James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

But Tarrin was beyond any mere words, and one look into his eyes told her that. There was nothing rational left in his eyes. She ducked under when he swung the table pedestal at her, her claws ripping the muscles in his arm and making him drop it. But instead of pressing, Jesmind backed away, quickly, backing straight towards the window.

She never saw it coming.

Eron stepped up behind her and smashed a table fragment into the back of her head, and she crumpled like a rag doll.

Yet that wasn't enough. Tarrin was on top of her in the span of a heartbeat, kneeling over her with one paw on her chest to hold her down, the other rising with claws out to finish her off. She put both her paws on his wrist, weakly trying to push him away, but her eyes were unfocused and she had no strength in her arms.

"Tarrin!" Elke gasped in shock. She grabbed his wrist with both hands. "You can't! She's defenseless!"

Tarrin yanked suddenly, sending Elke reeling, but she would not let go. "No!" she barked at him. "Tarrin!"

He rose up off of Jesmind and smashed Elke against the wall, her feet dangling half a span off the floor, holding her up by the paw she held in her grip, as the other paw reared back, claws out. Her stunned look of terror did not register to him. At that instant, she was not his mother, she was an enemy, someone trying to stop him.

He didn't know what would have happened, had Eron not smashed him in the back of the neck with the table leg. The blow made him let go as he gasped in pain, staggering back. The blow knocked some sense back into him. Jenna was crying hysterically. Elke Kael was wheezing for breath, and Eron was just beside him, ready to hit him again should do anything untowards.

Tarrin looked up, and he realized what had almost happened. He had very nearly killed one of the most important people in his life. "What have I done?" he said in a voice filled with self loathing.

He had almost killed his mother.

He stepped back, putting his paws to his face, bending over to hide from the shame and agony of it.

He had almost killed his mother.

Everything he had ever feared had come to pass. He was losing control of himself, becoming the monster that he appeared to be. Not even his own family was safe around him any more. He would have killed Jesmind, and he would have killed Elke, had his father not stopped him.

He had almost killed his mother.

He stood up and wailed, a sound of such loss and despair that it made the hair on the back of Elke Kael's neck stand up, a wail filled with such self-loathing and guilt that it nearly broke her heart. He looked at her then, and in his eyes she could see his blame, his guilt, his apology, and she could see his horror. It was such a look of pleading, of terror, of guilt…it was the look of a man who had lost all hope for himself. He had almost killed her, and Elke understood with that look that it was the one thing that he could not bear, the one horror against which he could not stand.

He had almost killed his mother, and it was the one crime for which there was no forgiveness.

Tarrin flinched away from his mother's gaze, turned, and jumped from the open window.

The Cat-woman groaned a bit and pushed herself up on her hands, looking out the open window. Blood was oozing from the corner of her mouth. "Did you have to hit me so hard?" she complained, rubbing the back of her head.

"I don't think I hit you hard enough," Eron said in a cold voice, one that made her flinch.

"That fool," she spat, sitting up. "I warned him about this, but he wouldn't listen to me." She got to her feet, wobbling a bit, as Elke comforted the nearly-hysterical Jenna. "Tell the Keeper that I'll take care of it."

"How, by killing him?"

Jesmind looked at the blocky man, her eyes grim. "No, he'll do that for himself if someone doesn't stop him," she said. "I didn't come here to fight, but he thought that I was. I didn't know that you people were his family. He was fighting to protect you from me. I'm responsible for this," she said, sighing, "and I have to put things right. Tell the Keeper I'll bring him back, alive, no matter how long it takes."

She pushed her red hair out of her face. "Unless I'm too late. Right now, he's looking for somewhere to die. I hope I find him before he finds a good spot."

In the morning, all that was found of him were his clothes, ripped from his body, then folded as neatly as shredded clothes could be folded.

To: Title EoF

He had no idea how long he had wandered.

Tarrin was padding slowly beside a pile of reeking garbage in a narrow, crooked back alley, so exhausted that he could only move one leg at a time. He had ran all night, in his cat form, running from the horrors that he had almost carried out, running from himself.

He wanted to die. He wished to the Gods that Jesmind had taken his life back in Torrian, that he would have just laid there and let her rip out his throat. The guilt of his crime had crushed all will and hope from him, and it was as if his life was over. But that had not happened, and the Gods had not answered his prayer and struck him dead, so he was going to have to do it himself. Suld had a nice deep harbor. A walk off the pier would end his agony, would forever silence the animal, the monster, inside him.

The only problem was, he was lost.

Suld did not gently slope down towards the sea as most port cities did. It was a slightly hilly area in a natural harbor, and the land rose and fell in very gentle waves that had no definite direction. The stench of the city blocked out the smell of the sea, and his very small size prevented him from seeing it. And he had no idea at all of where he was.

The irony of it almost made him laugh. He couldn't even kill himself right.

He dragged himself along several streets, wandering aimlessly with his head down and his tail dragging the ground, until he could go no farther. He was on a wide street in a classier part of town, where iron fences separated well kept lawns and gardens from the street and from each other, and where large houses rested on sizable plots of land. It was dawn, and already many carriages, horses, and pedestrians were going about their daily business. He needed to stop, to rest, but he couldn't do it here. He would be disturbed, and the last thing he wanted was to be disturbed.

He wriggled himself between the iron bars of a fence and crawled up under a well manicured shrub. It was dark, and cool, and peaceful there. A fitting place, a quiet place. A place to reflect. He was too numb now to feel the pain, there was only the memory, the sight of his mother starting at him in fear, the knowledge that had he not been stopped, he would have taken the life of one of the people on that world that he would die for. His family had come to find Tarrin, but they had found the beast that lurked within him, the beast that he could not control. He would die before he hurt his family.

And he had to die to make sure that he didn't.

He would sleep. Close his eyes and let the slumber take him, hold him, keep him sedate and calm, keep him from hurting anyone else. He would lay down under that excellent bush, and he would sleep.

And he would remain so until he was dead.

He collapsed under the bush unceremoniously, too tired to even make himself comfortable. Then he closed his eyes, and dreamless oblivion engulfed him.

He was only vaguely aware of the hands on him until he was totally surrounded by them. The scent of a very young human filled his nose, one whose hair smelled of lilac, and his nose and fur were being held against a very soft fabric. Linen, maybe, or silk.

"Aww, what happened to you, little kitty?" a piping girl-child's voice called, as a tiny hand started petting him. "You smell like you were chased through a garbage pile." Tarrin remained limp in her arms, eyes closed, even though he was awake. He really didn't care. It was as if anything that was done had no meaning for him, and he drifted in his own world of unfeeling numbness. He could hear, and understand, but it had no importance to him. If she petted him, he did not care. If she took him by the head and broke his neck, so much the better.