Abracadabra, Howls, and the Furry Guardians

Time Flies When You Want It To Stand Still

The following three days blurred into one extremely long day filled with hours of dull research interspersed with nauseating days of gathering items that could potentially ensure their survival. It made Marika feel like it was all just one long nightmare, everything from the moment her eyes opened for the first time to the whole new world that existed right next to her own world, invisible to it.

"Is this really necessary?" Marika exclaimed, slamming yet another dusty old book on the table. "There is barely any information about the abyss because few people survived it. Aren't we just wasting our precious time because we don't even know which of these things might be helpful? We're chasing our own tails here!"

Her anger was palpable, so it was no surprise that Flufflala immediately appeared out of nowhere, like she had been doing for the last three days, and started rubbing herself against Marika's legs in a true cat-like fashion.

The strangest thing was that whatever she was doing had worked for the last three days, which were rough for Marika as her emotions had been constantly oscillating, going back to one predominant feeling, anger. It was her defense mechanism against all the other, scarier emotions like fear, sadness, and even some positive emotions.

Anger was safe. At least, that was what she thought because it usually fueled Marika's will to go on. It helped her pull out of some very tough situations, being a werewolf being one of them. However, even just three days around Flufflala were enough to help Marika realize that anger was no longer serving her. It was actually hurting her, stopping her from moving on, from fully accepting her new reality.

Was it strange to address your cat-like animal support creature like a human, chatting with it while petting it? Absolutely. But it was also comforting, the way she was always there for her, how she could sense what Marika needed at any given moment and give it to her even if Marika was grumpy about it.

"Marika, we have to know as much as we can about the place," Tate said, patiently as if he was explaining something to a petulant little child. "As far as I understand, your senses should make it possible for us to track this artifact down. But we need to learn as much as possible about the potential traps and how to counteract them. Even if it's not foolproof, it's better than nothing."

"I understand that, but I really can't do this anymore," Marika said, sinking dramatically to the sofa in Tate's spacious living room. "I'm tired both physically and emotionally. If you want me to be useful to you, I have to sleep off all this tiredness."

Tate stood still for a second, and Marika could have sworn she could see the cogs turning in his mind until he finally turned to her determinedly.

"I think that's actually a good idea," he said, looking her up and down carefully, not how he looked at her back at the river but in an assessing way of a doctor that he was definitely not. "Truth be told, you don't look so good."

"You don't say!" Marika said sarcastically. "It couldn't possibly have anything to do with us running around like crazy chasing after even the most obscure information while barely sleeping."

"I let you go to sleep early last night. Didn't you sleep well?" Tate asked worriedly.

I couldn't sleep because of the nightmares, you stupid buffoon.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Marika said dismissively, trying to hide behind a tough exterior. "I'll just crash here."

As she settled down on Tate's comfortable sofa, Marika closed her eyes but couldn't stop thinking about the nightmares. The same ones she was trying to hide from Tate and everyone else because she believed they made her weak, and that was the last thing she wanted to be. She needed to be strong because she always felt like the weakest link in the world of the impossible.