The Black Cat

Chapter 34 Night Crew

I was surprised that the night was so dark when the day was bright.

On every corner of the shacks row, stood a makeshift streetlight. It was a sturdy pole with a lit candle on top accompanied with a glass or something clear around and above it. It looked dangerous.

"Got a pass to be out this late sir?"

I didn't turn around, the voice sounded bold and official. He had to be a guard. I fixed my voice and covered my mouth when I spoke. "Ah, no, just a little lost in this maze of a city."

"Hmm," the man thought for a moment. "Then why are you staring at a light sir?"

"My...My wife told me down seven lights and the five more on the left."

The man sighed. "You're story is painfully terrible Miss. First, those clothes show your figure, then a deep voice wasn't the right choice. Your story of twelve lights are wrong too. We don't even have twelve. Then they're only in the slave quarters...You look awfully suspicious."

I turned around and locked eyes with the man. His solid amber eyes gleamed as they fixed on mine. I sought to speak, but no words escaped my lips.

The man chuckled and grabbed my hand covering my mouth. "I found you Lye."

My heart constricted and I collapsed to my knees. My right hand grasped the bottom of my stolen shirt.

I groaned grasped my head with my free hand. "Who are you?"

The man's eyes widened and his grip on my hand got tighter. "Lye, we need to get you home. Everyone's been worried sick-."

"Fire!"

The man growled and threw me forward.

I could hardly catch my breath before an arrow went through my ankle. I screamed as I grasped my leg on the ground. My breath was cruelly pulled from me and I only curled into a ball and started crying.

Strange. This time I wasn't crying for some sadness, but pain. Humans had to endure so much-.

I grasped the arrow in my foot and yanked it one hard time. An intense amount of blood spilled from my foot. I rocked back and forth and squeezed my foot to stop the pain.

"Lye!"

I took a second to myself before I looked up. "I'm not Lye."

"MOVE!"

I turned right and gasped. I spun around and flopped to the ground. A dozen arrows whizzed by over my back. I watched one special red arrow bounce off the others and land a couple inches away from me.

I looked up to measure the attackers.

They were so far away and yet their arrows were on target. They were tall men at least eight feet tall. No.

No.

They're on something. A beast.

A beast that breathes in air and exhales fire. A tall one with four legs and a broad tail of hair. Its two eyes seemed to glare as it ran toward you.

"Lye! Arum is waiting by the river. Run."

I stood up and looked at the red eyed man. He stood tall and had a certain look in his face. Alex was here, was he? "Rionae!"

He immediately looked at me waiting for something. "Go Lye!"

I turned, but looked back. "Rionae! I'm sorry!" I backed away as the I saw the men get closer. "I did know what would happen!"

Rionar's eyes narrowed, but he turned toward his battle as I should turn towards my escape.

"River, river, river, river," I ran through the foliage following the smell of water or mud.

Behind me, the tree limbs cracked and the bushes tore as three foes perused me. Their beast whined whenever they got hit, so its skin wasn't grand.

My hat was lost long ago and even my clothes now began the tear. There was no getting away from the beasts. They were all much faster than I

The sounds of the beasts got louder and the sound of the river got farther and farther away.

I turned around and the men were an arm's length away me. I started to push of whenever my left foot took a step then I did my right foot.

I surged forward with a new speed and slammed directly into a horizontal branch and fell into a trench of muddy water.

I held my breath as I looked up at the narrow opening. Above me the men rode their beasts over the long stretch of area I was in. I squatted down and grasped my ankles. My left foot was fine, but my right was now swollen and a bright red.

I took deep breaths and listened the clopping of feet above me. When there weren't any, I shut my eyes and exhaled one long time.

"Arum," I whispered. "I have to find Arum."