It was a simple a matter to let the cat out, releasing its magic much like she would her own. The cat appeared at her side, and rubbed itself against Umbra’s leg and let out a low purr. “So do you have a name,” Umbra asked the cat.

“You may call me Milo,” the cat said in her head, self-importantly.

“Milo?” Umbra asked. “I was expecting something more” —Umbra waved her hands ­­­­­­­­­— “You know what I mean, Milo is such a cat name.”

“I am not just a cat,” Milo said offended, “I am a sì cat, stealer of souls, and bringer of bad fortune.”

“Oh,” Umbra said, while mentally berating herself, why hadn’t she asked the cat what it was before she bonded with it permanently.

“You do know now that we are bonded I can hear your thoughts,” Milo said. “Trust me when I say you could not have a better companion. There are not many sì cats left, most of us were killed in a genocidal rampage committed by the races of the fabric a few years ago, most do not like the bad fortune we bring.”

“So you bring bad fortune to me, how is that helpful,” asked Umbra, irritated.

“I do not bring bad fortune to you, stupid. I bring bad fortune to your enemies, which means depending on the way you think about it, I bring good luck to you.” Milo said staring at her with his green eyes.

“Oh ok, that seems pretty good. Is that all you do? to be honest I don’t really know much about daemon companions.”

“You do not know? Have you been taught nothing?” Milo replied he seemed offended by Umbra's lack of knowledge.

“My master has not really given me any lessons.”

“Not much of a teacher then,” the cat said. Umbra shrugged, she didn’t feel comfortable speaking ill of Master Otaro, he was beyond her understanding. “Well, Daemons fulfill quite a few roles, companionship, aid with magic control, unique abilities, assistance in a fight as we are immune to most magic, advice, the list goes on, suffice to say we are invaluable to mages. Oh, I need souls to grow, I am not even close to fully grown yet and I do not have access to a lot of my abilities.”

“Souls shouldn’t be a problem to come by,” Umbra said, thinking of the 100 hundreds of dead lizards that had come to be after the last time she had lost control. Milo was already large, in comparison to the fortress cats she had seen. The sky had turned light again, even though it was hard to tell in the black forest. There wasn’t really a reason to stay here any longer. It was time to leave.

They walked back, Milo roamed away from her, but Umbra noticed that she knew exactly where Milo was even when he was distant and obscured by branches and foliage. When Milo was quite a distance away Umbra became curious, what if she could pull Milo back into her being. She was about to stretch out and try when the cat’s warning voice rang in her head. “You would expend all your magic trying to pull me in from that distance, be careful.” Umbra hummed to herself in reply, it was weird having someone who could read her thoughts.

Umbra began to pick up her pace heading towards the tree that stretched into the sky, Milo kept up with her easily, so Umbra began to sprint, it had been a while since she had truly tried to run as fast as she could, and the trees zipped past at an imperceptible speed and still Milo kept up. Fast cat Umbra thought. She could feel his approval at the begrudging praise. Seems he likes flattery.

They made it to the base of the portal tree in good time, she guessed she had spent around three days finding Milo and getting back, which meant she would have at the most 5 days before the deadline, but she doubted it would take that long, given the mountains seemed to be slightly closer to the tree than the dark forest was. Umbra settled down to wait resting her back against the colossal trunk of the portal tree, Milo came to lie in her lap a few seconds later seeming to curl up and fall asleep immediately. Umbra ran her fingers through Milo’s black soft fur, she wasn’t sure how they were supposed to get back up the tree, she just hopped Apithe had an idea.

Over the next few days Umbra found Milo didn’t talk much, he slept most of the time and every now and then he woke to eye the jungle lazily before shutting his eyes again. The jungle made Umbra jumpy, it was dead silent except for when the occasional breeze brushed past, rustling the leaves. Umbra didn’t sleep she had spent the first day working on her control, conservatively as she didn’t know how long she would have to wait. Now she didn’t have the magic to waste on practicing her control and Apithe had still not returned, Umbra ran her hands through Milo’s fur worriedly. Taking comfort in his presence, she was starting to worry that Apithe had left without her. She talked to Milo to distract herself. “How old are you anyway,” Umbra asked.

“Just reached adulthood, for a Daemon that means about 50 years old.” Milo yawned and rearranged himself in Umbra’s lap.

“That would be old for a human,” Umbra was starting to become used to everything having much longer lifetimes than humans.

