Blemishes and roses (ON HOLD)

Chapter 2: The girl of the woods

His foot ached and his head beat at a painful drum, crashing into his skull. Strands of black hair shielded part of his face and his lips were swollen from the puffy feel of them. The ground was not a pillow either, instead it was hard as ice and dreadfully cold.

His hands shook and nausea climbed to another level of sick. Zephyr moaned and then bile came gushing out, the color, he could not tell. But it smelled vile, a smell that could only be defined as of saying that it smelled distinctively of throw up.

The goop stuck to his face, rolled over, pain going down his back. First, What happened? All Zephyr could remember was that he had tripped over a root and tumbled. Now, they had tumbled.

" Nina?" He croaked, his voiced as scratched as an old record player. Silence.

He extended a hand into the darkness, but it fell back down to his side, weak.

" Nina?" There was no reply but only a breeze that left him shivering more. The world was completely dark.

" Nina, where are you?" This time it came out as a small hiss. But there was nothing but an aching silence that fell over him. He stared at the nothing around him, was she okay? Was she even al... no, she would have made that fall no matter what. But the thought did nothing to silence his worry. And in return, the forest was silent itself, well, away from the dogs and men closing in.

Zephyr's body froze, oh gods, oh gods... With his headache and bile smeared across his face, this was not the way he wished to die. He cried out, in pain and in sorrow. And his voice was indeed a dying one. Hoarse and small, pathetic. Yes, he was to die pathetically.

" Nina!" He hissed once more at the aching dark that had swallowed them both. Oh gods,...where in the world was she? He squirmed above the grasp of the hardened earth, but his hands that flopped around only hit numerous wet slimy roots and hard slick rocks. Maybe she tumbled in a different direction? It was a hill, a steep one with the experience they, he had.

The yapping grew closer, and men roared out all sorts of orders from not that far away.

" Their here somewhere!" One cried out in the distance, advancing in Zephyr's direction. The men's voices echoed in the forest, but the echoes were not so far now. He was to die. And Nina, Nina was no where at all. And that thought was what made him stop flopping around like a dying fish.

Barks and paws could be heard up hill, paws hitting the hard undergrowth and bushes of all types rustling as they passed. And men even less gracefully followed down, torches in hand, lighting the night. All he could see was fire, fire that blinded him from what used to be the dark.

Looking into those monstrous flames that were to be used to burn his dead body. Zephyr twisted his head to the side. Bushes and ground. He turned his head the other way, pain rushing up making him wince. more bushes and ground. Roots twisted out wickedly, as if their master plan was to trip anyone who passed. Twisted and some that came out of the ground in spikes of wood, all yellow in the light of flame.

Nina was no where to be found. No where.

The yaps became growls and deeper barks, feral and terrifying. Men clumsily ran down the hill, not of the same agility as their dogs, who leaped impressively through the thicket and jumped over thorn bushes with sharp prickly needles and dogged trees, flying practically down to Zephyr.

He was doomed. But at least by the looks of the terror, he would be first. And just maybe...there was a soft sound of footsteps. Then silence away from the noisy yells and growls that grew closer and closer.

It went on, closer to him, soft and small. " Nina?" He croaked, his nose running from the cold. He probably looked like a monster with all the blood. But no one answered. Instead the footsteps came closer, so close he could only think they were a few feet away. Somewhere in this dreadful ocean of bushes and trees.

Snap, snap, snap. Twigs broke under whoever's feet that came closer and closer. There was still the sound of barks and much heavier footsteps from a little farther away. Was this a monster from one of the stories he knew of? Was it a being who sucked blood when it was warm? Maybe the great Hailrake that ate children that wandered too far?

Zephyr didn't really believe in them, but then again with this night becoming worse and worse, he couldn't be surprised. And then the snapping of twigs was only half a foot from him, in the last layer of underbrush. Sweat dripped from his brow, droplets running down the side of his face.

The dogs came closer, bushes shook from their passage and the flames grew brighter, lighting the whole forest more yellow and maybe even more so as a hellish place. But under the safety of a tree's shadow, something loomed in the darkness.

Zephyr bit back a scream, it came out of dark, silk hood over it's head. Cape a tumbling ocean of white and orange. He could not see the face under the blackness of the hood, maybe it really was the Hailrake, but finely dressed. He imagined that the creature would have been more,...ragged.

It looked at him, even though Zephyr could not see it's eyes, he felt the prickly stare of the thing. It came closer, he wanted to run, but with his foot shooting daggers up his leg that seemed impossible. He couldn't even move.

The creature's black gloved hands unsheathed two wicked looking daggers with same points as dragon teeth. Jaggedly cut and sharper than glass. Zephyr, wide eyed stared at the being. He was going to be chopped into little pieces and then eaten. Die in misery. The creature raised both daggers above his body, neither shaking in the least of hesitation.

They flashed in the light of flame, he could hear the barks and more yells, so close he could hear the vibrations of the footsteps nearby.

The creature instead of finishing him off, undid it's cape, leaving it on the wet and very hard forest floor. And then Zephyr was a little more terrified. Instead of fur, the creature was indeed human. Soft ebony skin and dark black eyes.

She wore a green outfit that would be hard to see in the trees, and possibly invisible if it hadn't been in the light. Tight black pants and boots fit for a hike in the woods. Belts strapped across her waist, where to extra daggers were, and possibly more hidden in her boots and sleeves. Her hair was put into a very tight bun, something that could make someone's scalp sting.

She glared at him and Zephyr felt so small, with his whole body throbbing and his foot that kept him disabled, he felt weak. Tiny compared to this killer. He was so dead.

" Get up." She said, voice like a snake's, something seething. Her eyes did not stop glaring at him, even if the dogs were only ten feet away and the men not that far either. He felt so hopeless.

" I,...I can't."

There was a small break of silence and then the girl snarled at him, canines bared. She picked him up with rough calloused hands that smelled leaves and brush, dirt as well. Pain shot through his ankle, which lead to a high pitched yelp. His foot was a dead weight on his body, he couldn't even move it.

The monster girl cursed and quickly set him down to a parting of bushes just a touch away.

" You don't move. And do NOT make any noise or your going to feel these daggers in your skull as well." The bushes caved in on Zephyr, who grabbed at the ground. She was, she was helping him.

There was a sound of deep growling, then a snarl. The girl looked at Zephyr for less then a second, but that was enough to tell him to behave. Then she whipped around and blood was poured in streams of red.