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A guttural scream sounded from above and my eyes shot open. I looked up in time to be pelted in the face as dozens of strange creatures grunted, yelped, and threw sticks and branches at me from the treetops. And that sound …
What the fuck?
Their wailing was so … human. I shuddered, remembering the similar sound of dozens of vrytra mourning the loss of their queen in Gleyma.
What had happened here?
Ducking my head, I used my arms to block the sticks and dodged as best I could as I limped away, trying to stay focused on the survivors' tracks.
Panic pushed at me. Kaiya needed me — I could feel it.
I rounded a massive trunk and froze. There, nestled in the hollow in another tree, was a large gremlyn nest. There were dozens of them scurrying around, scooping up their young and running past me as if I didn't exist.
Over the years, I'd seen those feisty beasts surprised, hungry and enraged … but never scared.
It sent a shiver down my spine.
Fucking Frexin.
I resumed my stumbling, but my chest rattled with each step and my breath rasped.
It didn't matter, though. I just needed to focus.
I pushed forward, only pausing to catch my breath when a herd of massive beasts passed — some as tall as a carriage and as long as a ship.
They would be terrifying, if I could think straight.
But with every moment, I grew weaker, and the shadow creature inside grew more restless. It twisted and turned, like a massive serpent beginning to rouse.
Saints! I clenched my fists.
Not yet.
I needed to get to her first — to save her.
I struck at the beast hard with what little charisma I had left of what Kaiya had given me. My body has used a lot of it to heal me, so it was just a bluff. But bluffing was my only hope to convince the beast to keep slumbering.
I was too weak and too low on charisma to win in another struggle.
Heart in my throat, I waited for the onslaught. But it didn't push.
Swallowing what felt like glass, I stumbled forward up a small hill, breath coming out in high-pitched wheezes as sticky blood made its way down my legs and into my boots with each step.
Finally, I reached the top.
Slivers of morning light shone through the massive trees ahead, but the light was not coming from within the thick of the woods. It had to be a river or a clearing or something.
And she was there — I could feel it. The bond tugged inside my chest, and I answered, dashing forward.
But my body was too weak, and the ground was strange …
The world spun around me as I tumbled down the slope, hard stones, branches, and roots battering me with each turn until finally I slammed hard into something large and solid.
Pain shattered through my skull and the world spun crazily as my vision dimmed and pain consumed me.
And still that bond tugged at my chest.
I couldn't stop now.
