I saw red. When I realised that it was Jennifer lying there on the ground, my mind went blank save for the thought of getting to her. I wanted to protect her. I wanted to stop the bastards standing over her from inflicting anymore damage. But all that was secondary to just reaching her.

Several of the men closest turned around to face me, their bulky boots caked in mud from the soft ground. They stepped in front of me and the lead one, who had a bristly, weathered face glared at me menacingly.

“You’re one of those freaks too, huh, bitch? Want to end up like your little friend there?” the guy sneered. He towered over me, easily more than a head taller than me and twice as wide.

“You get the FUCK away from her,” I yelled furiously. I really had no idea what I could do, let alone what I would do. All I knew was that blinding fury inside me was boiling over and threatening to spill out. 

The man in front of me lunged forward and I let out an instinctive cry in fear. My knees shook and buckled as I threw my arms up to try and block the incoming blow but it never came. Instead the aggressor in front of me flew back several paces and stumbled on his companions. I could feel sparks flying around me and the fury inside me scalding hot. 

Heavy rain pelted down and lightning flashed brightly in the grim sky. The rest of the mob had turned their attention to me. But they were still blocking my path to Jennifer. I glared at them, seething with anger, daring them to come closer. I wanted to hurt them. I wanted to make them suffer and I could feel power burning within me, eager to make it happen. Instinct was the only thing I had to go on. I still didn’t really understand my ability at all, but moving my hands had sort of worked before. They splashed mud everywhere as their boots dragged on the grass, rain pelting down even stronger than before. I could feel my hair whipping my cheek and that strange energy flowing through me again, just like it had back at my hotel room.

Spreading my arms wide, I took a deep breath and brought my hands together. Thunder roared and clamored as my hands collided, and a furious wind seemed to come in from either side, pushing and staggering the enraged anti-emerged aggressors. A couple of them had crowbars or cricket bats with them, and began stomping menacingly towards me, their shoulders hunched forward aggressively, clearly fuming at my interruption of their regular thuggish service.

They leered at me. Their cruel eyes shone with a lust for violence and revenge. These men looked at me as though I was some kind of hideous creature, but apparently not threatening enough to make them back off.

“Leave me and my friend alone!” I cried through tears. I felt as though I was going to explode. I flung my arms out wide again, willing all my energy and all my anger and frustration and fear, to make these assholes go away. A huge arc of wind, glowing with a faint blue hue and crackling and buzzing, burst forth from me. Everything around me went flying, and my vision went white momentarily. 

I dashed forwards to the huddled brown ball on the ground, ignoring the mud splattering up over my legs, and flung myself over her. The rain continued to bucket down from on high, but it didn’t matter. I held onto Jennifer tightly and me tears ran down my cheeks. She was still breathing, and it looked like they hadn’t managed to draw blood. Everything else faded away and I just sat there, cradling Jennifer as well as I could in my lap.

The next thing I knew, Jennifer was getting lifted from my hands. I looked up in dismay to see a tall young man with a messy bun and scruffy facial hair.

“We need to get out of here, or they’ll bring more friends back with them.” 

I stared at him dimly, exhausted and pleading for help but without being able to respond. He hoisted Jennifer over his shoulder, trying to avoid being stabbed by the spines covering her back.

“Can you stand? We do actually need to move,” the guy asked me again, beginning to walk away with Jennifer. Still I just stared at him. The air seemed full of static and I couldn’t seem to respond, or move. I felt frozen, petrified by shock and fear. So I just sat there, my knees against the wet grass and mud. My eyes watching this tall person who seemed to want to save my friend.

He rolled his eyes and stormed back over to me, a little awkwardly because of the wounded girl he carried, and wrapped a hand around the back of my top. I didn’t have the energy left to process what was going on as my legs dragged against the sodden ground. I was barely aware of the heavy storm which still raged all around us.

I must have blacked out because the next thing I knew, I was in a car. Rain came down in a drizzle and the wipers squeaked to their own beat as the grey Melbourne streets passed by. I could feel my wet hair against the back of the seat that I was slumped in and blinked sluggishly. I rolled my head over to the other side of the seat, where they were met by the driver of this car. It was the same guy who had dragged me away from the park. Where was Jennifer though? My heart beat furiously, my slumber shaken off by panic as I looked around the car desperately.

To my immense relief, Jennifer was in the back seat. She lay there across the black leather cushion, curled up and breathing slowly, her ears twitching every so often. My face grew bright red as I realised I had panicked over nothing. The driver glanced over at me, one thick black eyebrow raised, before looking back at the road.

“Umm…” I broke the silence in an attempt to recover from my previous panic and embarrassment. “Where are we going?”

“There’s a little clinic at the uni. Your friend probably needs some attention.”

