Page 215 of A Soul to Guide

Merikh started clawing his way down, occasionally jumping from the hundreds of branches. Some of the leaves were bigger than him – some of the sticks, too. He was like an ant scaling a tree.

He slipped after one leap and began to plummet, only to break his fall when his torso slammed against a thick branch. Spittle sprayed from his mouth, and he already knew his insides were going to be bruised. When he started slipping off the edge, he panicked and dug his claws in, then just stayed there for a moment, huffing.

At least going downwards was helping him breathe, but a fall from this height was sure to shatter his skull in an instant. He didn’t think he’d been this close to his own possible death.

It felt like hours before he reached the bottom.

Once he did, he stood on a random home so he could look around and search. Like a looming figure lifting his snout into the air, he hoped he could catch even just a thread of Raewyn’s lily of the valley scent.

Nothing, and someone’s scream had his sight shifting to white.

Merikh darted to another rooftop, then another, wanting to get as far from the screamer as possible. He just needed to evade everyone until he found her sweet, toxic lily scent, and hopefully escape being noticed in the meantime.

Despite how quick he was on all fours, whenever he stopped on top of someone’s oddly shaped home to sniff for Raewyn, he would catch someone’s attention. Whenever they pointed with a shout, he bolted, even if he hadn’t scented the air properly.

Where are you, little starshine?

Now that he was in the heart of the city, it looked impossible. It was even bigger than he thought, and it was as confusing as a labyrinth. He didn’t know if he’d doubled back or not. He didn’t know where he was going or how he was supposed to navigate it.

Lanterns filled with something other than flame lit up without anyone’s assistance, even before the sun had finished setting. Everything was getting darker, making it hard even for him to distinguish between people.

He was blindly following his nose now, and only stalked those with long but coily hair – none turning out to be her.

Time passed slowly, but his pulse was quick.

Then it began.

An alarm blared like an ominous chime.

Before long, Merikh was being chased by white metal armoured soldiers wielding those deadly polearms. The occupants of the city had alerted them to his presence.

Different coloured balls of light glowed from their weapons. It looked like ornaments had been tied to the shafts of them by ribbons, and he noted they matched the colour of their leather. They appeared to help them follow each other as they gave chase.

Three became nine, until there were dozens heading towards him from all directions.

Even with the darkness falling on them, his red glowing orbs were like a beacon.

In his monstrous form, Merikh just ran on all fours, sprinting to escape. He was faster, and he tried to pick up Raewyn’s scent as he bounced from rooftop to rooftop.

With the alarm chiming, people ran to the safety of their homes. It gave Merikh the freedom to hide within the labyrinth of the city by dropping down to the streets. His quick, thumping paws reverberated off the walls, and the exhaustion caused his huffing breaths to be loud and wet.

The smell of fear grew stronger, then faded as he passed different houses. Each time a particular area was saturated with it, like those within the area were petrified, he ceased breathing until he passed through.

Running down a path, he skidded to a halt at a line of soldiers pointing their blades towards him. From what he could tell, they were a mixture of Elves and Demons, and their blades faintly glowed with misty energy.

He now knew how deadly those weapons were.

He darted to the left but doubled back and went right when more collected that way.

The tree he’d been standing on earlier wasn’t the centre of the city, but it was close to it. The leaves were glowing a pinkish purple in the dark, and he headed for it.

He’d go back up until he lost the soldiers.

If Raewyn was here, she would have been alerted to his presence by now.Will she come find me, or leave me to fend for myself here?

How the tides had changed.

He was beinghunted.He hadn’t hurt a single person, and they had already pointed their weapons at him.

---