Broken beyond healing | the darkling x oc

chapter three

As they were nearing the brims of darkness, Luda's mind was racing. She knew she had to get away, free herself somehow. But it wasn't that easy. She was still trapped on the horse, the stranger behind her, one arm still curled around her, his hand on her mouth. Her hands still cuffed, she struggled holding on to the horse. Her body was frozen in panic and she cursed herself for feeling so helpless once again. Half a day ago, she had thought of herself as independent and clever for staying out of the king's grasp, building her own life. Now, she had been abducted twice both times with so little resistance on her side that she now felt shame rise in her. "I have to fight harder this time. To get free. I can't die today" she thought, "There has to be a way off this horse and if I have to throw myself off it..." 

As she was promising this to herself, she was suddenly blinded by sunlight of the late afternoon sun shining through the dense canopy of the Ravkan forest. Without her noticing, they had rode through the border of darkness, leaving the carriage and its soldiers far behind them. They were now on a small trail leading them through the woods towards an unknown destination. "At least the trees could give me some cover if I manage to escape" she thought. Maybe she could outrun him in here, hiding under a fallen tree or maybe in a cave or a fox earth. He may have the advantages of a horse and his apparent familiarity with shadows and darkness but she had never known anything else than hiding even if she now had been caught twice. 

Luda's eyes scanned her surroundings, looking for anything that might enable her to take flight, to get away from him, whoever he was. The girl noticed that the trail took a sharp left about half a mile ahead of them. She turned her head right seeing several low-hanging branches . However her way into the woods was hindered by a small stream parallel to the trail they were riding on. It would take some valuable time to cross it, time she didn't have. Rounding the bend, Luda had almost given up on any escape plan, when she saw a fallen tree blocking the trail a couple horse lengths in front of them, leaving the stranger no other choice but to halt his horse. He muttered something inaudible before quickly demounting the horse. "Wait here" he said, his first words to her. His voice was low and slightly husky. There was something in his undertone that wasn't as commanding as she thought it would be. Definitely filled with less hatred than that of the soldiers. 

While the stranger quickly walked towards the wooden blockade, Luda once again scanned her surroundings. Maybe there really was a way for her to escape now that the man was distracted being focused on the tree. Thanking the saints, she realized that they had stopped directly under the low-hanging branches she had noticed a few moments earlier, hanging about an arm length above her head. "Maybe if I could..." Slowly, not to alert the stranger, she lifted her cuffed hands while trying hard to keep her balance on the back of the horse. It was definitely harder than she thought it would be. Both of her arms in the air, she tried to feel for one of the branches with her hands. It took a couple seconds but then she finally felt it wooden bark in her hands. She eyed the grisha carefully who still had his black-clothed back towards her, squatting in front of the tree examining it. It was now or never. With one rip Luda pulled on the branch breaking it off the tree, leaving her with a stick with one sharp end. She smiled satisfied, shoving it up her left sleeve. Her plan was set in motion. She prayed to the saints that it would work. The girl didn't want to think about the consequences of her failing. As if timed, the stranger turned around and started to walk back towards her. Luda worried that he suspected something but he didn't seem to have. The girl lowered her blue eyes back on her hands, one playing with the hem of her sleeve readying her improvised weapon of choice. 

She heard the man passing her and finally felt him mounting the horse once again behind her. "Seems like we have to jump" he said matter-of-factly. But before he could command the horse to start moving, Luda took her chance. She whipped the stick out of her sleeve with her right arm, grabbed it with both of her hands and with all the strength she had in her body jabbed it backwards along her right side into the man's stomach. The feeling she felt and the noises it made while gashing into the body made the brunette want to vomit but she dismissed her emotions when the stranger behind her cursingly pressed his right hand on his lower abdomen, giving Luda the chance for an escape. And she made it count. With one swift, free-handed movement she jumped off the horse's back, running towards the stream, only lowering her pace to avoid not to slip on the wet ground along its shore. Panic arose when she heard the man dismounting his horse coming after her, so she jumped without thinking twice over the stream. Her breath hitched, fearing that she wouldn't make it but when she landed safely on the other side she calmed a bit only to her him call out "Please don't run. Why are you running?"