Imgarten was only a hair’s breadth away from the edge when she saw the cliff dropping into nothingness below.

“Stop!” she called out, tail lashing from side to side, her dark spinal projections standing on alert.

“What on earth?” Verrhyn shouted accusingly, barely stopping herself from careening into Imgarten. Verrhyn’s whiskers twitched and her cat-like pupils widened as she came to the realization that Imgarten had nearly tumbled off the edge of the cliff. All the while, the shouts behind them continued to get louder. Verrhyn glanced behind them, a bead of sweat forming along her brow, and she grabbed Imgarten, who appeared to have frozen in denial at their situation after stopping Verrhyn, and pulled both of them away from the cliff’s edge.

“What are we going to do?” Verrhyn hissed, her hands rubbing together anxiously.

“I don’t know if there’s anything we can do,” Imgarten said, her words coming out slowly, like she was in a dream. Verrhyn hissed and slapped her friend, the sound echoing down the chasm. Imgarten looked up with wide, cat-like eyes, her pupils wide. “The fuck was that for?”

“Stop moping and make yourself useful!” Verrhyn growled. Both their capes were torn and covered in brambles from running in full abandon through the woods. The shouts got louder still, and both of them instinctively pinned their ears back; not that it did much good to make them look smaller.

“The Volkorns are getting closer,” Verrhyn observed.

“No shit Sherlock,” Imgarten muttered. A sharp glance from Verrhyn shut her up, not wanting to risk another slap. They might both die here, but Imgarten was determined to die un-slapped. Well. Perhaps it was too late for that and she should cut her losses.

Imgarten’s eyes wandered up, taking in the scenery she’d stumbled into. They were surrounded by a thicket of dense pine trees and some shrub-like groundcover. The cliff truly did fade into nothingness - no fog or river to break it up, just darkness. Another edge of the mountain rose up on the other side, but it was much too far to try and make a leap for it. Her tail lashed back and forth anxiously, despite her attempts to quiet it. Her serpentine tail had been the source of so much mockery among the Panther Clan - a cat woman, born with the tail of a snake and the posture of a shrimp. What a joke. No one knew why she had been born this way. Perhaps her mother had mated with a snake, but since her mother had died in childbirth, the clan would never know. Suspecting as much, her father had outcast her. Now she only had her sister, Verrhyn, and Verrhyn could barely stand her. And they were going to die here together. Imgarten was so angry at this fate that she wasn’t even able to cry. Instead, she just felt a pit of fire boiling in her belly, a sudden intense desire to unleash it and fight to the end.

Cracking branches sounded as the Volkorn Clan grew closer. The sisters exchanged a look and slipped behind the two largest trees they could find. Being hybrids, their human hands had sharper claws than usual, and while their claws could be useful as weapons in combat (or as Imgarten had learned, for picking things out of her teeth), they weren’t strong enough to support the weight of one’s full body enough to climb a tree. So they made themselves small and sank into the earth. Imgarten self-consciously grabbed the edge of her cape and tucked it out of view. The sisters locked eyes and agreed. They wouldn’t be going down without a fight.