar etched upon her muzzle.

Her peers' ruthless cruelty, ears torn and food plundered, relentless training until her own blood choked her. The unending, echoing wails that had tormented her since she had been cast out.


These were not the precise, calculated strikes of a seasoned warrior, but the raw, untamed savagery of a beast driven solely by visceral emotion. How many times had she even landed a blow? When clarity returned, would she find the earth scarred by her savage claws while the boy remained unscathed?