Minute of Love

prologue -*The Dead Night* *leaves rustling…. running…. heavy breathing…. starry night…. bright moon* "I can't run any longer Raina!" I gasped "Raina I can't breathe!" I cried "Raina don't leave me behind" I pleaded "Rainia wait….. Raina wait!" I screamed as tears escaped my eyes lungs on fire and legs aflame, sprinting till im numb, my heart feels like it it's being crushed under pounds of dead weight. Every night im running….. we're running in hopes of freedom. My only driving factor is holding onto the last piece of family I have, my one reason for living the only reason , Raina. "Please!" I exclaim losing sight of her ahead of me, my eyes began to blur with my tears and the salt from my tears burned my cuts I don't know how long i continued running, how long I continued chasing life. I hadn't eaten for a few days, and a summer day out in the middle of the Jungle had me nearly at a heat stroke, but the nights were worse, with the lack of breeze and the humidity in the air, enough to choke a healthy person, let alone….. me I felt my body shutting down and i gazed up, and although i thought i knew every inch of this jungle during the day, it was a different world at night. Noises i wasn't familiar with seemed to taunt me, the birds nestling comfortably while returning to their homes when I had no place to belong. I hated night time, I felt most vulnerable, like the moon peeled away every layer of my facade. And when I looked around me, sweat pouring down my face and nausea creeping up my gut I felt my heart stop, and I remembered feeling the land beneath me disappear, I was falling, no air left in my lungs to scream, no air to talk no air to breathe I hit the water hard, my skinned burned, It was dark and wet with all sort of tropical bug carcuses floating in the water , I could see well under the water, even though i couldn't shift yet I still had all of my senses. All sorts of parasites that would affect normal humans were permeating the water... worms, maggots small dead animals and their decaying bodies and the creatures that feasted upon them. I needed to calm down and focus on my sight. I looked around and there was walls all around me like a tunnel ,and above me, the open sky i had fallen 20 feet down into an abandoned well I swam over to the wall splashing the foul smelling water around, I wasnt the best swimmer when it wasn't instinctual. When i reached the wall i switched my focus to feeling. I wasn't as advanced as Raina, I couldn't use multiple or all senses at once. I could barley use one. As i felt around on the walls of the well i remembered Raina saying "….skinny and long is Vines , long and crazy is Ivy , crazy and short is clovers and short and wet is moss….." the list goes on and on but what i was feeling was definitely short and wet, and wet meant slippery, and slippery meant a dangerous trip up. I channeled my inner shifter and out came my claws, though i wasnt a lioness i was a jaguar, I was more stealthy more agile. While I struggled to tread above the water i managed to set my claws in the cracks. I flattened myself against the walls of the well and began my crawl upward. The air was pungent and stale and it made bile rise to my throat and some wild fungus that was growing within the walls was making my throat scratch. The wall was old and jagged, frequently adding cuts to my hands, I had to be about 12 feet up when i felt my skin crawl, the hair on my neck stood up and my instincts kicked in, another shifter was nearby, one more powerful, stronger and of a different… type, same species….. My body froze and my pupils dilated I could hear it at the top of the well circling the area, it was clearly feeling my untrained presence…. I couldn't mask it, I didn't have the proper lessons. Every fiber of my body seemed to be in tune, like my pulse was beating in sync with its footsteps, and then i got a whiff. Ahh… I exhaled it was a male, I knew i felt something In my world it was Raina and I against everyone, but the catch was the Raina AND I part. I was out here alone, making me useless, I had no defense. my legs began to shake from my exhaustion from the run, I was extremely fatigued. My body sore and aching, clenched against this wall, hanging by my claws, with a male predator waiting up top. Then in the midst of my panic, I realized that he must have become disinterested because his presence was now miles from my own. I sighed of heavy relief, my mind easing, almost to the point where i thought i was going to lose it. I continued my journey up the next 8 feet with my legs on the verge of cramping and my stomach tying in knots from the beginning stages of starvation. When i reached the top i realized just how hot it was in the well when the slight cool breeze of dawn crept upon my