I nodded slowly. Help was good, probably? Jennifer definitely needed some decent medical attention.

“Aaaaand who are you?” I continued, trying to get a grip on the situation.

“I’m Jordan,” he responded simply, not taking his eyes off the road. “Looks like we’re about there now.”

‘There’ turned out to be a rather large collection of blue roofed tents which would have looked more at home during uni orientation than the makeshift first aid facilities they had been repurposed for. I was tired, and nervous, and caked with grass and mud still. Jordan carried Jennifer to one of the largest blue tents while I followed closely behind. There wasn’t anything for me to do but I still needed to feel close to Jennifer.

When we reached the tent, a woman with round glasses and a messy bun was bustling around trying to deal with several patients at once, though they mostly seemed to be resting on the beds that had been set up. She looked up as we approached her. Her eyes widened when she saw Jennifer and a pang of guilt shot through me.

“Oh my goodness, she looks awful. You had better bring her over here. Follow me.” The woman turned and marched off, clearly expecting us to follow. She entered a closed off tent and Jordan and I followed. Once inside she zipped and locked the entrance.

This room had just a single bed, and some sterile looking emergency lights that flooded everything in a slightly blue glow. Jordan laid Jennifer on the bed carefully, trying not to disturb her spines too much.

“Where did you manage to find this one, Jordan?” the woman asked in quite a soft, tired voice that still had an air of authority to it. Judging from the scenes outside I’m sure she had been working tirelessly. Jordan grimaced.

“This is Joan, by the way. She’s a pretty good doctor. Your friend will be okay,” he explained to me. I imagine I must have been wearing quite a confused expression on my face. I still felt entirely overwhelmed by everything. I just nodded blankly and then turned back to Joan, who was looking over Jennifer carefully. I felt a strong urge to shield and protect her, but I knew there was nothing I could do now.

Joan was examining Jennifer now, softly prodding to check for bruising or breakage or something. I tapped my heels nervously as I watched.

“You should probably leave, this isn’t strictly standard medical practice.” She hadn’t taken her eyes off my friend but I knew she was talking to me and to Jordan. I pursed my lips and pouted. I didn’t want anything getting between me and Jennifer. She was so warm and so kind. And I felt responsible for what had happened. I sat down on the concrete floor of the tent and glared up at Joan with defiance.

“I’m not leaving her,” I said simply, trying to leave no room for indecisiveness in my voice. 

The woman sighed. “Jordan, you know how this works, go and get your stubborn friend something to fight off the cold.” Jordan nodded and exited the tent. Joan made sure it was locked again after him and shot me a disapproving look. I folded my arms and met her gaze. Then all her attention was back on Jennifer, lying on the table, breathing softly but shakily. 

Joan took off the surgical gloves she had been wearing for her preliminary examination. Her eyes closed and she took a deep breath. Her hands were beginning to glow, a soft yellow which seemed to warm the cold tent. Keeping her eyes closed, she placed her hands on Jennifer's stomach. Little tendrils of light seemed to softly weave their way around her. Sometimes disappearing and reappearing in odd places. The threads of light seemed to speed up and grow stronger, though Joan remained still with her eyes closed. Eventually Jennifer let out a soft gasp and I jumped up, cautiously stepping closer to the bed she lay on. My nails dug into my palms as I watched, hoping she would be okay. Clearly this doctor was emerged but as for what she was actually doing I had no idea. Whatever it was, the tendrils of light seemed to be doing something because Jennifer was making more and more sound, and some colour returned to her soft dark cheeks.

Eventually the glow faded. I let out a long and shaky breath, and Joan sighed. She turned away and bent over a small table. Usually it would have held medical supplies but from the way she moved I suspected she was actually eating.

After a long pause, I ventured to speak again. 

“Is… is she going to be okay?” 

“Physically she should be fine after some rest, but whatever happened to her can’t have been pleasant for her mentally,” Joan replied matter-of-factly. I swallowed and kicked myself internally. 

“For now just help me move her out to the other tent. She needs rest, and probably someone to take care of her.” I nodded silently.

Soon Jennifer was lying on a bed under the larger tent roof, soft rain still pattering over us. She was breathing softly and I took her hand, clutching it between mine. My shoulders slumped and I could feel tears welling up again, but I had nothing left to cry with. Joan put a hand on my shoulder. She was brusque but she did seem to care at least.

“You should leave her to rest. She needs it now.” 

Again I just nodded, I didn’t know what to say and my mouth was dry. Slowly, reluctantly, I let go of Jennifer’s hand.

 

---

 

The rest of the emergency facilities looked every bit as hastily thrown together as what I had witnessed earlier, though now it was easier to take a closer look at them. Not that Jennifer was far from my mind, but Joan had firmly removed me from the tent. So now I needed to distract myself any way I could. There were a surprising amount of people in scrubs bustling to and fro between different tents, but even in their numbers, the frowns and scrunched brows said that they were still understaffed. 