“Someone is coming,” Milo said jumping up in her lap and staring intently at the jungle in front of Umbra. Umbra couldn’t hear anything but she trusted Milo, it was probably Apithe but one couldn’t be too careful, she stood and pulled Carn from around her arm. The bladed whip floated around her protectively. Umbra readied herself as the crashing footsteps came closer, Milo was hissing beside her, his back arched and fur on end.

Apithe stumbled into the clearing situated around the massive tree and Umbra ran forward to meet her forcing Carn back around her arm. Apithe was covered in blood and looked like she was about to drop from exhaustion, her black hair was torn and ragged, she held in her arms a small white bundle. Apithe’s blood-red eyes met Umbra’s own and the blue girl collapsed still cradling the bundle. Umbra caught Apithe and slowly lowered her to the ground. “A white wolf pup,” Milo said poking his nose at Apithe white bundle. “The wolves wouldn’t have parted with that easily.” They heard the baying of the wolves, “told you,” Milo said in a dry tone. Umbra ripped out Carn tearing off her sleeve in the process and left it floating around her.

There was 5 of them and they growled menacingly when they caught sight of Umbra standing over Apithe’s body. A large wolf stepped forward, “return us our pup and the thief and we will let you live.”

“No,” Umbra said, Apithe had stood up for her against Master Otaro, the least she could do was fight off some wolves.

“Then you will die with her.” The large white wolf attempted to leap at her, but it tripped and face planted into the ground. Umbra stifled a laugh but she could feel Milo’s amusement, she didn’t have too long to dwell on it though as the other wolves, jumped into motion. She couldn’t dodge without leaving Apithe vulnerable, instead, she shot out the threads of her vitality sapping spell, and cursed when they found no purchase on the wolves, daemon’s and their resistance to magic was seriously strong. Thankfully she had other ways to harm them. She whipped Carn at the two closest wolves, shearing limbs from their bodies with ease, the bladed whip trembled, and Umbra couldn’t stop a vicious smile spreading as the wolves whined, she wondered what a daemon’s death would be like to channel. The Alpha wolf had recovered and this time it didn’t trip when it leapt at her. Carn turned rigid and Umbra thrust it like a long spear into the Alpha’s chest piercing through the wolf’s body, it slid down Carn leaving a trail of blood and gore. Carn turned back into a whip and Umbra dragged it from the large wolf, preparing herself for the attack of the last two wolves, it never came and Umbra could see them disappearing into the jungle, back towards the mountains.

Umbra ignored the urge to channel, worried about Apithe, the blue girl hadn’t woken up. Umbra dropped to her knees next to Apithe, the girl had claw marks covering her arms, and her trousers were shredded, a particularly vicious bite to her lower leg was bleeding profusely, Umbra was surprised Apithe could even walk with a wound like that. Umbra tore off a length of cloth from her dress, to bind the wound, she knew the basics of what to do with an injury. She wound it tightly around the wound trying to stem the bleeding. It would have to do.

The white wolf pup was snuggled against Apithe, Umbra couldn’t remove it from Apithe’s arms, they were like iron so Umbra left it alone and bound the rest of the serious wounds, she was practically wearing rags after she was done. Apithe clothes were in shreds not even large enough to bind wounds so that wasn’t a help. Apithe was pretty much naked revealing a fair amount of her perfect blue skin unmarred by wounds, it would’ve made Umbra embarrassed to be seeing so much if it wasn’t in this situation.

When Umbra sat back against the tree to let out a tired sigh, Milo who had been silent the entire time spoke up. “May I take the wolves souls,” he asked respectfully. Umbra suddenly became aware of the death surrounding her which had seemed to disappear while she was tending to Apithe.

“Yeah, go crazy,” Umbra waved her arm tiredly. “I might as well channel while I get the chance.” Umbra opened her channel to the magic, a daemons death was more potent than a person death but not as potent or of the same quantity as a mage’s death. Umbra watched Milo as he ripped into a wolf’s body with his teeth covering his face in blood and bits of flesh. Umbra stopped channelling in surprise. “What are you doing, I thought you said you just wanted their souls.”

“How else am I going to get their souls?” Milo asked in confusion.

“Aren’t souls just some intangible thing?” Umbra asked as confused as Milo seemed to be.

“You truly are a child, No, they are not intangible, they sit near the heart. Only magical beings have them, daemons, dragons, mages, gods.” Milo said starting to rip gruesomely into the body again.

“Gods?” Umbra asked curiously.

