With Gum, Amari, and a number rangers working together, the refugees had no chance. It was a slaughter, they were defenceless and the way they were torn apart was nothing short of brutal. The encroaching bipedal lions didn’t bother Amari nor Gum, once the rangers let them through they laid waste to the catfolk that fled and stormed onward toward Akashima.

The two now rode on a single horse, with Amari taking the lead as they headed back toward the capitol. Leaving the ashen remains of a fire and battle behind them. Gum had his wrinkled hands wrapped around Amari’s waist and she could feel his breath on the back of her neck, it was a damn inconvenience that he couldn’t ride his own horse. It wasn’t hard.

“Why are you still eating that?” Gum asked from behind Amari, his tone audibly disturbed.

Amari shrugged as she bit into the crispy haunch that once belonged to one of the tiny cat refugees. “Honestly, they don’t taste that bad, kinda wish I had more.” She offered Gum the piece she had. “You should try.” He held up his hand and politely declined.

“Red, remind me not to get on your bad side.”

Amari shrugged, she didn’t care what the old man thought of her, they had a mission to do, and they succeeded. Akashima would be invaded and if all went according to the senator's plans it would eventually fall under the Corone Government rather than remaining a sovereign nation.

“Your hands are blackened…“ Gum said as he gestured to her hand with a pointed finger. Amari glanced down at it, he was right. The signs of her corruption had gone beyond that of tiny fractures across her skin, her fingers were entirely black and it was encroaching onto her hands. “Ah. That.” Amari replied, dropping the last of the cat haunch to the floor. “Ya see, my race is the Ar’Tuel, I don’t have a full understanding of what I am yet but it’s been made clear that any negative action I take, anything that results in death causes… well, some form of corruption I guess.”


She could feel Gum tighten his hold around her waist, his tone shifted to one of concern. “Why do those things Red?”

His question caught her off guard, sure she had heard similar statements before but none that were so straightforward. “If I don’t, who would?” Amari asked. “I’m not the smartest person around, but it was clear even to me you were struggling with this mission. I figure I’d take the brunt of it, I have no personal attachment to anything, so it’d have less of an impact on me.” She offered Gum an unseen smirk, “Could say I did it for you, or you could just say I did it for the gold, or for the hell of it. Its up to interpretation.”

Amari felt Gum’s head press against the back of her neck and it took all her willpower not to have him off of her then and there. She hated her personal space being encroached upon and this old man was all up in it. “And you healing me, was that for the gold too?”

She felt him lift his head once more and she breathed a sigh of relief. “Something like that, although if you keep up with the touchy feely crap I’ll stab it again.”

The two would continue on to meet the Senator, who’d congratulate them on their work, pay them with money stained in the blood of the innocent and they’d part ways. Amari wasn’t sure if they’d meet again, she didn’t care, but it was safe to assume that they parted ways on somewhat amicable terms despite the macabre circumstances.