As I paid more attention to my surroundings, it became apparent that there were cries and sobs coming from inside some of the tents. I moved my body in halting steps through the rain, closer to one of the tents. Reluctant but overwhelmingly curious to see more. The tent was poorly lit, and it took my eyes a moment to adjust as I softly dripped water onto the ground. 

There were rows of beds laid out, and nearly all of them were filled. People in various stages of pain and emergence lay on each, every one of them looking vulnerable and alone. Guilt and pain and anger twisted inside my stomach as I stood in the doorway. Most of the patients hadn’t noticed me, or at least didn’t acknowledge my presence. There was just one pair of eyes. Soft, yellow, glowing eyes that stared at me intently from beneath a blanket. 

“Hello,” I said softly as I approached the eyes. In response the eyes retreated further into the blanket. I squatted down beside the bed patiently. The poor person must be terrified, but they had also been curious, so I wanted to reach out.

“My name’s Mia, who are you?”

“L… Layla?” a timid voice replied. “Layla, I’m Layla,” the voice said with more conviction.

“Pleased to meet you, Layla,” I said as reassuringly as I could, though the rain and occasional flickers of lightning which lit up the entrance to the tent surely didn’t help. It seemed to have the desired effect though, as the eyes emerged once more from their cave, followed by a pale young face, and small, triangular ears which pricked up through her hair, twitching gently. I let out a breath I hadn’t realised I had been holding during our tentative exchange. 

“Was your hair always that colour?” Layla asked earnestly, breaking through my tension. I let out a giggle, it felt like such a breezy question after everything that had happened in the past few days. I sat on the floor as my laughter continued, a mixture between relief and sympathy and wonder swept over me as Layla looked at me intently with a curious look on her face. 

“Sorry,” I managed eventually, taking in air intently to steady myself. “No, my hair used to be brown until a couple of days ago.”

“Me too, or, well, I didn’t have cat ears or a tail before, either.” Layla shrugged.

“You have a tail? Can I see it?” I leapt up, mirroring the excitement in my voice. But the movement startled Layla and she ducked back under the covers with a skittish cry. Well that was foolish, Mia, way to scare the tiny catgirl away. 

“Layla? Sorry, I got carried away a little. I won’t do anything you don’t want me to, I promise.” Again those bright yellow eyes stared at me, barely blinking as they reflected the storm outside getting increasingly wild again.

Slowly the girl emerged from the blanket again, revealing more of herself this time. She was really small, and dressed in a blue hospital gown. From behind her, a bushy tail flicked up and down slowly, as if it had all the time in the world and a mind of its own. 

“Okay, you can touch it,” she said it softly, but earnestly. I swore to myself in that moment that I would never break a promise to this girl, despite how absurd it was for someone I had only just met. She was precious. My hand slowly ran through the thick, bushy hair of her tail. It felt surprisingly soft but with a lithe strength underneath. Layla let out a contented sigh as I continued, but when I looked up at her face again, her cheeks were bright red.

“What is it?” I asked with a smile, trying not to show how nervous or excited I was. I kept brushing her tail, and she let out another contented little sound.

“Well um… could you pat my head please?” She sounded so nervous, and so vulnerable. My heart basically melted for her all over again. I tried to hide how eager I was as I reached up with my other hand and began to scratch just behind her furry ears. She let herself sound out a little purring noise, throaty but with a side of satisfied comfort to it. As I petted, Layla curled herself happily into a ball on the bed in front of me, her eyes shut and a soft smile plastering her face. The sight was almost too much for me. It was so simple, so beautiful, and so pure. And yet the bandage peeking out of the neck of her gown and on her left wrist told a different story which pierced me right to the core.

The wind whipped up outside and heavy rain splattered down on the tent. In the dim light inside I let soft tears run down my cheeks while my hands rubbed away softly against Layla’s hair. Her delicate form curled into a contented ball. Inside my heart it felt like turmoil raged. Like a chaotic neoclassical track that ebbs and flows from delicate sensitivity to roiling chaos. I just stayed right there, marveling at the girl in front of me, and worrying about the girl who I hadn’t been able to protect properly.

“Mia,” said a voice from behind me. The spell was broken. Jordan was standing in the doorway, silhouetted against a storm that insisted on continuing seemingly indefinitely. I swallowed hard, my head suddenly full of all manner of fears and doubts about Jennifer. 

“What is it?” I replied softly, a hundred questions caught in my throat.

“You can see Jennifer now.” Flat, but cryptic. Please please please let it not be anything bad. Just tell me that she’s awake, that she’s okay. I just nodded as my fears and my anxieties swelled up even more, mirroring the storm outside.