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CHAPTER 9

The wolfess groaned weakly as she opened her eyes. Golden light blinding her, making her head throb. Though there was no pain. Sitting up, she saw nothing but gray smoke surrounding her. "Keelya, Ferain!" Sakari called, her voice echoing in the endless space. She started to panic when she didn't hear anything in return. She stood up on wobbling legs, limping through the smoke to look for them.

Only after a dozen paces, her foot caught on a piece of torn fabric. She fell with a heavy grunt, the smoke billowing away and clearing a good sized bit of ground around her. Looking on what had tangled up her paw, she saw Keelya's cape wrapped around her. "Oh gods, Keelya!" She barked and lifted the girl up. She couldn't feel her chest rising with breath nor the most subtle beating of her heart. "Oh Keelya..." She breathed out and began to shudder as fear and sadness began to take hold of her.

There was a sudden cry of pain and fear from within the smoke. Just to the left, Ferain sat up right in a flash, his breath coming in quick, short pants. "S-Sakari!?" he gave a strangled mew as he looked her direction. "Wh-What happened?" He tried to stand up only to fall back onto his tail. She looked over his form and saw that he wore rags no better than the day they'd met. Meeting eyes, she saw that his once amber eyes had became glassy and stared blankly at her.

She shuddered and looked down at Keelya. "I don't...I don't know. Zerataph attacked us...and that's....that's all I remember."

The golden lights began to descend and clear the smoke, lighting up the void the three sat in. Keelya groaned and opened her eyes, her blue eyes had gained the same glassy look. She shivered in Sakari's arms as the lights began to take on the forms of three individuals. As the light faded, she gasped sharply. "Momma!" She yipped and sprang out of Sakari's arms, the vixen wrapping her arms tightly around the elderly wolfess' middle.

Yulya smiled and held her daughter in return, gently brushing her paw over the vixen's hair. Standing next to the wolfess was large bodied crocodile, his hands wrapped around his staff, a broad grin on his muzzle. And to her other side stood Sakari's father.

Sakari gasped and felt a cold grip tighten around her heart. "F-Father? What is this?" She asked and stood up as she walked over to the wolf.

"Sakari..." He said quietly. "You've passed. This is a...holding room for the spirits." The wolf stepped forward.

"Spirits? Passed?" Ferain asked and shook his head. "You mean that Zerataph's blast killed us?"

"Bingo, Ferain. The dragons created an attack so strong that not even Sakari's steel could stop it, even if what you experienced were...aftershocks." Nempus whispered hoarsely.

"N-No there's got to be some mistake. Zerataph, he has to be stopped. Th-There's got to be something that you can do!" She said quickly, looking between the three elders in front of her.

"I'm sorry dear. You've finished your journey...As soon as it begun, sure. But that's the way the gods have...planned it." Yulya said as she held her sniffling daughter close.

Sakari hunger her head, her body starting to tremble. "I - please. There's...got to be some way. I have to stop him; my brother." She lifted her head to look at her father. "There - It has to be me..." She whispered again.

"Sakari. You don't have to continue to fight. You did what you could. But sometimes even your best isn't enough." Sakari's father said quietly and reached forward to place a paw on her shoulder.

She pulled back and shook her head violently, tears starting to soak the fur under her eyes. "I do. There's...there's plenty more I could do." She barked. "What am I supposed to do? Pass with out even trying? Zerataph can be stopped, I can't just leave the world to be destroyed by him..." she breathed and shuddered. "There's too much I haven't done. So much left to experience." She whispered and wiped her eyes with a whimper.

The three looked at each other for a short moment before nodding as the lights above them grew bright once more. "There is one way we can return you..." The male wolf said softly.

"R-Really? Please, do it" She said quickly, her tail flailing back and forth behind her.

"I won't leave you to fight him alone, Sakari. I won't stand by while you fight for your life again. I'll go with." Ferain stepped up beside her, his round ears sticking out to the side.

"Very well, you three have our blessing." Nempus smiled.

The vixen shook her head against her mother's chest. "I-I'm not going..." she whispered.

Ferain and Sakari blinked in surprise. "W-Why Keelya. We need you." Ferain spoke quickly and flicked his long tail around behind him.

"Because...Ferain." She paused and looked up at Yulya. "Because I want to be with my family. This - This is the only way I can be with my mother and father again." She struggled to stifle her sobs that came to her muzzle. "I-I'm sorry Ferain, Sakari."

