Three Minutes by Morwen Undomiel

Chapter One

His eyes were very still, frozen on me.

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Her eyes were huge in a face gone pale.

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The dust settled around us from the abrupt cessation of his charge. Gods, he'd looked like he was about to kill me.

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I'd come to within a breath from killing her.

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I called myself every name I could think of for leaving the group. This wasn't like my time, where all you had to worry about when alone was getting robbed and raped in a back ally. 'Here there be monsters', right.

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The will for the hunt drained from me as I watched her, watching me.

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I had no intention of getting this panic under control. Time and a place for everything, and this is it.

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I reached out and touched her forhead.

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Ohshithemoved!

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I lightly traced my claws between her eyes, down her nose, over her lips and chin. I held her chin between thumb and forefinger.

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My thoughts had gone past gibbering and into a surreal silence.

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I inhaled her earthy scent. Wind, Female, and the dust of the trail.

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His eyes slid to half-mast as his nose twitched.

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My hand slid along her jaw to cup her neck. I drew closer and laid my lips on hers.

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His lips on mine were light, cool, and profoundly unexpected. My mind lurched, stuttered, stopped dead for a moment and then began running fast to catch up to my heartbeat. My hugely open eyes locked on his, only half-closed. Blue to gold.

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I drew back and her eyes searched mine blindly. I turned and paced back to my lands.

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I watched him dissappear back through the dappled light from where he'd so abruptly emerged. I put a steadying hand out to a tree, and was startled to find the bark rough and real under my fingers.

Life imitates life. When I was comprehending things again, I'd have a few choice words about reality.