The first day and a half, was more of an adventure than anything for Sovanna. She'd never been outside the enclosure and even though her teeth chattered every few seconds, and they had to go slow to conserve energy, excitement rippled in her chest. 

The jungle in the fog frost was half dead in the beginning as if the frost had only begun to devour the greenery. White icicles hung like crystal decorations from the trees and frost coated the vines like lace. Then the further in they went, the ground stung her pawpads with how cold it was, chilling her from the bottom up. Despite Taro sending the fog away, a pale-blue and white aura tainted the jungle.

Only the crunch of ice, the rough brushing of frozen leaves against their legs, and the whispering whoosh of Taro shoving the fog left or right could be heard. If they stopped to rest, Sovanna's heartbeat increased at the stillness of the jungle. She was used to the loud primates and birds, the constant chatter of wildlife, and sometimes the growling of lower Kaunlutha. Trees would hit each other, clattering or rustling. At any given time, the jungle was alive.

But here, here's like corpse, she thought at their fifth stop. Her and Rokki's energy dwindled faster as the day went on. It couldn't be more than a few hours since they left, and according to Taro, they should get in at least three or four hours more before sundown.

"And we can travel moonrise," Taro twisted his torso and touched the ground, then he reached up over his head to stretch, "The moonlight will reflect on ice. We'll be able to see."

"Do we gotta night travel?" Rokki whined. "My feet hurt and I'm hungry. You're making us walk so fast, too. Evil."

Taro looked over Sovanna's head at Rokki. His eyes narrowed. A puff of air came out of his nose. He said, "Think about it as walking to save your kind or stopping to let them die. Who's the evil one then?"

"Or we could die out here trying too hard," Sovanna said but was ignored as the two males stood up to get on with it. She shuddered and pulled the cloak tighter around herself. Frost covered the tuft tip of her tail. As she brushed it off, she noticed something off to her right. A yellow something among the icy roots of a dead, blackened jungle tree.

"Sunlight droplets?" she said and went over, crouching down to take a good look. They did look like sunlight droplets. At the thought of filling her mouth with their sweet nectar, she salivated and licked her chops. Her eyes dilated, focusing in on them like hunter and prey. 

All sound faded from her ears as she focused on her prize. It was like her birthday all over again. She reached for them and yanked them out from the ground. Their sweetness filled her nose and her feline instincts pulled a few joyous trills from her dry throat.

Sovanna licked her lips and stuffed them in her mouth, paw and all. She slurped up the nectar and sucked her paw, careful not to leave any behind.

"Mmm," Sovanna squeezed her eyes and lay down on the ground, licking her chops for any leftover pieces of sunlight droplets.

Warmth flowed down her throat and filled her body. The fire inside of her, the magick she was trying to make work, suddenly burst to the surface of her body, making her cloak catch fire. Sovanna writhed about the ground to put it out.

Her head reeled and her vision blurred. But she could still make out a figure coming toward her.

"I didn't think that would actually work," came Oolid's voice.

Sovanna tried to focus on him, confused as to why he was here and not with his Humankind.

"I thought she were smarter."

"B-Bristya?" Sovanna recognized and at the same time heard her own slurred voice.

"This way, Kaunlutha will not be an overly powerful Guardian."

Someone lifted her up and took to the sky as air billowed around her. Sovanna's head tipped backwards and she thought she could see Taro and Rokki flying or running around looking for her.

* * *

When Sovanna woke up, she immediately recognized her room.

"Savat!"

Bristling, she shot up from her bed and scrambled to look out the window. Outside, Ogalutha's warriors and lower Kaunlutha were gathering wooden crates in the clearing. Humans surrounded them. They stood on metal stilts to tower over the Kaunlutha and direct them.

"Get a move on!" screamed a Human male. Another stood near him writing something in a notebook.

The one taking notes tucked the notebook under his arm. "Thirty. Twenty-two more to go!"

What's going on?

The last thing she remember was traveling with Taro and Rokki. They had only started. She ate what she thought were sunlight droplets and then Bristya was there. A headache pierced her and she clutched the ledge of the window.

Kaunlutha were moving around the back of Rukkatukin. Sovanna went to look out her other window. A tower blocked half of her view, but she could still make out a line of Kaunlutha with wooden crates in their arms, making their way toward the fence. The Humans were letting them out.

