Instinctively, Kaz drew on his ki, and to his relief it came without pain, though he wasn’t sure why he was surprised by that fact. He formed a shield around himself, and pulled a blade from its sheath at his waist. As he raised it, he realized that he held the Woodblade, his father’s knife, and the surprise of it forced him to think.
This…wasn’t where he’d been a moment ago. He’d been lying on the ground, wounded in more than just his body, with Li-
His head snapped up, and he stared around. The periphery of his vision had been filled with a monotone gray, which he had seen as stone, but now he realized it was more like fog, or perhaps like nothing, or like mana, formless and everywhere.
“Li?” he called. In response, the huge beast he faced let out a deep, rumbling growl that made Kaz’s fur stand up. He lifted the Woodblade, staring into the other creature’s red eyes. He would have stepped back, but that would be a show of weakness, and in this case, he suspected the result might well be deadly.
The thing held some clear similarities to both the wolves Kaz had seen and Brute, the dog belonging to Raff’s friend, Blythe. The shape of the head, the curve of the back, even the way it watched him as it circled, tail stiff behind it, all were both terribly and comfortingly familiar.
“Don’t come any closer,” Kaz told it. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
The beast actually chuffed, though it never stopped moving, gaze locked on Kaz like a kobold hunter who had just spotted a solitary fuergar.
Kaz’s eyes flicked around. What was going on? He knew this wasn’t right, but he couldn’t find the memories that would tell him why he was here. And where was Li? He glanced down, trying to see the glittering link that should lead to her, and felt his heart sink into his stomach when he realized it wasn’t there. He really was alone.
The other took that moment of inattention to lunge. Claws as long as Kaz’s fingers scraped his shield, and shiny white teeth snapped shut in front of Kaz’s muzzle. The shield cracked, and Kaz’s core shuddered as it poured more power into that frail protection.
So Kaz let it go. The beast fell forward, but Kaz wasn’t there any longer. He spun on one paw, the Woodblade stabbing toward the creature’s ribs. The tip brushed fur that looked like fire, and…he stopped.
This wasn’t right. Not just the place and the blade and the lack of his dragon, but was he supposed to fight this creature at all? Why? What would he gain from its death?
The beast leaped back, landing lightly on enormous paws. It huffed in a breath, and Kaz recognized the way the ki swirled in its chest. After all, he’d seen it many times by now. He ducked, and the gout of flame passed above his head, though he could feel his fur crisp in its wake.
Kaz rolled to the side as the animal leaped toward him again, barely missing. Was he imagining it, or was there something assessing in its gaze now? Something more intelligent than either wolf or dog, certainly.
“Stop,” Kaz said, but it wasn’t a command. “I just want to go find my friend. She’s missing.” He glanced around, intentionally breaking eye contact, but ready to leap out of the way if the beast came for him. It didn’t, so he went on.
“Do you know where we are?” he asked, lowering his weapon slightly. “If we work together, maybe we can both get out of here.”
The animal took a single step back, then sat down with a thump that Kaz thought he could feel, though there was no real ground beneath his paws. Its ears were long and floppy, like Brute’s, rather than standing up like the wolves’ or Kaz’s own, but they lifted questioningly as it cocked its head to the side, still watching him.
Kaz dropped the knife a little further, stepping back the same distance as the other had, though he didn’t sit. “I was-” What was he doing? Traveling with Li, yes. Weren’t they going to find her family? Snen had told them at least some of her siblings had probably been captured by the xiyi, and he’d promised her he would go with her, so he had. Lianhua was sad to see them go, of course, but he would find her again after Li was reunited with her family. He’d promised her something as well, and…and…
Kaz’s head was starting to hurt, and he pressed the heel of the hand that wasn’t holding the knife against it. That wasn’t right. He hadn’t gone with Li, had he? But why not? He wanted to go with Li, not-
He gasped, a spike of pain stabbing directly between his eyes, followed by another deep in his abdomen. The beast didn’t move to take advantage of Kaz’s obvious vulnerability, instead watching him with eyes that were beginning to look more brown than red.
Stolen story; please report.
Duty. Loyalty. Protection. Rather than following Li to explore the world, he’d gone home, hadn’t he? Because no matter how much he wanted to leave it all - mountain, kobolds, pain, and history - behind, he couldn’t. He was needed. That place, his people, needed him more than Li did. He loved Li, but he went home. And because Li loved him, she followed.
“Nucai,” Kaz gasped, looking around again. “We were fighting Nucai, and…and I was hurt. Is this-” he stopped, not wanting to finish the question. Had he died? Again? Was this what came after, and that was why his connection to Li had broken? Was she all right?
