ORIGIN

When he looked at her, there was a surge of desperate protest, just as shattered as him. His pointed ears twisted back and lay flat against his head, afraid as she begged him to understand. Running from him - keeping me captive - The cat's eyes widened. That was why she was here. She was being kept prisoner - and she hadn't even told him, why? To protect him? Suddenly, images of the stag's torture flashed through his mind. Visions of all the evil he had done - slashing a white lion, casting streaks of crimson across his pallid fur, speaking dark things to the doe, skin burning, cold, harsh words. How could such a dark thing exist? How could such terrible things happen?

He wanted her to do something, to say something, but he was frozen. His heart thrummed in his chest and he was so terribly afraid. Her voice had risen through the silence, cutting through, threatening him - no, daring the stag to hurt her first, but Bartos shook his head - he was still struggling to understand, still fighting to summon the courage to act. He couldn't let Clover get hurt, but what could he do? He was nothing compared to the stag - he was barely anything compared to Clover. These doubts bled through his mind, through his heart, into the open space between him. Doubts, fears, terror.

She had been standing over him, but in that instant the stag scolded her and stamped his hoof, and the ground suddenly felt cold. Bartos glanced down to see the ice curling along the dust and rock, and out of instinct he dashed out from under Clover, expecting her to follow him - only when he glanced back, she was rooted to the earth by the glimmering white ice, frozen in place. The stag spoke of dark things as he turned his sights to Bartos, and everything in him screamed to run, but he refused. He couldn't abandon her here. He couldn't let her suffer here while he ran free, despite all the lies he spoke, and he wanted so badly to protest against the evil buck. He was wrong. Everything he said was wrong. He didn't know anything of love.

The cat only cowered when Hasira had swept up to him, then in that instant he felt pain - a feeling he'd never really known before - as the buck's powerful antlers tossed him aside. Bartos cried out and landed a couple feet away, rolling once, landing on his side - he leaned onto his stomach again, legs splayed and poised to run, but still that fear and loyalty and love would not permit him to leave. And instead of staring up at the stag that loomed over him, his eyes shot to Clover - there was a flash of some emotion, what was it?

Determination.

Then the stag's hooves crashed down on his leg and Bartos reeled his head back with an anguished cry, a scream, quick to descend into hysterical sobs. Pain, pain like shouting in his ears, bled through his cracked limb. The bone had splintered and crumpled, twisting his leg awkwardly beneath the stag's weight. Within seconds, the burning torture had consumed him; Bartos fell limp against the ground, it was all his body could do to rip consciousness from him.

Clover was rooted to the ground and she couldn't move; she tried to lift her hooves from the ice, but they held her so fast she couldn't budge. She could only watch as Bartos ran from under her in fear, and she could feel his hesitance, confusion, and desperation to do something. Run She tried to tell him, but he refused. Just leave me here and run,

She cried out when Vazi struck at him with his antlers, and she felt it too, the force of it making her sway, but she couldn't crumple, her knees couldn't allow the motion with her feet locked into place. She was stunned for just a second, her gaze blurry with the phantom pain of being struck. But it cleared with a rush of fear when Bartos looked at her with such determination to stay with her, and she looked back, praying for him to run, just to get away from this--

Vazi got on his hind legs, and true and mindless fear shot through her and she cried, "No, Vazi please-" before he came down onto Bartos' leg, and she screamed, a harsh and bloody sound that mingled with his scream; it felt as if her leg broke, white fire burning, she couldn't see through the white, but she still had to stand, her feet wouldn't allow it, but her head swayed down, her breath ragged and uneven. When Bartos succumbed to the void, her vision blacked out and she wanted to join him, but once the pain stopped for him, so did it stop for her. She still shook violently, unable to comprehend that her leg wasn't actually broken. Her body couldn't accept it, and still sent her vestiges of pain signals, her tears falling rapid and hot onto the cold ground. The same leg that was now crumpled and wrong for him was bent and shivering for her, unable to take weight.

"S-stop," she said, her voice so weak and such a tattered mess you could barely understand it. "Ple-please- I'll g-go with you, j-just please stop,"

Bartos, she sobbed through the link. Bartos-

"This is how I speak."