Ame Perdue

Chapter Thirteen

The two boys stumbled through the dense trees. They had no destination, nowhere to run. Their only hope was to keep going. They had to keep moving. Slowing down meant that they would get caught, and while neither of them knew what the repercussions would be, they knew enough to know that it couldn't happen to them. They weren't moving fast enough, but they knew that they couldn't give up.

The smaller of the boys was rapidly slowing down, the only thing that was keeping him moving was his friend's arm tugging him forward. He bit his lip, but refused to say anything, refused to complain. They hadn't stopped moving in hours, his body was steadying giving upon him. He wanted to beg his friend to slow down, beg him to stop, but he held his tongue. Because even as young as he was, he knew that they couldn't stop. Fear of what was chasing him had him pushing on.

The older boy wasn't fairing much better. It was only by sheer willpower that the boy kept them moving, farther and farther away from where they came. They were stumbling more than they were actually running, but as long as they kept moving, he was happy. He didn't know how far they had traveled. One kilometer? Two kilometers? He felt like it had been closer to twenty. It had been close to mid-day when they started running, it was almost dark now. He needed to find somewhere safe for them to rest for the night, otherwise, they would collapse in the open. He forced his tired eyes to keep searching, perhaps there would be a cave? A cave would be safe.

The two boys stumbling along would be easy meals for any of the predators in the forest. They were weak and bleeding, the perfect prey for almost anything. Already they had captured the attention of the foxes, bears, and cougars. The only reason that nothing had attacked them yet was solely due to the figure following them, his steps silent as he remained only a few yards away from the boys. Little more than a thought kept the large predators away from them, sending them after other prey.

He had to smile. The older of the boys was special, he was certain of it. He was cloaked with his power, he should have been invisible to the world, yet he had been forced to duck behind trees whenever the older cast his gaze behind him. Even though he had expertly cast the mirage, the boy had been able to see him. He had moved swiftly the first time that the boy had glanced behind him, he had seen nothing more than the darkness of his hair, but it had been enough. The older boy hadn't been able to make him out as a person, but the thought of a predator had him moving faster.

There was a power to the older boy, one that he couldn't make out quite yet. What he was certain of, was that this boy was important, not just to him, but to the different worlds around them. He could see the strings of fate swirling around him, reaching their threads out towards the hidden male. This boy would be interwoven with his future, he would bring about a change to his world that would either make him or destroy him.

If he survived to that point.

The man following them hadn't decided if he would allow them to survive yet.

Even if he decided to not intervene, there was no guarantee that the boys would survive. He would be surprised if they last another twelve hours. They looked terrible, even by his standards. It was clear that neither boy had had anything decent to eat in months, and something told him that they were used to being without food even before this recent bout of starvation. It was a small miracle that they were still moving, that their bodies haven't given out on them yet.

As small as both boys were, it was difficult to guess their age. It was only his abilities that allowed him to gauge them accurately. The younger of the pair was five, his half-birthday having been a few days more than a month ago. The older of them, the one that he was more interested in was closer to his eleventh birthday than he was his tenth, only two months away from that day.