A Story of Blood and Thorns

Chapter 2

I wake to the sound of screaming. A long, drawn-out, high-pitched wail coming from outside. Isadora barges in, soaked from head to toe in the same black blood I saw last night. She stumbles over to me.

"I've got it under control," she says, grinning. "Don't be scared."

Another scream pierces the air, and a thing runs in. The only way it can be described is dead. Vaguely human-like, the creature crashes into the door. Pieces of flesh fall off its body as it slams into the doorframe. A squelching sound stirs disgust in my stomach. I watch as blood leaks from its smashed nose. It reaches up with a hand that's more bone than meat and tears the crushed appendage off. I choke back a scream.

"I'll explain later," Isadora promises. She runs at the creature, her ax raised above her. With a flash of steel, the creature's head topples off its body and lands on the floor with a wet thud. The body falls next to it, twitching. One hand reaches for the head as if to place it back on, but Isadora gets there first.

She stomps on the head.

Bond crunches and the body goes still. All is silent.

I speak first through a tight throat. "Care to explain now?"

"Help me with a fire," Isadora says. She grabs the head and tosses it outside. The rising sunlight bounces off the snow and catches on the metal of her ax, so I miss the landing. She begins to drag the body out the door. "Come on."

I scramble off the bed, pulling my fingers through my hair. They catch on knots at my shoulders and I give up, even though there's another half of it reaching my mid-back. I don't even know what color it is. Dirt covers most of it, save for a few not so dirty spots that reveal straw-colored hair. Isadora's clothes haven't been ruined by my thorns yet, so I stay in them. As if there's another option. I only hope that there's somewhere to bathe.

Outside, Isadora is piling logs into a large hut inside a stone circle. The frigid air sends shivers down my back. I quickly glance around to make sure there's no other creature lurking nearby, eager to eat our brains and drain our blood before hurrying to the woman's side.

"Here." She drops some twigs into my arms. "Go toss those in the woods."

I must've misheard her. The woods? Where that thing had come from. She glanced at me, her gaze narrowing in on me.

"The woods," she prompts. She grabs my shoulders and turns me towards the trees. Her hands seem to burn through the fabric onto my skin. I wait for her to flinch after feeling the thorns, but she doesn't. She gives me a small nudge. "I have defenses. The probability of another Forsaken slipping through is very small."

As if that was supposed to make me feel better. I throw back my shoulders and head to the woods without looking back. From the sound of wood smashing together, Isadora is now tossing everything together without regard to how it looks.

The trees loom above me, like a wolf about to pounce. Maybe there are wolves in there that will eat me for lunch. Most of the branches are bare, save for the ones with small green needles shooting from them. No sounds leak from the shadows. Only the soft creaking of branches stirring in the barely-there breeze. I take three steps in, small steps, and dump the sticks onto the snow. A sensation like I'm being watched creeps over me, the same as last night. I look up in time to see a black shadow fly through the needles into the impossibly blue sky. Then it vanishes.

I sprint back to Isadora. There's no sense in staying in an area where I can be eaten by something in a matter of seconds. Besides, it's much safer with someone who knows how to defend themself.

The someone in question is sitting beside a roaring fire. Sometime in the minutes since I've been gone, she's finished building her wood stack and lit it. Now, searing heat burns my skin.