He shook his head. Of course she wasn’t all right. Hadn’t he known for some time that if one of them died, the other probably would as well? His teeth gritted. He couldn’t die. He wouldn’t let this be the end, not if that also meant the end for her. And, as much as he didn’t want to admit it, he needed to get back to the battle for other reasons as well. All of his people were in danger if Nucai won, not to mention Li and the Rabbit, who was so close now.
Barely glancing at the beast, who now looked entirely calm, Kaz spun in place. “I have to get out of here. I have to save Li and everyone else.” He took a few steps, only to find that he remained firmly in place, with the creature staring at him, head now tilted in the other direction. Frustration rose, filling his mouth like bile, and he swallowed it down.
As he did, the creature stood, long yellow fur swaying as it released an excited bark. It looked smaller now, barely Kaz’s height, and it pranced forward playfully, fringed tail swaying. All semblance of wolf had gone, and the animal looked so much like Brute that Kaz patted its head without thinking. It promptly laid down and rolled over, displaying its belly, though Kaz thought it was asking for belly rubs more than showing submission.
“I can’t,” Kaz said, still looking for a way out. For the first time in his memory, he was lost, with no connection to either the mountain or Li. The dog didn’t seem to care, though, just wiggling excitedly as it waved its paws in the air and panted happily.
So he rubbed its belly. With Li missing, Nucai winning, the Rabbit in danger, and Kaz quite possibly dead or dying, he crouched down and ran his fingers through the soft fur covering its abdomen. The dog whimpered in happiness, and then Kaz’s fingers caught in its fur, and he frowned, feeling something hard tangled there. Carefully, he plucked it out, and the beast smiled up at him as it faded into a swirl of sparks, leaving a deep red core clasped in his hand.
Kaz stared at the core. The flames inside it were different from Fengji’s. Where the Rooster was filled with pride and confidence, this was gentle, even comforting, though he had no doubt both could burn just as hot. Kaz began to lift it to his mouth, but stopped, fingers trembling with the effort.
He didn’t want fire. That element had its uses, in cooking food, cleansing wounds, and keeping a den warm in the cool depths of the mountain, but he had enough. If he ate this, would it irrevocably alter his balance away from Wood?
From the core he sensed something that could have been amusement, but was definitely reassurance. Kaz was Kaz, and this was this, and neither could be the other. So, for the second time, Kaz ate the Dog’s core.
The world burst in his mind. He spun out, seeing places, things, connections he never could have dreamed of. In a place so hot that the creatures living there slept during the day, a fox with a flame for a tail stalked a quivering mouse. Elsewhere, a wolf with pure white fur fell beneath the paws of an even larger beast that reared up on two short legs, roaring in triumph. Wolves and dogs were only the beginning, living and dying, all as a natural part of the cycle of something much, much larger than a single being. These all belonged to the Dog, and they were his now, to guard and to guide, until his time ended, and another’s began.
At least, they were his if he chose them. And he did, because they needed him, but there were others who needed him as well. Others who were part beast and part human, but that was something the world didn’t understand, something that hadn’t existed when the world began. Kaz had been clumsily trying to howl about them to the world for a while now, but he was one small voice among more than he had numbers for. Now, his voice was loud.
So he began to howl. He howled of puppies and den-mothers and families curled up together for safety and warmth. He howled of luegat and males and females and moving from one place to another because there was never enough. He howled of healing and crafting and fighting and where his people existed among the stones and the bones. He couldn’t explain it all, but he tried, and the world listened more closely than it ever had before, and when he was done and it had heard, it agreed. He had chosen, and they were his.
The Dog opened his eyes. He could see again, and his dantian no longer hurt, nor did his body. He raised his hand to his dragon’s worried face and smiled. “I’m all right,” he told her. “What’s going on?”
Reluctantly, Li moved back so he could sit up.
She looked down a row of shelves that had been jostled from their perfect, tidy rows. Some of the spheres had fallen, cracking their shells, and within them Kaz could feel what remained of the people and beasts to whom they had belonged. Hundreds upon hundreds of lopo, fuergar, janjio, and, of course, kobolds.
Glancing around, Kaz found Heishe coiled near the table where her siblings’ - Kaz’s siblings - cores had rested. All of them were missing except for one. For whatever reason, the Snake had left the Rat’s core precariously balanced atop the table.
“Can you help?” he asked.
She looked amused, but also mildly apologetic.
No. Kaz had claimed the kobolds, and it was his job to protect them. Until Nucai proved that he was a larger problem than Kaz could handle alone, her part in this was done.
Kaz bowed deeply to the Snake.
Gracefully, she dipped her head in return.
Turning back to Li, Kaz climbed up onto the shoulder she dipped, and she flapped her wings, rising up toward the high, white ceiling. With a mingled howl and roar, they flew after Nucai.