Mother of Monsters (Camp NaNoWriMo 2015)

Chapter V

My legs hurt so much from all this running. I don't think I ever ran this much in my entire life. I lost my shawl along the way and I almost lost a shoe. Just to be safe I took off both my shoes, and now my feet hurt almost as bad as my legs. Now I know why my dad always told me to wear shoes if I'm going outside.

I couldn't stand running anymore. I wanted to find Elios and Milea. Milea is better at magic than I am, and Elios is stronger than I am. With those two I could at least stand against the angry mob trying to hunt me down like some wild boar.

I can't really blame them I guess. I mean I did burn half their town down. And it is our fault that a good portion of their guards are dead. And some of their citizens too now that I think about it.

But we also did not do anything to deserve being attacked. We just sold one potion from Strago to a guy so we could get money. Is that so bad that you need to kill a couple of kids?

I couldn't take any more of this running. I quickly put my shoes back on my sore feet and decided to climb the nearest tree. If I stay still enough, maybe they'll just walk past me.

But what if humans can track a scent. Oh Fate, if you're as great as Milea says you are, please don't let humans track my scent.

I sit down on a branch and stay as still as I could. My legs are thanking me for giving them a breather. My feet are too, though they still hurt. I haven't even bothered to check them to see if I have cuts.

Oh no what if I'm bleeding. Humans can smell blood right? What if they can follow my tracks because a cut opened some time ago and my blood was leading them straight to me.

I took some deep breaths, but still tried to stay still in this tree. I can't afford any rustling.

I hear some voices from under me. It doesn't sound like many people, but they could have split up to cover more ground. "And you're sure it came this way?" One voice asks.

The word it stuck to my mind. I was not a living being in their eyes, I was an it. That made me feel disgusted. "One hundred percent positive. It must have gotten ahead. Let's go!" The second voice sounded more cheerful, but it still doesn't change the fact that if they found me they'd kill me.

Even after the voices passed, I stayed in the trees. My legs and feet were killing me. Where would I even go? What if I move and someone is right under me? Where even is the next city-state? Are they just like the last?

I don't know how long I stayed up in that tree before I decided to move, but it felt like centuries. I slowly stood up on the branch to see where the city-states are, and then I'll find the closest one. Then once I'll get there, I'll hope my friends are there. If not, then I'll have to go to Mt. Dianae alone. They won't leave me stranded outside of Strago.

There's two city-states that are closest to me, but there's a great distance between them. If I went to go check them both out, the Milea and Elios for sure would make it to Dianae without me. They'll think I died or something. I can't let that happen.

I slowly climb down the tree, my legs still aching from the exercise I had earlier. That's when I saw a little girl, staring up at me with two big hazel eyes. She didn't say anything, just stared at me. I didn't know what to do, so I stared at her back. After a while she finally spoke. "What were you doing in that tree?" Her voice was so high pitched. This girl is younger than anybody I've seen in Strago.

"Hiding from some bad people." I responded. I looked around. She didn't have an older sibling looking after her, no parent, not even some other form of company. "What are you doing out here by yourself?"

"I'm looking for my dog. He got lost out here." She looks nervously around. "Did you see my dog from up there?"

I shook my head. "I didn't see any dog from up there."