tragic, isn't it? ; power discovery

[ninazu]

BURN
BRIGHT

// in her serval body

Ninazu had been enjoying a meditation when the screaming child broke her serenity. The calm river’s surface erupted into splashing as Zuriela thrashed for air. Even the water lapping Ninazu’s paws at the riverbank rippled with the fox’s struggle to live.

The bioluminescent serval stood up. But one eyelid twitched. She was much better at taking lives than saving them, and it almost irritated her that she wasn’t called upon to use her powers as she wanted. Yet, what was she supposed to do? Allow a child to drown because she stubbornly refused to do anything that wasn’t violence? That was worse than the Pittians she loathed.

Jumping into the water, the leggy feline swam diagonally with the river’s current to the flailing child. The chill seeped into her short fur and four ears. This body wasn’t made for the cold and the wet. As much as she could force herself to adapt from the jungle to the boreal forests, she knew she couldn’t willpower her way to swimming with the child back to shore.

So she did the next best thing. Like always, she would use her magic to compensate for her body’s weakness.

Ninazu attempted to grab the scruff of Zuriela’s neck to keep her stable. Then, she used her earth elemental power to raise the ground beneath her. First she felt the mud against her paws. Then it lifted her above the surface of the river, a momentary hill to rest on.

Ninazu didn’t know how to get the child off the temporary sanctuary back onto dry land, but hopefully someone else would show up. Then she could swim back without having to chance both of their lives to her lacking swimming skills.

© MADI