Mirror Walker

Chapter 15

            Konner skidded to the ledge, heaving pants as he restlessly searched the path below for Charlie. She was storming after the crooked creature, so close that she was reaching out to grab it. It sprinted to the edge, not sparing her a glance as it leaped off the cliffside and slid down agilely, flexing its knees for balance and swerving to ridge after ridge. She in turn, hammered her heels to the ground and forced herself to stop, screaming after it in fury.

"You're never going to catch it!" he called to her.

"Shut up!" spinning into a blur, she raged down the road, her joints trembling with every heavy impact when she tumbled down the incline, but she didn't care. She needed the necklace.

With an eyeroll he muttered, "Suit yourself," and went after her, sheathing his sword and swiftly springing off the ledge and onto the mountain path.

Her hem threatened to tangle her legs the whole way, but she hoisted it up with one hand, gripping the fabric casually and running like she was seven and playing tag in Dushmore's streets. Except this time the situation was far more dire, with her heart thundering and blood pulsing with adrenaline.

If she lost that necklace, she was stuck here with a life that she didn't know how to live.

The slope lessened, the cliffs becoming less perilous and rocky as grass began to dot the sides. She hesitated at the next corner, staring down from the edge with her head dizzying from the idea. But the thief was getting away. She didn't have time to debate.

Konner was hurriedly catching up, stopping behind her and uneasily examining the way she was leaning further and further forward, "Charlette?"

Tipping, she aimed herself to fall.

"CHARLETTE!" he tried to grab her, but she was too quick, zipping out of his reach as he yelled at her.

She jumped, slanting herself parallel to the hill and sliding down, feeling the old injury in her left knee reawaken and throb. It was a minority to her though, she didn't have time to worry about the ache. Reaching a ridge, she scrambled to its end and jumped again, slithering to the next one and the next like the being was doing and gradually gaining. Her leg was killing her, but it was working. She was going to kill that moron.

Meanwhile, poor Konner was having a heart attack watching her. She reached the first stop, then the second. Once she'd found a third stopping point, he smacked a hand to his temple and swore, "Flipping heck..." his throat so tight he could scarcely breathe. This girl was just asking to die.

Contemplating doing what the others were, he scoffed at the idea and continued down the path. He wasn't exerting himself that much. He was tired and quite frankly sick of the whole endeavour. The sun was setting, and they should be getting to town not chasing some disfigured animal into the woods.

Nevertheless, Charlie was intent on having its head. It darted into the rock-ridden moors, onto the flat ground and bumbled through the grass.

Now Diego had been having a very good day. His owner was too busy chasing after some new mare to bother with him, meaning that he didn't have to walk or carry his rider. His belly was swollen with sugary grass, girth piercing into his stomach despite being on the loosest length. His teeth grinded against each other as he happily chewed, so bored out of his mind that it filled him with absolute glee. The sunshine warmed his back, the reins limply hung on his neck, his tail carelessly swatted away the flies and the grass sweetened his tongue. Today was a good day to be a horse.

Until he spotted a black cap bobbing up to him from behind.

He bolted forwards two strides, mind already filled with a thousand ways he could die. His legs surged up with power, ripping the earth out from under him when he dug his hooves with a final bunny hop, and prancingly shuffled himself round like a gazelle to view the intruder galloping to him. Nostrils flaring, he gave a threatening puff into the air, eyes wide while his head was strung up high and his tail even higher, ogling the being shuffling over the scattered stones planted in the meadow.