Sovanna's ears twitched, catching footsteps coming up the stairs. A few moments later, a knock and the door creaked open.

"Good, you're awake."

She glanced outside again at the Kaunlutha leaving. "Did you do that?"

Oolid smiled and shifted his arms with his hands behind his back. "Better than you risking your life to stop the frost or trying to fulfill some prophecy."

"You made a deal?" She came around to face him straight. His clothes were no longer shabby. They were dark blue lined with gold. Together with shiny black boots, he looked like a Human of wealth.

Oolid came into her room and leaned on the door, closing it. She stared at the gap between his legs, trying to see what he had behind him. He nodded his head, then panned his gaze around the room. Licking his lips once, he said, "I made a deal with them a long time ago. I promised them the magick of the sun."

The words hung heavy in her room. Sounds of shouting Humans muffled in her ears as all her focus narrowed in on Oolid's lips as they moved with their trickery through his mustache.

"Sechalutha's magick. Ogalutha's magick. Kiyamanuva. Rathana. The last one is you. The last of lionkind born with magick. There are some lowers who have powers, but those are easily cared for. Sovanna," He paused and gave a shrug, "I didn't think you'd be so keen to pursue the prophecy. It's not set in stone. We don't have to do this the hard way. We can end it easily. All you need to do is pour your magick into this and I shall take it back to the Guardians."

He pulled out the shrunken shield of Ogalutha. Without her father's powers, it was nothing but a slab of wood with plates of metal mixed in it, and storytelling carvings etched on the surface.

What he's done to it, horrible. Sovanna took a step back. The greatness of her father, the one she respected and looked up to with her whole heart, reduced to this, an old shield that was only a relic of the past.

"This is good news." Oolid set the shield down by his feet. "Bristya convinced Aurvandil to take the offer. There's nothing else you need to do. Kaunlutha are being sent to the Third Ring to live with Kattaluna until they can find their feet again. Feline and feline. You'll get along. And there won't be any more iceblood, no more frost, and you won't have to worry about tomorrow's meal. Kattaluna are willing to teach you how to hunt and live in the wild properly." 

He smiled wide. "You'll be happy. Kaunlutha will be safe. Work something out with Rathana. Without magick, you can rule in peace together. Two queens. How nice is that?"

"Nice?" Sovanna echoed. After all the things she did to try to save Kaunlutha within this enclosure in the Fifth Ring, now they were being kicked out? All the effort would be wasted. Why this now and not before?

"You can now live without worry. All you need to do is pour all your magick in here. Every last drop." He tapped the shield with his finger.

Exhaustion fell on her shoulders. "Was it all for nothing?"

Oolid shook his head slowly. "No," he said, "or I wouldn't have had time to talk to Bristya alone. To remind her that I could get all the magick together. Sechalutha's crown pieces, Ogalutha's shield, Kiyamanuva's bracelet, Rathana's ring, and you, Sovanna, your roar."

Her paws flew to her throat. "My roar?"

"Indeed. The core of your powers hides in your voice."

"But I need my voice."

"Kattaluna practice tail sign language. You can get around. I'm sure."

Sovanna bristled. He planned to steal her identity away. She knew she couldn't trust Humans.

How come I never saw?

Oolid held his arms open in the gesture of surrender. "I mean this well, you know, I always thought about what is best for Kaunlutha. But the time of magick is over. Besides, Bristya refuses to give the emerald to you to become Guardian if you still have Kaunlutha sun mag—"

"I don't want to be Guardian!" she shouted and realized she hadn't thought about it before, but now that it was out, she realized she didn't want it. "And sun magick is what makes us Kaunlutha. I won't let it die. I won't give it up."

Oolid smiled again and this time she roared, turning into a lion. For some reason, her magick was stronger than it was before. She guessed it had something to do with being in Rukkatukin where it was warmer and once held the great Ogalutha.

She glared at Oolid who opened the door behind him, falling on his bottom at the top of the stairs. With a pawstep forward, she declared, "I'm queen of this land and I vow to protect and save Kaunlutha. This is our land and you can't take it from us."

Then leapt over him and half fell, half stumbled down the stairs. She landed in a heap on the ground floor and shoved her way out the door. All Humans and Kaunlutha turned to her.