The mountain lion lowered his head for a second before nodding. "I understand. Good luck, Keelya. "He raised his head and smiled softly.

"Believe in yourselves, and when you need strength. Turn to your ancestors." Yulya smiled and raised her staff, a deep blue light spilling over them, making their forms glow. Nempus and Sakari's father lifted their own staff and cane, a red and green light mingled with the blue to create a rippling effect; the two dancing over Ferain and Sakari. The three lights grew brighter quickly and forced their eyes to shut. The sounds of roars and laughter began to grow in strength once more. Deafening compared to the silent gray they'd just been in.

Sakari coughed violent as she felt as if she just had the wind knocked out of her, blood spattering the ground as she rolled onto her side. The wolf growled softly as she stood, tattered armour hanging from her shoulders.

Zerataph's laughter ceased immediately. "No" He growled sharply. "No, that's impossible. You should be dead!"

Sakari grinned and staggered forward slowly. "I was. But I was also given a second chance to stop you." Slowly her limps grew into full steps before becoming a quick run. As she ran faster, closing the distance between the two, she found running on her two legs becoming awkward. Falling forward, she put her hands out to catch her and found that they had grown to be more like paws. Sakari continued to run forward, galloping as her body was slowly transformed into a giant feral wolf.

Her whole body had grown almost three meters tall at the shoulders and four meters from her nose to the tip of her tail. The dirty red fur had become thicker and more course, making the feral look much more extreme. Her armour had changed with her, shifting around and repairing to fit her feral body better. The fully changed wolfess kicked off of the ground hard, launching herself at her brother, claws and fang bared.

With a quick motion of his hand, the gold dragon head darted in between them. She sunk her teeth into the back of the dragon's neck, her fangs penetrating the golden scales with surprisng ease. The dragon roared in pain and shook it's head around violently and threw Sakari to the ground with a sharp yelp, blood tickling down its neck and followed the jaw line to drip from the chin.

Before Sakari could move from underneath the dragon, she felt a heavy claw pin her, squeezing her body and making it hard to breath. She struggled as best as she could under the strong paw, fear quickly filled her eyes as she watched the pale green wolf head pull back before darting forward, maw open.

Her eyes flashed shut, expecting the sharp pain of its fangs tearing into her. That sensation never came. Instead her ears were filled with the sound of a tremendous roar of pain that was soon cut short and replaced with a hoarse choking sound. The heavy preasure on her body was lifted, allowing her to breath once more.

Sakari looked up at the dragon, seeing Ferain clinging to the green dragon's neck, his head whipping around in a last attempt to shake him free. Only when it became lip and hung from the shoulder did Ferain jump off, avoiding another dragon trying to catch him in midair. The two meter high cougar landing next to her, his snake like tail lashing around. "Are you okay?" He asked quickly as Sakari stood once more.

"Y-Yeah I'm fine." She shouted in return before the two had to leap backwards to avoid an attack from the red dragon. The gold dragon quickly followed this attack in attempt to catch them as they landed on the ground. Sakari quickly lept strate up to land on the top of its head when the maws snapped at where she had just been. She dashed up its neck as it began to lift back up, her eyes locking onto Zerataph. Almost three-quarters of the way down the length of neck, she lept growled. "This ends now, Zerataph!" She barked as she flew towards him.

The dragon morph growled and shot the stump of an arm forward, black energy took the shape of a claw and yanked the wolf out of midair. "You got lucky once, sister." He hissed, his eyes had returned to the same pale silver color they'd been before, but a dark, malevolent light burning brightly in them. "But this time you're not going to find that luck again." He said and the claw started to squeeze her body quickly, the popping sound filled her ears as he began to break her body with the pressure.

She howled loudly as her body was squeezed, the air forced from her lungs, not allowing her much ability to even speak. "I-I Won't...Stop!" She managed as the pressure growing harder, choking off her air supply completely.

Ferain hung onto the golden dragon head as it whipped around. He glanced up and saw Sakari struggling in the air in Zerataph's grip. The puma clawed into the neck and started to climb, the red dragon's muzzle clamping down on the neck where Ferain had just been, causing the golden dragon's roars to be stifled as his neck was crushed under it's brother's bite. Ferain jumped up as the neck fell, leaping at Zerataph with his claws out. He two was snatched out of the air in the giant claw of energy.

