Deep Down

Heart Of Ice

My legs are numb, but my muscle memory is still there. I can make it. I know I can, just don't let the others down. It wasn't as so much that my legs were numb that was worrying me, more of what it meant. Why was this happening? Even though Aiden kept on offering to carry me, I refused. I noticed as his breathing was steady as if he wasn't running at all.

I turned my head to see that Vale was now catching up to us, with little Dakota. Just like Aiden, he was breathing as if he was just strolling. Worry was evident on both of their faces. Aiden was running to the right of me while Vale was at the left with Dakota. Devina was in front of us leading the way, to wherever we're going.

Dakota, not doing any running at all looked at me and said, "Hailey. Don't worry. We won't get caught, and if we do we can just overpower them."

He looked at me with those green eyes of his, and his lips slightly turned up. I felt instantly calm from this look, but the moment I had to look forward again all the worries flooded my mind again. I felt the back of my neck tense, and my head did a quick jerk to the right. Just a little twitch, nothing too much. I told myself. Just focus.

Suddenly, the feeling came back to my legs. I felt much more comfortable when running, I didn't just depend on muscle memory. I now felt as the wind brushed against my legs, and feel twigs snapping under my weight. I was expecting pain after the numbness, but the lower half of my body just tingled with every stride.

I felt my lips turn into a small grin. Whatever that kid did, it gave feeling back to my legs but I didn't feel quite right. But that was something to worry about later, right now all I need to do is run, and don't stop until we are in the clear. Away from the danger, the monsters that were trying to take our freedom away from us. We weren't going to let that happen, at least not without putting up the hardest fight of their lives.

It was weird, just as Aiden and Vale no matter how long and fast we ran, our breathing stayed as if nothing was going on at all. I was trying to take in everything I could at once, just in case, my mind decided to go blank again. I hope that didn't mean anything bad, at least not too horribly bad.

To my left Vale looked so focused and to the right, Aiden seemed just kinda blank. I couldn't see really anything about Devina since she was in front of us. All I could see was her shoulder-length straight ink-black hair swaying. What was going through her mind? She surely cannot have any idea as to where we were going to go. We cannot keep running forever.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, just run. We are going to get out of this situation. I promised myself that. I looked up, we were under the cover of trees in case there was any aerial lookout. I hadn't heard anything but our footsteps, and when I looked back, I could no longer see that wall of ice that Vale had created for us. We were going at a faster pace than I had thought. All of a sudden I felt something grab onto my arm, pulling me to the side.

I had been so lost in thought I hadn't realized they had stopped running and into a nearly invisible cave-like crevice. My feet tripped over themselves as I got pulled, I nearly fell until Vale had caught me. He looked at me with concern, probably thinking that I was about to pass out again.

He motioned his head to where the others were hiding. We had to crawl in the grass to get to the little spot, how Devina noticed this? No idea. But it seemed perfect. The little space had smooth stone walls, it was almost as if it was dug in the mountain, huh. Another thing I had failed to realize. I took this moment to appreciate the beauty of the forest.

The little blonde boy was sitting in Devina's lap, while Aiden sat about six inches away from her, deep in thought. As I went to sit across from them on the other side I had to duck down a little when standing up, but when I sat down it seemed that it was more spacious. The stone-ground was cool but relaxing in a weird way. I ran my hands on the cold ground, feeling the small bumps that you wouldn't have noticed from looking at it.