at a body that no longer seemed hers. This was her, and it spoke of the powerful being she had become. Her fur was growing darker, white dots appearing like stars in a darkening sky. Her tail was already fully black in color. A hand stroked through her long locks of hair, allowing the fading length to fall through her fingertips. Brushing her fingers back from her ears, she touched the soft, fur tufted, feline ears that now jutted out through her hair. Her ear twitched beneath her finger, the sensation tickling both her ear and hand as she smothered her laughter. Her eyes shifted from blue to green, sometimes caught between the colors, as she stared at herself, reveling in the happiness that bloomed within.
She hurried through her morning routine, her smile widening. Today they were going hunting. A thrill skated through her with barely restrained excitement. Hunting was quickly growing to be their special time together. Although they were silent as they strode through the forest, they hunted side by side, their shared excitement for the hunt rushing through them.
Grabbing her bow, she ran outside, a wide smile spread over her face.
“Good morning,” she greeted him cheerfully as she plucked her bowstring.
She knew that he didn’t rely on such things. She watched him leap onto prey and bring it down quickly, bleeding it out on the snow. Perhaps someday she would get to the point of being confident in her claws, been until then she liked the distance and comfort of the bow in her hand.
“Blessed morning, beautiful one,” he returned as he grinned down at her, his eyes sparkling in the early light of the morning.
Silvas dropped from the tree with a happy purr. He seemed to purr quite often these days, and she loved it. She didn’t examine the thought too carefully as they struck out through the snow. Lifting her tail in a delicate arc so that it didn’t drag, she paced easily, her breath puffing in the air as he loped at her side.
She glanced over at him, noticing the way his eyes continuously took in everything. Aside from watching out for any possible threat and signs of game, she figured he probably never ceased in plotting how best to defend the territory from intruders. He seemed to do that a lot.
Just last night she had caught him studying a map that marked where the rivers ran through her forest and near her cabin, muttering to himself about what the boundaries of his territory were for him to defend. It was something he did very well and got an obvious pleasure from carrying out. Protection, he had said to her many times, was part of his purpose. She didn’t wonder that he got a thrill from it. Last she heard, he had chased off not only some more guys from town, but also scared the shit out of people who attempted to enter into her wood to take game.
Silvas took exception to that. Since she took little and made her sacrifice clean and respectful, the animals still lingered in her part of the woods where those that survived the sickness all but disappeared from others. They openly submitted and offered themselves to her. As far as he was concerned, those humans who hunted in their territory were stealing from what he had deemed as her sacred wood, and thus were offending him.
Diana drew in a deep breath of air. Spring would be coming soon. Already the sun felt a bit warmer as the lengthening days were making headway into melting the snow, and there was a distinctive smell of wet earth and water permeating the air. A loud crack from the trees up ahead sent a flash of anxiety through her, and immediately she stilled. Barely had a startled breath escaped her lips when Silvas stepped in front of her. He noticeably bristled, his tail lashing angrily through the air away from his body.
“Show yourself,” he demanded, a low growl echoing through his words.
The threat in his voice was thinly veiled, and his glowing eyes were fixed on the direction from which the sound came, yet he was surprisingly calm without a trace of true hostility. That he was wary but unconcerned had an immediate effect on her. The tension fled from her body, though she still watched this space warily as she felt a familiar presence move toward them.
“Larce,” she called out in surprise, noticing the way Silvas’s head snapped toward her, a