"Praenglutha." Trita waved to her, catching her attention. "Praenglutha."

"Tri—" Sovanna held back. She didn't want to go to Trita and spend anymore time here. She had to find a way back to Taro and Rokki even if her paws froze. This was their land and no one else's. And Kaunlutha were lions with magick, not lions turned bipedal. There was more to them than being paraded to the fence like livestock by smaller creatures than themselves.

I can't let us all fall like this. What was that about anyway? What was I fighting for? Sovanna gritted her teeth. Humans began approaching her with long black, shiny weapons in their hands. She dodged them, pushing one to the ground with a kick of her leg. At the Kaunlutha who paused to watch, Humans fired guns in the air, startling them to keep moving.

Sovanna saw Fira and, to her surprise, Rokki. She gaped at them with their crates of stuff. How long had it been since she was asleep? The Humans shouted at them as Rokki stalled. Then he put his stuff down amidst Fira's protests. He came over to Sovanna and took a knee.

"Praenglutha, I bid you a farewell," he said and bit his lip. The Humans didn't approach, but two kept watch. Then Rokki whispered something. Sovanna bent her head to listen. He spoke quickly.

"Sovanna, Taro's caged in jungle, about day's walk from where we were. Left claw marks as Humans took us away. I don't know how, but he couldn't use his magick to escape trap. I'm going with Fira. She needs me, but you need to find him."

When he rose, she noticed tears in his eyes. "How are we different from lions if without magick? Without this land? Never knew until I lost it. I really wanted to help. I'm sorry."

Sovanna stood stunned. I can't believe it, he's sorry?

She blinked out of her shock. "You're not coming?"

He bit his lips again and looked over his shoulder at his sister. "I can't."

She growled at him. Fira could take care of herself. "You said you would help."

Rokki dipped his head without a word, stood up, and returned to his line. He hissed at some Humans who tried to poke Fira with their metal sticks. She linked her arm in her brother's with her tail between her legs. Kaunlutha, so much bigger and ferocious than Humans, turned weak under them.

It's not who we are. She glared at the Humans herding her pride away. She couldn't believe they all gave up their hints of magick, their heritage, and their identity as if it didn't mean anything.

A sudden image flashed through her mind. Sovanna with her father in the training grounds as he taught her the final basic lessons of magick control. She was excited when she passed the test and get to do some harder ones. She was looking forward to creating the legendary fire tornadoes that Sechalutha was thought to have used to fight the other Elganians.

"Those were all stories. The lessons stop here," her father had said.

Sovanna believed him at first, but she later found out that he had given up training her because Kaunlutha were dying and no females could get pregnant. Even if they did, the baby would die after birth. He didn't see a point in going on.

Sovanna growled deep in her throat at her father's lost pride. It wasn't just the Kaunlutha around her that gave up. Long ago, Ogalutha stopped trying. And Rathana, he stopped trying with her, too. Labeling her as a traitor, he refused to let her in his life again.

Fira and Rokki came around to walk around the castle. Sovanna recalled some time ago when they had told her that Ogalutha didn't share resources he got from the Humans. That was why lower Kaunlutha were thinner.

A shock ran through her like a lightning bolt. She realized her father giving up went everywhere. He stopped caring and that stunted her training, it made him withhold food, and he never seemed all that concerned about iceblood. He cut off ties with Rathana. Ogalutha became lost.

But I'm not. Papa, you have me! Her mane rippled with magick. Sparks flew from her fur. Sovanna roared and wind pushed the Humans off their stilts. She thundered off. When two Humans blocked her way with guns, Sovanna dove into them, lashing out at them. Claws raked through clothes and across skin.

"Get out of my way!" she yelled at them, baring fangs and hissing. She charged through them as more Humans tried to hold her down, throwing ropes around her body. She burned them and the Humans, but then a rubber rope snagged her and no matter how many times she tried, it wouldn't burn away. With some knotting contraption, it tightened around her neck. 

With a squeal, she fell on her side and writhed, keeping claws extending. She gnashed at any Human coming near. Sovanna saw Oolid approaching with the shield, ready to press it on her and force her to give up her magick.

Anger rumbled inside of her. 

"Don't you dare," she said through clenched teeth. 

Sovanna was not going down without a fight.