After the fall

Chapter 5

They both continued walking through the barren land until they reached the forest again. The then sun-covered ground was now coated in shadows as they ventured deeper into the forest. Lapisa held her distance as they continued the journey, only looking at the man's back as he walked on in front of her. His big bag on his back looked close to bursting with whatever could be in there.

"You know you don't have to be so far away, right? I wouldn't hurt a customer." The man's voice suddenly broke the silence and startled Lapisa from her drifting mind. Still a bit wary of the stranger, she closed the distance between them a bit but not enough to be within arms reach. "Yeah, but we're still strangers. I don't know if I can trust you yet." Lapisa said with a bit of a frown as she stared into the back of the man's head.

"Lan" The man suddenly said into the open, not even turning his head to look at Lapisa. "What?" Lapisa said.

"That's my name. Now we're not strangers anymore." 'Lan' said, turning his head a bit to look at Lapisa from the corners of his eyes.

After the short introduction between the two, the silence stretched out and the only sounds that accompanied them were the rustling of the leaves, shoes hitting dirt and faint chirping of birds. The silence continued until Lan decided that it was becoming too boring to stay in complete silence. "Y'know, I bet you'd look cute if you smiled a little. No offense." Lan said smugly and ducked under a low branch. Lapisa, deciding to ignore the comment, followed after Lan as he kept trying to strike up a conversation, sensing that he is going nowhere with it he began to talk out loud, not really aiming it at anyone specific. As he continues to talk Lapisa let her mind wander and began thinking of the situation she found herself in.

'How did this happen to her?'

'Why did this happen to her?'

Questions that went unanswered kept running through her head and confusing her as well as unsettling her. Unconsciously, Lapisa slowed her pace and the distance between her and Lan grew, his voice growing fainter with each step until he was no longer in sight.

A low growl that disturbed the silence snapped her out of her drifting thoughts and she turned to look behind her, where the noise came from only to be faced with a haggard looking wolf. Its eyes were constricted and eyeing her every move, it was slightly panting and saliva was dropping from its gleaming teeth as it snarled. Terrified, she begins to take steps backwards creating a bigger distance between her and the wolf. In a swift motion, she turned towards the direction where Lan went and sprinted. Without looking back she ran with all her might despite her aching body's protesting. The sound of the wolf's paws hitting the ground echoed in the silent forest telling that it was hot on her tail. As the scenery around her began mixing into a blur she suddenly saw Lan's back come into view and in her panicked state she yelled out hoping to get his attention. "RUN!" Lan, clearly not aware of her short disappearance, turned around clearly confused and came face to face with Lapisa running for her life with a wolf right behind her. As Lapisa came closer and closer he seemed to pick up on the situation and began sprinting in the direction they were walking before. Lan, despite his big bag, ran faster than Lapisa and the distance between him and Lapisa grew with every second while the distance between Lapisa and the wolf only closed in. Lan was far away enough that you could barely see him when he suddenly turned around with something in his hands that he was holding up.

"GET DOWN!" His voice suddenly booms through the forest and Lapisa as instructed dropped to the ground and the wolf was on her in seconds. The sound of something zipping through the air was suddenly heard and the wolf that was leaning over her, fell full weight on her and laid motionless. In her frantic state, she turned her head to look at it and was met with empty eyes and an arrow sticking out between its eyes. Blood was seeping out of the arrow wound and dripped onto her face as she lay shocked on the ground, still shaken up from the chase. The sound of footsteps thumping on the ground fell on deaf ears as she continued laying there with the wolf's rapidly cooling body draped over her. All of a sudden the wolf's body was shoved off her and she was hauled up to her feet by her armpits. She stumbled a bit on her feet and looked at Lan who was now staring at the wolf's corpse as if taking it in, detail by detail.

His hair was wild from all the running and his clothes were slightly sticking to his body because of the sweat. He was slightly panting and a bit flustered from the intense workout. By his side hangs a crossbow and Lapisa looked from between the crossbow and the arrow sticking out of the wolf's head. Suddenly Lan looks up from the wolf and turns his head to face Lapisa. "You okay?" His voice was slightly hoarse as he asked her. "Fine. Just fine." Lapisa said, slightly trembling and swaying on her feet. Suddenly the world around her began tilting and she stumbled onto something hard but soft. Lapisa felt arms wrap around her waist as she began feeling faint and was hauled up into the air and her head put against a shoulder. Her arms lay motionless in her lap and she felt arms make their way under her legs and towards her thighs. The surroundings around her began blurring together and fading until she reluctantly passed out.