Bery's paint brush danced along a blank canvas. Below her, the ridges of the mountain glowed warm in her blue eyes. The pointed fluffy ears on her head twitched in excitement. The bristles in her hand moved elegantly. They waved like the white strands of hair on her head.
The scenery stretched out for miles in front of her. In these moments, Bery became one with the paint brush. Her normally sensitive ears tuned out distant sounds that were unneeded. She only needed the melody of birds, serving as a good backdrop.
Her brush speckled the little creatures on the canvas. Each bird slowly came to life in the pasture, and the cat girl smiled. Her blue eyes sparkled with delight, and she hummed to herself.
"What you singing there, girly?" A gruff voice asked.
Bery flinched, the blue tips of her ears fluttering as she whipped around. She came face to face with a muscular man. Bruises and scars covered his body from head to toe, and he was clothed in leather armor. The man held a small dagger in his hand. Bery's eyes caught sight of even more of them.
Bandits! She realized with horror that she was surrounded. In all directions around the trail, they stood. She immediately knew from their demeanor what kind of people they were.
Bery stood from her seat as the man etched closer to her. "Don't come near me!" She realized that most of them were humans. A few beastkin made up their ranks, but they were majorly outnumbered. Bery grabbed towards her waist where there was a roundel dagger, usually for opening letters. She pointed the sharp tip towards them. "Don't come closer!"
The man grinned. It was the type of smile that Berry had seen numerous times. One that was meant to deceive, yet the bandit didn't waiver. He etched closer to her, coaxing her. "Don't be afraid, little kitten. We're good men. We just want to know what you're doing alone in these woods."
Bery stood still. She didn't let the fear show in her face. The pounding of her heart became background music. Her ears twitched, taking in each sound of their footsteps. One step closer, and I'll…
The man lunged forward when he got within range, but Bery was ready for him.
She leapt backwards gracefully, and slashed her mail-breaker directly onto his eye. She watched as the man grabbed at the wound and fell towards his hands and knees.
"You fucking bitch! I'll kill you!" He shouted, venom spewing from his throat. The man struggled desperately against his own pain and looked towards his comrades aggressively. "Don't just stand there! Fucking kill her!"
Bery stiffened and took off running down the nearby trail. She ran past several bandits who stood frozen in shock. They likely hadn't expected that Bery would act so meaningfully. However, this wasn't the first time someone had tried to claim the painter's life.
Deep below the mountain, there was a sprawling city where she called home. If I could just make it there!
Luckily for the cat kin, her lineage provided her with the dexterity needed to outrun the human pursuers. Unluckily, there weren't only humans among them, and Bery was no combatant.
As she leapt down the mountain, her repeated jumps started taking their toll. Her thighs burned hot, the tail behind her maintaining her balance. Each breath sent heat into her lungs. They were on fire, and it didn't help that the altitude made it worse. Each heave made her lungs feel like they'd rupture. The rapid pounding of her heart was like a volcano facing an eruption.
A hard hit to Bery's side sent her spiraling. She tumbled through the weeds, scraping her delicate skin against thick bramble bushes and landed hard on her back, crushing her tail in the process. Air pushed its way out of her lungs. Pain seeped into her bones and core. Her white tail with a small blue tip tingled in agony. A shrill screech left her throat.
"Shut up!" A wolfkin shouted above her. He planted his knees towards her sides, and his large fist hammered towards Bery's mouth.
The taste of raw iron spread around the cat girl's taste buds. She'd bitten her tongue and blood seeped through her teeth. Strange colors danced in the corners of her vision, and more pain rattled around in her head. Tears filled her eyes, forming a blurry layer over the scene. However, she managed to spot the wolf's hand rearing back again.
Bery's head dodged just in time to avoid another punch. A yelp came from the wolf's throat, his fist colliding hard with the ground. The cat girl didn't wait for him to try again. Bery's teeth bit down on the wolf's arms, her canines digging into his flesh.
A howl of pain left the wolf's throat, and he finally reached for the dagger on his side with his free hand.
"Die!" He shouted.
Bery had heard of this superstition before. It was believed that before your death, time would slow down. The gods would give you seconds to grieve your own life. Before Bery's eyes, this enigma manifested. Time became slower.
She watched the dagger heading straight towards her throat in horror. Soon, the life essence inside of her would paint the nearby shrubs. The bandits would steal all of her belongings. They would desecrate her body, and she'd die meaningless. At least my paintings will live on.
Bery closed her eyes.
But the dagger never connected. The roar of something different echoed. A rumbling shook the earth.
Bery hesitantly opened up her pretty blue eyes. Only, she wished she'd have kept them closed. The arm she'd bitten was freed from its host. Above her loomed a massive snout of a creature many times her size, and its teeth crunched down on bones.
The cat's eyes widened as the creature spit out the wolf. Bery screamed and threw the wolf's arm from her mouth.
Nearby, the bandits all stood in the clearing with shock painted on their faces.
"Dragon!" One of them shouted. He tried to run, but his efforts were futile.
A large red tail swept low and collided with his body. Everyone could hear the sickening crack of skeletal fragments. He died the instant the tail met his frame, yet his body was forced into the air. It flew like one of the many birds of the mountain, until it splattered against a tree. The impact was so heavy that visceral red liquid and guts sprayed against the ground. The showing of the dragon's strength was unbelievable.
Bery had heard before that dragons were the top of the food chain. She'd known for a while that sightings of them were incredibly rare. Many scholars could have gone their whole lives seeking one and never find them. It was always Bery's dream that she could paint one of the creatures at some point, yet now, she had no wish to paint it. Her body shivered in fear. She only wished to be back home, never to return to the wilderness again.
Another bandit brandished an iron sword. The human from before, Bery realized.
He charged towards the great red beast with a war cry.
Bery watched and swore that she saw a smirk come over the dragon's face. Despite everything that the man had done in the past and despite what he'd tried to do to her, Bery wanted to call out to him. You can't!
A gigantic and adroit red arm swept down. Bery's eyes could hardly follow the enormous clawed hand, but the results were unavoidable.
The dragon's claw cleaved through the iron sword and continued through the bandit's body. It split his frame in two pieces at his gut. The organs in his stomach ruptured, and the two halves of him fell limply.
"It burns!" He screamed, still alive somehow.
Tears filled Bery's eyes while she watched everything unfold. The man's life was cruelly snuffed from him in the next action. The large front leg of the creature merely stepped on him, crushing him into the ground, and shaking the earth.
No more…
Bery's sobs hung in her throat. More blood shed continued.
Three bandits tried to run at the same time, but their escape was stopped by a blazing heat shooting from the dragon's throat. An explosion of fire cascaded towards them, and they were consumed by a raging inferno. Their bodies turned to ashes, and the ground melted into a hole beneath them
Bery's cries had become pleading and no longer only in her head. "No more…"
But they fell on deaf ears. One by one, each bandit was culled from the face of the planet. Their screams sent shivers into Bery's spine. Their death throes made her wish that everything would stop. That she would wake up and this would all be a bad dream.
Except nothing like that came. Only death and despair remained for the bandits, and as the last one breathed his final breath, the dragon turned its attention towards Bery.
The large snout came face to face with the cat.
Bery felt warm liquid pool between her legs, and her dizziness finally caught up with her. She fainted onto the dirt in her own urine.