“I’m looking for answers,” she said.
Vague. Still so vague. Clever, yet equally infuriating. “What are the questions?”
“I’m not sure.”
Her reply was softer than her usual assertive tone. I believed her. “This is a dangerous area to be for someone so unsure,” I chastised.
“Dangerous for who, exactly? I don’t see any arrows being held tomyback,” she replied in a taunting fashion.
If pain didn’t claw my muscles, tendons, and skin with each passing beat of my heart, I might have laughed. Beyond today, with this ruthless little huntress, when was the last time I’d even smiled? “Fair to say that no one is safe, then.” I continued limping.
“You said that the animals fled because they had survival instincts. What threat could be so big that they all left?” The naïve curiosity in her question had me wanting to pat her head, something I used to do to my younger brothers whenever theymade foolish mistakes or asked silly questions. This girl really didn’t have any clue what was going on. If she’d wandered here out of mere curiosity, I couldn’t reason keeping the truth from her.
“Dark magic is cursing the land,” I said.
“In Argora Vale, I’m aware.”
Windguard may still resemble a plush, thriving forest, but that magic was souring the land all the same. “The origins are here, in the north.”
“What?” Her steps stopped short.
I couldn’t stifle the grunt that clawed up my throat as I pivoted to face her, a bead of sweat trickling down my temple.
“But…it looks nothing like Argora Vale.” She cast her gaze around us, bow and arrow still aligned in my direction, but lowered.
“It lives here, the source of the magic, but it destroys for sustenance. That destruction just happens to be directed to the west for the time being.”
“It. You keep saying that. What is‘it’?” Concern flashed across her face, just as vibrant as the red staining her cheeks and the gleam along her brow.
“There’s a lake. A stain in this world that hosts the darkest magic in existence. It’s sentient or something. Seems alive. It corrupts with malice and should be avoided at all costs. So, I suggest once you get your friend, you two swiftly retreat.” Anger simmered beneath my words.Get the fuck away and never turn back,I wanted to warn.
“Does the King of Windguard know about this?” Her face drained of color, the first time I’d glimpsed apprehension in her demeanor.
That foul vermin of a man shouldn’t bear the title. Not for his crimes against innocent people. Innocent families. Forcing three young boys to watch their parents be hanged in the streets,then beaten for hours from interrogation to reveal if they had “mutated blood”.
The entire kingdom seemed doomed for a horrid destiny. A wretched, hateful leader in the south, and a new soulless one in the north. This little huntress shouldn’t hold out hope that he’d save her. “Yes,” I ground out before resuming my pace. Standing still only seemed to heighten the ache, though that quickly became a forgotten observation as pain speared every step.
A casual glance over my shoulder confirmed she followed, her footsteps so dainty and timid I couldn’t hear her over my aggressive strides. We continued our journey in silence. The only thoughts repeating in my mind were the mechanical directions of my movement.Step, step, step.
The pain became nearly blinding after another hour. I kept telling myself that stopping wouldn’t take the pain away, and it’d better serve me to reach the outpost as quickly as possible. That mission sustained me, and whenever I questioned if my body would buckle, it persevered. Sweat layered my skin, the heat from the afternoon sun pouring down like a relentless opponent in the ring. When those first beads of salty sweat seared my open wound, I nearly doubled over.
Step, step, step.
Pebbles from the unmaintained road crunched behind me in one crumpling thud. I glanced back, seeing the redhead’s collapsed form on the ground.
“Hey,” I called as I hobbled over. A brief scan of our surroundings confirmed we were alone. Savage pain ripped me apart as I knelt by her side, rolling her onto her back so she faced the sky and I could assess her better. Her face remained pale, a few strands of the hair framing her face slick from sweat. But her lips, her lips were painfully dry, white cracked skin peppering them.
When was the last time she’d had something to drink? The blue dragon frantically buzzed above, as if silently calling out to her. My hands moved, feeling for my limp waterskin. I’d forgotten I’d emptied the bloody thing earlier in the day, knowing we had access to water sources nearby.
Assessing where we were on the trail, and without the threat of an arrow to my chest, I devised a plan.
“Stay with her,” I instructed the flying reptile. Fighting past the extreme discomfort, I rose and summoned my magic as I faced northeast. Muscles, tendons, skin, they all shredded apart, reforming into something massive. Bones snapped, contorting and shifting their shape. The experience was always horrendous, never growing easier from the first time I’d changed.
The soft earth bowed beneath the four massive paws that now prowled upon it. Orange and white fur blanketed me, slashes of black painted in stripes across my back and reaching down both sides. With one swipe, I flung the bow and withdrawn arrow away from her prone body as a precaution for my return. I picked up the empty waterskin between my long, sharp teeth, then tore off into the forest.
My back leg still throbbed, but the ache dulled significantly in this beastly form. The throbbing beat was essentially a massage compared to how it felt in my human state.
The past couple hours could have been much more bearable had I shifted, but I hadn’t been interested in taking an arrow to the chest, even in this form. Her eyes had held the promise of death, a gamble I hadn’t been willing to call her on. If she’d witnessed this threatening creature, her survival instincts would have ended my life.
