Dying, I have to add, isn't very fun.

It growled.

I stared at the animal trap on the ground and fervently hoped that a strong animal rest inside.

Maybe I could bind a grizzly bear to my soul, or maybe even a lion. The possibilities flickered through my mind like butterfly mating season.

Colours swirled and time echoed in upon itself. Suddenly an unfathomable void cut into my imaginings like some stepping onto thin ice.

My thoughts shattered and I eyed the back cage in thought. The intense will power of the animal inside the cage shook me to my very core.

It almost felt like death intent. The pressure of its golden eyes through the thin gaps of the thick bars was unbearable and yet I stood, locked, staring at it.

Reaching a shaky hand over, I prepared myself to be ready with the binding ritual spell. With a quick flick of the latch I flipped opened the cage door and began to recite the unforgettable enchantment. At the back of the cage something buckled and the whole metal container rocked.

Its resistance was so strong that I was sent reeling backwards. Before I hit the ground face-first the last magic word in our binding escaped my mouth. The animal inside the cage growled and against my better morals I growled as well. The rumbled echoed inside my skull as I slowly and achingly pulled myself off the ground.

The amazing power of this animal was more than anything I had ever felt before. Even practice bindings with the Masters’ familiars hadn’t been this strong. I closed my eyes and muttered the commandment words, “Come forth.”

The sound of slow padded footsteps on the bottom of the wooden cage greeted my command.

Thump, thump, thump.

The joy I felt overshadowed my newly bound familiar’s fear and anger, those I felt with an extra edge. Now we were bound, we were bound for life. Then as the creature stepped towards me and into the light for the first time, my mouth dropped open wide enough to fit several of the logs sitting around me into it.

The animal in front of me was not what I had imagined. Far from it. I couldn’t believe what I had just bound myself to. For sitting there not one metre away from me was a bunny.

A fluffy pure white bunny with glinting gold eyes and a black star shape on its forehead.

I almost cried.

This was why the Masters’ always told us to look before you leap. I had just life-bound myself to a ridiculously weak creature. I would be the butt of every joke for the rest of my life.

I weakly muttered some more commandments, “Follow, soul-partner.”

Then turning, I began to walk back to the ridicule, wherever it was. Did I mention I was lost? I could imagine some of the conversations now.

“Hey Az, says Chris, I soul bound to a liger! He smiles triumphantly, what did you soul bind to? I put forward the bunny, Chris blinks then starts to laugh, WEAKLING!”

Shaking my head in annoyance I noticed that there was no animal trailing behind me, “Soul partner?”

No answer was forthcoming. Of course, animals didn’t talk, what did I expect? I closed my eyes and pictured the invisible binding between our souls.

I nearly recoiled in shock. The bind that held our souls together was wavering! Like it was too weak to even bind the bunny!

“Az, where’s your bunny? Chris asks with a sneer. I answer with a shrug, Oh well, I couldn't control it. Chris laughs coldly, WEAKLING!”

Sometimes I wonder if Chris is really my mate, If I can imagine such horrible things for him to do, maybe not. Soul-binds were only meant to weaken in 1 month not 5 minutes. My frustration grew to anger. Was I actually so weak I couldn’t handle my soul-partner? And a bunny at that?

Drawing every ounce of energy and will power, I tackled the binding mentally and through the electric pain of touching it yelled the renewment binding. Letting go mentally actually harder than gripping onto it, my hand refused to release the now complete bind.

Finally I managed to pry my fingers loose and opened my eyes.

The bunny sat before me, gazing straight into my eyes like I wasn’t actually worth his attention. It looked almost smug.

“I can’t believe I was caught by a leveret.”

I froze, now I wasn’t completely sure about this, but I was pretty confident that ANIMALS couldn’t talk.

Dazzled I locked eyes with golden ones and once again my mouth fell open.

“And an idiot at that! Why are the Gods’ so cruel?”

My hand pointed itself to the rabbit, a finger set and aimed directly at its black star.

Embarrassingly, the rabbit was correct, I blurted/mumbled the only thing that popped into mind, “You can’t talk!”

The rabbit bristled its fur and narrowed its pointed gaze at me, “Have I not spoken already, dull-wit?”

One of its ears twitched as it spoke, which was when I realised it wasn’t actually verbally talking. Mind telepathy!

Only magic beasts of levels unimaginable could even skim this skill and here was this rabbit doing it like he owned the place!

It was clear I was out of depth in this tide. I should’ve just stayed in the shallows, but now that the rip had strongly taken a grip of me, I just prayed I would end up somewhere at least the little bit safe. I hated going along with the flow, and I fought the urge to throw myself on the dagger resting reassuringly against my left hip.

