{ TGB } Before I Wake

As soon as the patched Golden Butterfly turned away from Sylvani's body, John rushed forward, his fangs sinking into the clean part of her scruff. Quickly, he half-dragged, half carried the Orange-Earth's body away from all the chaos exploding in camp. Heaving, the tom's heart began to race with unpleasant excitement and dread. If the she-cat was really dead, could she be revived? Was there any way to undo this action upon his soulbond's kitten? The Green-Air had to get her out of here and as soon as possible. Before any other follower or Triber could get in his way, the Egyptian Mau dove into the grass and shrubbery with the limp she-cat in his jaws. The unexplained guilt made his body shake slightly as soon as he got her to another small clearing, away from all the other cats. Quivering, he placed his paw over the she-cat's torn neck.


...

Nothing.


Panic now started to flare in his chest like fire, looking around wildly, he didn't know what to do. The tomcat was no healer, and he was pretty sure Farox wouldn't be too overjoyed to hear that one of his daughters died at John's paws. Glancing around, the tom started to activate his tattoo, and bright green took their place among his brown pelt. Closing his eyes rather tightly, a slight pain exploded from his back, causing him to gasp a little bit. When the warrior reopened them and looked at his sides, beautiful wings, patterned like a hawk's wings, were now placed among his back. The neon green skeletal wings that were originally on his back were now tattooed on the basic bone structure of the wings.


Turning back to the limp body, he tried his best to get a good leverage at the smaller cat, wanting to hold Sylvani tight so that she would not slip through his ruby soaked paws. Tucking his paws and hind legs under her small body, he cursed at how big he was compared to the she-cat before his wings stretched upwards. His powerful wings beat down as fast as they could; to himself, the tom kept counting the beats of the strokes to keep himself steady. Gaining up a few tail lengths in just a matter of seconds, the tom set his eyes on the land that would belong to the Light-Tribers. Frowning a little bit, the tom used all of his strength for a split second, and within that second, his wings suddenly beat horizontally, propelling the two felines forward. Gales ran harshly against the tom's face, blowing his head tuft back a little bit. Just below, he could see a glimpse of the small she-cat's fur flowing with the wind and how her limbs aimlessly obeyed its wake. Gritting his teeth, he stretched his wings outward and back again, allowing him to pick up even more speed. Flapping as hard as he could, he didn't stop until he reached Light-Tribe camp. Few cats were left as the tom roughly landed against the ground, making Sylvani's body surge upwards from the impact quite a bit. In too much of a panic to care, he yelped, "Help, she's dying!"


'John, what's going on?'


The tom nearly forgot that Farox could listen in to what was going on with him. Light-Triber immediately dashed towards what would be the supply cave, John guessed. Quickly, each of the cats surged out and ran towards the two injured cats. Hovering over the small body, the cats rolled the silver tabby onto her back while placing herbs all over the Miner's body. One of the Light-Tribers was trying to stop the bleeding from her neck alongside the wound that John had accidentally inflicted on the poor cat while another one was pressing on her chest, trying to revive her. There were so few cats in the camp that hardly any were even available to offer assistance; a third Light Triber was examining the wound in Sylvani's throat, face twisted as if debating whether it was even worth it to bind it.  Crouching low, he prayed that somehow they could revive her, that she wasn't lost forever.


'John!' Farox's voice more apparent in his head.


'Sylvani's badly wounded, they're trying to revive her-'  'What?!'


Snapping his attention back to the Light-Triber's around the she-cat, he felt his stomach do several flips as each of their faces darkened, one or two began shaking their heads. One of the healers turned to the Egyptain Mau and mewed, "I-I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do now..."

"N-No! There's gotta be something you guys can do, gotta be!" In disbelief, he rushed towards the deceased she-cat and slumped beside her. "No...please..." Not another cat he lost, please, Spirits, no.


'She's d-dead, Farox.' John finally replied to his patched friend, who didn't exactly know what the hell was going on.


'What...?  No...no, she can't be....  Ignoring his soulbond's strained voice, his hurting gaze fell upon the she-cat. Sylvani's death reminded him of the time he lost his brother and his son-like figure, Orestes, and he couldn't do anything to save them, no matter how hard he tried. Gritting his teeth, he squeezed his eyes closed, wishing that she hadn't jumped in the way of his shock.


'Can I shock her back to life?' He had no honest idea how the thought popped in his head, but it was common that primary Air-Triber's shocked cats far gone back to life, giving them a second chance to live. "I-I think I can shock her back to life!" He gasped, unaware that the Light-Tribers were listening to him, quickly, they stepped backwards as the warrior placed his tan paws on his chest. One of the Light-Tribers quickly placed his paws at the correct place where the heart was. Nodding a thank you, he called back to the other Green-Air,


'Farox, listen, I think I can revive her, but you're going to have to give me more electricity. I can try to shock her heart back to life!'


