Page 22 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
Hopefully, that would protect Lumie from the cold more, and yet be unusual enough that someone would take notice.
“Catch her!”
Alezya stepped back, feeling like she was leaving her heart behind.
She dropped her bag, leaving it under another piece of tree bark, and without looking back, she began running.
Now a lot lighter, she could run fast, and as far away as possible. It was anger and rage that fueled her steps because everything else inside felt broken and hollow. She had to trick them. She had to take them far away, so far they wouldn’t think of coming back to check that area.
They wanted to hunt her down like some prey?
She was going to make them run.
Perhaps because she had left behind everything she still had to lose, Alezya found herself faster than she’d ever been before.
She could run and not care about the risk. She could trip over a tree root and get back up without giving a damn about the pain. That was nothing compared to what she had just gone through. She kept running, heading south. She had to go south, for that was the one place most people didn’t want to go. No one wanted to approach the area the Dragon Clan’s people patrolled for they knew about their powerful fighters and their dragon.
Even as she ran past the line of trees, Alezya didn’t bother to glance up. That dragon could have her if it wanted, but she was going to draw those bastards out and get them killed too ifshe could. As if it had read her mind, a loud growl echoed her thoughts.
“She’s there! Grab her!”
They were getting closer to her.
No matter how fast she could run, Alezya was already exhausted, her body reaching its limits. She was leaving a trail of blood behind her, and her feet were burning, her shoes having given out long ago and ripped wide open, letting her skin be grazed by everything and anything she stepped on. She could feel the sting on her flank, her skin bitten by the cold everywhere her clothes had been ripped apart.
Her hair was no longer tied back, flying around her face. She hoped that would make her an easier target to spot; she needed those men to follow her...
“Catch that swine! Traitor!”
She was growing deaf to their shouts. She could hear the whole valley echoing like a large trap closing in on her. More people were joining the hunt. No one felt pity for her, the thrill of hunting a human down was too exciting for those heartless monsters. Alezya kept running, tirelessly.
No, she was tired, but she wasn’t willing to listen to her body’s complaints anymore. A desperate rush of adrenaline was the only thing keeping her moving.
A scream from behind her got her to glance back, just once.
The dragon. That same orange dragon she’d faced had just dove down and murdered a man, not a mile behind her. This time, fear grew in her. She had resolved that she’d die, but she still couldn’t help but hope it wouldn’t be a horrible and painful death. At least, the dragon seemed to make it quick. She heard a growl, and the beast jumped into the sky again, its furious growls resonating throughout the area.
Time. All she needed was more time and a bit more distance. To get as far as she could from Lumie, to drag them allout to where she’d finally be unable to continue... The ground suddenly disappeared under her feet.
Alezya realized she was falling when her body was still mid-air, and yet too late. She tipped over, getting a glimpse of what was to come before closing her eyes. This was the trap of an all-white environment. White, fresh, and immaculate snow was treacherous. The sparkling perfect white mane of snow, the one that was there first thing in the morning on a clear day, was blinding. Perhaps if she had been going a little bit slower or walking, Alezya would have noticed that the ground before her was uneven, that the snow was tipping downward. She would have stopped before the crevice that had suddenly opened before her.
It was now too late, and she fell, her body violently hitting the ground below just two seconds later. It wasn’t a fall hard enough to kill her, but she felt her body screaming in pain. Because she’d fallen from an upright position, her legs were the first victim, and now the ones screaming in an unbearable wave of pain.
Alezya gasped for air; all of it had left her lungs the second her body hit the ground. Her only luck was that there was snow down there too. The few inches of treacherous white coating had softened her fall a bit, just a bit. Right now though, she was in too much pain to move, even with all the willpower she could muster. Her body was done obeying her nonsense, it was just subjected to too much pain to endure anymore.
Black and white dots were like bugs appearing in front of her eyes, warning her this was her limit. No, she had gone past her limits a long while ago already. Somewhere in her heart too, Alezya settled a bit. If this was the end, at least she was hidden a bit.
Perhaps they wouldn’t find her?
Men shouting nearby proved her wrong. To her despair, it didn’t take minutes before she heard the damp sound of someone falling next to her; unlike her, they had seen the crevice and jumped down there. She was still lying down, but with a heroic and last attempt at bravery, she struggled to get back up; all she managed was to get on her elbow and look up. She recognized one of her father’s men; he was staring down at her with a vicious smirk on his face like she was some trash, some prey he’d managed to hunt down .
“There you are, you traitor!”
There was no need to answer that; no answer was expected.
Alezya knew she had lost, and she didn’t have it in her to throw some bitter response. Instead, she stubbornly kept trying to move. It was strange, to know that she wouldn’t be able to go anywhere, and yet to want to keep trying. It was like she had carved an intention with hot iron in her mind, and her body kept obeying mindlessly.
She could only move so little and drag the lower half of her body behind her, managing to crawl perhaps three inches.
