Kateri glanced around, seeking some way to help. Unfortunately, she wasn't sure what exactly they were fighting and she didn't have a super weapon to combat them with. Going up against them with her bare hands didn't seem like the smartest thing to do. Rather, she decided not to be a distraction to the one who knew how to fight them. Better to guard the wall and make sure Ren didn't accidentally hit her with that club than to run forward and get them both hurt.
It was actually quite impressive to watch Ren wield his club. He treated it like an extension of his arm. He held a fluid grace to his movements that said he'd spent his life training for battle.
And as he fought, more images filled her head.
"Why do you fight me, Makah'Alay? I am not your true enemy. He lives much closer to home. We could be allies, you and I. Fight with me for those who can't fight for themselves. Let go your anger and, for once, embrace something good." She didn't know who the old man was who fought against Ren, but something about him seemed so familiar....
Ren didn't respond as the two of them went at each other like primordial gods fighting for supremacy.
"Is this really what you want?" the old man tried again. "Is it all you want?"
Ren glared at him. "What I want is for you to die already, old man! And shut up while you do it!"
"That's not you talking. It's Grizzly. He fears the truth because he knows that will send him back to where he belongs. Let your hatred go and purge him from your body. Whether you believe it or not, you're better than this, Makah'Alay. You do deserve to be happy and valued."
"Fuck you!" Ren had renewed his fight with greater vigor.
Both of them were sweaty and grimy from their battle. They looked like they'd been fighting for months....
For ...
"A year and a day," she breathed.
Ren turned to scowl at her. "What did you say?"
"Duck!" she shouted as one of the demons went for his back.
Turning, he barely caught it with the club. The twisted demon thing let out a piercing shriek before it burst apart. The flames flared brighter until they were blinding. Kateri held her hand up in front of her face to shield her eyes.
Ren turned and grabbed her, then tried to teleport. It didn't work. Dammit. He had to get her out of here. But he couldn't take them both out with his powers so depleted.
It's a good day to die. If he was gone, no one would care.
But unlike him, she mattered.
He cupped her face in his hand, then locked gazes with her. "Think of your grandmother. Call her to you and ask her to guide you home."
Kateri scowled at his order. "I don't understand."
He put something solid in her hand and held her fist closed over it so that she couldn't see what it was. "Just do it. Now close your eyes and think of her."
Kateri did. One second, she could feel the room warming up-feel the flames starting to lick her skin to burn it-and in the next ...
She was beside Talon in his living room in his New Orleans home.
What the...?
Completely confused, she turned in a small circle, surveying her cousin's house. Decorated in bright pinks and purples, it was completely out of synch with the overtly masculine man Sunshine had married. But he indulged her in everything. Even to the point that all of their towels were pink.
Sunshine sat on the couch to her right with her infant son, Declan, sleeping on her lap.
At Kateri's sudden appearance, Talon shot to his feet. He took a step toward her.
Relieved, Kateri started for him, then remembered Ren had given her something. Glancing down, she opened her hand to find a small, white, opalescent, tumbled feldspar that was in the shape of a teardrop.
A moonstone. Her grandmother had carried a similar one in her degalodi nvwoti or medicine pouch that she kept either in her pocket or tied around her neck. Every morning when her grandmother awoke, she'd pull out her crystals and stones that she kept in her night stand and choose the ones her Spirit Guide told her she would need for the day. Whispering a prayer, she'd place them in her degalodi nvwoti and draw the strings closed so that she could bravely face whatever challenges the day would send for her. Every morning it was a new set, but the one stone that never changed was her sacred moonstone.
"Why do you always keep a moonstone with you, Eleesee?" she'd asked one day after her grandmother had taken it out of her degalodi nvwoti and held it as if in prayer.