The world narrowed to the panther's glowing eyes and the low, continuous growl vibrating in the air between them. Every instinct in Anal screamed to summon fire, to unleash the inferno and burn the threat to ash. But a cooler, tactical part of his mind, honed by a lifetime of discipline, held him back. A wildfire here could consume the entire forest—and them with it.
"Don't move," Neel whispered, his voice barely audible. His body was tensed, not for flight, but for a different kind of action. "It's assessing us. A sudden move will trigger it."
Anal remained perfectly still, his breathing controlled. His pride still stung from the stumble, from needing to be saved yet again. He would not be the cause of another mistake. He watched the predator, calculating its weight, the power in its haunches, the distance between them. It was too close. A direct attack was inevitable.
The panther took a silent, fluid step forward.
In that moment, a strange harmony of thought passed between the two princes, unspoken but absolute. They didn't need words.
As the panther launched itself, a silent blur of muscle and lethal intent aimed straight for Anal, two things happened at once.
Anal didn't retreat. He dropped low, one knee hitting the soft earth, and thrust his hands forward. But he didn't release a torrent of flame. Instead, he focused his power with razor-sharp precision, superheating the air directly in front of the panther's face. The air itself became a blistering, invisible wall.
The beast recoiled mid-pounce with a startled yowl, its sensitive nose and eyes assaulted by the sudden, searing heat. Its trajectory faltered.
That was the opening Neel needed.
He didn't attack the panther. He moved to the stream, his hands sweeping in a graceful, powerful arc. A ribbon of water, thick as a man's arm, answered his call. It didn't strike the panther, but wove itself into a swirling, mesmerizing loop in the air between them and the creature, creating a shimmering, moving barrier. The water caught the faint light, reflecting it in a thousand dizzying directions, creating a disorienting spectacle of light and motion.
The panther, already confused by the heat, now found its focus shattered by the swirling water. It snarled, swiping a massive paw at the illusion, but its claws passed harmlessly through the liquid. It was a deterrent, not a weapon. A display of power meant to confuse and discourage, not to kill.
For a long minute, the standoff continued. The panther, intelligent and wary, paced back and forth, its eyes flicking between the source of the painful heat and the confusing, shimmering wall of water. Its hunger was warring with its instinct for self-preservation.
Finally, with a last, frustrated growl, it turned and melted back into the shadows from whence it came, its pride seemingly more bruised than its body.
The tension shattered. The watery barrier fell back into the stream with a soft splash. Anal rose to his feet, his heart still thudding, but his mind clear. He looked at Neel. Neel looked back, his chest rising and falling with deep breaths.
There were no words of praise. No acknowledgment of their flawless, unspoken coordination. It was simply a problem that had been solved.
But something had shifted.
"That was…" Anal began, then stopped, unsure how to finish. Efficient? Tactically sound? The words felt inadequate.
"Necessary," Neel finished for him, echoing Anal's own earlier coldness. But there was no bite in it now. He offered a slight, tired shrug. "It didn't need to die. It was just hungry."
Anal gave a curt nod. The sentiment was foreign to him—his training was to eliminate threats, not reason with them. But he couldn't deny the effectiveness of Neel's method. It had required control from both of them. His own, to not give in to the destructive impulse. And Neel's, to create something so precise and non-lethal.
They continued their journey, the silence between them now different. The air was no longer charged with confrontation, but with a mutual, grudging respect. The forest seemed less hostile somehow, as if they had passed a test.
As they walked, Anal found his mind drifting back to the moment his balance had failed. The feel of Neel's grip on his arm. The startling clarity in his eyes. The way they had moved as one against the panther without a single shared word.
It was… efficient. That was the word he settled on. Efficient.
He glanced sideways at Neel, who was scanning the path ahead with a focused intensity. The moonlight caught the line of his jaw, the determined set of his mouth. He was a puzzle, this water prince. Infuriating, undisciplined, yet undeniably capable.
Anal quickly looked away, burying the observation deep. Such thoughts were a distraction. But for the first time, the walls around his heart didn't feel like a fortress. They felt like a cage, and he was suddenly, uncomfortably aware of the lock.