The Maine Coon must've still been listening, thank the Spirits, because his tattoo flared back again and his paws tingled. Rubbing them quickly against the she-cat's chest, John frowned and stared hard at Sylvani.


'Please work!'


The sound of buzzing reached the tom's pricked ears, the she-cat's body shook from the shock before falling back into her original position. After a few silent moments, John's shaking paw was carefully placed over Sylvani's neck. He felt nothing yet, refusing to give up, he waited for a few more moments, pressing his pads deeper into the stiff fur.

'Boom...Boom...'


"She's alive! She's alive!" He squeaked, pulling back from the Earth-Triber. The Light-Tribers immediately jumped back on the maimed feline. The tom could actually feel tears of joy running down his cheeks. He had killed his soulbond's kitten, but also managed to undo it by reviving her. Taking in a heavy breath, he reported to his soulbond, 'Sylvani's alive!'

---

Darkness.

That was the first thing Sylvani perceived when the clearing around her was abruptly plunged into jet black- it was rather impossible to notice much else.  The second thing that she immediately noticed was that the pain was gone.  She could breathe.  Hesitantly, she touched a paw to her throat, and she found it completely, entirely whole.

That was when it sank in.

No...no...no, no, no...

The tabby shuddered, her head whipping about at once in desperation.  The darkness suddenly seemed invasive, smothering, instead of freeing.  She'd been here before.  She hadn't wanted to come back for a long, long time yet.

But here she was.

"Let me go back," she whispered, tears sparking in her eye.  The blackness was mercilessly silent.  Sylvani swallowed a cry, looking around as if expecting to see the battle at any second.  All she could remember was the look....the look in John's eyes, in Breel's eyes as she had recognized in that moment that it was over.  She'd never really thought the Golden-Butterfly had cared...that it had been as much a farce as it had been on Sylvani's part.  But maybe she'd been wrong.

Then the familiar light began to glow, gently, filtering through the layers of shadow and touching her pelt even when she tried to back away from it.  She squinted against it, and as she watched with dread a figure began to fade into existence, blocking out a portion of the seemingly bodiless light.  Sylvani's jaw dropped as she began to recognize who it was, and when he solidified, a tear rolled over her cheek.  It was Conan.

Starlight glittered in his dusky fur as he took a step forward.  His eyes were so sad.  It was shocking to see them now, when in comparison Sylvani had seen his daughter's gaze- the same dark-blue- burning into hers with such hatred only minutes before.  She shuddered.  Only seconds before, she had been alive.  

"I'm so sorry," she choked out.  She could only guess by the sorrow in his eyes that he had seen her fighting with his daughter.  "I didn't want to do it, I don't want to be here, I..."

Conan said nothing, and so Sylvani slowly fell silent, remembering when she had seen Rey so many seasons ago.  Both toms looked so sad to see her there.  She thought that Eden was supposed to be a happy place, a place where those she had been parted from could reunite with her.  Yet even as Sylvani stood there, staring at her adopted uncle, she realized this couldn't be Eden.  Eden couldn't possibly be this dark expanse of nothing.  The light...the light, that had to be Eden.

She took a reluctant step forward toward Conan, trying to reassure herself that it would be okay.  She would see her brother, Akida, be with Conan and Rey.  Yet the simple movement felt profoundly wrong- not just that she didn't want to, but that something seemed to literally pull at her entire being.  She stopped, eye widening, staring at Conan in shock.  The tom only looked back at her, almost as if he couldn't quite speak to her yet.  Another step- and the tugging increased in volume.

And then quite abruptly a piercing, stabbing pain ripped through her chest and everything around her disappeared.

Light burned into her eyelid as her brow furrowed, and suddenly breathing became a lot harder.  Her head tilted back as if something might be obstructing her airway, but that hurt worse, so she immediately froze, her breath rattling in her throat.  Paws were scuffling around her and a cat was saying something close to her ear- she didn't recognize where..she....where she was.....

Light Tribe.

Suddenly pawsteps came rushing into camp, and painstakingly Sylvani turned her focus to the right.  Her heart gave a painful thump when she saw who it was, and instinctively she tried to speak, yet the wound in her throat stretched and she failed to find her voice.  Yet even for that, she could not feel despair.  She knew he understood.  Her eyelid fluttered weakly as she forced a tiny smile to tug at the corner of her mouth, fixating on his face through the haze of pain.

Daddy.