Arwa

7- Hide

We pelted faster and faster, running away from these people. There were a couple of gunshots and a hard pain sprung in my forearm, but I didn't have the time or courage to see. I looked at Chimaera who was panicking, I could hear em mutter anxious things under his breath,

"No, no, no, not again not like Louisa... not like the others... I can't, not again..." These thoughts that he must of been thinking gave him a boost of determination, so he climbed gracefully up a tree and hid in the leaves. It was surprising how small he could make himself, then I realised that I can't climb trees. I was stuck.

I jumped into a nearby bush, covering my mask with the mud on the ground to blend in, squatting down and staying as quiet as I could.

I saw at least four men in dark black gear with rifles walk around where we were. Each in a circle facing another direction, so wherever we were they could see us. I saw them begin to walk to me and where I say hiding, shining torches around my area.

I looked up at Chimaera, who was looking at me and at the men, stuck if he should jump down to help me or save his own skin. He clenched his fists and growled in his throat, jumping down with his claw scraping in the side of the bark.
"OI!" He shouted as all the armed men turned to him. What the hell was he doing? He waved his clawed hands in the air "WHOOOOO! Nice dangerous Mynx Guardian over 'ere! If you wanna shoot at somethin', shoot at me!" There was a burst of bullets as Chimaera yelped, scampering back up a tree. He wasn't harmed.

The men's attention was now all on Chimaera, he looked at me and then pointed at the tree trunk. I looked at the trunk and in scrawled writing it said:

LOOK AWAY

I shut my eyes and buried my face in the mud only my ears could tell me what was happening. I guessed Chimaera had jumped down because of a squashed thud, there was a whooshing of fabric like something had been pulled away and then a huge and deafening roar. I opened my eyes to see Chimaera with his cloak off, claws bared and howling a roar at all the guards. I couldn't see his face, I only saw four pointed black horns and a humanoid black creature braced for a fight.

The sound stopped and the whole wood was in complete silence. Then the men ran away. All of em, running away like children from a bully as Chimaera picked up his cloak and put it back on. He looked around and then to me, his eyesight was amazing,"Ya can come out now." I did so, slowly, just realising that it was now pitch black nighttime. He looked up at the moon,"No fish I guess."

I wiped some of the mud of my mask, looking at my hand where I had felt the large pain. A bullet had just scuffed it, but a large chunk of fifth finger was now missing. Chimaera looked at this and took my wrist lightly,"Oh gosh I better get ya cleaned up, Mynx are good healers I promise, I'm good at my trade..." he was about to call me by my name, but I saw him being uncomfortable with all the letters and numbers, not in a petty way, more in a way where he wanted to give me respect. Like I didn't deserve to just be called letters and numbers. I'd never seen that before.

"You can call me Arwa. I call myself that." Chimaera nodded smiling, taking some water out his bag,
"Do ya mind if I clean it? If it hurts too much you can tell me to stop." I did a soft smile as Chimaera poured water down onto the wound, it stung a little but felt better to get the muddiness outta it. He took out some cloth and told me to hold it there while we walked back to wherever he stayed.

We got to the mouth of a wet and mossy cave, Chimaera striding though. I got a little conscious that I didn't really want to stay in this mould ridden place, especially that it looked like it could easily flood with a heavy rain. We walked through a bit of cave and then got to a lighter place where it split in two. We went left and then further on was an opening. This opening was much less dirty than the other parts, it was dry and warm with about two lanterns around the place, a bundle of blankets was in a corner and there were drawings on the walls that must of been Chimaera's.

There was a basket he pulled out made of twine that held some form of herbs and plants as well as bottled medicines. These were much different to the silver tablets we had at The Core.

All types of medicines, vitamins, drugs and anything like that was in a silver tablet form. I'd never seen medicines in bottles of liquid. I hoped I didn't need to drink it.

I did need to drink the medicine, and it was worse than I had expected: bitter, vile, sour. He put this form of leaf on my hand which cooled it quite a bit and then sprinkled it with salt before he bandaged it up. I still had the taste of the medicine in my mouth. He then got out the strange breaded product and passed a chunk to me,
"Will this help my cut?" Me chuckled,
"Nah, but it makes ya forget about the taste o' the medicine." I ate the chunk, it was fluffy, sugary, slightly caramelised.

He shuffled away from me a bit, taking off his cloak to show an old grey hoodie like garment underneath. He quickly pulled up his hood that covered a lot of his head. I was able to look at em a bit more closely now, he wasn't wearing shoes, which showed his long hooves. Mynx had considerably longer legs in proportion to their body, and near his hooves logs of fluffy fur tufted out. Their faces were round, they had small amounts of fluffy fur tuffs on his cheeks, long horns, big claws that were as large as my face. They had ears similar to something like a deer (also black) red eyes, red teeth and this mane like black fur that was on their chest and shoulders.

He patted at some blankets in the corner,"Ya gotta place to stay?" I swallowed, even though I didn't say anything Chimaera could see what I meant. He took a blanket and an old cushion, jumping up onto a rocky ledge and bundling himself up,"Well... ya can stay 'ere for the night... they'll find you if ya stay out there... I don't mind..." He blew out a candle,"It's warmer here than ya think, it gets cold in the night this season..." he yawned,"Don't... undo... bandage..." I think he slowly dosed off as I was left by myself in the warm cave.

I made myself to the corner, wrapping myself in the covers. Soon enough I fell asleep, but there was one thing that plagued into all my thoughts:
What the hell was I gonna do?