Darius dreamed.
Fire, blood, screams.
His wolf snarled inside him, pulling him back to the night it all fell apart.
His mate's scent. The wail of an infant. Then silence.
He bolted upright, chest heaving, sweat slicked on his brow despite the winter chill.
It was still night.
And the cabin was silent.
Except ... something was not right.
He got to his feet his senses sharpening. The air was too still. Too heavy.
There, there was a whisper of movement that his ear was trying to track. There it was, a rustle outside.
He reached for the blade Aria had left by the hearth.
Then came hurried footsteps. He moved to the door and cracked it open.
There were shadows moving under the moonlight, four figures, maybe five, there movements too organzed to be rogues.
They were certainly hunters.
He cursed under his breath, they'd found him.
He turned sharply, planning to storm outside the already falling door, Aria was alseep, curled against the wall in the far end of the cabin and he had no intentions of waking her up. It was not her fight, it was his but now he had to for her safety.. The girl already helped him a plentiful.
He knelt beside her, hand on her shoulder.
"Wake up," he said, low and urgent. "We're not alone."
Her eyes snapped open. Instanty alert.
"How many?"
"Four, maybe more. Armed."
She was already moving. Pulling on boots. Reaching for her satchel of herbs and weapons.
"We have to move. There's a back path through the woods. It leads to a ravine. They won't follow if we jump."
He arched a brow. "That's sound suicidal."
She smirked. "Only if you miss,"
Together, they slipped through the back hole in the cab vjin, into the snow.
The forest swallowed them.
But the hunters were too close, they had to shake them off.
A howl split into the night. That was not just a wolf howling, it was a signal.
They were being tracked.
Darius grabbed Aria's hand. "Run, Now"
They did as brunches tore at their faces and arms, snow crunched beneath their feet.
A bolt of light flew past them, sizzling as it hit a tree.
"They're using spellcasters," Aria hissed.
"Then we need top end this quick."
They finally reached the ravine.
It stretched soo wide and deep that the bottom was all darkness and one couldn't see a thing below.
"You weren't kidding," he muttered.
Aria looked at him. "Trust me?"
He hesistated a bit. Looked behind to his pursuers.
Then he nodded.
Aria held his hand, and together they jumped.
The strong wind brushed past their faces as they fell, then came a thud, then pain. So much pain.
Silence.
Aria opened her eyes, trying to scan her sorroundings even through the darkness, she was alive. Bruised but alive atleast.
She rolled over intending to stand up. She heard Darius groaning, seems he had fallen close to her and he was by her side.
Darius struggled to stand up while taking in a breath from the pain on his legs and his side, which he seemed to have open by the fall.
"Remind me," he muttered, "to never trust your shortcuts again."
She laughed breathlessly.
Well atleast they were safe. For now.
The ravine was dark, there was not a flicker of light anywhere. Aria heard the sound of moving water, and if there is anything she learned all through her countless escapes was that wherever the river went, you follow because eighty percent of the time it would lead you to an exit.
Aria helped Darius up, since his wound had opened and he had it hard to walk alone.
The smell of blood was strong, they had to find light and somewhere safe soon so she could tend to his wounds before they fester.
They could not be too fast since Darius was not in good condition and the darkness did not help eaither.
Either way Aria was grateful since they had not encountered anything dangerous along their path, except for a few snakes which she handled with the stick she was using as a pathfinder.
The more they walked the more it became painful for Darius, trhey had been walking for a full two hours but there wasn't a sign of light yet.
Darius was not in good condition as his body had become feverish and he was sweating profusely signs that his wound had been infected and needed immidiate attention else he could even die.
Aria could not risk Darius's wolf coming out at a place like that, if he kept on being worse and his wolf came out, the she was sure as hell that that would be her burial place.
Aria sat them up on a big rock she could feel with the stick, she tried rummaging around to see if she would find a flint and fortunately she did. She gathered some sticks, and put them together to light the fire. She was grateful that wolf's eyes could see much clearer in the darkenes else she did not know how hard it would have been for them.
After the fire was finally lit, Aria could see the sorroundings much more clearly, they were sorrounded by so much trees on bothg sides of the path. She looked into her bag for some herbs, mixed them together by punding them into paste.
Darius took in sharp breath when Aria opened up the rug he had tied on him at his wound. The rug came out with some meat from the wound, she could only imagine what kind of pain he was going through.
The wound had festered alright.
With some pus coming out.
She cleared the pus using the rug and applied the paste of herbs she had just made on the wound. All the while Darius had his eyes closed and his teeth clenched.
He did not let out a sound, but his expression said it all.