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Soshika jerked awake, lurching forward from her bed, panting. The memory had been so real, the horrors of war had rushed back to her in a blast of images, she had dreamt she was actually there again. The feline clutched a paw to her forehead, panting and whipping away cold sweat. Her throat was dry from screaming in her sleep; the sheets of her bed tattered from her flailing claws.
Across the apartment, someone pounded on the door. Shivering, the Cat dragged her footpaws from bed and clutched her pajamas tightly around herself, as if for security. Her fur stood on end on her face and arms, chilled not from the temperature but the shock of a lost reality. Soshika shut her eyes tightly, trying to lock out the worst parts of the dream to no avail. The fiery orb of Miron's death shown in the back of her minds and reflected in her eyes as if she had seen it only a day ago. Sobs climbed free of her mouth and the feline clutched a paw to her lips to silence them.
Her free hand ran along the darkened hallway's walls, taking her to the door. Looking through the peephole, the Cat could see the pointed snout and red-gold fur of a Morbackian neighbor. The vampire-like wolf pounded on the door with a frightened expression on its face. Soshika feared it would break down the door and instead began to open the locks. Unwise, she thought to herself, before memories of Now began to return to her.
Kym, the Morback, pushed the door open before Soshika was half finished opening it. The alien was a good deal older then the Cat and had adopted a protective manner towards her. "You alright?" Kym demanded in broken Universal, rushing past the feline and glaring around the apartment with dark silver eyes. Soshika suddenly remembered where she was, what had happened after Miron's death. She spoke softly to the Morback, for Kym was in full hunting mode.
"Only a nightmare," she lied, wishing the lie were a truth. As she spoke, Soshika realize how sore her throat was. She must have been screaming extremely loud and for a long period of time. The cat winced and wondered if she had anything drinkable in the cooler.
Kym turned on her with a critical, piercing stare. "Scream much. You owe'a rent still. Wake'a landlord and get kicke'a out. Keep sleep, Lyika."
Soshika nodded, recalling how contractions made the Morback difficult to understand. Shutting the door behind her neighbor, the Cat sat at the foot of her bed with her head in her hands. Her ears flattened against her head as she thought. Why did I remember now? It's been a week already…so short but still pretty long. Why? Oh, Craika…Miron…
"It was a matter of the greater good," a deep voice from the shadows spoke. From the dark slid a dark black dragon, transparent as if it were a ghost. It was far smaller then seemed fitting but didn't appear to care. It reared up on its hind legs before the Cat. "It was my duty to keep you alive, even if you were willing to end your own life."
The feline narrowed her eyes and barred her teeth at the dragon, rising off the foot of her bed. "I recognize you, your voice. You killed Miron. You let him die!" her voice cracked, a mixture of sorrow and physical pain.
The dragon growled, and the feline was frozen in place, unable to move. "He would have died in any case, and do not question how I know that! I am a Guardian. An astral being sent to train you."
"Train-?" Soshika's voice was cut short by some mystical force. The dragon wasn't finished.
"The only way the Rulerists can be beaten is to find the Ten Warriors of legend. What they'll do, we Guardians don't know." The dragon paced the room anxiously, casting the feline glances every few moments.
Feeling the spell holding her voice lift, the Cat was suddenly full of questions. "You mean there are more Guardians then you? How come you're with me?" the Cat charged forward, only to find herself pass through the wraith dragon. "Who are you?" The Warriors Ten were an ancient story that no one knew entirely, and no one remembered much anymore. What the dragon had to do with them, Soshika couldn't imagine.
"Midraek is my name," Midraek stated calmly, forcing the Cat backwards. He wanted to make it clear he was in charge. We'll see about that, thought the feline. "There are as many Guardians as there are Warriors, and I am with you because apparently…" the great Drake's voice trailed off and his eyes rolled, as if in disgust. "You're one of them. That pendant you carry, the one of a dragon, links me to you."
And what if I throw it away? Thought the Cat.
"It will return," the dragon growled, reading her thoughts. "And we will begin your training now. The Others, the remaining Warriors will begin their training as well. Soon, you will seek one another out. The past week was in preparation for such a task." Midraek growled, as if satisfied with something unseen to the Cat. "We are ready."
Maybe you are, Soshika thought angrily, but what if I'm not? She still had a war to fight, and no time for following a dream dragon. But what if it wasn't a dream? The Cat found herself doubting her own eyes, but at the same time longing to believe them.
Midraek snorted, a small plume of smoke raising from his scaled nostrils. "You had better be ready and willing as well, or Miron truly will have died in vain." Mystically, the scaled talons Soshika had passed through a moment earlier lifted the katana from the nightstand and tossed it into the Cat. The dragon lowered his head and glared at Soshika. "We begin. Now."
The feline gripped the hilt of the weapon and found herself wondering, frozen with wonder…What was it that she was beginning? What would she be ending?
