I take down three goats easily, quick to cut off their noisy bleats of fear before they have time to alert anyone. They are thick, healthy, with deep winter coats hiding stores of fat for the hard months. Perfect to sustain our little group for a day or two.

I silently offer thanks to the mother goddess. No sense in angering more of the gods. She must be suffering, watching her children die and flee by the hundreds.

Standing, I hold the goats by the hooves and sling them over my shoulders, the largest spanning over my back. I make sure to hold them so that the blood drips from their necks down my back and arms, soaking my scales instead of the ground. I'll skin them and bleed them here, to try and keep the trail back to our cave to a minimum. But, honestly, if we're followed by a predator... who cares? One of the Basru is more than enough to take out every sort of predator in the above. Still, with the females and the elders, I don't want to take unnecessary risks.

The smallest goat is drained first and I start the process of skinning him up. My blades and claws make short work of the thick fur coat. I set it aside. More furs are always useful.

Socks has joined me this morning, his orange eyes glowing bright with curiosity as he pokes at the dead goats and smooths the fur with a wistful expression on his face.

"It's better to be made of stone," I tell him.

He looks at me, his ears curling over as he shakes his head sadly.

"Mara likes hard things," I tell him. After the words leave my mouth I realize what it sounds like I'm suggesting.

Socks looks at me, in shock, orange eyes round and ears perked up. Then, he loses his composure, doubled over as the grating noise of gargoyle laughter shakes his little body.

"Hush, Socks. We're trying to be quiet," I grin myself. Blood everywhere, a chortling gargoyle who farts audibly whenever he stifles his laughter, we're not blending with the mountains at all. So much for the Underworld training. In the above, things, as my Lady says, get... messy.

Socks gets over his envy of the goat fur quick enough, prancing around and waving his hands in the air to music only he can hear. Strange little beast.

I'm halfway through the second goat when I hear the faint sound of snarls. My demon is alert, our eyes shifting to focus on the path back to the cave.

Socks hisses, spikes sprouting along his spine.

Our feet fly over the ground. Our ladies are in trouble.

"Good morning, Lier," I greet the dark male with a smile.

"Princess," he nods in my direction, but his dark eyes never stop roving the distance, moving, constant movement of just his eyes as he seeks out any enemies in the mountains. "Stay close, my Lady."

"I just wanted to see the dawn," I respond. I tilt my head back, letting the cool air wash over my face. I've cried so much this past night that my eyes are tight and scratchy.

I inhale softly. "Where is Thane?" I murmur.

"Hunting," comes the quiet reply.

Mishu and Mushu emerge from the cave, rubbing their eyes. Mishu steps on Mushu's tail and they both start arguing, then slapping at each other.

"Stop it, Moosh, Meesh. It's too early," I tell them.

I stretch out my back and look into the distance. The sun is peeking out over the horizon. A new day.

I inhale deeply and stagger backwards.

Run Lady! Gods why is this happening? Why?!

"Shit! My Lady, fuck! I mean, shit!" Lier catches me. Then he lets me go, and catches me again when my legs can't support me anymore.

"Something happening," I gasp. "Down the hill. Coming our way. Someone's dying. Go, please."

Run, damnit! No! Lady, please!

"I can't leave all of you. It could be a trap, my Lady."

"No, please. It's..."

I hear the scream in my head. Figures appear over the hill. More chase them. The sleeping Basru awakens, running from the cave to meet the fight.

I watch a sleek beast leap at the monsters attacking us. Dark fur ripples over muscle. I stare in horror as the savage brute in the center of the maelstrom snatches the cat from mid-air and rips open it's belly.

"Belen," I whisper.

No! Lady!

"Gods, no," Lier says, horror-struck.

"Go, help him. I demand that you go," I growl at him.

He goes. Light creeps up over the horizon. I clutch my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming and drawing attention to the cave. Where is Thane?

Pink dawn breaks over the rise, revealing the battle unfolding in front of our temporary home.

Gold and blue banners snap in the wind. The First House.

Nateos, I know that murderous fiend. Thelios.

---

I swear on my soul I hear my name in a childish voice. Blood flecks in my eyes, partially blinding me as I throw the cat away from me and turn instinctively toward the faint sound.

My stomach immediately drops. I'm not crazy, I did hear the sound of a child. The tiniest female stands just a few lengths from me, her dark eyes watching me curiously, with no fear. The sun rises behind her, it's rays of dawn light striking her hair and making it glow crimson.

Wrapped around her are the robes of delicate grey, the robes looking like a miniature version of a grown female's fanciest dress. The grey of Death.

My demon is reaching for her, his arms wanting to snatch her up before the danger of this world ruins her soft beauty.

It staggers me. This little female with hair the color of pure flame must be her. A daughter of Nateos in truth. From her red-hair to her golden skin, she is a miniature goddess in the flesh.

"Hello little one," I greet her. Excitement is overflowing. I can see it, feel it, in this child. The touch of the gods, the beauty of power and perfection that only a true child of a god can have.

She smiles at me shyly, ducking her head.

