The cold bites me before I even feel the wet on my skin. My ruby cape clings to me like a second skin, heavy with rain, dragging at my shoulders, and every step I take sinks into the mud. My chest heaves, gasping for air I can barely catch. I scream into the night, my voice cracking, wet and raw
"Help!..Help me!! Anyone!"
No one answers. Only the storm replies, pounding the forest with its endless drums. The trees loom around me like black giants, twisting and skeletal, hiding whatever monsters lurk in the dark. I stumble over a root, clawing at the mud to steady myself.
Pain shoots up my leg. My shoes are gone, lost somewhere in the chaos, and my feet tear over sharp rocks. Blood mixes with rainwater, warm and sticky against my skin, and I grit my teeth. I have to keep moving.
Behind me, I hear them. Low growls that rumble through the shadows, teeth gnashing in the dark. Wolves. A pack. I can feel their hunger, their determination. Every instinct tells me to run faster, but my body is small, shivering violently, muscles screaming.
"Is this the end?Am I...Going to die in this forest?" I whisper, voice barely audible over the rain. My lungs burn, each breath sharp and ragged, but I keep running. I have to. I will survive. I want so badly to become the most powerful mage the world has ever known. That dream keeps me moving, even as my legs feel like lead and my knees scream from scrapes on sharp stones.
A vine suddenly catches my foot. I crash to the ground, a harsh cry escaping me
"Ouch!"
Pain flares through my knees, sharp and hot as I press my hands against the dirt. Blood soaks my fingers, mixing with rain, but I have no time to linger. The wolves are closer now, their growls louder, more menacing. My chest heaves. My teeth chatter. My eyes sting from the cold and the rain, but I force myself to stand.
"This can't be the end" I murmur, almost to myself, as I taste the iron of blood in my mouth. My vision blurs. The darkness in the forest presses in, thick and suffocating, but somewhere deep inside, a spark refuses to die. I can't give up. I won't.
The storm seems endless. Lightning splits the sky above, illuminating the twisted branches like jagged glass. For a brief second, I see the eyes of the wolves—golden, hungry, unyielding. My stomach drops. They are close. Too close. Panic surges, clawing at my mind, and yet… I keep moving.
The pain in my legs grows unbearable. Every step leaves a trail of blood. My cape is heavy, soaked through, dragging behind me like a banner of failure, but I cling to it. It's all I have left of my world before the carriage, before betrayal. My mother. She pushed me out, and now I am alone. The forest seems to whisper with cruelty, echoing my thoughts: no one is coming. No one can save you.
I stumble again, tripping over another root, sprawling into the mud. My hands claw at the ground, my knees screaming in pain. The wolves' growls come closer, sharper, and I press my face to the ground for a moment, trying to catch my breath, trying not to scream. My vision blurs, rain and blood streaming down my cheeks.
Is this really the end? I think, my chest tight, my body trembling. Will I die here, alone, with nothing but cold and fear?
And then… something changes. I feel it, faint at first, almost like a whisper beneath the storm.
A warmth, a pulse beneath my hands and feet, humming softly in the air around me. Magic. I don't understand it yet, but it's there, tiny, fragile, waiting. My eyes snap open. The wolves are still there, snarling, but something in me shifts. The fear is still there, but now it's accompanied by something else—something sharper, harder, stronger.
I press myself to my feet, hands slick with mud and blood. The storm lashes against me, but I run again, each step more determined than the last. My ruby cape flutters behind me, heavy and soaked, but it feels like a flag, like a banner I carry against fate itself. I will not stop. I will not kneel.
Every step forward is agony, but also defiance. My small body aches, my knees are raw, my lungs burn, but I keep moving. The wolves are still behind me, relentless, but something deep inside tells me I am not finished. I won't be finished. Not tonight. Not ever.
Lightning flashes again, briefly illuminating the path ahead, and I see a narrow opening between the trees, dark but possible. My heart races. Maybe it leads somewhere. Maybe it leads to survival. Or maybe it is just another trap. But I keep running anyway, because the only choice left is forward.
The rain soaks me to the bone. My teeth chatter. My fingers are numb. My knees scream with every step. And yet… I feel it again. That faint, insistent pulse. Magic. Power. Something calling to me, promising that this night, this storm, this forest, cannot hold me forever.
I run faster. I stumble again, almost falling, but I grip the mud and pull myself up. My eyes blur with tears and rain, but the determination inside me burns brighter than any fear. My ruby cape is torn, heavy, dragging behind me, but it feels alive, a part of me, a symbol that I will not yield.
The wolves are close. I can hear their growls, feel the heat of their breath in the dark. But still I run. And even as my body screams, even as my vision blurs and my knees bleed, I know this: I will survive. I will rise. One day, I will be more than just a girl running from wolves in the rain. I will be the most powerful mage the world has ever known.
But for now… I run. And that is enough.