Arlo woke unable to breathe. Water shot from his throat until he emptied his stomach. He groaned against the tensing pulse in his gut and the ache of his head.
He looked down at his hands and felt the sand between his pruned fingers, only registering his surroundings after catching his breath. A gigantic creature flashed in his mind, his stomach threatening to empty again.
Though the sand he knelt on was not beyond Rhydwen's bustling pier. He looked up, the sun beating down on him, but not nearly as hot as he was used to. His chest stiffened.
He could not see the copper fence. He was not in Rhydwen at all.
What in Gods' name happened?
He remembered the broken copper fence. How strong the current pulled towards the sea beyond it. How it had pulled him. He had been carried from Rhydwen by the tide.
He reached up and hissed at the pain in his head, pulling back two bloody fingers. And he had hit his head hard enough that it knocked him out for hours. Days, perhaps. It was a miracle gifted by the Gods that he had survived.
Sage. Where was Sage?
"Sage?" He croaked, swaying and stumbling as he got to his feet. Nothing.
The back of his head stung incessantly. He went to touch it again but pulled his hand back upon seeing his sand-covered fingers.
His clothes were sodden and heavy, and itchy. He scratched and scratched at his skin – where the collar of his shirt met his throat, and the ditch of his knee.
His eyes took in the view while he kept scratching at his red-raw skin. He was on a small stretch of sand, hardly the beach he had expected when he first woke. And somehow - every grain of sand clung to him.
There was only glittering blue ocean for leagues and leagues southwards. He turned to the north and felt a strange sort of panic at the rolling hills, endless trees and free flowing wildflowers. No fence. No cage. Only freedom. They had done it. But Sage wasn't with him.
He was alone in this world. This new, unrestricted land – defenceless and alone.
His chest sank. He couldn't have drowned. He wouldn't believe it. He couldn't. He would find a way to help Ivy and find Sage.
Putting one foot in front of the other, he walked on towards the loneliest freedom he would ever know.
YOU ARE READING
Shadowfire & The Nymph
FantasyTwenty-year old Lana Todoran has become ruthless and invisible to survive the brutality within Trinia's iron fence. Tired of the hunger and the pain, she decides to do something about it. Something that may very well get her killed - but what is the...