My fingers itch to hold her. A scream cuts through the trance the baby has put me in. I snarl. I will make peace with my brother if only to spare this precious baby's innocence. Natoes knows what she has already seen in this conflict.

"Bad males?" she asks in a whisper, pointing to the soldiers behind me.

"You don't have to worry, poppet," I tell her. "Nothing and no one here will harm you. I promise."

"Poppy!" the feminine cry washes over me like a slap to the face , snapping me back to readiness. Nothing soft about it, the shrill cry makes my demon raise his head for battle. Every instinct we both possess is heightened immediately by whatever this new threat is.

I turn, a snarl of rage already twisting my features. Someone has dragged this baby here, away from a home, to a fucking cave, for the gods' sake. This female crying for the baby needs to learn a harsh lesson in mothering a goddess.

I take a step, my claws flexing at the ends of my hands. Scales cover my entire body, slick with the blood of the males I have already fought. Growls and snarls bounce off of stone and tree, making the entire mountain quiver. The very air dances with war. I love it.

The Lady comes, wrapped in her shroud of grey.

I can't breathe.

I never... how is this possible?

Scarlet burns me, sets me on fire. Eyes, the god's eyes, look at the child with a vulnerability that I have never seen Natoes display. Love and fear twists her features, tears pricking lashes that sparkle like magic. Her face... sonnets are written about females like this. She is perfection in flesh.

I am warm.

I have to hold this fire. I have to possess it. It's mine. Mine to warm me like a fire in my blood. My demon is howling, his shade filled with desperate need to have her.

Black eyes meet my own. I gasp, clutching my heart. I've never felt heat in my veins. Ice, it's always been ice.

I take a step forward, watching her luscious lips part. She says just one word; my name.

"Thelios."

The horror and sadness in her voice threatens to bring me to my knees. I take another step forward.

"Your wings," she says. A tear slips down her cheek, falls to the cloth covering her breast. My eyes follow it's glistening trail. It hits the cloth and burns a slight hole.

Her clothes are covered in holes.

That's not right. This female should be dressed in nothing but the finest silks. If she makes the slightest rip in one then another should be ready for her. Even the opulence of the First House is not worthy to be inhabited by this unworldly female.

"Mama, are you crying? You'll burn holes," the baby scolds, her chubby hands perched on her hips as she looks up at her mother.

The female picks up the child and I amend my earlier thought. This is perfection in flesh. A mother and child, bathed in the light of dawn.

It hits me.

My demon screams in agony.

This is the priestess. Nateos' daughter. I am at war with Death.

I have unknowingly, unwittingly, stupidly, become her enemy.

She will never love me.

My scream of rage and pain joins with my demon's. The new fire in our blood mixes with the ice our hearts are shedding. We roar, our eyes fixing on our prize. Our Fated.

Another voice rips through the air.

He hits me, tearing my eyes away from her.

Grey eyes rimmed in red demon fire meet mine. My brother. My twin. Thane.

He is covered in blood from my own scouts as well as... goat. He was able to sneak up on us because he has covered himself in goat blood. Clever.

We rage, claw and fang and talons and horns. Berserkers, both of us. The words of Love slither through my skull like snakes, fueling my desire to kill him. Thane is the champion of Nateos' daughter. The Lady loves him. He is her lover. She stole him from his Fated and entranced him.

I will return the favor, and steal her from him.

Because she's mine. My Fated.

I toss him off of me, but he's just as strong, just as fast. His demon's eye's glow red just as mine do. His claws rip and tear over my scales, leaving dents and scratches, but not penetrating, just as mine do. His sharp fangs snap in my face, his horns and tail swipe and slash, just as mine do.

We are equally matched, but our armies are not.

My army comes streaming up the mountains in a horde of beast and demon. His retreats, hemming in their wounded Recondite and the elderly males peeking out.

"Thane, help them! The Postites!" the Lady cries out.

"No!" I roar. My army swells, spilling towards us as my brother disengages from the fight with me. I freeze, terrified of hurting her by following my brother.

I am forced to watch as he wraps his arms around her and the baby; as he leaps into the air...

As his wings carry them away.

Screaming in pure fury, I turn on the soldiers who drove them away from me.

Gold and blue flutters brokenly under my claws. Gold and blue... I paint it all red.

A sharp pain slices through me. Then another. Arrows, I realize, belatedly. Poisoned arrows, I realize as the agony races through my bloodstream.

Chains are thrown on me. I roar, my demon flashing his warning at the attackers. They come anyway, with their chains and their blades and their poison.

Her face swims in front of me. Blue eyes, staring at me coldly. Anger trembling on her too-thin lips. She is a faded beauty, pale and so much less than the fiery Lady of my Fate.

My knees sag under the heavy weight of the chains as more and more are piled on. I rumble my anger, my throat burning, swelling shut from the poison. Spots dance in my eyes and I know that this isn't the first time this bitch has tainted my blood with her foul magic.

"Thelios," she hisses. "What are you doing?"

"Lying bitch," I barely manage to spit out. "She is my Fated... Perfection... You lied to me."

