Blood covered both of them. It soaked Ren's hair and stained the white feathers that were attached by leather cords.
"You don't really hate me, Makah'Alay. You know this." The older man's voice was thick with fatigue. "And if you don't change direction, you're going to wind up where you're headed."
"I am sick of your pithy sayings, old man. Do us both a favor and die already."
The old man ducked his swing and kicked him back. "They say that your love has blinded you and that your greed is insatiable. But you're not greedy. Not for material things. I know that and so do you."
"Shut up!" Ren bellowed.
"The truth bites hardest through the deepest treachery. You are nothing but a tool being used, Makah'Alay. As you were with your father and your brother. Are you telling me that that is all you ever aspire to?"
She saw the agony in Ren's dark eyes as those words stung him.
"If Windseer loved you, she would be here now. But she isn't, is she? No. She opened the door for the Grizzly Spirit and then he freed her. Like everyone else, she has abandoned you to die alone."
"So what?" Ren challenged as he swung his club at the man's head. "I entered this world alone, and alone I shall leave it."
He dodged the blow. "And the time in between? You are content to have nothing throughout your life? No one? Ever?" Those words were punctuated by blasts of fire that Ren tried to deflect with his club. They caused him to stagger back and drove him to the ground.
Pain echoed in the older man's eyes as he moved to stand over Ren. "Who will weep for you when you're gone? Tell me, boy. What do you live for?"
Ren blasted him in turn. "Revenge!"
The old man paused so that Ren could regain his feet. "You are right to be hurt, Makah'Alay. But your actions have turned a little right into a great wrong. And your vengeance has spilled over to the innocent who have never caused you harm. Would you have the seed you have planted take root in the heart of another boy? What crops do you sow with such vim? Do you really want them to grow uncultivated? For those boys, those orphans, to have the same venom in their veins as you?"
"What do I care? This world has never shown me kindness. They have never once welcomed me."
The old man dropped his club. "But you do care. Don't you? I see it in your eyes. Even now. Even after all you've been through. You still want what all men do. Comfort-"
Ren bellowed so loud, he drowned out whatever else the old man said. "I want nothing! Nothing!" He renewed his fight with such vigor and rage that his blows came too fast to be seen by a human eye. Only the thunderous sounds of them could be heard.
Just like what was going on in the living room.
In that heartbeat, Kateri pulled out of the past or her dream or whatever it was she saw and found herself back in Ren's house in Las Vegas. Thunder and lightning echoed as Rain pulled her back into the hallway.
In the living room in front of them, Ren was surrounded by dark spirits that attacked as one and then split apart to fight separately. Even so, he held his ground with an admirable skill.
The wolf is never tamed through violence. But rather with a kind, gentle, and above all, patient hand. The most ferocious of beasts see enemies everywhere. They have to in order to live. All they know is how to be attacked and how to fight. They expect treachery from all. Her grandmother's voice whispered through her head.
One of the beasts caught Ren a blow that sent him to his knees. He rolled with it, but didn't make it completely free. Another one caught him and kicked him hard.
They were about to defeat him.
Refusing to watch him go down while he fought to protect her, Kateri ran forward....
Then realized she had no weapon to fight them with.
Oh snap ...
Ren glanced up as another shadow approached him. He drew back to strike the beast, only to see the woman there.
For a full heartbeat, her unexpected presence paralyzed him. He couldn't move as he waited for her to attack him, too.
Instead, she went after those he was fighting....
It was so unexpected that it took several seconds before his brain could reconcile the incongruity of someone fighting for him.
Until it dawned on him that she wasn't a match for them.