The Chosen Dawnseeker

Chapter 5

Hannah landed on her back against the vibrant grass and her face got dirty from dirt coming into the air due to her slide. She looked behind her and the mist blurred out the village. She couldn't see the village behind her. Oh what has she done? Rylan stood up, sat Jenna on the ground and looked at her, out of breath. "Did you think you were going to be some kind of hero? What did you think you were going to accomplish by that? I'm already a dead man" Rylan said as he sat down on the ground.
"I didn't-" Hannah started.
"You didn't think. You didn't listen. We've reminded you constantly that you can't go out here and yet here we are" He interrupted.
Hannah stood up and looked to Jenna. "What happened to her?" Hannah asked.
"A baneclaw got her. We split up and she went over by Shadowthorn Hollow. I found her like this" Rylan responded.
"I thought Baneclaws only come out at night" Hannah said. "They only come out at night here in The Ethereal Grove. In Shadowthorn, they're always there" Rylan said as he stood up. The sun was beginning to go down faster and faster. "We gotta go. It's becoming night quicker and quicker. If we stay here any longer, we'll be dead by midnight" Rylan said.
"Wait wait whoa. We can't just leave her here to die, we gotta find somewhere to take her" Hannah argued. Rylan threw one of Jenna's arms over his shoulder and Hannah did the same to the other. Then they began to hike, going further and further into the expanse of towering trees and mystical flora. It was a grueling hike, with beads of sweat dripping down Hannah's forehead. Eventually they sat Jenna down, resting her up against a tree. The sky was getting darker and they heard a distant howl.
"Shit, they're coming. We gotta go, now!" Rylan ordered.
"What do you mean, we gotta hide her somewhere so they don't find her" Hannah said. "Where the hell are we gonna hide her out here?" Rylan questioned.
"You think I fucking know? Rylan, you've been out here every day for the past 2 years, you can't think of anywhere to take her?" Hannah questioned. Rylan groaned and picked her up, pinning her against the tree. "Do you know where you are? Look around! There's no where for us to go!" Rylan yelled at her and then let go of her. "You don't understand. We're on death row" Rylan said. Hannah got an idea. "What about up there?" She pointed up to high in the tree that they had rested Jenna against. Rylan sighed. "I guess" He said. Rylan found a vine and tied it around Jenna's waist and Hannah began helping him pull her up. But the sound of a baneclaw came closer and Rylan began to shake in fear. "Fuck this, we can't get her up. We have to go!"
"No, we're so close. We just have to go a bit higher" Hannah insisted. In the distance, the shadow of some kind of wolf creature with huge red eyes could be seen and it emitted the same howl that Hannah found out that a baneclaw made from after her fight with Thalia.
"I'm sorry, Hannah" He said as he then took off running in another direction.
"Rylan?!" Hannah called after him and she slipped, the vine falling and sending Hannah up in the air from the change in weight. Hannah landed on a really high branch and was stuck looking down. Hannah grabbed onto the vine and slowly began to pull up Jenna, but the silhouette of the baneclaw could be seen below her. She froze, staying as still as a rock. The thing she saw underneath her was indeed some kind of wolf creature, but here's the kicker: the thing was bigger than a wolf and its claws were about the length of a adult human arm. Hannah closed her eyes and waited for the thing to pass, the growls from the creature becoming distant once again. Hannah opened her eyes and looked down at Jenna. "Don't worry, I got you" Hannah said as she shifted backwards on the branch, pulling Jenna up and setting her on the base of the branch, with the vine hanging down incase she was able to come back for her later. Hannah dropped down to the ground, landing in the creature's saliva. It's a good thing she had boots on then. She looked up at Jenna and was relieved when she saw she was secure up there. Then Hannah began to walk, looking around at the jungle around her in the moon's light. But she was interrupted in her sight seeing when she stepped in more of the thing's saliva and heard growling behind her. Hannah swallowed and slowly turned around. The creature from earlier jumped on top of her and Hannah shouted, falling to the ground. Looks like that's what a baneclaew was. Its teeth were sharper than a sword and were bigger than the length of her finger. Hannah was at least a third of its size and it roared in her face, its spit dripping down on her. Hannah slithered out from underneath the baneclaw and took off running. She didn't stop, she just kept on running. She ran past tree after tree after tree, twisting and turning in the labyrinth of trees, but she tripped on a root and stumbled on the ground. She looked up and saw three or four other baneclaws circling her. She looked behind her and saw a stream of water. She didn't waste any time, she turned on her heel and booked it, jumping into the water and quickly swimming to the other side. She ran onto shore, the roar of the baneclaws echoing throughout the jungle behind her. She looked around for somewhere to go. She saw it. Up. She needed to go up. She quickly climbed up a tree and made it onto a sturdy branch. But the tree was also huge as the branch was like 20 feet off the ground. The baneclaws climbed their way up the tree, and growled at Hannah.
"Fuck!" Hannah cursed. The baneclaws made their way up onto the branch and Hannah didn't have a choice. She sprinted across the branch and attempted to leap off, but the weight of the baneclaws on the branch caused it to snap, sending Hannah and the Baneclaws plummeting to the ground. Hannah landed straight on her back, but couldn't groan in pain because the baneclaws immediately began to attack her. One of them slashed at her head and she ducked and rolled, with her back turned to a tree. One of them snapped at her with its teeth, her ducking out of the way again and its teeth slamming into the tree. It closed its mouth, breaking the tree with its large teeth, causing it to fall. Hannah shouted in fear and ran, managing to slide and narrowly missing the tree falling on the ground but she made it and the tree smacked the ground with a loud, echoing BAM!!
The one baneclaw that's been on her ass this whole time jumped over the fallen tree right behind her. Hannah started to run away from it, and it started to chase her. "No! Oh fuck please" She begged, hoping the thing didn't catch her. Hannah saw a bunch of vines having down from a tree ahead of her. She ran and ran before jumping and managing to grab onto the vine and hold herself on it. She climbed up the vine but it was hard since the thing was kinda slippery. She climbed up it through and climbed onto the tree the vine was hanging on. The vine was connected to a jumbled up mess of vines, all hanging down to the ground. The baneclaws climbed up the tree, but this time, jumped onto the branch when they were halfway up the tree. The branch held, but Hannah didn't have any other choice as the baneclaws slowly approached her. She turned on her heel, ran and jumped off the branch, hanging onto a vine as she began to descend towards the ground. The baneclaws followed suit, but got stuck in the jumbled up mess of vines. The baneclaws slashed at the vine Hannah was on, and cut it thoroughly. Hannah tumbled and landed on the ground, her back smacking the ground almost as if it was concrete. She backed up, looking up at the Baneclaws when she got scared by Rylan coming up behind her. "Holy shit, you're ok?" Rylan asked. "Well I wish I had the fucking metal armor shoulder pads and the leather breastplate that you got, and that satchel full of weapons which probably don't even work against these damn things, because if they did, these things would've been extinct by now. But it still would've made it much easier" Hannah said.
"Come on, get up" Rylan said as he helped her stand up. The two began running, pushing past trees and the baneclaws which had gotten free from the tangled up vines. "Hey, we're not far from the entrance to the village. We can lose the baneclaw if we cut through here, let's go" Rylan said as he sprinted forward. Hannah followed after him but stopped. It was like someone hit refresh on the tiniest part of her brain. She knew exactly what to do, but she didn't know how she knew. "A baneclaw's weakest spot is the inside of its mouth" Hannah whispered to herself.
"Hannah! What the hell are you doing?! Let's go!" Rylan called to her. Hannah looked to her right and noticed they were rocks with jagged sharp pointed edges on them, almost like spikes. They were spread out across the entire edge of a massive stream that ran through the jungle. They were quite a ways away though, so she had some running to do. Hannah stepped back and looked over, seeing the baneclaw appear near her, clinging high onto a nearby tree with its claws dug into the body of the tree. The baneclaw jumped down, landing on the ground, causing the ground to slightly shake underneath its weight. It roared at her, a sharp and bone chilling gargle echoing from the baneclaw's mouth and making its way into Hannah's ears, as a loud roar. The baneclaw slammed both its fists on the ground in a built up rage and a lust for blood.
"You wanna eat me?! Then come on! Come get your dinner!" Hannah shouted at the baneclaw, antagonizing it and pissing it off, and the baneclaw began sprinting towards her with its mouth open and ready to eat. She turned on her heel and bolted towards the rocks, and made the mistake of looking back. That made her run faster, because it put the fear of god in her again. She saw the baneclaw snarling and teething to try and get her, with its large claws ripping through the ground as it chased after her and its dead, deep red eyes piercing into Hannah's soul. She also felt faster, but it wasn't because of the baneclaw. She didn't know what it was, she just felt faster with more energy. However, Rylan saw it clearly. Her eyes had changed to a bright luminescent green right before she had become faster. Rylan didn't know what to make of it, but her eyes returned to normal almost immediately.
"You can go faster than that!" Hannah shouted towards the baneclaw, needing the baneclaw to gain a shit ton of momentum for this to work. Rylan realized what she was doing and sort of became her cheerleader. "Come on! Move it, Hannah! Run!" He called to her. Hannah sprinted and sprinted, beginning to feel like her legs were going to fall off eventually from the constant motion. Once she saw the rocks getting closer and closer, she jumped, leaping over the rocks and watching as the baneclaw slammed face first into the rocks, its head exploding as it made contact and the body going limp.

