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Jelu
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    You could tell something was wrong as soon as the four of us passed back over the mountain range and the ground below was thick with trees again. The forest was completely silent, there no birds chirping or creatures scuffling about otherwise. It was like the whole earth was holding it's breath. The five of us weren't any different. The only sound was the occasionally wing-flap and our steady breaths. I watched Jay's ears swivel around like pinwheels in a garden, always listening. We stopped at the Hill before setting out to what we knew was going to be a fight. Feurige just barely managed to fit through the tunnels but it was a lost cause for Ipa.

    Nepal nodded solemnly as we approached. "We would had tailed you if it had not been for the sightings reported our side of the mountain range. Xanthos has reported back to me and we glance each other on standby."

    Arietty looked amused. "What he's also trying to say is we follow your orders from here on out, which ever of you is the leader."

    Fulgura sorted and whispered under her breath. "Our fourdors."

    The two of us snickered to ourselves while Feurige shot us a warm disapproving glance. "That would be me, chief."

    Nepal smiled. "I see."

    "Give us the locations of the sightings, we'll rest here for a bit, then... we finish this."

    We did indeed rest, and the uncomfortable silence returned yet again. Feurige was talking with the local claws, some of them wanted autographs. Fulgura was pretending to nap just so she wouldn't have to interact with Ipa, who had been silently staring out on the horizon for quite a few minutes now.

    "So... the weather's nice today." I tried, glancing up at her.

    All she did was blink. "Yes, it is a nice backdrop to fight one's arch-nemesis to. Perhaps even a nice day to die on."

    My ears drooped. "Oh... uh... I guess."

    She glanced down at me. "I have known this day would come every since your kind retreated two years ago. My own kingdom can continue on just fine without me because that is how I ruled them. They don't expect me to return. I am perfectly satisfied with my life it it so happens to be taken from me in these next few hours."

    I felt a chill run down my spine and my aloof mood was dampened quite a bit. "Well... well I'm not."

    I hesitated for a moment, then turned to find some better conversation. Ipa watched me as I did so. As it turns out, Jay wasn't so much better.

    "Jay." Sarah mewed in annoyance as she watched him pack herbs in the wrong places on their packs. "I think our main concern in Tenebris, Zara will be fine."

    He fluffed up the fur on his back. "I'm just saying go easy on her."

    "You realize Zara would beat me up easily without the aid of being possessed by a demon, right?" I blinked.

    He sighed almost lovingly. "I know, it's great. Have I mentioned I love her?"

    I mrred in amusement. "Love you too bro."

    "Right, you're going to be fine. First of all, I'm a trained medic there's no way you're dying, second I mean... Zara's still in there. I know she is. And she's a fighter, she's not going to hurt us without putting up a fight." He insisted.

    "I'll do my best not to hurt her." I promised.

    "Thank you."

    As we exited the Hill, I spotted a few more familiar faces gathered outside and talking with Nepal. Regulus of the blood-claws stood there with his two sons next to him. I spotted Skylark staring at us behind them. Jamboree of the white-claws had a sour expression on her face, her kids were nowhere to be seen, I wouldn't be surprised if she had left them at home this time.

    The chieftains were whispering quietly and as I paused to stare at them, I locked eyes with Arroyo. We had 'hung out' a few times in the last two years, by that I meant it was mostly at funerals, but we were friends. He whispered something to his father and made his way over to me.

    "So it's true then? Tenebris is back?"

    "Yeah."

    The dirt under his paws cracked and shifted as he dug his claws reflexively into the earth. "Great. Wonderful. I can wait to dig my claws into it's snide face and watch the blood pour out of it's eyes."

    My ears flicked back in confusion, Arroyo was never violent and he certainty was not capable of such a feat. "Oh um, I mean that's fine... are you...? Are you okay?"

His jaw trembled ever so slightly. "That thing had my mother Jelu, She's... probably g-gone but that doesn't mean I still can't avenge her."

I suddenly felt really bad for the mud-brown ball of rage that shook slightly in front of me. "Are you going to be allowed to fight?"

Arroyo glanced back at his father. "He can't stop me."

I frowned. "Stay safe, okay. At least stay behind me."

"Fine. Okay." He sighed.

"Jelu!"

I turned to see Feurige standing, wings at the ready, in a clearing not to far ahead. Fulgura looked worried, but Ipa still seemed monotone. I swallowed , said goodbye to Arroyo and went to join them. Jay and Sarah were coming with us, but they were gonna hang back until needed. The plan was to send us out first and if we couldn't handle it (aka we started loosing, or died, which I didn't want to think about) then there was also every fighting force in Coniurantum imaginable.

Feurige tried to give a nice little pep talk as we flew towards a particularly large column of smoke rising into the air.

"This is it my friends. We're not going to let Tenebris get away this time." He insisted.

"Charming." Fulgura let out a choked laugh.

Sarah and Jay landed a little ways away from the large plain of grass Tenebris had chosen to set up what looked like a bonfire of death. She didn't even look like Zara anymore, just this massive clump of moving black slime that was molded into a shape that was vaguely feline. The four of us dropped down silently. She didn't look up as we approached. My legs were trembling but I dug my claws down into the earth to keep them steady.

    "Tenebris." Feurige greeted. "You have something of ours, our friend."

    She turned, and to my horror discovered she had far too many danger for the size of her mouth, and her eyes, Glamora help me, those were definitely still Zara's eyes. I didn't want Jay to see this. I didn't want to see this.

    "Ah well if it isn't my old friends." She grinned. "Suka, Ignis, Sero and Levitas. You four want to know what I find absolutely entertaining?"

"No." Fulgura replied.

