Get up.
Blood sputters out of my mouth as I cough. My chest heaves heavily as the pain sweeps through me like a flood.
The leaves rustled and a twig snaps, that's all it takes for me to get up and run again. The leaves are everywhere and if I'm not careful, I'll fall into some hole, somewhere. I ignore the sting on the back of my palm, but I know it's definitely from the arrows I've been shooting for hours.
"Dina," my feet come to a staggering halt. I immediately rush through to the familiar redhead behind the huge rock. "Take cover," she says while shooting an arrow and then hiding beside me.
"How ma ….," it's pant after pant. I wipe the sweat off my face with the back of my palm, swallowing a grimace when the salt comes in contact with the fresh cut. "How many are out there?"
Anna doesn't spare me a glance. She reaches for one of her arrows, tilts the silver head to her line of sight and stretches it against her bow. "Don't know," her tone is fazed, unbothered. "Seven?"
"No, no," my eyes snap shut. My lips are parted, still gasping for air or water. "They shouldn't be that much."
"You.." Anna lets out a grunt as she shoots an arrow, the soft thud in the distance signals that she didn't miss. "...killed some?"
My eyes widen and my lips part, threatening to scoff, "Like thirteen of them!"
"Mmn," she tilts her head. "I've done better." Then takes another arrow and draws it against her bow.
I roll my eyes so far back, it adds to the throbbing ache in my head but the corner of my lips tug upwards.
Anna Rcmlen has always been one to toot her horn. It's not out of pride, the woman just doesn't give two flying fishes if you didn't miss a target at practice or not, she was there reluctantly anyway.
And that's what baffles me.
She's a high ranking hunter — not the highest, better than me — but she's so unbothered. I'm grateful she's even speaking to me right now.
"How many are there now?" I raise my head up slightly as my fingers dig into the rock for support.
"Are you gonna sit on your lazy arse while I do all the work?"
"Work?!" It's a whisper, it's a yell. "You call this work? They've killed eight of us already and we're next. We're the only survivors."
She's not sparing me a glance, just busy drawing arrows against bows and shooting. "Scared of death, Dina?"
I pulled myself up, looking over the rock to see how many more there were. It was just one more but as Anna released her arrow and let it fly, the wolf reached for it with its mouth and immediately took off at us.
I grab Anna's arm and pull, we need to make it past the borders before this wolf kills us.
But the wolf is fast, much faster than the rest. It must be an Alpha, though, that won't help when its teeth sink into my skin and rips off my flesh as I bleed out and die under the moonlight.
Suddenly, a bright blue light glowed at the corner of my eyes. I almost don't see it but I don't have to do a one eighty before I realise the third rule in hunter's class — when you see any strange light, you flee.
I bend, pulling Anna with me but somehow she slips off my grasp.
"Anna !"
My body hits the muddy floor. I feel the ache from the sharp edges of the rocks that dug into my lower back, but my eyes are ahead, on Anna.
The beast runs past me, almost stepping on my arm in the process and lunges at Anna. Anna pulls out an arrow, drawing it against her bow and aiming for the beast.
It growls loudly on its four feet, it's forelimbs are digging into the soil and it's teeth are sharp, reflecting the moonlight. It steps forward, snapping a twig in the process but Anna further draws her bow.
With a loud growl, the beast charges at her and she holds her arrow steady, aiming right for its head —between its eyes— and abruptly, there's another growl behind Anna. A slightly bigger beast that immediately jumps over the bark of a tree on the floor.
"Anna! Behind you!"
But all it takes is one swing of its forelimbs and I see Anna fall to the ground. My lips part at the sight, two beasts tearing her flesh like she was nothing but meat.
Tears sting my eyes but I shuffle against the ground and take to my heels. I'm running even faster than before, I'm injured but I can't die, not right now. My legs stomps harshly on the forest ground and my ankle twists, my hand flies to my mouth, muffling my cries as I drag my feet as fast as I can.
Tears run down my face but I'm wiping them off like they're a disease. It's then that I hear a howl and then multiple howling.
They must have noticed I'm gone and they're coming for me.
To kill me.
I blink rapidly, chasing the tears away as I try to pretend I don't hear my heartbeat in my ears, like my heart isn't threatening to pounce out of my chest, like my ribs aren't tight and my throat isn't rubbing together.
