Sable opened her eyes, taken aback by glacier blue irises locking her eyes tenderly. The light blue hue reminded Sable of frozen meandering streams of the Ajar Forest during winter. 

Blue... 

A moment of confusion swept past the ranger; she wondered who the blue-eyed woman was. 

Blue… Bluey.

Bluey! Sable's eyes widened as her memory slowly slipped back inside her mind. Where was Bluey and where was she? She was not in her burning cottage. 

"Where's Bluey?" the ranger demanded, shooting up immediately. She collided her head with the black-haired woman's, and shock broke into pulsating pain.

"Ouch," the knightess muttered with a growl, rubbing her forehead. Not only was her wrist stinging from the alacat bite, but also her head throbbing with temporary pain.

Sable glared at her, immediately assuming that the armored woman was responsible for the forest fire. Shoving the woman out of the way, the ranger stood up feeling slightly dizzy from the effects of fainting.

Mei grimaced at the hostility from the young woman she rescued. "Where are you going…?" It was her entire fault though for destroying her home; the response was expected.

"I need to find Bluey," Sable snapped. "Have you seen an alacat anywhere?"

Mei recalled the wild alacat that had bitten her. "You mean the spotted cat?"

The ranger nodded.

"It ran off after my soldiers attempted to shoot it—"

"Shoot my alacat?" Sable cried out alarmingly. She grabbed the woman's shoulders as her slanted dark brown eyes burned into her stare.

"Sheesh! Calm down," Mei snapped, wincing at the ponytail woman. "Let me finish. I told the soldiers to leave the cat alone, and they did. That's why it ran off, but I don't know where it is now."

Relaxing, Sable loosened her grip on the knightess's shoulders. If anyone lay a finger on her alacat, she would destroy them with her arrows. 

"By the way, my alacat is a she," the ranger corrected. "Why did your soldiers shoot her?" She did not understand why they would attack her alacat. Bluey would not attack them unless she felt they were a threat.

"Your alacat attacked me," Mei stated calmly, receiving a pair of surprised eyes. "She managed to bite my wrist." She gestured her wrist in front of the ranger where four deep punctured holes were smeared with blood. The swollen skin looked angry from the bite, startling Sable.

Sable had never been bitten by Bluey before; it felt surreal that her alacat was capable of doing such damage. The bite ran deep into the woman's wrist which was at a high risk for infection. 

"Are you all right…?" Sable asked, feeling slight guilt for being responsible for Bluey.

"Yeah," Mei answered, looking down at her wrist, "It just hurts a little." Hurts a lot more, the knightess thought to herself, but I need to suck it up. She did not want the ranger to worry. She would just need to ignore the pain and get the wound washed when she returns to town Lesendi.

Sable scanned through the trees for Bluey. In a short distance, she could still see her burning cottage which blackened frames of the dome-shaped home only remained lit up in flames. Her eyes moistened in anger at her destroyed home and the forest behind it, being consumed by fire. The ranger did not expect this to happen when she returned to the Tameka Forest; now her home was gone forever with the memories of her grandmother. Not also that, but Bluey had disappeared too.

"Bluey!" Sable called out, her hollers echoing in the forest. "Bluey!"

Several moments later, a spotted feline peered up hiding by the shrubs. Tears rushed out of Sable's eyes as the ranger ran over to Bluey. The alacat moved out of the leaves and greeted the ranger with a small purr. Fear lingered in the alacat's dilated copper eyes from the earlier incident when she was being targeted by the arrows.

Sable pressed her chin against Bluey's furry head, feeling the warmth of her fur. "Good thing you are safe," she murmured softly. Sable would lose the world if she ever lost Bluey. This was the second scare that had ever occurred losing her alacat. About a year ago, Bluey could had been taken away by fur traders and raised to her own death. But Sable took care of her and watched her grow from a cub into an adult; she became her mother, and Bluey became her daughter. It sickened to know that it was a possibility that Bluey could had been raised, bred, and then killed for her coat to be sold in the market if she could not rescue her. It was no wonder Sable's trust for human beings grew stagnant over time.