“Suicidal already? My death intent is stronger than I had anticipated.” The rabbit laughed mentally and I watched as its body shook to match.

“Its not you, its me.”

I wondered, why I had said this, of course, after I said it, which was obviously WAY too late.

“Well, DUH, its you, you little ‘tard. I should eat you where you stand.”

Eat? I could’ve sworn he said eat. Maybe I was hearing things . . .

“Did you say-”

“Eat? Yes, I was hungry and you look the tempting morsel.”

Morsel, eat . . . tempting?

What the hell was this rabbit?

It shouldn’t even be talking, let alone eating me! It took one hop forward and believe me, it was the most terrifying experience of my life. Never again did I want to be approached by such a fearsome hop as long as I shall live. Never, let’s be clear, never ever, EVER, okay?

“Scared?”

I actually squeaked back, “No.”

The tiny, small thing sitting just 1 metre away exuded such a strong black will power from itself that it was visible without viewing the ethereal world. Its strength so exponential that the other world could not contain it and it was leaking into ours.

My heart all but leapt out of my throat. I was scared for my life. So goddamned scared that I swear I was shaking in my boots.

This is what happens when you don’t hand catch your soul partner. It ends up eating you. I’d think I’d jot that down for future amateurs if I ever lived, which wasn’t likely. For a second it didn’t seem fair, and then the second afterwards I knew that this wasn’t fair. This wasn’t justice, this wasn’t fair. This wasn’t justice; this was just a cocky rabbit trying to scare away a potentially weak soul partner. Oh, I would show this bunny my real power. It wouldn’t underestimate me again.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, which activated my ethereal vision. The sudden force of the rabbits will consumed my own and I struggled for dominance of my OWN soul. This is the part where most people give up or so I’m told. Fight for control over your own soul is actually more exhausting than anyone can imagine. At first my breath left me, then sweat all but flooded out in waves out of every single pore. I felt like I was drowning. Last this struggle was bordering on the brink-of-dying painful.

Every single tug was like an electric shock reverberating through my body. To wrap it all up neatly in a bow the tiny creature, almost smiling at me, was winning.

I hated myself then. Hated the laziness for not hand-catching a beast. Hated my own weakness. Despised my idiocy and most of all, had nothing but contempt for my being, my own self, my inner core.

The emotion was so intense that it sent tendrils of fiery red fury into the black will power consuming my soul and, like a dart through a plane of glass, it shattered. For a second as the blackness receded I was shocked, then: euphoria.

It had never felt so good to have a soul. I wanted to dance, but as I smiled I realised it had taken every ounce of power from deep, deep, deep inside my reserves and that even breathing was becoming too difficult.

My lungs were collapsing upon themselves. I fell in one fluid motion, like a love struck girl in a play swooning, except that this was actually serious. Perhaps It was the dangerously high amount of loss energy, or maybe just the state of mind before death, but I could have sworn on my life or what little I had left, that the rabbit transformed into a human and caught me.

But of course that was impossible . . . right?

Dying, I have to add, isn’t very fun.

For awhile everything goes fuzzy like someone’s put this film of water over your eyes, then the pain that you feel to know you’re alive disappears – gone, zilch – and last you stop breathing. And that is the worst of them all, when you stop breathing and you know you should be – it’s all over.

The thing that you should crave for during these excruciating moments is death, or I think any normal person would.

Me?

I was thinking of a way to come back to life and kill that wretched bunny.

Perhaps that’s what kept me alive. A purpose, a need – something to drive me away from the pure light and back into that filthy unclean darkness that was life.

Something my master said came to me, then and there, like a whisper on the wind, “There is always a choice.”

And there was.

Today I really wasn’t in the mood to die. Maybe tomorrow.

With the last thought I was jolted back to life. The first thing I felt was anger, cold hard furious anger. Why?

The rabbit was sitting directly on my chest looking very comfortable on what could have possibly been my death bed. I glared at it and all the goddamn problems it had caused me. I almost reached my hands to its neck and strangled it, but remembered better. It also probably didn’t help that I was paralysed.

Now that we were bound, unless one of us was to consume the other’s energy, like this terrible thing had nearly succeeded in, if one of us died – we both died. That was the nature of the bindment. To make two energies equal 1 resulted like a times table; 1X1=1, and if you were to take 1 it would equal 0.

At least now we shared energies. Energy. Something I felt greatly lacking in, hell, I couldn’t even move . . .

