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I just had to get away from these godsdamned birds.
My palms and knees stung and my chest ached as I picked myself up, swiftly scanning the surrounding area. There were no other contestants standing where we’d originally been deposited by the portals, and I caught sight of a couple of them as they disappeared into other parts of the woods.
The piercing shriek of the birds sounded once again, and my breath trembled as I glanced up, searching for the source of the noise. Even at the edge of the forest, the trees were so tall and wide that I couldn’t see the threat coming.
It didn’t matter. I had to go.
I took off again, heading deeper into the woods, thankful that I’d decided to wear heavy boots. I ran like hell, not even thinking to listen for the screeching, the flapping of the wings, or anything else. The only things I could hear were the sounds of my heart beating wildly in my chest and my gasping breaths echoing through my ears. I didn’t know how long I sprinted, but by the time I slowed down and braced my hand against one of the trees, bending at the waist as I tried to breathe through the stabbing pain in my lungs, the birds were gone.
My mind couldn’t wrap itself around anything at that moment, and it wouldn’t until I could shove aside my panic.
Calm down. Breathe, Aria. Breathe. Your survival depends on it.
Shutting my eyes—and hoping nothing snatched me right up off the ground—I breathed in deeply through my nose and out through my mouth. Three or four breaths later, the sharp pain in my chest began to dull. I turned my back to the tree and pressed against it, taking in my surroundings.
All I could see were scattered piles of leaves and enormous tree trunks stretching as far as the eye could see in every direction. The trees were all different sizes. Some were the size of large cottonwoods back on earth, and some were so huge that all of the contestants could stand hand-in-hand around just one trunk.
Fucking hell. If the trees are this large, I can only imagine what the other creatures who live here look like.
A somewhat manic laugh bubbled past my lips as I imagined the largest squirrel I had ever seen. If that were the case, maybe I could saddle it and ride it to get where I was going faster.
Shaking my head at my vaguely insane thoughts, I winced looking down at the palms of my hands. They were red and bloody, and the knees of my pants were ripped. I was already beat up, bruised, and scraped, but having been a fighter for so many years, the pain was almost grounding.
With slow, deliberate steps, trying not to make too much noise in the crunching leaves, I walked forward until I’d made it halfway around one tree trunk to peer between it and the tree adjacent to it.
Everything at the portal landing spot had been so chaotic that I wasn’t exactly sure what direction I had run when the birds had attacked. I had no idea what was around me or if I was even close to heading in the right direction. Attempting to get my bearings from where I stood was useless. There were too many large trees rising to all heights around me. I’d never be able to see far enough in the distance to know if I was going the right direction.
I put my hand on the tree trunk, feeling the strange soft yet brittle consistency of the bark beneath my fingertips. A pulse of energy surged through me, and I quickly pulled my hand away. As I did, I noticed that my palm stuck to the bark, almost like chewing gum to a table.
Woah. Cool.
I was no dummy, and I’d watched all the Spiderman movies during a short-lived Marvel movie kick. Maybe that was why my magic had unconsciously mimicked that power, creating an adhesive effect that allowed my hand to stick to the tree’s bark.
Still, watching Spiderman do it in a movie and doing it myself in real life were two very different things. I craned my neck to look upward, finding the canopy of the trees hundreds of feet above me.
I knew what I needed to do. I needed to get up there, at least high enough that I could see above the tops of the nearby trees. I had never been a climber, tending to like my feet on the ground, but I didn’t have a choice.
Very slowly at first, I used one hand and then the next, pushing magic out of my palms and using it as an adhesive to the surface. It wasn’t perfect, but it kept me moving upward. My boots seemed to slip on the soft parts of the bark, but my hands kept me stable.
By the time I neared the top of the tree, I was breathing heavily and covered in a sheen of sweat. My arms shook as I scooted out onto one of the branches and hung my legs over. This tree was one of the largest in the area, so even at this height, I could see over most of the nearby trees.
With extreme caution, I put my feet up on the branch—it was wider than my body, but rounded and unstable. I reached up and grabbed the branch above it, holding my breath as I lifted myself up to a standing position. I could see across the forest, through the holes in the plant life. In the distance, I caught sight of
a structure with a dome-like top reflecting a bit of the midday sun off its tiles.
I didn’t know if that was where I needed to go, but it was the only structure I could see.
Might as well head in that direction. Maybe it’s a clue, or some of those supplies Dean Frost mentioned.
Mind made up, I began to make my way back down the tree. It was slow going—unlike a squirrel, I wasn’t brave enough to try climbing down head-first. Instead, I worked my way down backwards, praying my magic held up and kept obeying my commands.
But as I neared the base of the massive tree, something stopped me. Close by, on the forest floor, I heard the cracking and crackling of leaves and branches breaking. I held very still and craned my neck, looking down at the ground.
From my left, a man with light blond hair emerged from a thick patch of vines that seemed to cling to him as if they were sentient creatures.
Merrick.
He muttered under his breath, hacking at the vines with slicing arcs of magic before finally extricating himself from their hold and moving quickly through the forest. He wore a heavy-looking pack on his back, making me think he must’ve managed to snag a bag of supplies somewhere along the way.