Zerataph hissed sharply as he continued to squeeze both the feline and canine. "It's over. Both of you." He smirked as he watched their struggles grow weaker by the second.

Sakari's vission was beginning to fade as her body became lip. Dammit. This isn't happening...I... She thought as she began to slip into unconciousness. She hit the ground with a loud thud, followed by a second thump as Ferain fell to the ground beside her. The large feral wolf breathed in a deep breath before having a coughing fit as she tried to catch her breath. Lifting her head, she shook the tears that had formed in her eyes. With her vision returinging, Sakari saw a large feral fox holding onto Zerataph's right shoulder.

"Damn cur!" He spat and reached back and gripped her scruff and roughtly threw her down to the ground, the fox's fangs tearing his flesh and soaking him in blood.

The fox yelped sharply as she hit the ground, bouncing once before stopping in between Ferain and Sakari.

"Keelya!" Ferain cried as he stood up and jumped to the fox's side.

"Keelya?!" Sakari growled and stood up, her beaten body shaking as she fought against the pain. She stepped next to her and saw the deep blue eyes opening. "Oh gods, Keelya! Why are you - I thought that you were going to live with..." She was cut short as the fixen lifted her head. "I was - convinced. I mean I couldn't just stand by and watch my friends..." She looked away. "I-I'm sorry I almost left you.." She whispered as she shifted to stand up, Ferain helping her to stand.

"You didn't have to." He paused. "But...I'm glad you did." He said and gave her cheek a light lick.

She smiled and flicked her thick tail. "Thank you Ferain."

"No, Thank you, Keelya." Sakari interjected. "With out your help...We would have failed again." Sakari whispered, but smiled.

She gave a cocky grin and nodded. "Don't mention it. But what do you say we finish this?" She barked and sprang forward towards the dragon. Ferain was close on her tail, each going after the remaining heads. They both launched devistating attacks on their respective head. The cougar biting and clawing at the red dragon as it tried to snap at him. While Keelya evaded a blast of ice from the otter like water dragon.

Sakari's attention was brought back to Zerataph as he shouted out, the center-most dragon launching a large black and white ball of fire. She leapt out of the way as it met the ground and exploded as it had before, sending shrapnel in every direction. The rubble pelted her body, but didn't break her flesh. Sakari's growl was drowned out by the pained roars as the two remaining heads died off, dropping Ferain and Keelya to the ground.

With only the one remaining head left, the massive body of the dragon stumbled and fell on it's side, too weak to hold itself up any more. The right wing was raised slightly, showing that many of the feathers had fallen off, one of the few dropping off and shattering the second they hit the dragon's side. The black and white dragon's breaths grew lower and more laboured, each exhale causing a light plume of dirt to be kicked up. Once the dust settled, the three saw Zerataph's form on the dragon's head shake in fury. "No! This can't be. I'm the strongest in the world!" He hissed and jerked around on the dragon's head, causing the white and black dragon to growl weakly.

"You're wrong Zerataph. You're the weakest one." She flicked her tail as she lowered her front, the thick fur standing on end. "You have strength, but when you don't have anyone to fight by your side, strength means nothing!" The three began to run at him with surprising speed.

The black and white dragon opened it's maw to unleash one last beam of energy at them. They all kicked off of the ground, the beam shooting into the whirlwind wall that still held their battlefield aloft.

Ferain was the first to reach Zerataph, his fangs digging into his left arm and pulling it back to make the dragon vunerable. Keelya grabbed his shoulder again, her sharp teeth sinking into the same wounds she'd previously made.

Zerataph screamed over the plain as they dug deep into his flesh, his pale eye wide in fear as Sakari's form flew at him. Her teeth sunk into his neck. "S-Sakari" He chocked her name as she felt the wolfess held him.

She growled weakly, tears in her eyes as she heard him speak her name. Sakari closed her eyes as she closed her muzzle and crushed his neck with a sickening crunch.

The dragon gurgled one last breath, his eye fluttering shut, tears rolling down his cheek. They let go of him and his form fell limp on top of the feral dragon's head. A bright white light began to spiral in a sphere around the dragon, growing larger to comsume the entire field.

Sakari immediately felt all the energy drain from her body, making her lay on the stone floor, an odd coldness filling her whole body. She shuddered as if to try and stay warm. "FERAIN! KEELYA!" She shouted, though no noise filled the air, she closed her eyes tightly as the light grew brighter and colder all around her.