Pulling the reins, she guided Orion down the road, out of the murky woods and east to Virellia.
***
Astraia awoke with a start. She was slumped over in her saddle, holding onto Orion’s neck. Painfully, she straightened her back and rubbed the back of her aching neck. She must have fallen asleep while riding.
It was still dark out, so she could not have been sleeping for long. Based on the moon’s travel across the ebony heavens, it was around midnight.
She glanced at her surroundings. Orion had continued to follow the Hydraneas River north, staying beside the riverbank, away from the Starfell Woods.
Astraia patted her steed. “Good boy, Orion.”
The horse merely snorted in reply.
Her roughly concocted plan was to reach the river town of Aquarian, which bordered Virellia and the Shardlands. There was a stone bridge there, built a century ago, that allowed passage and ensured smooth trade between the two regions of Astradeon. It would be the easiest way to cross the unforgiving waters into Virellia and get as far away from Draven as she could.
The only downside to the plan was the prospect of another bounty hunter finding her and dragging her back to the Celestial Court to be tried by King Maelrik. That, and the river town was still a few hours away and despite her persistence, her body needed more rest.
They would have to make camp for the night by the river. It was not ideal, sleeping out in the open, exposed. But it was better than facing the perils of the woods.
Astraia pulled on Orion’s reins to stop and gingerly slid from his saddle. Her body ached from travel, battle, and pushing her bond to its limit. Orion even sighed and made his way to the river to drink.
She had left all her supplies back at the previous campsite, including her mat, yet this did not deter her from lying on the grass and allowing sleep to overtake her.
Dreams did not come that night. Fatigue kept those distant memories at bay.
***
A piercing pain lanced her back. She was dragged from the recesses of her resting mind back to the starless world in an instant.
She bolted upright from her grassy bed, eyes focusing in the dim light of early morning. Her bond had awoken her—warning her.
Astraia rose, drawing her bow and nocking an arrow as she surveyed the tree line.
Orion was close beside her, his eyes also fixed on the shadowy forest before them, his ears shifting in alertness.
A silence as thick as stone pressed against her ears…until red eyes opened in the dark.
Astraia could not make out the outline of the figure, but the eyes were too low to the ground to be a man’s. No, it was definitely a beast of some kind.
Her breathing quickened at the realization, just as two more sets of red eyes appeared alongside the first. They were fixed on Astraia.
She raised her bow, aiming for the first set of eyes.
What are they waiting for? she thought, afraid of the answer.
The first set of eyes began to move, slowly and deliberately, closer toward the river. Astraia remained motionless. She was not sure what it was yet, or where her aim would be deadliest.
Before her eyes, the nightmares of children’s stories and folklore materialized.
A massive, otherworldly wolf crept from the trees. His fur was solid black, as void as the starless skies. His paws were the size of a man’s skull, carrying his enormous frame with grace and power. And his teeth—his canines shone bright in the dusky morning, glistening white and sharper than any blade.
The other two flanked it. Massive, rippling beasts with eyes like molten embers and pelts darker than pitch.
Astraia held her breath, afraid to move.
“Hail, stewards. I am Starborne, bound to Power,” she spoke firmly, though her voice quivered slightly at the sight of the unnatural red eyes boring into her.
And still, the wolves approached.