Paranoia set in and I closed my eyes to view our bind. My paranoia was not in fact paranoia. Our binding was once again wavering. I let out a sigh, which wasn’t really a sigh; because the bunny was squashing me and my lungs couldn’t get a decent amount of air in.

For a cute, fluffy, little terrifying thing this thing weighed a tonne!

Plucking thoughts at random I managed to string together something that resembled the renewment spell and all but spat them at the bunny. When I finished and was satisfied with the results I opened my eyes, exiting ethereal vision, and locked glares with the rabbit.

“My name is Arrow, yours is?”

You’d think after having my soul nearly consumed I wouldn’t be shocked by something I’ve already seen.

Well, think again.

I nearly screamed. A talking animal? Oh, yeah . . . right, mind telepathy.

“Azrael.” I muttered back. Our positions didn’t really give me the power to look down at arrow and talk to him like one would usually talk to an animal. If anything Arrow, from his higher level looked more like the master.

I frowned; this whole partnership was feeling rather one-sided. Suddenly something inside my head clicked.

The rabbit was sucking my energy dry, we weren’t both putting amounts in, and I was putting double what I should’ve. Double would have been enough for one life, but for two . . . I was putting double the amount forward at twice the rate.

Which basically meant instead of sustaining us as a whole, I was putting energy forth for 1- my energy, 2- his energy, 3-his life, 4- my life. This was insane. Arrow smiled down at me and I swear I saw him snigger, “Not as dumb as I thought.”

“What were you hoping to succeed in doing?” I asked biting my tongue to keep form yelling at him.

“Hoping? I was succeeding until you woke up.” Was the melodious, but obviously male voice’s reply.

“You were going to suck me dry?” I asked, as this was my only guess.

“No, you fool. Killing you would result in, well, me dying,” Oh, yeah, forgot about that rule, I think the score was about Azrael-0, Arrow-1,000,000, “No, I was going to suck you dry enough so I could consume your soul without resistance.”

Well, I have to admit that really didn’t change my opinion. I was still going to die.

“Why?” after saying this I pondered over the reason that Arrow needed a reason. Wasn’t it enough that he was pure evil?

“Since I have the tiniest amount of respect for your ability to fight off a stronger emotion than fear I will tell you.”

He stopped talking. An awkward silence ensued. I waited. He waited. I waited more, obscenities resting on the edge of my tongue. He waited longer, his calm self never showing an ounce of impatience. I think it was about an hour after ha had stopped talking that I cracked, but really, it felt like forever.

“Well, bloody go on then!” I snapped.

I mean, come on, I had a right to. This thing had attempted to and was still attempting to consume my soul.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

“I nearly didn’t.”

He placed a soft furry paw and tapped it as if consoling me, “Don’t kid yourself.”

I gritted my teeth and listened. He bent his little head down right next to my ear and whispered, but without actually talking, “I was hungry.”

Okay.

Yeah.

Well.

Hmmm.

Ummm . . .

“What?” Was the next thought.

“I was peckish for soul. You see, I eat souls.”

He licked the side of me face. Yes, I think I did see. His answer explained so much and yet . . . so little.

“What the hell are you?” The venom in my voice surprised even me.

He hesitated, and then smiled, “A rabbit.”

“Liar,” I retorted, well, because it was the only thing I could say which was definite about him, well that and, “You’re evil!”

This made him pause, as if thinking, his golden eyes glinting and he chuckled, “Maybe I am.”

“Azrael?” a voice sounded, cutting through the tension.

Chris? Oh, thank the Gods! Never was I so happy to hear his voice!

“I’m over here!” I yelled.

“You’ll never believe what I caught!” his voice echoed over to me from somewhere on my right.

I groaned I could just imagine, “What?”

“A liger! Can you believe it?” the sound of his voice getting louder with each passing second.

Yes, yes I could.

“What did you bind to?”

A snap next to my head made me swivel the most I could move to look a him. And there Chris was, in his awe-inspiring glory. Blonde hair, blue eyes and a body made of nothing but muscle. Arrow shot him a glance and then chuckled, “Weakling.”

If I could’ve without looking really strange I would’ve gasped. Weakling I would have ever associated with Chris. He walked over and squatted next to me, “Hey, Az, why are on the ground?”

Usually I was happy to tell Chris something interesting about myself, but today I think I’d pass.

“What did you say you bound with?” I asked hoping to change the subject.

Chris smiled, the dazzling blinding smile which chicks fell in love with a whistled, “Fur!”

At least my diversion had worked. And Fur? How very original. A huge enormous cat stampeded from behind a nearby bush, leapt over the full length of me and landed deftly on all fours next to Chris, “A liger, man! Is that awesome or what?”

