*
Tearclaw and her team arrived back at the barricade with their bounty. Piles of rock and lengths of timber stacked up high, shielded them from the sheen of light eager to escape. She looked up as she often did to see the last rebellious rays not yet contained by their arrogant barrier. The light warmed the air through which it traveled, and it drifted like mist over them, supplying their only hope of life. Where it touched the ground there was momentary softness underfoot, but the shadows dried it up and the floor hardened and cracked as before.
“Bring the prisoners to me then plug the last of those holes!” The panther shook his paw at the heavens and the escaping light. He would block any view of it. It had become like yellow bile to him and he longed for the soothing darkness.
“You heard Panther. Do it!” she barked. They stared at her from sunken, dehydrated eyes. “Move!” she threatened.
Panther glided towards them looking between Tearclaw and her group.
“Thirsty are you?” he purred. “You’ve worked hard, loyal ones. Rest first then you can begin the fortification. Look to the needs of your group, Tearclaw!” he hissed.
Tearclaw backed away from him, head lowered. Her underlings smirked as they passed. She would never be accepted and that was fine with her. The panther’s mutant offspring needed no friend.
She walked to the pile of timber and dragged a length over to be secured ever higher on the barricade. Thirsty and thoroughly sick of the darkness, Tearclaw watched her father scrutinize the prisoners her team had caught.
“Ah, one of the famous Tiquity Bears, I do believe. So pleased you could join us after all this time.” Panther swooped rhythmically from his platform to circle the battered bear and his two silent comrades. “And I see another teddy so similar,” he sniffed at Edward Arthur, “but this one’s not a real bear like you, I think. You are old to these parts, are you not?” he purred thoughtfully, running his glazed eyes over Petsy.
“You take on more and more the appearance of life. How fascinating.” He lashed his tail before lowering into pounce position so he was eye to eye with the souling. “You want to be a real animal, don’t you? Well, today you are lucky, my friend. You are a lucky bear indeed. You and your stuffed replica friends will get to know exactly what it’s like to be real animals.” He leapt straight over the top of Petsy who struggled in vain against his bindings, before resuming his position on the podium.
“Zsa Zsa, is the pyre ready?”
Zsa Zsa scrambled over, raising a paw to his master from the foot of the stand, “Yes Master. Almost this very moment, Master. Final touches, we’ve had some trouble with Horace but almost around that now.”
“Enough! The scent of soft toy must fill the air. I will purify the Great Destination of these unworthy souls, making room for the true heirs of eternity. Animals.”
“What about your followers? Do they know your true intention?” shouted a valiant Petsy who had managed to free himself enough to stand.
“My only intention is to destroy every last, living replica because that as long as souls are granted to toy animals, true animals miss out. All our offspring are missing out on their right to life because of your kind.”
Petsy’s eyes were troubled. “I’m sorry you see it that way,” he said. “It is unfortunate that a human has only one soul to grant. And unknowingly at that.”
Panther stared in surprise.
“But that is not your real agenda, is it Panther?” he said, looking up. “Once you have wiped us out there are other animals you will deem unworthy, are there not?”
Panther’s his eyes hardened instantly.
“Do they know you believe that the Great Destination should only be for those animals whose souls were given at birth? Those without memory of their human Maker? Those just like you.”
Panther swooped on Petsy, muffling his voice with his furry bulk. “Who told you this?” he hissed, low and direct.
“You believe a lie, Panther. Even your soul was granted from a human Maker,” Petsy continued.
“Liar!” Panther roared.
“You convince yourself you have a better birthright, but you are as tainted as all of us,” he shouted as the howls of the gathering beasts almost drowned him out.
“Any of you who can remember the human who made you will be excluded from Panther’s eternity. Did you know that?” Petsy tried to shout to the hordes, but their growls were relentless.
The panther lunged at him, muscles rippling. He hissed with the sour breath stored deep in his body and his spit dripping teeth gnashed Petsy’s face.
“What do you know about any of this? I would kill you now, but your slow death will be a more pleasing sacrifice.”
Filtered rays escaping from the barricade fanned around him. A single slim beam lit upon his coat scorching his black fur. He released a torrent of growls into the smoky air.
“The sacrifice is ready! To the pyre!”