ChromaTober | FMS 2023 writing challenge | Hosted by @LoneRanger253

Day 1 | Hunted

His breathing was shallow.

His chest hurt from not getting enough air.

His legs ached numbly after running for hours into the night.

All he could he hear were his panicked steps into the unknown and branches breaking from the someone following him. Hunting him, he knew.

Sabre didn't bother looking back to see whether the figure had gained up on him or fallen behind. He was well aware that Darkness could find him quickly. The remnants of Shadow still remained, not fully faded away after all. And it seemed he didn't manage to seal away the Darkness completely since one of them was trying to get to him as desperately as he tried to get away. It called his name multiple times, its voice echoing through the night. It only made Sabre go further faster.

The night was dark, only the full moon reflected light on top of the trees, though little of it escaped through the dense leaves to show Sabre the path. The night was also cold, even freezing as Sabre only had his pyjama shirt, short trousers and socks.

For context, he had woken up in the middle of the night because of a nightmare. He tried to calm himself down, but then his door opened and he yelped. He only saw a dark tall figure slowly coming in and that was enough for his still nightmare-driven mind. He had opened the window and jumped out, somehow not getting injured from the fall. The figure yelled out his name, but that scared him and he bolted out to the forbidden woods.

Still running like a cheetah, he felt something warm fall down his cheeks, dropping down to his sweaty white shirt. Was it blood? Or tears? He didn't know. And he was too focused, tunnel-visioned to check or properly even register it.

Sprinting through bushes and some smaller trees, breaking branches in the way of his head, he was bound to get many cuts and a considerable amount blood stained on him.

He never noticed.

He only cared about losing the figure hunting him and rest. He was exhausted. And he could run only so much longer, already feeling his legs weaken and posture starting to be weighed greatly by gravity, somehow not affected by adrenaline in his veins. Sabre was unable to grasp why he was ever so slightly calming down.

He cried, this time knowing it well. P-Please... Leave me alone..! I want to live...!

Rapid thumps of his running steps weighed him.

...

Occupied with his racing thoughts, and perhaps because this part of the forest was notorious for its camouflage, he tripped. And kept falling.

Did I just trip into a ravine? He thought with wide eyes, reality catching up to him when he was already half-way down. His breath hitched. He cried again.

At least I won't be hunted anymore, right? Sabre looked at the situation from a pessimistic or depressed angle.

It had been good few months after sealing away the Darkness and he had managed to gain some trust with the Chromatics again. But majority still had their doubts and didn't trust him. Rainbow Kingdom was rebuilt, but for his own good, the village leaders let him stay there, in the house they'd given him, Time and Dark, who unfortunately was no longer with them. "Over time," they'd said, "they will trust you again. Leave time to do its job to heal the wounds."

Moments of his life flashed and faded before his eyes as he closed them, to hopefully make his death a bit less painful. Somewhere in the distance, he registered a vague scream and thunder cracking. Is a thunderstorm coming? Will the rain wash away my remains? His mental state wasn't in a great shape. Sure, he had had talks and "therapy" with Time and that one Green Steve, but it always deteriorated quickly, for a reason the Steves didn't know. Only Sabre did. Or did he?