Rykka (Beastborne: Book 1)

Part 1: All Is Lost

Song: Stardust - Gemini Syndrome

The sky was just starting to lighten as Lithias became aware that her body was moving without her consent. She had been known to sleep walk but the feeling in her stomach as she blinked quickly and tried to regain herself made her unsure if she had been sleeping at all. In fact she remembered waking up with the pups around the middle of the night but she did not remember returning to her bed. As it were, she was undressed for her current location. Her magic rarely took over her body anymore and when it did it usually prioritized her safety so something was terribly wrong for it to have taken her to to the falls without so much as her cloak. Instead of being cold however she felt essence bubbling under her skin, an image of flames licking the inside of her flesh begging to be let out and consume everything she had left in the world.

Now in control of her body she allowed the pull of her magic to guide her. The anxious feeling in her stomach turned to one of fear and dread as she shuffled along her narrow path. She was close enough to the waterfall that she could feel the icy mist of it biting her exposed face and neck. As she crouched at the end of the small path she looked down the cliff side she now stood on. Her adept vision allowed her to see rather well despite the dim lighting. The feeling intensified as her eyes brushed over the trees to her right. She could feel something coming. Every sense in her body was on high alert and a memory was thrust to her mind of a morning nearly a decade ago when this had happened before.

The snow crunched quietly under Lithias fur bound boots as she crept closer to the three large boulders several paces to her left. Facing outwards on the cliff face she didn't dare look down to ensure her slippery footing held. Even with the risk of an unmistakably fatal fall, she didn't dare look down and lower her eyes for a second from the treeline below her. The towering evergreens looked undisturbed on a ground level but from her place she could see how the birds flew from the trees, fleeing the area in a line that was quickly approaching the river directly below her. Only her keen senses allowed her to hear anything over the roaring waterfall to her other side.

Her ledge was only a few steps wide but it wound a good distance around the cliff face before she was able to get into this position. That meant several long paces before she was out of direct line of sight of the riverbank below. Her dust and grey colored clothing would help with some level of camouflage but this had been one of the only day in years that she had left her home without her top layer slate grey cloak that would've provided the needed cover for her lavender locks that billowed in uncontrollable curls around her face. She was under dressed and under prepared, her father would be cursing her if he could see her now.

That is between bouts of telling her off for not moving faster and for getting herself into such a limited position in the first place. Her deep purple eyes flickered to the surrounding cliff face just as she finally managed to reach a curve that would take her out of sight of the small valley. In the same moment she reached the turn, her keen sense of smell finally picked up on the threat that had brought her here. The smell of horses, steaming from a hard ride, and a collection of smells from clothing to body odor that identified humans coming as well. They weren't speaking or she would be able to hear, and she was tempted to wait and see if they would halt at the river or if they already had a plan in mind for crossing it.

That notion was quickly washed away and she was even swifter in her footsteps as she rounded the corner and moved as fast as she could on her path back to the base of the cliff. What happened when they crossed the river was all she could think about. Part of her worried that she was overreacting to these new comers, maybe they were simply traders who had gotten lost looking for the abandoned trading post that her father once ran. She put that to rest quickly, her fathers post was much further down the mountain and on the other side entirely. The only thing in this direction, specifically the other side of this river, was her home. Dread filled her as her feet moved quickly over the icy ground. She felt a familiar panic clench her stomach but she moved on regardless.