The hooting owl flies just above me, allowing me to look ahead and a sigh of relief escapes my lips.
Eldarda is not too far ahead, home.
Twigs snap far behind me but I know those beasts are near so I stomp my twisted foot on the floor, a surge of pain climbs within me but I continue. I fold my lips, humming the pain like it's a bad song until my ankle is free from its torment.
I turn, reaching for the tiny balls in my back pocket and throw as far as I can. It self-destructs with a blast and a high frequency deafening sound that'll turn the wolves inside out when they hear it.
That ought to slow them down, so, I shove the rest of the balls into my pockets and run towards Eldarda.
Its wired fence greets me from three minutes away and I feel my lips churn upwards. I take a step closer but I feel a grasp at my heel, and I look down to see a naked man lying on the floor.
I yank my leg off his grip but he doesn't do anything, actually, his eyes are closed and he looks like he's been chewed up and thrown out.
Maybe he's one of the new recruits?
Yeah, maybe.
Still, there's no time to debate and that frequency emitter isn't gonna keep those wolves for long. So, I yank his arms up and drag him to the gates of Eldarda.
Its gates are beautiful. A tall silver painted black to trick the wolves into believing they can pass through. Then there's a stretch of silver walls that protects us, coated with black paint and electric wirings at the top of the walls.
The watcher at the tower signals to the stationers at the gate with a loud bell. The gates finally open and some men help with dragging the stranger in.
A loud growl interrupts the mild chatter, I snap my head, looking ahead at the pack of wolves dashing across fine shrubs, heading straight for Eldarda under the moonlight.
"Close the gates!" I yell, grabbing an arrow from a random bunch left on the floors of Eldarda.
There are grunts of the men pushing the gate, but the gate is old and it's not exactly closing immediately.
So I hold the arrow at its neck and pull my hand back, my eyes squints, narrowing on the wolf in the middle. Wolves are always so obvious, letting their Alpha be in the middle.
"Are you nuts, lad?"
I don't have to turn to know it's Grand Keeper, Pael Juine. He gives everyone shit.
"What are you doing?"
I don't spare him a glance, instead I focus on the wolves that are getting incredibly closer and closer, then the damned gate that still needs a minute to get shut.
"Trying to live," I respond.
"You call this living? You're insufferable, Dina and you know it too. You led them here, didn't you? You cannot do your damn job."
I throw the arrow straight at the Alpha but it doesn't hit between his eyes like I wanted it to, instead, it merely grazes its legs. It stops and growls at me, but just as it decides to continue heading for Eldarda, the gates close shut.
I look straight at Grand Keeper Pael Juine and find his frightened eyes widened. At the sound of the howls of defeat, he snaps off it.
"You give me shit for doing my job and you can't fix the damn gate."
"I will have you–"
"Dina!, behind you!" I turn swiftly, widening my eyes at the sight before me. It fails to register at first and the only thing I can do is spread my arms and legs right in front of the Grand Keeper, like I'm a human shield.
That is, after all, our duty as the third line of Eldarda's defence.
The beast before me isn't like anything I've ever seen before. It looks like a wolf, except three times taller and bigger, it stands well balanced on its hind limbs and its forelimbs are scrunched at me, flexing its claws like it's going to tear through my flesh any second.
My heart hangs in my throat and I dare to look at its eyes. Red, dangerous, piercing like it's looking right through my soul. Its teeth are sharper, its mouth wider and its fur is onyx like the dead of night.
I feel a presence behind me and then lips speak into my ear. It's Grand Keeper Pael Juine's sickening voice but somehow, this time, it's filled with fear.
"You mean to tell me…." his breathing is low, I can hear his throbbing heartbeat against his chest. ".....that you brought a lycan into our sacred home?"
I blink once, twice. My eyes shuffled around and I didn't find the naked man I pulled into Eldarda. My eyes snapped back to the beast, but I didn't expect what it did next.
Its red eyes become brighter and I swear the edge of its mouth slightly lifts upwards like it smirked. Like it knew what was going through my head.
The loud bang that followed distorted my hearing. I fall to the ground immediately and my vision is blurry, faint but even in the dead of night, the last thing I see clearly are those red eyes.