Kieran was woken up by the same group of people that he was standing with when they were at the veil of mystique. Kieran had fell asleep here, alongside his fox Blaze, waiting for Hannah to come back. He was woken up by Ethan and Evelyn and noticed the mist gone but no sign of Hannah or Rylan. "They haven't came back yet?" Kieran asked.
"Sorry, kiddo, but no. And I don't think they will. Come on, let's get you some breakfast" Ethan said as he helped Kieran stand up. Then Kieran heard footsteps and groaning. He turned around and his face lit up. "Hannah!" He shouted.
Hannah and Rylan were carrying Jenna, who was still unconscious. They made it up onto the village's wooden platform and dropped Jenna on the ground and Lena took her to heal her. Hannah was covered in dirt and scrapes, she was sweating up a storm, her feet hurt, and she was bleeding a tad bit too.
"Holy shit, how did you guys survive?" Thalia asked. Hannah didn't hear her so she didn't answer. Kieran looked to Hannah. "So you saw a baneclaw?" Kieran asked.
"Yeah I saw one, more than one actually. Ugliest motherfuckers I think I've ever seen" Hannah responded.
Rylan smirked. "That's not all she did. You wanna know how we survived? She also killed one, that's how" Rylan told the group, who all proceeded to look at Hannah with a mix of shock and confusion.