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She pursued them again, determined to get to the bottom of this.

It evaded her attack as neatly as it could, but she pursued, hooves lashing out again.

All her attacks kept nearly missing. She snarled fury, taking another blow, and kicking out with force.

The cultist howled in pain and stumbled away, the rest of its brethren dispersing as well, and Edge grinned, licking the blood from her ankles. That would show them.

Now, for the the kinslayer.

"Savager?" she called, but the mist was silent. She called again, louder this time, worry creeping into her shoulders. Surely the cultists hadn't claimed him - he was stronger than that, and indeed her third call was answered, but with a shriek.

She ran towards it, galloping blindly through the mist, Savager's shrieks growing louder, as well as another's voice.

"No, please, stop! Stop! We need that for the ritual!" The acha, blue backed, black-bellied, and orange striped wailed, kicking and dancing around a mass of blood and white fur. The heart of the fallen kin. Savager, shrieking fury, was flying at the heart, only to be diverted by flying hooves and horns.

"Monster," Edge snarled, and Savager backed away to let her through, and the acha looked up, bleeding from Savager's attacks. His eyes, black and soulless, met her golden ones and suddenly she found herself frozen in place.

"Necessary." The acha intoned, flashing a grin of teeth too white and too sharp to belong to any kin on this earth.

"Necessary." The mist echoed, and suddenly she was surrounded. The cultists again, eyes aglow.

And to her horror, the acha, in the middle of the circle of eyes, devoured the heart, munching on it as if it were a foxbun's carcass. And when the heart was gone and his wicked smile stained red, he looked up at her with one soulless black eye, and one glowing brilliant white.

"It takes two hearts to become a cultist," he cackled, and the kin closed in on her as she screamed and Savager shrieked, over and over and-

Sunlight. Bright sunlight. She winced back from it, eyes burning, ears ringing, and Savager gave one last shriek for good measure before giving her an insistent n**. It was past time for breakfast, and in the throes of her nightmare, she'd slept almost till noon.