"What do you mean, Zara is the one? I died! Are you telling me that wasn't enough?" I protested, fur pricking uncomfortably.

Barranca looked monotonous. "No, yes it all makes sense now. They're probably going after her next. And I thought this might be one of the better possibilities."

    I gaped, still unable to wrap my mind around this. "But...this isn't fair. Doesn't me dying change anything?"

    Barranca turned toward me, her head swiveling like a owl. "Nothing is fair in this world. Nothing ever happens in this world. We are stuck here until we can't even remember our own names. Even lichs live better lives than we will."

"So there's nothing I can do to save her?"

Her dark blue eyes glinted in the half-light, and I felt a shiver run down my spine. "You don't I haven't tried to save my sister?"

Her words settled like a rock in my stomach. "Well maybe you didn't try hard enough."

I turned away from her cold stare and jumped back through the tunnels. My feet left glowing ripples of water as I rejoined the one tunnel with numerous lights. Claws were feasting, probably another glorious cycle of rumbling. I spotted Eliza and her friends chatting happily in a small circle. Her head turned as I walked over to her and a smile lit up on her face.

"Hey! Where have you been?"

"In the tunnels." I whispered under my breath.

She frowned. "But I thought-"

"Yeah I know. But I met someone." I took a seat next to her and noticed the amount of mice and other rodents around. "Where'd you get all this prey? I thought we didn't need to eat here."

Ransom slammed his paws down in the ground. "It was amazing! One minute, we're up top exploring like we usually do, then the ground starts to shake a little, and all of a sudden all of these animals come stampeding through."

"It was indeed a moment of incomparable impeccability." Nala added.

Eliza still had a frown on her face. "You met someone? There's nobody else there."

"There is, her name is Barranca and she's the one who made this place- agh!"

I yelped as a sharp pain bit into my skull. It seemed focused just above my right eye, my blue one. Eliza's eyes widened in surprise. It gathered the attention of many a claw watching from the sidelines.

"Zach, your face!" Eliza gasped.

Then everything went black for a moment. Then all of a sudden I was looking through the eyes of a human. One who had just tackled a young teen with blonde hair. I watched as the human who's eyes I saw through clawed desperately at something glittering on her wrist. The girl was screaming in confusion but there was no sound in the nightmarish vision I was witnessing. Blood splattered onto the pavement as the attacker accidentally raked open the girls chest as she clutched her hands to her body. Then, what I had identified as a gold bracelet, was finally yanked off, bloodstained but still whole. The attacker stood up, and ran away, not looking back at the girl who was bleeding out. The scene looked warily familiar, and suddenly I realized I had been there. That was the school I had gone too. It felt like a slap to the face, and it grounded me in that memory.

Then everything faded away and I was looking up at the concerned faces of my new friends and several strangers.

"Oh thank Glamora, your beautiful face has returned to normal." Ransom gasped, relived.

    I stood up shakily. "What happened?"

    "You blacked out and your fur started to change color around your eye." Eliza tilted her head in confusion. "Are you okay?"

    "My fur?" I frowned.

    "Yeah it turned black." Nala informed.

    I frowned, feeling sick. From across the room I thought I could see Barranca's eyes glinting at me viciously.

    "I'm going to go lay down, I think." I said.

    Eliza nodded. "Good idea, here you can follow me."

    I followed her whiff of a tail past wide and staring eyes past packed in walls of dirt until we eventually reached a worn out hollow. It was homey and there were little dried out gray flowers in the corners. Her nest was also made out of the gray grass from up above.

    "You can take a nap here." She offered, patting the nest sweetly.

    "Thanks." I said as I curled up.

    I shut my eyes and thought about that I had just seen, and why I had seen it. The connection felt eerily familiar but I couldn't place it. It was another lost memory I guess. Another lost bit of Zara. I swear on my life I am not going to rot here while her life hangs in the balance, I'm going to find a way to save her. Even if it killed me...again.

    I would find a way.