Rage colors her cheeks red. The last thing I see before darkness claims me is the anger of the goddess of Love.

---

All I see is the dark. Not the comforting dark of sleep, but a deeper black. The absence of all light, the utter forsaking of light in favor of the shadows.

Something claws at me, a sense that this cold darkness in me is seeking something that I can't find here. My arms twitch.

Memories spill into my consciousness.

The pits are cold and dark. Always. Never-changing except for battle. Always the same since I broke my vows to the Lord of this dismal place; stay pure for her. For his daughter whom I've never met. My supposed Fated who lives in the light and beauty of the air and sunshine of the above.

After the first time I begged for mercy. I promised I would study more. I promised that I would never fuck that bitch again.

Three times the god gave me another chance. Three times I promised to be better. Three times I broke that promise.

I used to cry to myself, lost in the tunnels of the Underworld. The monotony of the dark, of wandering, only broken by a new fight with a demon, new or well-known.

I was convinced that the Death god had forgotten me. Love didn't, she remembered. As I grew bolder, greater, better, she would come for me in the darkness and pull me out for a time.

But then I would be sent back. I started to live for those moments when Love would rescue me from the dark abyss.

I grew more. I became the best. I found freedom in the tunnels. I learned their secrets. The ways in and out.

I was the best the Underworld had ever seen.

I realized that Love was false. A poacher of trophies and that's all I was to her.

I pressed on through the darkness until the fight is all that I existed for.

I was cold.

I forgot everything but how to fight. Everything but the feeling of triumph as monster after beast fell to my blades and claws.

And then... I was taken from the Underworld to the above.

I had her.

Mara

My sweet fire Sprite. The Flame of the Death Temple. I am her Fated. The Captain of the Recondites. Her husband.

The Fated female that Death promised to me... I broke that promise... so many times. I was a false male and now...

I understand.

"Wake up, Thelios," she purrs in my ear.

I am chained, kneeling in the desert. I can feel each kernel of sand digging into my bare knees. The dry, cold air on my cheeks. It's nighttime. The heavy chains are cold from the winter air. I know my blades are missing. I can hear the sounds of shuffling feet, nervous breathing, fast heartbeats. I am imprisoned by my own army... or my brother's army, who the fuck knows?

I open my eyes to glare on the plague of my soul. "You are nothing but a jealous whore, Inanji." I look on the goddess of Love. Once, not so long ago, I thought she was the most beautiful female to every breath the same air as me. I was very, very wrong.

My hands are bound behind my back... with rope. The poison Love drugged me with stops most of my shift, but I have enough energy to bring out my rough, sharply pointed scales on my wrists. I start to saw through the binds by rubbing my scaled hands together as surreptitiously as possible.

The seductive look in her Love's eyes fades to an evil smirk. "I'm the whore, am I? I can see what is happening here, Thelios. It's exactly what I feared."

"You seduced me in the Underworld, knowing that I was fated to be Mara's." The binds are loosening.

Her mouth twists into something ugly. "You were easy to seduce, Thelios. So alone, so very cold. All I had to do was offer you just the slightest warmth for a short heartbeat of time and you fell into my bed."

"A trap," I say flatly. I can free my left hand, now, but my right is still pinned tightly with the rope.

"Oh?" she turns with drama, indicating the world around us. "I prefer to think of it as a rescue. Did you want to stay down there, Thelios? In the tunnels and pits until Nateos finally deemed you worthy enough for his precious daughter?"

"Better that I stayed there."

"Oh, until you could be with your sweet Fated?" she asks me. Her face presses into mine, the soft smile on her face belied by the sadistic glint in her crystal-blue eyes.

The ropes fall away, but my ankles are still tied together.

"I'm going to show you what that pure soul creates as her little pets, Thelios. You are the First Recondite, sworn to protect all of the gods and their creations. I'm going to show you what evil your sweet Fated unleashes on the world.

You think she's so pure, such a fabulous female? She's nothing but a greedy slut... her and her mother."

"Her mother? Why are you angry with her mother, Inanji? Jealous of the lover, the daughter, let me guess, you hate the baby, too? All of them, stealing Nateos' attention away from you. You're a jealous shrew," I tell her softly.

She slaps me hard across my face. I don't flinch, don't do anything but smile. The last of the rope loosens.

"Fine, Thelios. See for yourself. All I'm doing is looking out for you and the rest of the world. Let them see what Death does." Her fingers grip my chin, turning my head towards the stone monument in front of me. "Watch!"

I turn at the sound of the low moan. My heart sinks. I roll away from Love, taking the heavy chains with me. I take them off, but keep them in my hands. They are the only weapon I have other than my own shifted form.

The grotesque freak that stumbles from the Forgotten tomb has all of Love's sycophant army retreating a few steps. The third tomb of the First House Forgotten has been opened. Someone's grandmother has been turned into a nightmare come to life.

I love at the perfidious goddess of love and smile. "Thank you for eradicating the army for me."

I race away into the night with her screams of fury lashing me like a whip to the back.