Find Your Fire - The Angulus Chronicles #1

Chapter Eight

I slowly looked around, my eyes taking in the moist ground and every shadow that danced around me as I focused on any possible threats. The instructor had left me in a thick fir part of the forest, the trees so massive that no moonlight came through the canopy of leaves and the ground so dense, not even my own footsteps were heard. My heart beat in my chest and the only sound was the flow of my blood in my ears as I realized I was all by myself in this dark part of the forest. Breath, C, breath. Usually, I would ball my fists to shake out every nerve, but with them being tied together with a firm knot, all I could do was roll my head to crack every nerve in my neck. Okay, good. Where am I? 

After making sure there really was no-one here, I started walking to figure out where I was, my steps as silent as the forest. With the surroundings being so dark, my hearing increased immensely. The muddy forest ground wasn't really bushed, so if I needed to hide, it was either behind a tree or flat on my back in the nearest valley. Both didn't really sound reassuring.

I walked for around ten minutes with no clue where I was and no sign of people surrounding me, before I reached a point where the ground slowly turned into a gradient. Okay, good, the school stood atop a mountain and I just hoped this was the same one, as I started jogging up the slope. Dropping students on a whole different mountain would take longer than one night to get them back, right? 

I was quick to cover a lot of ground, even though the vegetation grew thicker with every step I took. The thorns of bushes scratched right through my sweater and the long vines of the trees slammed in my face, but I barely felt it as my need to be back was stronger. Dropping to the floor every now and then, I checked if I was still going uphill, the bushes too thick for me to see the ground. My feet were freezing as the soppy mud reached my socks, turning them into little ice cones and my hands were just as cold when the vegetation thinned into an open forest space, with every now and then a pine-tree growing up, their trunk not much wider than my arm and their leaves growing far above me, leaving me utterly exposed. I glanced back at the thick forest I came from, really really debating going back and find another way to get back without entering so much open space.

Crack.

I whirled around at the sound of a twig breaking and I immediately dropped into a crouch, taking cover in the last shrubs of the bushes as I listened. 

Nothing. Silence. Too silent. No animal made a sound, no bug dared to call around. Somebody was here. My heart was beating out of my chest as I peered over my shoulder to the thick vegetation. I had to go back, through there I could lose this person, the blackberry bushes and thick oak trees forming a maze. I had to take a running start cause slowly turning around would make the leaves rustle and give away my exact spot. I peered in front of me and observed the open but dark space. Okay, on three. I sighed silently. One. Two. Thr-...

Crack.

I stiffened. Another twig just snapped, this one behind me, right where I had wanted to run. Shiiiit. They had anticipated my move and cut off my flee route, the sound much closer to me too. Think, C. 

I closed my eyes to concentrate and I recalled the moment when Lorem had ordered me to do the same. His arms had been around me whereas now only cold hugged my body and made me shiver. Listen, he had said to me and now, weeks later, I followed his order yet again.

I kept completely still as I listened to my surroundings, I didn't even swallow, and with closed eyes, the forest grew on me even more. The soft breathing of the person looking for me was loud and clear. He had not moved, trying to figure out my hiding place as I was nothing more than the whisper of the wind, my body as still as a predator. I blocked the sound out, listened around it, hoping to find something else that'd give me a plan. And then it hit me.