“One of my great ancestors was bonded with a favoured that managed to kill a minor god, one of the only known to achieve such a feat. She got to feast on the soul, the memory is still passed through our lineage today.”

“Oh.” Umbra didn’t know gods could be killed.

Umbra finished channelling as day turned to night. Milo had finished digging through the carcasses and after cleaning himself, had fallen asleep in Umbra’s lap. Apithe was still out cold and the wolf pup slept on her chest. The blue girl’s wounds didn’t look as serious though and seemed to have stopped bleeding. Umbra still worried though and she watched Apithe through the night hoping for a change.

When night turned to day. Apithe started to stir and Umbra moved closer to the girl disturbing Milo, he broadcasted his displeasure by sinking his claws into Umbra’s leg. “Ow, get off me you silly cat.” Milo huffed in reply and moved. The wolf pup was lucid on Apithe’s chest and watched Umbra warily as she approached. “I won’t hurt you, just trying to help.” The wolf didn’t reply but it seemed pacified. Umbra hovered over Apithe and saw her startling red eyes open to the light blinking, and heard her groan. Umbra touched the wounded girl's arm comfortingly. Apithe turned her head and caught sight of Umbra a weak smile appeared on her face.

“You saved me,” Apithe managed in a croak.

“Just get some more rest Apithe, you need it,” Umbra said, relieved the other girl was ok. Apithe closed her eyes her weak smile still in place.

A few days later Apithe was mended to the point of relative normalcy, although she still complained of pain. Milo spent his time haughtily ignoring the wolf pup who constantly tried to force the sì cat into play. They were finally going to try to get off this odd world. Apithe thought she was strong enough to conjure an ice ladder that led up to the branch with the portal on it. Fortunately, the portal branch was low to the ground in comparison to the rest of the branches.

Umbra watch in awe, as Apithe’s magic, flowed out of her a white cloud that hardened into ice against the trunk of the tree creating a massive ladder. “I’m not quite sure how long I can hold something of this scale, so better get a move on.” Apithe said, frowning. It is better you rest inside my being, Umbra thought and pulled him into her like she had the first time. Apithe did the same with her daemon.

The ice of the ladder was cold, it turned Umbra’s hands numb making the climb precarious, to say the least, she lost her handhold a few times, only saved by wedging her booted feet into the small space between the tree and the ice ladder, it was painful and by the end of the climb she was exhausted. Apithe collapsed beside her on the wide tree branch, Umbra knew that if that had sucked for her it would’ve been way worse for Apithe. “You okay?” Umbra asked.

“Yeah I’m fine I think,” Apithe said. “Just hurts more than usual.” The laid there on the wood of the tree their soft breathing the only sound. Apithe broke the silence, “I know I’ve already thanked you a lot, I want to again.” Umbra tried to cut her off but Apithe just held up a finger, “Please.” Umbra stopped and fell silent, looking at the treetops far ahead. “You saved me from certain death, you didn’t have to, and considering how horrible I was to you I’m almost surprised you did, Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.” Apithe shifted and Umbra looked over, the blue girl was lying on her side facing Umbra, her red eyes intense.

“You saved me from a fate worse than death,” Umbra replied avoiding Apithe’s intense gaze. “I didn’t appreciate that enough; I was too caught up on what you had said.”

“And I’m sorry about that, Umbra I really am, I can’t control myself sometimes the magic rages in me and consumes me.” Apithe said, sorrow-filled voice causing Umbra to look at her again. Umbra could understand losing control over magic, maybe Apithe’s affected her differently. Apithe continued, “I broke your trust, I know, I’m just hoping that it will mend. You might be the only true friend I’ve had, and I’ve only known you for a few months, how weird is that.” Apithe said letting out a sad laugh. Umbra let out a laugh too.

“Definitely weird,” Umbra said, “but nice.” They lay there for a while and Umbra watched Apithe’s red eyes, the way her blue eyelids closed slowly over them and how her long black lashes caught the light. She was eventually broken from her trance by Milo prodding her to let him out, Umbra let out a sigh and let him take shape before her.

“Yeah Longclaw was getting antsy to be let out too.” Apithe said as she brought her wolf pup out as well. Umbra watched as Apithe’s pup bounded over to Milo, Umbra knew her companion enjoyed the attention even if he pretended to ignore it.

“We should probably get going,” Umbra said. Apithe nodded and they made their way to the portal, their daemons following after them, Longclaw, silly and energetic and Milo graceful and calm.