I was so awfully tempted to say in response, ‘What,’ but I stuck with the safer, “Awesome, definitely.”

“What did you bind with?” he asked the question I dreaded most, his eyes twinkling like sapphires so much that I just wanted to cut them out and polish them. I looked at Arrow, still laying obnoxiously still on my chest. Chris blinked. I think I knew how this was going to end.

He began to laugh. I couldn’t even muster the enthusiasm to blush. Chris wiped away a tea of laughter and playfully punched me on the shoulder. Even though I couldn’t feel it I knew it was going to leave a bruise.

“You sly god, you!” He grinned at me.

Okay, not what I was expecting, “Pardon?”

He mussed up my hair, which I’m fairly sure was already a birds’ nest and chuckled, “Even playing the innocent. You don’t need to act with me, I know your game!”

And just what was that? Arrow decided to comment on him then, “Buffoon.”

For once I had to agree, “Yeah, okay, you got me. Just so I know we’re on the same page, what is it I’m acting about?”

I hoped my wording wasn’t too complicated.

“I didn’t think you’d do this! You of all people. Being so smart as to use your soul partner as a chick magnet. Genius!”

Oh.

Well.

At least this evil being had an upside, “I didn’t even realise.”

Chris grabbed my arm in a vice like grip and pulled me into standing up. Arrow having much better reflexes than me, also having muscles that were working properly probably helped, hopped onto my shoulder, “No need to act, I said. I’m down with you.”

Sometimes I wondered if he wasn’t up with the clouds. I turned my head and glared at Arrow, “At least your cute.”

“Cuter than you.”

Ow. What was it again?

Azrael-0, Arrow-1,00,001

Chris patted Fur and they began to walk, “Come on. Let’s see how well your magnet works.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to, but I followed him nonetheless because, the fact was, I was lost.

And as a matter of fact so was Chris. Did I mention I hated Chris, even though he was my mate? Because I’m saying this just in case I didn’t.

I hated Chris.

More than anything else currently in this world. I could go on for days about how much I hated Chris, but I think the situation which made me despise him even more is a bit more important.

A bit.

I trailed behind him for a while, staying back a few metres just in case he was attacked by a ravenous bear. Okay, well, I hoped he was attacked by a ravenous bear. Now, I didn’t want Chris to die, I mean, he wasn’t a bad person, but there was just something about him that didn’t ring true.

Like he had this hidden gear at the back of his head that no one could see, but in fact it controlled his whole body. I don’t know a better way to explain it. Words have never been my forte, but getting to the point I didn’t trust him, which says a lot about him and me.

Yeah, yeah, I might be biased hating his flawlessness and all, but . . . whenever I was near him there was that niggling doubt right at the back of my mind whispering, “Don’t trust him.”

I’m glad to say ‘til this day I have listened to that voice. It told me to set up the cage, bind the first thing I caught and also to play dead, but that last thing was another story altogether that I’d rather not tell.

Today I think I’d ignore that doubt, after all it had given me nothing but crappy advice anyway.

So there I was blindly following a lost person, attempting to slap away that voice in my head and at the same time survive having my soul drained.

It didn’t surprise me that after 10 minutes of walking I was about to die from exhaustion. The on thing that kept me going was the image of Chris finding my dead body, laughing and kicking me again and again while repeating, “Weakling!”

A groan escaped my mouth. Determination set in, I wasn’t going to die. Maybe one day, but not today. Of course I had to die one day, but, yeah, 17’s a little to young to die. Maybe the ripe age of 40 something.

I took a deep, long, mournful breath and sat down. Well, more accurately fell down. Straight down, like a rock in water. I didn’t surprise me that Arrow was deft enough to stay on my shoulder.

What did shock me, however, was that as I fell Arrow dug his claws into my shoulder. Arrow had sharp pointy razor claws hidden in those pretty paws of his. Who would’ve thought?

I probably should’ve guessed. It was almost like his appearance matching his personality, it just didn’t. Falling, I’m glad to say wasn’t as painful as one might think. Sure, hitting the ground did hurt, but the great relief of being on solid ground afterwards was something you couldn’t buy.

Needless to say, for that second on the ground when nothing mattered I felt more relaxed than I have ever in my life. Damn it was good. Nearly as good as controlling my own soul.

Okay, well maybe not as good as that. Arrow clawed his way onto my chest, into a familiar position. It almost felt like we had done this before. Oh, yeah, we had.

*And, well, yeah, that's it ^^*