* * * * *
The fight started to spread, and as it got closer to the outskirts of that side of the compound, the sound of the battle and the ground shaking more and more often rattled Ziem and Aura’s house. She woke up with a start and in a panic. Z? Ziem? What’s going on?
Ziem was already up and standing across the room, still in his wolf, looking out the window, but he jumped backward as he felt her awake, standing on the bed with her for a moment with a kiss. Just stay here, baby, something’s gone really, really wrong out there. He jumped back off the bed and started grabbing at his clothes, obviously about to shift and leave her there.
What? She ran to the window anyway, and she could barely see the hint of a battle going on. Gods! How could this happen? She started to panic, since she knew that they were the only ones out so far and that they would essentially be trapped, since she couldn’t get out of the gates without bending the bars, and she couldn’t do that in her wolf form.
I don’t know, but somebody fucked up. He finished getting his things together, then leapt back across the room to be on the bed next to her, meeting her eyes. I love you. I’m gonna shut down the house. Stay low and out of sight.
Aura whimpered and licked his face several times. I love you too. Come back to me, you hear me? You cannot die out there. I need you.
So much faith in me. I like living, remember? He jumped off the bed and was human before his feet touched the ground. As soon as skin replaced fur, the pieces of scrap metal all over the floor leaped up to take their places around his arms and legs, and for a moment he looked like some kind of punk-rock gothic knight running out to war. As soon as he was out of the house, she could feel the house shaking around her. Windows collapsed on themselves as Ziem ran by them and walls began folding in half, forming a thick shield without windows or weaknesses, sealing her inside.
Lea crossed paths with Ziem as he made his way around to get into the thick of the fight, one that was not only spreading in the direction of Ziem’s house, but also in the opposite direction where Lea was coming from after alerting the people. She was covered in some places with scrap metal as well, but more than that, she was covered in blood. “Well, Chaos. Good to see you woke up in time to kill something.”
“You really think I’d miss it?” He said with an actual smile as he grabbed a few chunks of a house, running next to her towards the nearest patch of ugliness. “Who are we killing?”
“Sedovin and Osvald’s packs betrayed us. More than that, we don’t know yet.” She was breathing heavily, but she knew it was going to be a long day yet ahead of them.
“Time to get dirty. I like it.” Ziem grabbed a few more bits of armor from nearby houses for good measure at the news that they’d be fighting wolves of earth and stone, but the grin on his face was not diminished. “Hey, all you building-block bitches! Come and get some!” He leapt up over most of the Stoneborn closest to him who focused on staying rooted to the ground, and cut into several who had not expected to be the first ones attacked from behind.
Lea looked back the direction that Ziem had darted from, but Aura didn’t come tumbling after. She didn’t know what to think of that, but she dove back into the fight until she could get to Nick. “Candra is safe! The Fireborn are on their way!”
“Good.” It was all he could manage in between wrestling with an Earthborn. Nick’s leg was badly cut, but he had metal bands holding it tightly together and he tried to avoid putting weight on it. Otherwise he was covered in blood. Most of it didn’t look like it came from him, but there were patches that definitely had. The fighting was dying around them, but it was only because it had gone elsewhere. Nick managed to lock the Earthborn in a chokehold for a moment, and his armbands crept off his arms to flow around the man’s neck and crush his windpipe. The man twitched and thrashed at the ground, but after a few moments, he didn’t move any further, and Nick stepped away just enough to drive a blade through his throat. After that he stood and hobbled a single step as he looked at Lea. “Any sign of…”
She shook her head as she launched a blade right into the side of one of the Earthborn, and then with a twist of her hand, she turned it like a screw inside of him. “No. I haven’t seen her…” she looked back for a moment to where Ziem was making his way through, “but Ziem is here, so maybe Zara made it back to Aura’s house. It’s much closer.”
Even in the midst of the chaos, he didn’t want to think about the two of them in the same place, but his first thought wasn’t about Zara’s safety at that remark. It was about Aura’s, if Ziem left her. “Support the Fireborn and take command of the Guard. I’ll go see for myself.” But the last line was more of an excuse than an actual plan of action as he shifted to run on his three good legs towards Aura’s house in the distance.
Lea did as she commanded and took over, hoping that she was right, and hoping that Zara was safe.
* * * * *
When Aura
