[KQ] Raise You Like a Phoenix

Jigano hadn’t known what to expect when they’d ridden into town, balanced on the antlers Amalia had secured to the back of Talys with his white fur reflecting red as blood in their light. A house destroyed, a hole in the Temple wall, the door to the Rathskeller broken open and monsters being fended from its stairs…

But it was not a place of men that had been desecrated, though it was the work of their hands. The perch had been broken, an act of malice through and through, and Jigano jumped down to the snow with hackles raised. Of all people who had come to meet them it was Edy who stood in the square, staring up at the perch with bottle in hand and Bobi in tow. He perked his ears forward, too cautious to offer a vocal greeting when they were supposed to be quiet, but surely he could reassure his young friend—

Reckless, feckless, foolish child that she was; a danger to anyone and everyone near her and just as likely to burn friend as foe, wasn’t she? His muzzle started to curl in contempt at her muttering, as senseless as the girl herself, and not in the least surprised when she turned on his real friends—

But were they, really? Little goody-two-shoes Amalia, that quiet smile probably hiding a heart as dark and wicked as anything that crawled and scratched and bit in the night. He crouched and began to slink around the edges of the glow cast by the red luxere antlers, beastly eyes reflecting white in the light. And there was Rory, sweet Rory, with his blue eyes deep enough to drown in, who would probably drown him for his pelt one of these days, because weren’t they just waiting to betray him? No different than the others had been, no less corrupt, just better at hiding it behind kindly smiles that would be the death of him, had already been the death of him—

Jigano’s vicious snarl turned to a whine of confusion. He shook his head violently and sat back, pawing ineffectively at his ears to try and free himself of the itching, buzzing, whining voices that whispered to him in his sweet tenor but weren’t him, even at his worst!

No… that wasn’t true at all. His worst… was far worse than this, but it wasn’t poisonous anger and paranoid gossip. It was cold, and calculating, and bitterly grim, and it hurt him to the core of his very being. But this. Wasn’t. HIM.

He snapped at the air, breaking free of his preoccupation and driving the voices that plagued him back a ways. There was no chance to intervene with anyone else though, not as Edy unleashed her fire and Rory was struck—

Rory was struck.

Horror washed over Jigano, and then anger, and then ice, even as he bounded towards the fallen hunter, frantic with worry. He wasn’t moving, there in the snow where the pony had dragged him, with the smell of burned meat rising into the cruel night. A whimper escaped his throat in spite of himself, a noise of loss and fear until he heard breath sigh from that scorched chest. He dropped his nose to nuzzle one twitching hand with as much reassurance as he could muster before turning to place his small, furry body between Edrei and her victim. A pleading whine, soft in the night, begged her to stop - don’t hurt him, it seemed to say, or perhaps don’t force me to shift in front of him. But what else could he do? Edy might listen to him, if only he could speak to her.

Taking a deep breath he gathered himself, preparing to do what needed to be done, but he threw a last, desperate glance to Amalia, hoping she might yet salvage this before he was forced to do something he could never take back.