Hunted Waters

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Lily nodded her head stiffly and then laid down on her sid and pressed her wings together around her, that wrapped round her like a warm feather filled blanket and covered her totalty. She took a deep breath and then rested her head on the bone running through the top of her wings and sighed ,she needed to sleep to be alert and to ready to go as soon as possible tomorrow. She drifted in to a deep sleep soon but it was filled with dreams of bleeding newly chaned children and her freinds from the forest tribe being hunted and chased by the mothers of the stolen child

[Espri]

Espri soon fell asleep after staring at the fire for some time, curling up into the warm fur of her tiger half. She didn't sleep that long, though, for she was awakened by a nightmare. It featured the night she was combined with her tiger-half, along with the other suffering children. She awoke with a start, trying to keep quiet as not to awaken her sleeping companion. She stirred the dying fire to keep it from going out compleatly, then curled up once more to try and sleep again.

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Lily soon found herself awake, she unfolds her wings from around herself as quietly as she could and then looked over to see her freind sound asleep beside the fire, she smiled slightly and then stood up and streached out her legs and arms and then flexed her wings out too. She lifted her head and looked up up see the stars still in the sky and the faint yellow line of the sun far away in the distance, they didn't need to go yet so she thought she would to for a wander. She looked down at her freind and then shook her head, she was sleeping and lily didn't want to wake her up so she would go alone, it's not like she would be in any danger or any thing

[Espri]

When Espri awoke for the second time, the sky was just turning grey with early morning light. She sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and when she took the fists away noticed Lily was gone. "Lily?" She called, but to no avail. The tiger-girl shruged. She knew the flying girl could take care of herself. Besides, she was probably just out for a walk, or to find food. At the thought of it, Espri's stomach rumbled greatly. She stirred the fire and added a few logs to get it going again, and began making a small breakfast. She figured Lily would be happy to have something to eat when she reaturned.

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Lily disnt have to walk far for the wind to rise and her feathers to dance in the wind, but it felt oddly cold and she began to shiver as she walked through the thinning trees and then she stoked all together as a smell hit her nose. Burning. But not of wood. She took a few more steps forwards to the side of the pay she had been walking one and then yelped in shock and anger and horror and took a quick step back. Her hands curled in to fists and her wings shook with anger as the black smoke wheeled up past her, animals, they were burning the bodies of the animals who's souls they had stolen and trapped in the bodies of humans who didn't want or need them, tears of anger and sorrow came to lilts eyes as the smoke wrapped around the tree tops beside her

[Espri]

Espri stood and shook her tiger-half. She stepped outside and streatched her arms abover her head, her eyes closed. When she opened them, she faced the sky and took in the early morning light. The sun had just risen over the horizion, and everything was bathed in a beautiful, golden light. Everything looked pure. As she gazed at the golden sky, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. She turned to face it, and realized it was smoke. Smoke means humans, she thought. But it may also mean Lily. She decided to take the risk and headed toward the dark, rising clouds.

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Lily felt a hiss grow in her throat and she wanted to run forwards and pull the bodies out of the flames but they were souless now and as good as dead. Not actually dead but lost, they didn't know who they were or what they were or even why they existed so saving them would cause more pain than anything else, they didn't even scream or howl or call in pain because they didn't know that they had to or should do. Lilys eyes watered and her clawed hands cut in to her palms and she gave another hiss before stepped back over the edge, they had to be someone or something she could save ,this couldn't happen with no purpose ,she had to have found it for some reason

[Espri]

Espri loped quickly, headed strait for the source of the dark smoke. As she was running, the wind shifted, blowing the clouds in her direction. Along with the stench. It hit her like a smack in the face; her eyes watered and nose stung. She tried breathing through her mouth to avoid the smell, only to inhale the smoke, she stopped mid-run, clutching her frail ribs with one hand, coughing into the arm of the other. While doing this, she thought to herself that this wasn't normal smoke, and it wasn't wood that was burning. Still coughing greatly, she walked the rest of the way to the flames. She was correct, her companion was there. And sadly, she was correct about the fire. Wood wasn't burning here. Bodies were being burned, ones of innocent creatures. She slowly walked over to her friend, whom she realized was crying. Still clutching her chest, she put one thin arm around the girl's shoulders, to gently guide her away from the flaming catastrophy, and back to the quiet camp.

