Ahriana sat straight up in her bed, copper hair plastered to her neck and forehead. Meekah, her Greatling panther cub stared at her still half asleep. She could just make out the emerald of his eyes through the tiny sleepy slits of his eyelids.
"I just had the weirdest dream, Meek. There was this human woman, and she was having visions about us. Now how could I know what she knows, even though she never even spoke? How does that work?"
Ahriana flopped back down on the soft feather pillow and stared at the ceiling. She felt a prickle in her scalp and beat on the pillow a moment to get the sharp feathers rearranged. She already knew that if she told anyone about the dream the answer she would receive would be quick and accompanied with a frown. Dreams were simply dreams, and there was no way that her dream about a human could be real for many reasons.
There would be a lecture on how inferior the human race was, and their lack of power. Therefore her dream of a human woman who had visions of Ahriana was clearly impossible, not to mention being frowned at for wasting any effort at all asking the question. Maybe Fairsh would have a better answer for her, but lately he has seemed busy with her father too often. She didn't want to wait that long for an answer either.
She knew though that Meekah would say none of these things, so Ahriana was fairly safe in revealing to him her dream. So she shook him fully away, ignoring his little whines, telling him quickly everything she could remember before the details slipped away. She chewed her lip waiting for his response.
"You have the weirdest dreams Ahriana."
Though Meekah was young, Ahriana's dream tickled the edges of his senses; calling up dormant knowledge he had never had a need for prior to this moment. So she waited, she could sense the flashes of ancient knowledge fluttering through his mind and the Magic peaced together the memories he needed. None of it was good either; he got a sense of impending doom, and the start of something terrible. He also felt a warning, it was not time for his friend to know this information. Ahriana refused to share the same mental link with him that most Greatlings and their Bonded shared, so she didn't even notice his nudding her away from the realization of the prophecy marching along once again, and she couldn't see the scrunch of his dark brow in the darkness of her room.
She sighed as his thoughts gave her no real explanation, and she refused to look deeper, knowing then he could do the same in return.
"What I need is sleep. Fairsh is taking us fishing today after lessons; I'm going to make Kynzi come with us I think. She needs to get away from her aunt. That woman has been yelling at her nonstop for a week or more, I haven't the faintest idea why but I don't care for it that's for sure."
Meekah huffed but settled back down on the bed, Ahriana's arms wrapped around his neck tightly.
Ahriana realized that in her dream the strange human woman never had a single thought about Kynzi and that worried her. She never went anywhere without Kynzi and Meekah, why wouldn't that woman have thought about her? Meekah ignored her train of thought, telling her once again dreams were not to be trusted. Ahriana tried to edge her mind into his, to see what he had been dreaming about, but when she felt the tickle of his prodding she pulled back.
Meekah always dreamed of the future, though, he never allowed her to see them, he had his responsibilities to her but he also bore the weight of his own species crown and laws. Even at his relatively young age he blocked them from Ahriana with a single minded ferocity no matter how many times she tried she could not break through. Not even as he slept had Ahriana managed to view his dream, and she had tried often. Meekah showed a few teeth and steered the subject away from this particular dream of hers, and her thoughts of his own inaccessible ones. His father still wore the crown, but soon it would pass to him, and she would have to accept even more secrets in their bond. Ahriana hated it with a burning passion, Meekah was far more accepting of their shared destiny and all its complications.
"Didn't she tell you? Kynzi bonded today! She bonded to that armorer's assistant Gellan. Her aunt is not happy at all as you can imagine."
Ahriana sat straight up again and grabbed Meekah by his round fuzzy face staring at him.
"THAT'S GREAT! Why didn't you tell me earlier?!"
"I wov ave bu I foutht shhe tud you"
"Huh?"
He shook her small hands off and glared. He wiggled his black nose and scrunched up his muzzle a few times, rearranging whiskers and glaring even harder when he went cross eyed finding one to be slightly bent. When everything was back in place he answered her.
"I said, I would have but I thought she told you."
She saw his green eyes glowing in the moonlight as he watched her carefully. Meekah was looking hard quietly in her mind so she wouldn't sense him, and closely at her face. Her mind betrayed what her carefully arranged features did not. Pure sadness filled her and then horror at that reaction to her best friend's joyous news. She shoved a well-rehearsed smile on her face that shook at the corners if you were perceptive enough.
"That's great isn't it meek," A bit of sadness creeping into her voice now, a small tremor on his name.
"Don't worry Ahriana you will find someone, I promise."
Meekah lay his head back down on the silk blanket and Ahriana closed her eyes, neither of them fell asleep; they both knew the future even if they never spoke of it. Meekah had his dreams, and Ahriana had, in an old torn gold embroidered book by her bedside, the prophecy of the future she could not change, even though she saw it weaving its web around her even now. They both knew the words, knew the threat loomed , but even as each sentence came true, they both pretended it could be avoided.
Ahriana's father had made sure that she had the children's version. He kept the true, disturbing, copy in his office, but even in her child friendly text, the future was grim. Ahriana finally slipped off to sleep and when dreams began to flit about in her head Meekah found himself unable to sleep as well.