Odessey Into 2012, Chapter 5: Battle Scars

An overwhelming wooziness shuddered through Kaylin. It had been so long since she had jumped the Light Train in such quick succession. She wasn't accustomed to it, and her internal time-frame was suffering. A cool hand touched her cheek, and found herself looking into Jackson's kind face.
Tears clouded her vision.
"But… I saw you die."
"Time moves differently on the train. Besides I had a duty to uphold."
He pointed to her stomach and she lifted her shirt to reveal the faintest of pink marks where Darus' blade had pierced.
"Your Zephyr. You healed me?"
"As I always have." He touched her shoulder and she remembered the purplish-black scar there, a poisoned bite-mark which never quite healed.
A cold laugh rippled inside her mind as she was wrenched from the warmth of the train.
She landed on frozen ground in a desolate countryside. Putrid breath grazed her neck and she was deafened by the familiar roar of Darus' indestructible blood hounds. The Cruori: a gargantuan, reptilian tiger, with impenetrable silver scales and rows of fangs dripping with black venom.
She ran, speeding over rocks like the wind itself. But she couldn't outrun the creature. Its thundering paws grew louder as it closed the distance. Panic took hold, she knew she could not simply destroy the Cruori, her Zephyr was useless. What she needed was the gateway. But there was nothing in this barren landscape except boulders and dying trees.
Unless?
In an instant she turned to face the beast, and, summoning her Zephyr, she destroyed its senses. It halted in a stunned daze and Kayla used the split-second of confusion to leap into its open jaws. She heard the gateway close behind her as she fell into darkness.
The laugh slithered through her once more.
Well done, little one, I wonder what your mother would think.
A memory exploded in Kaylin's mind. The howl of a Cruori, the stench of its venomous breath, a river of blood and a helpless terror as a woman screamed her name.