Through Smoke and Ashes

Twenty||Invaders Part 2

"Well... hello," he said finally, voice low and even. "The name's Baylen." His hands lowered a fraction, though they remained raised just enough to show he wasn't making any sudden moves. Every movement was calculated, careful, but his casual tone clashed with the tension in the clearing.

I didn't move my bow an inch. Arrow still nocked, tip trained on him, my fingers tight against the string. My eyes flicked back to the Rider who had saved me months ago, watching his every subtle shift.

I let my suspicion linger in the air. My arrow didn't waver as I waited for them to decide what they'd do next.

The triangle felt tight, suffocating, the forest around us eerily still. Snowflakes drifted lazily to the ground, but every sound, every crack of a twig beneath hidden feet, echoed in my chest. I wasn't sure if they were animal or human, but I didn't want to stick around any further to find out. I needed to get to Nax so we could get out of this area, and hope they left again without trying to track me down.

Baylen shifted slightly, stepping closer but carefully, keeping his hands where I could see them. "Relax," he said again, the ghost of a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. "I'm not here to hurt you... not unless you really want me to."

I blinked, trying to parse the words. Humor? A threat? I couldn't tell. My pulse was hammering, my bow an extension of my will, and I wasn't about to trust him yet. My eyes darted from him to the Rider in front of me, back to Baylen, reading every line of their bodies, every glance, every twitch of a shoulder.

The Rider shifted subtly, enough that I realized he was preparing for anything Baylen might do. His eyes, sharp as ever, didn't leave me. I was still the center of this precarious balance, and I hated that I felt both exposed and in control at the same time.

Baylen's eyes flicked to the bloodied patches of snow littering the clearing, the stark red marring the pristine white. His brow furrowed, and he cast a quick, questioning glance at the Rider to his left. "Is that... yours?" he asked, voice low, cautious. His hand hovered near the hilt of his sword, not moving it fully, but clearly ready.

The Rider shook his head, his eyes narrowing slightly as he followed Baylen's gaze. "Not mine," he said evenly.

Baylen's gaze swung back to me, sharp and appraising. "Hmm," he murmured, letting the words hang in the cold air. "That's a lot of blood. You're telling me that's not yours?" His tone carried a mix of disbelief and caution, and the faint edge of suspicion in his voice made the hair on my arms bristle.

I didn't lower my bow. "It's not," I said curtly, keeping my voice even. "I ran into a snowcat. It's his blood." I watched them both carefully, noting every twitch of their eyes, every subtle shift in posture. The Rider in front of me gave a small, almost imperceptible nod, silently confirming my words, but Baylen didn't look convinced.

The other rider shrugged his shoulders. "It's what she told me."

I huffed at the realization that they didn't trust my words. How hypocritical to feel when I too didn't trust them. Oh the irony.

"I was tracking a deer," I pointed to the droppings scattered in the clearing, disturbed by the earlier altercation between the snow cat and me. "So was the cat."

I shifted slightly, keeping my bow trained on Baylen, but I didn't move an inch closer. "Why are you sneaking through the forest?"

Baylen's grin widened slightly, a spark of mischief in his dark eyes. "Sneaking? Oh... that didn't go quite like I planned," he said. "But hey, you're faster than I expected."

I narrowed my eyes, every line in my body tightening, at the confirmation of my suspicion. He had tried to sneak up on me, slipping through the shadows as if my back were an open invitation. Months of living alone had honed my senses to a razor edge, and even though his approach had been subtle, almost playful, I caught it immediately. My fingers itched on the bowstring, every instinct warning me not to lower my guard, not even an inch. I wasn't about to allow myself to be disarmed, not in this frozen clearing, not while a man I barely knew, and another whose loyalty I still questioned, stood so close.