Dragon Prince: Warrior (Re-Write)

Chapter Twelve: The Tracker

The sun was rising peacefully from the river in the early morning. Everyone was spent from the river ride, but they're still resting from it. Rayla laid curled on a tree branch above the boys and the girl, keeping a keen lookout as they rested. All night she'd been tossing and turning (and accidentally waking up a high alert Sierra) — the ribbon her wrist was definitely starting to constrict blood flow to her hand. It was turning purple and her fingers had become unnaturally clawed.
"Snap."
It was the tiniest sound, not enough to alert the resting travelers or even the squirrel resting near her, but the little crunch put Rayla on high alert. She sat up, hearing a few tweets of birds. She looked down and saw everyone were still resting with Bait and the egg. The crack was a twig snapping, Rayla was sure of it — and it had been snapped by a human foot, one that was trying to tread quietly.
Rayla sprang to her feet, grabbed her blades, and sprinted into the forest.
She snuck off, leaping through the trees. She landed gracefully on a bed of grass surrounded by bushes. She glanced around keeping quiet as a mouse. Thens she saw a stick snapped in two. She walked over and gently picked it up. Rustling echoed in her pointy ears. She turned around and saw the leaves rustling. She pulled out her swords.
But from out of the bush appeared a harmless fawn. She sheathed brt weapons away. "Aww, you scared me cutie." Rayla offered a hand and the curious fawn stepped over so she could stroke it. The fawn licked her hand, making her chuckled softly.
The fawn's ears flicked up in fear and it scurried back into the bushes, where it joined its mother and both of them bounded away quickly.
"What's wrong?" Rayla asked.
Just as she stood up, she saw a large shadow over her. Before she could react, she felt a net of rope falling onto her, trapping her. She grunted as she tried to wriggle free. She turned her head around and saw a human high up in the trees. It leapt down and landed right behind her. He wore a hunter's uniform with metal arm and leg armor; he carried a swinging hook with a chain lasso.
"Never trapped an elf before. Easier than I thought," said the tracker.
He swung his hook to try and stab Rayla, but she freed herself and flipped into a stand, pulling out her blades, and facing the human. She leapt into action.
The hunter swung his lasso-hook multiple types of Rayla, who back-flipped elegantly out of the way. Her attacker leapt her, but she fell back and pushed him over with her boots. Leaping back again to her feet, she turned around and saw the attacker giving her a daring face. In the distance between them, she could see the large tree behind them. She couldn't lead the hunter to her friends. The human threw his lasso at her, but the elf leapt up into the tall tree with long thick branches. Looking down, she saw her attacker throw the hook again, but she cartwheeled out of the way. The human hoisted her up into the tree to a higher branch, but Rayla sprinted along the lower branch she was standing on. The human trailed above her and getting closer enough, she threw her hook and it caught Rayla's ankle. She was hoisted up into the air upside down. The human, keeping a firm grip on the chain hoisted her up sawing a branch as a crank.
"Give me King Harrow's children peacefully and I'll let you go," the human ordered. "Release your prisoners!"
"They're not my prisoners!" Rayla answered back. "They chose to come with me!"
That earned a scoff from him. "Why would they trust you?"
Rayla twisted the air releasing her ankle from the chain and landed on the branch above. "Because they're my friends. I saved their lives." She deflected the hook again.
"'Friends'?" The hunter sneered. "Your lot killed their father!"
"I didn't kill anyone!" Rayla shouted back.
"What's the difference?" The man glared at her angrily.
"I'm sorry that King Harrow was killed!" yelled Rayla. "It was the High Mage they should have killed for killing the King of the Dragons! I'm not your enemy!"
But the hunter wouldn't listen. He launched his hook again and it broke the branch Rayla was standing on, sending her falling. She managed to grab hold of a branch far below, bust she couldn't hold on for very long. She tried to climb up but the human towered over her. "They don't know. Do they?" Rayla flipped from under the branch and sent her attacker falling another ranch below. She went dashing through the trees until she came to a giant branch overlooking a great cliff and some lower forest plains.
She heard the cling of the chain.
"When they find out they'll hate you!" The hunter sneered.
"Shut up!" shouted Rayla.
The hunter launched his hook and it lassoed Rayla's sword as she moved to deflect it. He smirked. But his victory was short-lived when Rayla lassoed his left wrist around the chain and he leapt off the cliff, taking the human with her. They crashed through branches and slide down a steep hill. Rayla turned her right butterfly-knife sword into a hook and she managed to slow down her slide by digging into the dirt. The human went tumbling down and down and down until he crashed into a deep ditch far, far below. He would not be after Rayla any time soon. He stood up, glaring coldly up at the elf.
"Savor your victory elf!" The angry tracker yelled. "Next time you won't be so lucky!"
"Says the guy in the ditch!" jeered Rayla.
She sheathed hey blades and sprinted back towards the camp.
⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡
Sierra yawned and carefully stretched from her sleep next to the egg, while Callum was started wake up on the other side of the egg. Then she surveyed the camp warily. Ezran and Bait were both sleeping soundly, but Rayla was nowhere to be found.
"Cal, Ez, wake up." Sierra scanned the forest around them warily. "I think we're alone."
"What?!" Callum sat up straightly and gazed around frantically.
"Rayla's missing," said Sierra quickly. "We still have the egg though."
"Okay, good." Callum breathed softly as he gently held onto the egg, safe and softly glowing in the bag. "But that still doesn't mean we can trust her. I mean, it's weird that she just leaves camp without telling either of us."
"I like her, Callum," said Ezran. "I think maybe we should trust her. She wants the same things we want."
"Except... something's telling me that she's not telling us everything," Sierra admitted.
"You're right, Sierra," said Callum. "I can feel it. We have to be careful, okay?"
Sierra nodded her agreement, it was pretty strange why Rayla had took off without waking them up. Ezran turned back to Callum and nodded.
Suddenly, Rayla rushed back into camp. "Go, go, go! We've gotta move."
"What's going on? Where were you?" asked Callum.
"What?" Sierra felt herself becoming alarm by Rayla's frantic response after she returned. "What's wrong?"
"We should really eat something before we leave," Ezran said.
"Rayla, why?" Callum asked. "You have to at least explain—"
"I don't have to explain anything to you." Rayla picked up Callum's empty backpack and shoved it into his chest. "Pack up! Let's go!"
"Fine." Callum stuffed the primal stone, sketchbook, and pencil into his bag till his bag is full. 
Sierra quickly gathered their supplies into her backpack and slipped their meals into her bag, unaware of Bait's hungry eyes as he gazed at their meal pack.
Ezran followed their leads. He gently swaddled the egg and slid it into his own backpack. Then he heaved the bag onto his back.
"Come on, you three!" Rayla said. "Hurry."
"Okay, relax — we're coming," said Callum, while Ezran scooped up Bait and they ran to catch up to Rayla.