"Dario." Her lips formed the words but her mouth was too dry to speak them.
"Ah yes," he stepped closer and she could see him now. Still the same old Dario, but not. His mane, once worn long had been cropped short during his incarceration and now stuck out in erratic spikes. His eyes, which had once gleamed with love and hope now gleamed with sadism and bitterness. "Have you come to plead forgiveness, Aranaya? To throw yourself at my feet and beg that I help you back to the light?" he chuckled, but it was completely devoid of humour. "I failed to purge the demon from your body, my love" (and he spoke the word with nothing but disdain) "you are tainted, befouled. There can be no forgiveness for one who fornicates with the devil."
Aranaya tok a step backwards. Perhaps if she were swift she could leap into the trees and be away. She was still agile, still fit. But there was something mesmerizing in those eyes... He steped around her and behind her, his hand closed firm about her wrist, the other entwining her waist. She could feel him push up against her, his heat seering her even through her clothing. It burned with horrors she had long afore banished. "You killed my son," she growled. "Our son. It is you that have been tainted."
He spun her around violently so that she could not fail but stare into those alien red eyes. She blanched at the lack of compassion she saw there. He would give her no mercy. He could not be swayed. He believed with a passion that went beyond anything she had ever known. You could not fight belief like that.
With a start she realised she'd have to kill him. Could she do it?
He had killed Raoul - murdered her son.
Of course she could.
His body pressed against her, and terrifyingly she could feel his arousal. She cringed away, but he held her firm, there was nowhere to go. His grip was as strong as iron - over their six years of marriage he had sculptured his body into a machine - powerful and muscular.
"Ah, Aranaya," he sighed, and she could see lust in his eyes now, creeping in around the wrath. "I have missed your warmth, since you took your demon-lover."
"There never was another," she said very quietly. "Raoul was your son - why couldn't you see that?" Tears streamed down her face and she felt very helpless and very lost.
He picked her up as though she weighed little more then a feather - even though she would never consider herself light. She struggled, kicking and clawing with the strength of one who has but two options - escape or face a fate worse then death. Somehow she managed to stab her special, elongated middle finger into his lower eyelid. He yowled, staggering a little and she managed to scramble free - and run.
She ran as she had never run before. Tree branches scraped her legs and grasped at her hair and fur. Leaves crackled beneath her feet. Her breath rasped and her heart pounded - she was not as fit as she should be and not as fit as she would rather like to be right now. She stumbled, her foot slotting neatly beneath a fallen branch, near invisible in her hasty flight. There was precious little time to catch her balance, and she fell into the leaf mulch - heart pounding loud enough to wake the dead.
Pain speared through her ankle, now twisted nastily. Tears of pain dampened her eyes, banishing the tears of fear. She must get up - she must run. Sanctuary lay outside the woods.
She could hear him now, hear the branches crackling beneath him, the swish of his tail slicing through the air. He was coming through the trees! He was coming through the trees to get her! Her hands clawed impotently in the leaf mulch, struggling to pull her aloft. For a moment she drew herself into a half-crouch and then he crashed into her. She fell again, the weight of Dario pushing her into the ground.
"Bitch," he growled. His hands fumbled at her clothing and she knew he was going to rape her, just knew it. He would do it and he wouldn't care - because she was not a furson anymore - she had been tainted by the demons and he could do anything to her, anything at all, and expect no retribution. Her hand stretched in front of her, grasped a handful of leaf litter and she flung it in his face. He jerked a little, reflexively, allowing her half a chance to struggle out. It was not enough. A moment later one hand crashed onto her shoulder and the other onto the back of her head, pushing it into the leaf mulch. Her face plunged deep into the mulch, filling her mouth and nose with foetid leaf litter. She choked, but could not get oxygen.
Then she heard it - footsteps a distance away, and sounding very distant indeed, two voices calling her name. Arron... She struggled, but every breath filled her lungs with leaf mould instead of oxygen. Dario say very still and tense upon her, his muscles clamped tightly about her waist. He pushed her deeper into the leaf mould, in the hope of muffling her completely.
"Aranaya! Where are you? Was that an edge of despair she caught in his voice? No longer was she distressed of his disloyalty - now only one thought was on her mind.
Survival.
Mastering the last of her strength, she forced her head back. She had not hte oxygen to scream, but she managed to make a noise - a mere murmur of a whisper. It was enough.
Dario's entire body jerked, "I see the demon freak has not abandoned you," he growled, close to her ear. "How valiant." And then he rolled off her and was swallowed by darkness.
For a moment she lay there, unable to believe her narrow escape. After a time she managed to crawl into a crouch, in time to see Arron and the winged lemur - Kataryna, that was her name, wasn't it? enter view. It was then she saw, the dark shadow dropping behind them. She was too late to shout a warning, too late to do anything but watch in terror...
Dario dropped from the trees behind the skinny albino, swinging a branch as though it were a club. Arron crumpled like a broken doll, blood blossoming on his temple.
And then the strangest thing happened. The Lemur's wings began to glow, and she rose them, spreading them lightly. Dario fell back, stumbling on the logs that littered the ground. And then really did turn and flee.
Neither of the two girls stood to watch him leave, instead both of them dropped to their knees at Arron's side. He lay sprawled in the leaf-mould, so pale and fragile. Blood trickled down his head, staining his white fur a vivid scarlet and pooling in the leaf litter. He did not stir.
Kataryna's eyes met Aranaya's, and the Aye-aye was startled to notice that they glowed a golden-white. "Get help!" She screeched. Aranaya hesitated for a moment. She didn't want to leave him - why couldn't she stay there and the man-thief fetch help?
"I can't," she whispered, feeling very pitiful and very small. "My ankle..." Pain spasmed through her leg.
The Lemur did not question, simply nodded, running her long dark fingers across Arron's body one last time. This time she was sure she did not imagine a brief, flickering white glow.
"Be careful," Kataryna whispered, "he may come back."
Aranaya nodded mutely. How had everything gone so bad, so fast?
Kataryna ran. The tree branches clawed at her face and roots snagged beneath her feet, but still she ran as the breath seared in her throat. If only she could fly! She could be there so much faster. Her hands still tingled faintly and she wondered what had happened when she had touched Arron. Would he be alright? What had she done? She had changed fate, clearly, but how? And was it for the better?
She was running so fast and so oblivious to anything but the panic in her heart that she did not see Titus until she almost fell over him.
"Steady babe," he yowled, leaping out of her way. "What's got your tail in a twist?"
"Dario ... woods ..." she panted, the words struggling with her breath. "Arron ... hurt... need help!"
Titus was swift enough to catch the urgency, even if he had been consuming alcohol. "Terry!" He yowled, "Oliver! We need help!" The Jackalope and Ocelot padded over. "Now babe," he said, "catch your breath and tell us what's going on."