My giant rescue

Ch. 19 - The game began

"Start," Haelan yelled, setting the race off. My eyes went up, ready to react to Peters first movements. His body plummeted down, his hands ready to pin for a quick kill. I expected it, so instead of running straight I got down and rolled to the side squeezing myself into a secret passage.
"And that's not considered cheating?" he pointed out, when he realised what happened.
"Cheating would be starting before the countdown, anything else is fair game."
"Is that so..."
There was silence afterwards but I didn't care and started walking ahead. This particular tunnel only led to a nearby tree, after that I would have to walk on the surface. For him the distance was at a moderate walking distance, though for my steps it was gonna take all day to get to Haelans house.

When I reached the end I walked ahead though with my body low, ending up inside of a hollow grey tree. Once I got up fully I waited to hear the sounds around me. Some far away birds were chirping, their echoes were almost silent. There was no rustling from the ground, it silent too. There was something scaring the animals away, most likely it was Peter. If it were him, then he was doing a good job of masking his breath. With one foot at a time I walked to the opening, hiding as much as possible while I looked around. Jep, there was nothing on the surface. He was here. The closet space safe from the tree was another one a few meters ahead of me. I wasn't gonna make the same mistake again, so I had to make a plan.
I found a leaf lying on the ground. I binded it to my torso and ducked down. With one foot at a time I got out into the open being fully prepared to dodge his hands.
"That's strange," I whispered to myself. I continued, with each step taking a slight pause to hear if anything was near. If he wasn't here now, then he certainly would had passed by. At a more brisk pace I made it to the tree, repeating the process with the nearest tree. I made some great progress as the sun began to shine rays of light behind the thigh clouds.

I stopped before going out of one of the trees. There was a giant net placed on the ground, only a few fallen leaves covering it up. He couldn't be serious about this trap, right? At this point I was walking up right with the leaf still around. I was still careful, looking around in all directions, but I was starting to think that he was playing with me. No sign of him for hours and this is all he did? He would be smarter than this - did he really think I would fall for that.
"No Emma, this is exactly what gets you in trouble all the time," I sighed. "Think rationally, don't get too full of yourself, it's never that easy."
I looked forward and saw something odd ahead. The leaves on that area were too many and some were lying unnaturally on the ground. This was the trap he set up for me, while the other one was a cheap distraction. With that knowledge it was simple to just go around it.
"I can pay him back for that later."

After walking for a bit I made it far enough that it was almost impossible to see the old trap. I determined it was far enough and started climbing the nearest tree. Making it to the top I took out my crossbow loading it, pointing at the trap and released. The bolt struck hard to the ground releasing the trap, making the bells jingle echo through the forest. I reloaded it and shot at the other hiding one, it got triggered and now it was also jingeling. Seemed like I was quick enough, because just seconds later Peter came running with a giant smirk on his face.
"Haha, yes!" Peter yelled happy like a little boy. "See Haelan I told you this would be easy." Behind him was Haelan walking in a calm stride.
"You really like getting too ahead of yourself" Haelan sighed. "You know that trap is not gonna work." Peter started cutting the traps down, but he slowed down. "I don't understand you, why do you keep patronizing her?"
"Don't try to make me the villian, you know why this has to be done."
"You haven't seen her in a while. You might be surprised..."
"Yeah and if I remember correctly she almost died that time too." Peter replied. They looked at each other where silence then ensued. Seemed like neither would budge as Peter began looking in the net. I wished I could've seen their faces but in the end I had to move on before they would find me, so I began my crawl down and continued ahead.

The sun started shining like a fire blinding me whenever I looked behind. As I tread further from those two, the noises around me became more alive. Birds surrounded me on top of the branches. Smaller criteres could be seen walking around but at a safe distance from me. I was still wary about the birds. I could never forget how brutal that owl attack was.
This time I noticed much quicker when the dread of silence came. Guess they werent that dumb and could still see me through the leaf. My hand jolted for my back picking up the crossbow, having it ready to shoot while moving forward looking all around.
A loud crack came as one began to fly. I saw a crow diving straight at me at my right. I quickly rolled to the side making it miss me. I jumped up, locked on it and shot a bolt. A loud craw came from it as my bolt hit its lower leg making it retreat. The action sent all the other birds flying away leaving silence once again. This time it was good, too bad I still had a long walk ahead of me so with little time to reflect over what happened I continued on my path.

My breath was getting heavier as my wet body freezed to the unforgiving breeze. I had to force my legs to move, with the phase "just keep walking, you will get there eventually," repeating in my head. It didn't help that the final stretch was gonna have me walk up a steep hill while my feet continued to slip and had me sliding down at times. Once it was conquered I looked ahead and saw Healans house, but lights and noise were coming from it illuminating the darkness surrounding it. While I wanted to think further, in the end my body couldn't take it anymore and just walked ahead, no longer hiding or trying to be quiet. With each step getting closer I began to reach out until my hand felt the cold but warming feeling of his door. I pressed my back to the door, trying to calm my breath.
My body got down on four and pressed through the gap under the door. On the other side I saw Healan and... I saw Peter. They were smiling at each other and continued to when they saw me. Peter went ahead and kneeled down in front of me.
"It has been quite a day I gotta say," he said. There was no trace of malice or anger behind those words.
"Peter are you not mad?" I asked. He picked me and had me laying on his now cupped hands. A faint smile could still be seen even though I think he was hiding it.
"Let your body relax for tonight, for now know that I'm so proud of you," he almost whispered. I felt a weight disappear from my shoulder as my body gave in and fell into a deep sleep.