I taste salt on my tongue as we clash, falling back again when none of our melee attacks connect, and I send a spray of embers in her direction, which coat the floor before fizzling out. My opponent watches me at a distant, shrewd and defiant, and we pace about each other, my heart thrumming in my chest. I hold it down, force myself not to lose control, and rush forwards. A wall of water sends my snout upwards, knocking me back, and my nostrils get a load of it. I snort, but a subsequent blast his me in the face and all my muscles lock in to panic mode. Water is everywhere, my fur is wet, I'm drowning- I find myself on my side, with her over me, and I choke on smoke and vapor.

"Hold up, Merina."

The blue Canira, a hazy shape on the edge of my vision, holds up. "Sorry," I hear at a distance. "Are you okay?"

"I should hope so. Do you think the Obsidians are going to ask him if he's okay? Wait for him to get up?" asks a Canis, one of the older 'new' recruits.

"An Obsidian would have shattered by now."

"And then there's be ten thousand more!"

"Stop that. You're just making him upset."

"He should be upset. I heard if you die off-world, your spirit gets scattered into the ether forever. That's why Echo says they're not bringing the inexperienced Defenders off-world. You could die forever."

There are no less than ten Sentients bickering overhead now, all debating the danger of off-world battle.

My head hurts.

"Leave him alone." Elu steps in for my defense.

"This battle is over. Torch, rise please." Echo cuts through the crowd of Defenders and helps me up to my paws. Kindly, she says, "Iris is done with training. You might want to go join her, say hello before tomorrow's debriefing."

The word makes me shiver all over again, but I nod, shaking off my fur as vapor rises from it. I'm still trembling from the water and the defeat, but the other Defenders at my back yell words of encouragement. Echo stands between the crowd and I, a stern reminder that I am a separate entity.

"All of you are dismissed." she tells them.

Elu, Sera, and Kit run to catch up to me. The small group of three have gone from fans to fast friends, and though I don't feel the same way about them I do about Iris, I'm beginning to believe that you only feel that way about one other Sentient, anyways, so I'm giving them a chance. "That was incredible!" Sera, the Fauna says. She's part of the home offensive team, and she'll be going to the Ceilvyran drop zone with her teammates. Sera is from there, but she's never been to the area where the drop zone is. Still, she claims there's a certain joy in going home, and I have no idea what she's talking about.

"I lost," I respond, soon as I figure they want some answer.

"You won the first... five? Ten? It was so many, I couldn't even tell." Elu laughs, her flower bouncing about her ear.

"Eight," Kit chimes in. Her species, the Nikapid, which best I can figure are the Sentient versions of squirrels, have perfect memory, to the point of being able to relive entire days completely in their own mind. "First there was that Qilin, Kuro, I don't like him much, and then there was Ginger..."

"He knows who he fought, Kit." Sera says. "We're going to dinner. You should come."

"I have to meet Iris." I turn to go, looking down the halls and anticipating the look in her eyes when we see each other again, "But thank you."

"Tell her not to be late for debriefing tomorrow!" Kit yells from the back of Sera's head as we part ways.

I walk fast as I can without sprinting the halls, which is frowned upon. I don't understand many of the 'customs' that no one seems to explain, but even I picked up that Running In The Halls Is A Poor Decision Which Will Be Met With Scorn From Everyone In The Vicinity. When I begin my descent down the stairs, I trip over my own paws and fall onto Iris at the bottom. Even in the midst of the shock, the two of us click again, like we never left each other. There's no sensation like it. One second, we're two different Canira living two different lives and the next, we're part of one being, completing each other's sentences, thinking in near unison.

That's not to say she never surprises me, though.

"I want to leave," Iris says.

"Didn't we agree we wouldn't do this anymore?" I ask.

"Not that kind of leaving. It was a tough day at strategy. I did not know my mind could spin so hard... and the numbers, even my numbers, are not good. This is, according to Avery, not something Dreamland has ever faced before." Iris shakes her head. "Am I not capable of this?"

"I'm not as strong as they think I am," I agree.

"I need to clear my mind."

A rush passes between us. "The willow."

There is no one coming to catch us, but we still run for it like someone's on our tails. I'm relieved to be out into familiar land, late as it is, and though my muscles hurt I accelerate until Iris and I are racing through the trees. The threat of the Dog Days is over, and world has lulled into uneasy rest, especially around the castle.

If there was anything, we could take it, no problem. The woods should be afraid of us.

Iris is faster than me, no matter what I try, and I lower my ears as she slows for my benefit. "You've been training all day," she assures me. "I'm sure if we were both on even ground..."

"You know you're faster." I say.

"The willow isn't far away." she says, faking an awkward, rugged panting noise. "I am short on breath from all this running. Maybe we should stop talking."

I flare my nostrils and consent to the silence, and the forest fills in where we could not. Things scuttle in the undergrowth. Singing beasts hum upwards from the earth and insects hum a soft symphony, one that reminds me of Avery's lullabies at the Font.

They accompany us to the willow, which lifts its branches in the wind to welcome us in. I feel almost certain that it's been waiting for us. Iris passes it and goes to sit on the edge of the earth. The furthest branches play at her ears and tail, tickling her, and I go to sit beside her, holding my breath as the two moons shine overhead. Sirius, the smaller of the two, is high overhead, while Procyon is on the horizon, meeting a faraway river. The land goes on forever, an eternity of trees, and Iris leans into me. It is more than any simulation or dream landscape, and before we leave in a few days, it is ours.

"I think I'm close to her here." Iris says.

"Me too." The willow touches my ear, looking for a body half-remembered. "But they scare me. Knowing we're supposed to succeed where they failed, when they were Dreamland's true heroes. What does that make us?"

"Us," Iris echoes. "I don't think we can be anything else."

I sigh. "Is that enough?"

"Are you worried about the dead, Torch?"

"Whose dead? The Factory beings I couldn't save? The Heaven's Arc Sentients I ran own like vermin? My forebears, who for all I know, I might be destined to follow? How am I not supposed to think about that? I spent the first half of my life trying not to die and now, when I might be safe-"

"-you'll do it, you've already decided to do it, and you don't regret it." she says, draping a wing over me. "There's a good chance that if we wished, we could tear open the sky and disappear, but we aren't running. It may not be our destiny. We might not even be their heroes. Does it matter? We are young and were constructed, perhaps by chance, with the very skills we can use to destroy the Obsidians. After all we watched them do, isn't that the greatest act of defiance there is?"

I nod. "No more running."

I imagine Vivian, ducking away through worlds to finish her mission, and feel the phantom of her lift from my shoulders. Lotus watches over us that night, but she stands at a distance. This is all us, and this is a lover's tree, the best place to say one last goodbye before we leave this world behind.