A Match of Monsters

Chapter Twenty

Elain panted, her breath weighing heavily in the misting air that surrounded her body. For two days and three nights she had been running without food or water other than the handfuls of snow she scooped up to sustain her extensive exercise. Not stopping to break or rest other than two short hours at noon each day, too fearful of what would happen if she had dared to linger in one place for too long. Even in the bright sunlight.

Held tightly against the rapid tattoo of her heartbeat, Elain's young charge dug his claws into her shoulders, their tips piercing easily through the thick, rough-spun wool of her dress. She had bundled the kit up in the layers of her finely woven wool and fur cloak, desperate to protect him as best as she could. Tail to torso was bound tightly in the fabric and clasped with all of the determination she could draw from herself in order to keep her tied body strong enough to hold his small body up and to not stop moving. She could not risk their lives for even a moment to ease her gasping lungs.

No matter how deep she drew in her breath, she could not get enough air.

Behind her, the sky was beginning to pale with the false dawn, spreading the fainted of colours along the horizon. Stokes of bloody red, sending a warning that Elain was too tired to receive. She had to keep on her feet, to keep going.

She dared not look back for anything.

If Elain looked, she would lose her nerves, and would be unable to keep avoiding her pursuers. She would lose the edge of determination that was all that kept her going long after her body should have collapsed. If not for the heavy pack she had grabbed from her Ladyship's lair balancing her, she would have surely tumbled forward from the weight of the hatchling.

But still, the human persisted. She leaned heavily into the incline of the rough mountainside she was scrambling up, her nose almost scraping the stones in front of her. Any closer and she would slip, but any less and she would fall backwards.

The clime was difficult, it still would have been almost impossible even if she was at her peak, but Elain needed to take the risks. She couldn't afford the time to take a safer path, and could only hope that those who followed her found the terrain even more difficult than she did.

It was the only way she would survive to sunrise.

Behind her, closer than before, a savage melancholy echoed through the air. Its haunting beauty carried perfectly over the wind, sending a chill down Elain's spine that had nothing to do with the snow storm brewing around her. The bloodcurdling sound only intensified her fear, as she panted in terror of the inhuman hunt. It stood prolonged in the atmosphere, taking an age to fade away despite the distance of its origin. In response, the flurry surrounding her just whipped through her clothes, but the swirling frost did nothing to muffle the eerie melody.

Her heartbeat continued to race, pulsing faster and faster until she was unable to keep count of it. The rapid rise and fall as her lungs attempted to catch up left her struggling for breath.

Fingernails tore in the desperation of the climb and bruises formed with every slip. The snow stole what little warmth her body was fighting to keep, and even with the adrenalin flooding her veins, she could only move so fast when her sight was obscured by her own exhales. Misting in front of her eyes, stinging them, Elain was barely able to see the tip of her own nose and had to quell her terror just enough to slow her pace – slightly. If she lost her grip, then all this effort would have been for nothing.

Again, a howl sounded through the air. This time it was even closer than before. Beginning low and steady, before heightening with a challenge, the vibrations that carried it sunk deep into Elain's bones.

With every moment she continued to evade them, the next became more difficult. She was just so tired. Elain knew that if her mortal body did not get the rest it so desperately needed soon, then she would be unable to continue on, and she would have failed her Ladyship.

The suspense continued to build, fuelled by terror, until the weight of it in her mind was too much for her to bare. With a scream of frustration and pain, she slipped almost four feet down the cliff face. The screech still echoing on her lips, she pressed the bloody graze of her palm tightly into the wrapped bundle and jostled the kit until her uninjured hand was free to continue the ascension with. She could not resist twisting to look over her shoulder as she began her struggle to move once more, and another deafening shriek left her lips.

They were so close that she was able to just see their dark silhouettes through the dancing ribbons of snow and frost.

Racing with the tight synchronization that could only come form a unit of beings that lived and breathed as one entity, the pack pressed forwards with their deadly grace. They did not need to bump into or leap over each other, their movements were so perfectly concise and they were so completely aware of the other werewolves that surrounded them that one of the beasts would dart out of the way before the next came even close to colliding.

Heading the pack, the fur of their shoulders and hindquarters just brushing, the alpha pair lead the hunt with matching vicious grins and flapping tongues on their faces. One as golden as the sun, the other as silver as the moon, they dug their claws in and spread their claws over the snow as they raced towards Elain.

Her hands began to shake, barely keeping the grip needed to hold her and the kit suspended against the mountain face. They were so close, almost upon her. How could she possibly continue to evade them?

The hatchling, shaking in just as much fear himself, stretched his neck to quietly nuzzle his jaw against her own. He did nothing else, but once more a spark of hope had lit in the shadows in her heart and determination had flooded her body and strengthened her muscles. Once more she began to pull them up.

The cliff was only twice Elain's body length above her. She had climbed so far already, and could see the end right in front. Less than a dozen feet to go, and she could walk once more.

Underneath, the tell-tale sound of canine claws against stone could be heard, and Elain began to scramble in desperation. Fingers covered in blood that froze as soon as it poured from the wounds, she lost all sense of grace and caution. All that was left in her mind was the need to move as quickly as possible. She couldn't let the werewolves catch her; it was terrifying enough what they did to humans they caught – but dragons?

Elain would have no chance for survival unless she got out of there right now.

Only inches remained before she could reach out and grab the rough-hewn stone edge above her. There was almost no strength left in her body as she crawled up that last single foot, even that induced by adrenalin and terror had been drained from her exhausted body. She shook as bad as a badly dressed elder on the coldest day of winter when her hand finally reached the stone ledge, and she gave no attention to the sharp stones imbedding themselves into her hand as she found that last reserve of will she never knew she had, and pulled her entire self up in one graceless, uncoordinated move.

Rolling further away from the long drop she had just scaled, Elain did not notice that her body hadn't stopped the motion until it was already too late. Down, down, and down she went. Gathering snow and curling her body around the kit as she squeezed him, they continued to gain speed as they rolled down the steep hill. If not for the thick blanket of snow, Elain knew that she would have surely died in the decent, but luckily the frozen powder covered anything and everything that she would have crashed into and sparing her life.

It was a painful way for her to lose altitude, but at least she could be comforted by the fact that she did not need to use any of her limited energy while she was still rolling. It was also a relief for her that the speed she rolled down the incline was faster than the werewolf pack could run even at full sprint.

Elain was smiling with hope and exhaustion when she finally tumbled to a stop partway up the next mountain face – until everything went black.