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Lily felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked over her shoulder to see her friend standing there, she shook her hand off and took a step forwards and dropped of the side of the cliff. She dropped down through the air and she flicked her hands out quickly and then she wings spread out behind her and she cut up through the air and then levelled out in the air and she looked about. The pile of burning fur made no noise as it was burning up but lily could hear something as she flew down lower, the hear was warming her wings and she knew she wouldn't be able keep this up for a lot longer

[Espri]

Espri quickly ran toward the cliff edge, and watched her friend take off into the distance. As the girl grew smaller and smaller, Espri's heart sank. She was alone again. She turned to leave, but glanced once more over at the smoldering pile. She recoginised almost all of the animals she saw, the only ones she didn't were now unidentifiable. She noticed, however, that not a single one was the same animal she'd been combined with. She saw hares, deer, horses, arouches, and more. But not a single white, cat-like creature. And that proved it to her- she was a reject, a mistake. Not only was she diffrent from humans, she was diffrent from other halflings, too. Tears welled up in her pinkish eyes, both from sadness and regret, and the billowing, black smoke. She turned from the disgraceful pile, coughing and sobbing, and began the slow travel back to camp.

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Lily watched the silent pile of death and she felt her head get heavy and she blinked her eyes to stop herself from crying again when something below her mewed. Lily lifted her head and let herself drop to the ground beside the pile and she scanned the pile so signs of life, something shifted at the side of the pile closest to her and she jogged forwards to see a small cat like creature, beside it was a larger one with dead eyes and lily nodded. The cat itself was a pale red while it's mother was more golden ,lily nodded her head and plunged her hands in to the flames and pulled the cat away from it's mother and hugged it close to her as it mewed louder and lily turned away from the fire ,"save one life and one soul and time is not wasted" she said to herself before beating her wings down and shooting in to the air

[Espri]

Espri's large paws slowly trodded the earth, bending grass and breaking twig beneith. Her lungs still hurt from the smoke, all those animals were dead, and her companion was gone. She was alone once again, and worse, hundreds of children were suffering, and she couldn't help them alone. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place, with nobody to get her out. Once she finally reached the camp, she extinguished the smoldering embers that was their fire, and began to pack everything up. Once everything was in its place, she hiked her should-sling bag up over her head and across her chest, and picked up Lily's. She debated on taking it or leaving it. The flying girl may come back for it, and Espri knew she souldn't take it, as she figured she may never see the girl again. But then a thought hit her- If Lily were to come back for her pack, I could wait here for her. Espri immediatly sat, both packs resting at her side. She swished her long tail back and forth, patiently waiting for her friend's likely reaturn.

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Lily shot up in the air and then flew away from the fire and looked about for her freind but she couldn't see her, she let herself drop down to the ground and put the little baby cat down on the ground beside her foot. The cat wrapped it's tail around her foot and lily shook her off and then took a step forwards and looked down to see the cat following her ,"come on then you little minx" she said with a small smile before she started to run down the side if the hill and towards her and espris camp. The cat ran after her and lily smiled to herself as she spotted the camp and then she slowed to a walk and then looked around for her freind with a smile as the cat ran to her side and sat down flicking her tail

[Espri]

Espri heard footsteps outside- The ones of something on two legs, and something small, on all fours. "Lily?" She called out, walking to the cave entrance. "Lil, is that you?" She looked around, and spotted the firey haired girl not far off. "Your back!" She said, as releif filled her. She walked up to her companion, then looked down at the little red creature at her feet. "Ohh, a cub!" She exclaimed, being very fond of baby animals. She laid her tiger half down so she was closer to the little cat. "Hello dearie," she said quietly, scratching it behing it's ears. It purred and rubbed into her hand, causing a grin to spread across her face. "Couger, right?" She asked.

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Lily nodded her head at her friends comment ,"or mountain lion ,Which ever word you like better, I think I'm going to call her minx" she said with a smile before holding a hand out for her pack. "hand mine here and we can get walking, or going at least, I wanna fly over to keep an eye on things but none the less, we will be traveling" lily said with a smile before she took a step over to her friends side and held it her arm again with a smile ,"so hand it over stripes" she said with a chuckle as minx walked over to her foot and sat down