Her smile dropped and she look unamused. "It's really interesting how much trouble you'll go through for someone who doesn't even care about you? Did you know Zara would let all four of you die in a heartbeat if it guaranteed her brother's safety? She doesn't care, so why are you trying?"

"We all know she's a bit of jerk sometimes but that does't mean we want our homes destroyed, idiot." It just kind of slipped out of my mouth.

    She smiled and stalked a few steps closer to me. "Ooh, brave words coming from the team's weakest link."

    Feurige stood between the two of us, daring her to try and come closer.

    "And you have your attack dog here with you I see." She raised an eyebrow.

    "Before we rip you limb from limb," Ipa stared. "It's a curiosity of mine to know why you are doing this."

    "Oh." Tenebris snarled, turning towards her. "Oh darling, look at how ignorant you are of how the world works. I have no ambition, no anterior desire, I don't have a backstory. I am the fungi of the universe, the mold and decay. I consume and I feed and the clock keeps ticking. I am simply the result of an anomaly that's failed to fix itself for over thousands of years, so here I am to devour this universe to keep the other ones in working order."

    Ipa looked her up and down. "Fascinating."

    Then faster than I thought was possible, the dear bent down and rammed Tenebris at full speed, her antlers dug into her slimy skin and she screeched out in pain. Feurige barked and leapt at her neck, jaws clamping down as he kicked with his hind legs and set the oily substance on fire. Tenebris rolled and thrashed in an attempt to shake them off. I poised my self and leapt, landing on her back and biting down in one of her wings. Ice spread quickly from my jaws and I could break off the hardening dribbles of slime as the froze quiet easily, each one made her flinch as I broke them off.

    I vaguely remember what Jay said to me, about going easy on her. Though it was forgotten as one of my hind-legs accidentally slipped and fell into what felt like a pothole filled with more slime on her body. I don't think Zara was physically in there, or at least she was buried far to deep to feel any of this.

    I was snapped out of my thoughts as one of her paws pried me off her her back, I went flying through the air and landed on my back. Pain flared up my spine. All of a sudden her paws were on my chest and the full weight of this giant, oozing feline was pressed down on me, claws dug into my skin. I gasped out on pain, my mind going a pure blank white for a second. When I came to, the only thing I was aware of was I had frozen her paws to me and the ground. I could see flecks of my own blood encased in the surface. She couldn't move but neither could I, and her claws were stick stuck in me.

    Fulgura snaked under her belly and her jaws snapped closed on one of her forearms, there was no blood but the black substance squirted out in streams. Tenebris cried out again. Vines thrashed angrily on the ground and wrapped firmly around one of her hind legs, trapping it firmly. They squeezed tighter and tighter until I heard a hefty snap echo from the limb.

    Tenebris screamed in agony, and using all her strength she ripped her iced forepaws from the ground, including me. I lifted into the air and she slammed me back into the ground, I screamed in agony. The ice encasing us shattered and I went flying across the field until I eventually landed near a small brush.

    My ears were ringing and I couldn't focus my eyes on anything. My whole body felt like it was on fire, only a fraction of the pain was dulled from the effects of ice. She right, I barely lasted five minutes, I am the weakest link.

    Then I saw my brother's face.

    "Great Glamora!' He was saying, I think his voice was shaking. "Hang in buddy okay? We got you know. Just stay awake okay?"

    The pain eased slightly and a coolness spread over my paws and limbs.

    He was there again, taking us the whole sky. "Jelu? Jelu can you hear me? Stay awake. Stay awake or I'll kill you."

    "It's hurts." I forced out, my mouth tased like blood.

    "I know, I know. Stay awake and listen to the sound of my voice."

    He kept talking, and I tried my hardest to focus on what he was saying. Then slowly it all started to become clearer, until everything snapped back into place and I tried to sit up.

    "Oh no you don't." Jay pushed me back down.

    I lifted my head up to see Sarah was tending to Ipa a few meters away. Feurige still had Tenebris in a death lock and Fulgura was insanely good at nipping at her paws and keeping her on her feet. My legs felt numb and I could only twitch them without sending hot stabbing pains up my spine.

    "I told you, you're gonna be fine, idiot." Jay muttered under his breath as he wrapped up my fore legs.

     "I gotta get back out there." I insisted.

    "Shut up." Jay snapped back. "You've done enough, you should have seen how long you kept her stuck to the ground. We've already got her weak thanks to you Jelu, you've done enough."

    I sighed, exasperated, which hurt, but let it go and focused on craning my neck so I could watch was going on.

    Ipa was back up (of course she was) and had just slammed into Tenebris' side, causing more spurts of black slime to shoot out. Tenebris screeched again, and actually tipped over. She landed on her side, writhing in agony, Feurige still clinging solidly to her neck despite being tossed around like a rag doll. Some ways off Fulgura had collapsed from exhaustion, I could see her chest rising and falling rapidly. Ipa stomped firmly on her face, I could have sworn I saw teeth fly out of her mouth.

    "You fools!" She screamed, it was mostly breath and slime. "You have no idea what you're getting into, your precious idols can't save you now."

    Her gigantic wings snapped open, and she flapped hard and fast. The smoke cloud from the bonfire suddenly started to pour out even more quickly. I struggled to sit up and see what she was doing as the pile of wood caught fire. Jay cursed under his breath and tried to push me down again, I could have sworn I saw a number of different items sitting on top. Maybe a raven's feather, a lock of human hair, and others that were indistinguishable as they were consumed by the flames.

    I suddenly got the strong urge to run over there. I had to put out that fire, I was the only one who could.

    "Jay you have to let me-"

    The fire consumed the last of the wooden logs, and the sky split down the middle.

    My eyes rolled back into my head and I blacked out.

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Y'all are gonna be be so unprepared for the next chapter, I've been planning this goshdarn plot twist for 3 years
>:]