face. I barely managed to crawl to the base a nearby jungle tree when i passed out. I slept… and slept…..and slept and by the time i woke up it had to nearly be the next days evening, I got up and my body felt like a ton of bricks. My head began to spin and i opted to resume my place back at the base of the tree. I began to fret for my sister, my very own blood, the only one left that was still connected to me. Where was she? Had she been captured? Was she as hungry as I was? As restless as I was? Was her night as bad as mine, or maybe even worse? Had she been claimed? Did she need me? This was the longest Raina and I had ever been separated. Usually when we get split up in the chase she would come look for me within the next few hours or maybe in the morning, but by now it had nearly been a full day as night time was surely only a few hours away. I cannot face the night alone especially not when it begins My heart beat sped up when i heard voices nearby.I decided to listen in, it might have been a hint to help me in tonight's chase. But as i focused in I heard something familiar. A giggle. Only a giggle that I knew from MY beloved sister, we were all we had no one else could make us laugh, it was us against the world right? My first instinct was that she was putting on an extremely good act to fool her captors, and since she was close enough i knew she would be able to smell me and know it was me. I panicked and tried to think of a distraction, anything that would save her. I smelt many nearby I was hasty, irrational not in my right mind, i pulled off a jagged piece of bark and held it to my leg ready to that they would smell me and assume me injured and find it worth while to search me down I wanted so badly to sprint to her to ask her if she was ok and how she made it through the night, I held up the stick ready, without any hesitation to impale it into my leg, but my breath hitched when a strong male presence that i felt just last night said "So one called Zalara resides here, you say?" And my very own sister the one who I put every last of my thoughts into her life ready to sacrifice my own said " I can smell her body all around here, can you not? its not as if she is smart enough to know how to hide it. She is at the perfect age to get her to submit. I made sure no man has tainted her, no one has marked her. She could be your very own personal mistress if you'd like" The man laughed "surely if she is as young as you say she is, I have no benefit in making her my mistress" "Then your sons? surely you have some strong very powerful sons that could do with a mistress?" Raina suggested. "No, no sons that require a …..."Jaguar"" he snickered as he enjoyed seeing a betrayal in action, 2 souls being torn apart Raina became desperate as nightfall became evident "Then sell her! Take her! Do whatever you like… as long as our deal still holds up" "Right...Right our deal, take her, give you the benefits of a lioness, while you still reside as a …" he hesitated as if in disgust "... a … Jaguar" Is this what my sister wished for to live as? a lioness? To be one of a leader's many females? to mean nothing to him but be a vessel that holds his offspring? A toy used to tame his s****l desire? A maid used to clean up his messes? A slave used to catch all of his meals? For what? The Title? The love for my own flesh in blood made me put her before myself. Made me ,even after the fact that she wants to enslave me for her own freedom, kill me for her own happiness and destroy me so that she is built up, made me feel, in a sick way….needed. Never once had she asked me for anything. Never excluding me but providing for me the best she could. Though she was gone for long periods of times she never deserted me. She always came back. I stood up shakily and I had completely and wholeheartedly decided to give my life for my sisters. But then my world ended when the male said " You will have no regrets? Surely you have invested a lot of your time to taking care of her as you have previously stated? You must be attached in some way? And Raina said " Never has she meant anything to my life but a ticket to the good one" "No love?" the man pushed in a surprised manner "None" Raina confirmed without hesitation . And i almost didn't believe it until i smelt the truth emitting from her skin it was something all Jaguars could do to other Jaguars. That's why there was such little conflict amongst us, we all knew if you lied, so there was no point in doing so . I kept on smelling, straining my senses to discover even an inkling of lie in her blood but there was nothing…. absolutely nothing Tears began to roll down my face and i felt neglected, i let the bark fall out of my hand and before I could hear it reach the ground I sprinted off into the night.