Sabel

Chapter 8

CALADAN HAD to stop.

He had been running for two minutes.

He was out of breath. Clutching his heaving chest, he crouched a little, half-bent. He tried to steady himself, to find some balance. He tasted the air-it was starting to get damp. Moist. He scanned around and realized that he was off-road. He was surrounded by a forested area, thick with high leaves and branches. The soggy ground was littered with bits of dried-up leaves. But a few meters away, he could see a break in the dense vegetation. There was a tiny stretch of road, and the first signs of a suburban house.

Villa Pillar. Though Caladan had already been to Villa Pillar many times than he could count, to visit Sabel's house, he had never been into this part of the subdivision. Now he wished that he could have had ventured farther. Villa Pillar was...large. Larger than your ordinary subdivision. Caladan could now fretfully sense... that he was lost.

The worst time to be lost.

He then felt a searing stab of pain in his lower abdomen. He slowly lifted his shirt to see what was causing it. There was...nothing. Where it ought to be the place of a terrible wound, instead there was just clean flesh. But the pain he felt was telling otherwise.

How was this happening? Did he have some kind of secret disease? Or did he have some unknown, super-human healing abilities? No wonder that guy (Trigo, was it?) went off his rails when he found out he had no wounds!

Now, Caladan remembered that he swiped Trigo hard on the jaw with his free elbow. Trigo flew a few feet away from him. He looked blurry for a few seconds before pulling himself up again. He almost felt sorry for Trigo. Yet, that gave Caladan the right time to escape. To get out of the house. To get out of Avira's way. To find...Sabel.

She was out there. There was no time to ponder about his "magical" healing abilities. Caladan thought that there was also no point being able to heal forever if Sabel ended up being dead. No, she is out there.

Must find her.

Taking a huge gulp of air, Caladan tried muster himself again. To get going. Even though there was a wide expanse of trees and vegetation and surburbia before him, and that he half did not even know where to go, he simply had to keep on searching. Sabel is probably in dire need, and he was losing time.

But as he stood up, and the light of the moon illuminating his path, he suddenly heard hushed voices. He bent down again. He hid behind a thick cluster of shrubs, camouflaged in front by its spindly leaves. He turned directly to the source of the sound. He saw movement. Two silhouetted figures. Light glinted off their armor. Hands clenched on their swords. Their shirts billowed slightly against a small gust of wind. And emblazoned on their chest, there was no mistaking: the anahaw leaf.

It was Avira's men. They were searching like hungry jackals. And he could make out his name in their quiet conversation.

Caladan had become the prey.

Thinking of a way to quietly slip past them, Caladan moved laterally. Slowly.

Slowly...

His shaking feet pressed down on dried leaves and twigs. He could dreadfully hear the small crack! as he unavoidably dug his feet down on them.

Careful...careful... one dumb move, Dan, and you are caught...

Ah, these things are worse than egg shells!