Mei watched uneasily from a distance at the ranger nestling the wild animal that bit her as if she was the wild cat's mother herself. Although it was unsettling to see the alacat that had attacked her, it was also a bittersweet experience watching them reunited. Bluey was vicious towards her, but the alacat had only attacked her because she was only protecting the woman. Truly the alacat loved the woman despite she was human. It was trust that existed between the two that allowed such a strong bond. The knightess herself was never really good with animals or people for that fact, but she could understand their relationship at least.

The familiar warm scent of Bluey's fur eased Sable's anger toward the knightess. Petting the alacat's head, she finally looked up at Mei. 

"Why did you and your soldiers burn down the forest?" She assumed the forest fire was responsible for spreading toward her cottage.

"The queen ordered us to burn down part of the forest to build a city," Mei answered. A wave of disgust passed through the ranger, making the knightess feel even guiltier. "I'm sorry that the fire spread to your home. If I knew that a home existed there, I would've avoided burning near that area."

Sable sighed heavily at Queen Fajra's selfish plan. The queen of Oihana obviously lacked respect for nature to want to destroy a forest. Nothing good would ever come out from the queen as long she ruled. "And do you approve of that?" Sable asked, her anger rekindling. "Do you think much of the animals that live here?"

"It's not my decision to make," Mei responded flatly. "I may not have wanted to do it, however, I still serve Queen Fajra and follow her orders."

Sable shook her head, unable to make sense of the woman's logic. "So you go against your own will to serve the queen? She does not seem worthy of being served."

Mei remained silent. "You are right that she is not worth serving at all, but I follow my orders as a knight. It's how I make a living." As selfish that had sounded, the knightess herself needed to survive. She did not care about the queen although she was one of her highest ranking knights. Mei, however, did care about the people of Oihana; it was one of the reasons why she was still a knight. Her duty was to protect her people regardless what would happen to her own life.

"You probably don't think much for yourself," Sable spat, "just like the rest of the knights." Nothing was more ridiculous than dedicating one's life to an unjust queen simply to survive. The ranger herself survived solely by hunting and gathering. She did not need to live in a town to rely on money to survive. Human beings now lived out of nature instead of being in tuned with it. It was probably one of the reasons why human beings lost respect for nature.

The insult should had angered Mei, but she remained calm. It took a lot to make her angry; discipline made her immune to harsh words. She had heard worse insults in her life, and she knew that the ranger was angry. She would been too if she lost her home. Mei's attention was drawn to her bleeding wrist; the pain was increasing in intervals instead of subsiding. It was peculiar that it was already getting infected. This had never ever happened to her from an animal bite.

Sable's dark brown eyes moved to the flustered wound on the knightess's wrist. It was apparent it was getting worse. "Are you sure your wrist is okay?" the ranger asked. Bluey was keenly observing the knightess with precaution as they conversed.

"I'm fine," Mei replied, covering her wrist with a cloth. "I will be getting back to town now."

"Do you need help?" Sable asked. Despite the knightess was responsible for burning her home, she saved her from her from the fire when she could had left her engulfed by flames. However, the ranger would never forget that her home was destroyed along half of the Tameka Forest.

Mei shook her head. "I'm sorry that your home was destroyed. Please allow me to make up for my mistake-I can pay to help you build a new home."

"No," Sable replied. "You are too kind. You already saved my life; that is all that you can do for me. But there is one thing I would like you to do…."

Mei arched her eyebrows. "What is it?"

"I want you to think for yourself before following orders blindly," Sable said. "You will come to realize freedom will make you happier."

Mei did not know how to respond. The ranger obviously did not know her, but she did not feel like arguing. The pain in her wrist was spreading to her upper arm. She took one more glance at Sable and the alacat, giving them both a small smile before she left the forest.

Sable glanced emptily toward the path where the knightess departed. "Well… that's the end of our visit to grandmother's home," Sable murmured, returning her attention back to the alacat. She and Bluey stared at the disintegrated remains of their cottage. The beautiful cottage was no longer in existence, but her memories of childhood still lingered in the heaping piles of black rubble.

The sky was gray and cloudy, reflecting part of the Tameka Forest's death. A small cold raindrop landed on Sable's cheek. Drizzles of rain soon pelted through the fiery canopies, fighting against the fire. Tears fell from Sable's eyes as she watched the rain consume the rubble remains.