Her head was starting to really hurt. The pup groaned quietly, reaching up to rub at the gem again. "Not okay not okay, very hurt hurts a lot!" she whined, shaking her head. Her heart was beginning to race in her chest, and she felt light headed.

"W-water?" she whined, shaking her head again and lolling her tongue out. "Thirsty mouth dry need drink," she panted, whining quietly.

"A lizard? Small little lizzy, glowy-scaly beast! Am an Aardwolf, not a wolf not an aardvark not a hyena but an Aardwolf! Onyekachukwu is my name, so unlike yours!"

The Aardwolf stumbled, black spots dotting her vision. Oh, she hurt! She whined pitifully, feeling her heart give several great thumps, and then she keeled over onto her side, a great crack forming in her gem as she gave up the ghost.

Amazon widened her eyes and started forward fearfully as the pup began to groan, but then again what could she, a tiny lizard, do for this creature? How would she carry water? How could she do anything to help? Her eyes followed the little paw rubbed the gem and, with a jolt, she realized that it must be the source. Either it was poisonous or harmful or something, just like hers. Just like Envy's. She wanted to help this creature, she had to help this creature.

She nodded fervently at its request. "Yeah, yeah, come on, we'll go find some water. Polaris is full of little streams..." She trailed off as it began to speak faster and she, in turn, began to panic. What could she do? What could she do?! She looked around anxiously for something, anything, that could help but, not surprisingly, there was nothing.

She looked up at Onyekachukwu and was about to speak when they suddenly stumbled. She gasped and her eyes went wide, her own heart speeding with terror. "H-hey, just hold on, okay! You're going to be okay, you'll be fine." She started forward and pushed herself against the aardwolf's neck, as if she could push them back to their feet, but it was to no avail. They fell on her side and she was forced to retreat.

For a moment, she stood next to the pup, panting, before she launched herself at their side again and pushed with all of her tiny might, words streaming out without control. "No, no, come on! We'll find you a stream! You can have all the water you want! It'll make you feel a lot better, I promise! Really, trust me, water will make you feel better! We can fix this, we can work out a way so that you don't hurt. Envy does it and I do it, we do what we can not to hurt even though we carry our pain with our life. Don't be scared, Onyekachukwu, I promise...things will work out..."

But she already knew that the aardwolf could not hear her anymore. The gem was cracked and no breath stirred their fur.

They were gone.

She fell back and began to cry, tiny little tears falling from her eyes and she sunk to the ground, mourning the dead child in front of her, who had tasted life for minutes. Who's gem, their very life, had killed them.

She began uncomfortably aware of the green spike atop her head and a wave of fear passed through her and she wondered if this was how she was going to end as well. Would her gem bring an end to her life, painfully and confused? Would she descend into the madness that seemed to have plagued the aardwolf's cruelly short life? Dread settled in her heart and flowed out with her tears as she realized that her end was coming, perhaps sooner then most. She would never grow as old as Khloros or Ghanyarah or Prata or maybe not even Envy. The thought brought on a new wave of tears, both for herself, and for the one that was lost.

After a while, she went quiet and her eyes tried, no more tears able to fall from her eyes. She looked at the aardwolf and wondered what she could do with them. She couldn't just leave them here...but then again, what else could she do? She was tiny and weak. She couldn't even stop them from falling over, much less bury them a grave. She could do nothing but leave their body to the open air.

Unable to stand another second, Amazon turned away and raced off, guilt overtaking the dread at leaving the aardwolf as they were and anger at herself for being unable to do anything for them. She selfishly wanted to forget this, to push it away like it never happened. But she would never forget. Never.

*exit