Sad Queen

“Sad Queen.”
 
Enessa didn’t reply. She sat on the bed, shoulders hunched, her face still hot from the anger she felt at her…well, she couldn’t think of them as anything else but family now.
 
“Hunt complete! Hunt success! Tasted much blood.”
 
Enessa reached out a hand mechanically and ruffled Ussi’s neck. “Half the hunt, Ussi darling. We’re only halfway there. And every minute we waste here sleeping is another minute Duncan could be killed.”
 
“Large gas man gone. Scared of Queen. Ran like piss down a tree.”
 
Enessa smiled, “yes he did. I just hope he didn’t run back to the lodge. I hope Duncan will be ok.”
 
Ussi seemed to nod, although the causal observer may note that’s not something cats often do. “Need reward.”
 
“No Ussi, it’s not the reward.” Enessa’s cheeks grew hot again. “When you are in trouble and nobody comes for you, there isn’t a worse feeling in the world. To be abandoned, to be alone.”
 
Ussi nuzzled Enessa’s leg, saying nothing. For a while, they sat like that before Ussi let out a giant yawn.
 
“We need to get you cleaned up,” Enessa said, picking a rag out of her pack. She dipped it gently in Ussi’s water bowl and more gently wiped the blood from Ussi’s wounds. Ussi clamped his mouth together, determined not to whimper, just as he had seen Enessa do moments before.
 
“Queen hurt, too.”
 
“Yes, it was a tough fight. Even Sergeant Boom fell for a time.” Enessa frowned. “But Rafi did not, that was curious. Maybe he’s learning something about dodging from Sabali.”
 
Ussi purred. “Cat Man moves like vines in breeze.”
 
Enessa just smiled and shook her head. “He’s like something, alright.”
 
With Ussi’s wounds healed, Enessa motioned the panther across to his makeshift bed, made out of the covers of her own bed, and began the process of taking off her armour and tunic. Having nothing else, she put her cloak back on afterwards and lay down, pulling the hood over her head. The cloak would need washing too, but there wasn’t any time right now. The wound, while mostly sealed, ached badly from the bruising, and she instinctively put a hand to her chest, where it found the clasp. Her family crest. And just like that, her thoughts were once more with her home. Her loss. Her vow not to let any of it happen again.
 
She knew in the morning she would be fit to fight once more. She just hoped Lord Duncan would be too.
 
“Yet again,” she whispered to herself, although Ussi picked up his head at the sound of his mistress’s voice, “we lay here and wait. I hope Arin and Ceri’s gods give them some comfort tonight.”
 
“Meow?”
 
“And Cat God, of course,” Enessa replied, no trace of anything but sincerity in her voice. “I wonder if we’ll learn their name some day.”
 
“Meow.”
 
With the spell clearly having worn off, Enessa turned to the wall with a sigh. “If another family is torn apart because nobody came to help then I swear, Ussi…well, I don’t know what I swear. But if that happens, I won’t rest until the entire Myriad lies dead at my feet. And just like back home, I’ll clearly have to do that without a so-called god so much as blinking in my direction.”
 
Ussi remained quiet, and soon Enessa lay still, while Ussi watched. When her breathing told him that his mistress was asleep, he thought a small prayer to Cat God for her, and suppressed the whimper that was framing on his tongue, laying his own head down.