Page 26 of Upon Buried Embers
I can hear the dragons roaring in the distance; still see the glow of flames when I look behind me.
I need to get further away, quickly.
No one is chasing me, they probably didn’t notice I ran and I need to be far away when they do realize it.
Snow falls heavier, night is quickly approaching, and I pull my hood tighter around my face to try to keep warm.
Am I even going in the right direction of the city? How will I get in?
I shake my head. I’ll worry about that when I get there. With night coming, I can find a hollow tree and hide there for the night, let it pass and move again in the morning. Then I can make it to a road or find a river and follow it. Hopefully it will take me to someone who can tell me where I am and get directions back to Lothmere.
My breaths come out harsher the further I go, my limbs feeling like jelly but I can’t stop now. I only wish I’d stolen some food or maybe a waterskin before I left, but I had no time.
The trees start to thin out a little, and I end up running downhill before finding myself in some sort of gorge. Dirt surrounds me on either side, exposed roots peeking through from the trees above, like someone dug up the ground and made tunnels without a roof.
I run around a bend, gripping those roots for stability when a growl comes from behind me.
I freeze, my shaking hand gripping the dirt wall as I turn my head.
At first I don’t see anything, just the banks of the dirt … but then… there, on top of the wall next to a tree is a single wolf.
It’s a mixture of grays, teeth bared and snarling.
I swallow… because where there is one, there’s usually another.
It looks down at me, saliva dripping from its exposed teeth. When it moves out of sight, I dart forward and run like my life depends on it, because on this occasion, it does.
I run through the passages, my cloak snagging on roots and my hood falls down, my hair whipping around my face. I come to an upward slope, and I heave myself up the incline and run back into the trees, looking for anything that can help me, my lungs burning with every step.
I can’t climb a tree with the snow making them slippery, and there’s no hollow beneath any that I can hide out in. My only option is to outrun the howls that are closing in.
A hunt begins.
Gods.
A wolf comes out from the tree ahead of me, snarling as it stalks forward and I come to a stop, ready to sprint in another direction. But there’s another wolf there. I spin for another exit, only to find another, and another.
I’m surrounded.
Breathing hard, a whimper spilling from my lips, I hold my hands out in front of me.
Please, please, please.
The wolves stalk closer, snarling and growling, and I’ve never been more scared in my life. I should have stayed with the Dragorie and bided my time, I should have waited until I had some food and water, maybe stolen a horse.
I shouldneverhave run.
“Please,” I whisper to the wolves. “I…”
A wolf lunges for me and I scream, holding my hands up and getting ready to protect myself, to have my arms bitten and chewed, when a yelp comes from nowhere.
I fall back, crying out in alarm as I see a blur of fur.
But it’s an axe that slices through the air and into the wolf, then the next as another lunges.
Rohan.
He growls, more dragon than man as he cuts down the wolves that never seem to stop coming. He turns, a snarl on his face ashe swings the axe over my head, blood splattering me. I hunch down, wrapping my arms around my legs, flinching at every strike Rohan makes.
