Runesight

21 - Yera

--- Aymiae, fifteen years ago ---

A sharp crack heralded the pain as a scraping sensation moved across her upper arm. Aymiae cursed, ducking behind a relatively thick tree as Raan took his turn and bolted forward to draw fire. The sniper was hiding in the trees somewhere, with one of those strange weapons that Aymi had been trying to find for years. She wasn't about to lose this one when she might get a chance to take it apart.

Mostly at the moment she was angry. So sparking angry. Aymi always seemed to go a bit berserk when someone got hurt. Usually she was timid and helpful, but the moment someone else was in danger it was like she was an entirely different person. Kind of like mistress Raia when the king tried to take over the Ayfel that one time.

She felt at her arm, coming back with the slightest bit of cyan blood. It wasn't a deep penetration, not enough to get anything into her main bloodstream, but it had scraped against a spot where two joints in her exoskeleton met, the tender skin there wasn't protective enough to fully block those bullets.

Aymi was extra glad that this particular weapon didn't pack enough of a punch to do more than occasionally crack her natural armor, and that was only with a direct hit. It wasn't often where a tuvei was more resilient to a weapon than a human. Sure enough, her three human companions were huddled behind a fallen tree a ways back, Cada and Marn tending to Harrel who'd been shot in the leg. Aymi and the other tuvei took turns drawing fire as they steadily drew closer to the hidden attacker.

She wasn't entirely certain what she would do when she got her hands on whoever had done this, but she might actually kill them. She'd never really been able to do anything like that before, always leaving the area if she knew it was necessary and part of herself still screamed that all life was precious.

Well, this attacker would be disarmed at least.

Aymi kept checking the wind through the whole situation, trying to feel for inconsistencies. She wasn't great at sensing the patterns of the air even after twenty-seven years of having the ability, she was a lot better at illusions, but she wasn't about to hide herself now, Raan would be in more danger when he tried to edge forward if the attacker couldn't see Aymi too. Either way, Aymi didn't find anything significant in the wind this time, she was much better at making it move or using it to occasionally slow her fall than sensing stuff with it.

The crack of the gun gave Aymi the signal to move forward again since the sniper had focused on Raan, she bolted for the next tree even as Raan ducked behind a different one about forty feet to the side and a bit behind her.

Sparks how far away was this guy? She kept running, trying to make it erratic as she zigzagged, she made it past her initial target and was almost behind the next one before she heard the gun again and felt the bullet hit her shoulder straight on. She wasn't an idiot and had set up an illusion of herself that was quite a bit taller, so the likelihood of the attacker hitting her head was minimal with his accuracy. She'd probably live through a headshot though unless it was an extremely unlucky one and got one of her eyes, but Aymi wasn't about to play with fate.

She heard the gun again and bolted forward once more, squinting as she noticed the light hitting something reflective in the trees just a bit farther ahead and closer to Raan's side than her own. Possibly two or three more clumps of trees before she would be behind the attacker.

Aymi put her hand on her sword when she skidded to a stop behind the next clump of trees, remembering quiet nights where her brother showed her sword stances in secret. "I don't want you to be unable to defend yourself." She glanced back at the fallen log her human companions were behind, about eighty feet behind at this point.