Chapter 5

216 55 307
                                    

My chest raised with the deafening tension that held my bones ridged. The two men parted away from each other and solicited a pierced screech of their blades, yet my teeth hitched to break. 

I turned and rolled as they twirled and swung their weapons. A clattering clank so rapid I swore they moved faster than time itself.

My sight caught flashes brief moments of their warlike brilliance and my fingers moistened wet with anxiety. I turned my head around to see my right hand in a petite puddle of liquid under a tall tree.

Confusion raged in my mind when I looked around, for it was so dark. The sounds of their struggle, the grunts and the metal clanked with fierce dismission.

I gasped as I stood on my feeble legs. Those legs shook like an earthquake, for I did not want to be here, so I had to leave.

But where? Everything looked the same. I glanced back at the battle. The Terison kicked after the witch’s Champion. The Champion swerved and sliced upward with the sword, but met nothing, but lone air. The Terison twirled and advanced into the Champion’s space. He drifted back, for the Terison pushed him.

Should I wait to see who would win?

If the Terison won, I imagined I would be alive for a while, but if the Shyia Champion won I was as good as dead. Honestly, neither were good options, so I pushed myself off the tree and ran. It did not matter where, anywhere was better than there. I found the ground in those slim shoes, yet my soles bit the rugged earth with anguish, but I ignored it.

This pain was temporary, those men back there were permanent.

I picked the lesser demon. With what little light the night afforded me, I shifted my body around the trees and ran. Continuously moving, I did not think. I did not need to, for I only needed to survive and get away from those men. 

Crinkling sounds fascinated me. The features of the trees, grass and ground became defined. 

My head moved at the slightest movements that came within my vision, yet they were never in front of me. The bushes moved around me like a fog.

A stalking chill made my legs struggle forward on this desolate earth. I never asked him how big this place was. We really should have—

I dropped into the grassy bed and my lower back rebounded as I hit something, but it was my ankle that burned me. What did I hit? That probably did not matter.

I stayed still and breathed out, so my exhaustion flowed out as if it was stored all this time, but the ache traveled and settled into my thigh.

How long was I running?

I needed to find an end to this forest. Using my left arm against the cold rock behind me I tried to lift myself up. My right ankle sent a jolt of pain that riddled me senseless the moment my weight steadied on it.

I cried out and two tear drops later; I was back on the damp grassy floor. My ankle ached, so I rubbed it and shivered as the pain throbbed.

I hit the earth with my clutched fist. How far has it been since I been running? I sighed and looked out into the dark mesh of trees. The cold semblance to my past was too daunting to be considered. I hated this world.

So cruel, so brutal, a King died, yet you decided to kill all the associated family members? I snorted and discharged a soundless laugh. My birth afforded me the opportunity to have been brought up as royalty for much of my youthful years.

Now, I was an old hag who shamed my country and was being killed by the persons who probably killed my father. A witch, I found that odd.

A witch wanting me dead, I swore witches were too invested in the dramas of Gods and Demons to bother with the petty politics of us humans.

Carmine (Completed)Where stories live. Discover now