Page 4 of Blood & Ruin

In my haze, I had forgotten there was a stream. Mom told me I could follow it and it would lead me out of the forest, no matter what direction I took. I clutched my chest, glancing up at the sky. After sending a silent prayer of thanks to her for her guidance, I changed direction, and managed to find the steam a few minutes later.

My feet continued to move. The grass was unkempt, dotted with sprays of the water. The banks were muddy but undisturbed. I doubted anyone knew of this place besides me and my mother – besides me.

I was surrounded in a musical of buzzing, chirping, squeaking, and creaking. Even the wind played the instrument of the leaves and the blades of grass. I had no idea how some of the bugs even survived at this point in time, especially since winter was coming. I nearly ran into a bee and had to rip my hair out to make sure it hadn’t gotten tangled in my messy locks.

By the time the sun began to descend, my stomach was screaming. I had no weapon, nothing to use to help me find sustenance. My limbs weakened. I continued to move, but it was getting difficult to do. At one point, I tripped over a patch of grass and landed face first in a muddy section of the grass.

I needed to focus.

I moved to the stream and splashed the frigid water on my face. It woke me up slightly, but it didn’t assist with the hunger. Instead, I began to drink. I put as much water inside of me as I could, hoping to feel renewed.However, all I felt was bloated. Movement seemed impossible now. In fact, I eased onto my back and stared up at the sky. The majority of it was hidden from my view due to the tall trees. The leaves still remained on the branches, holding as tightly as they could before winter came and swept them away. The sky itself was a pale blue, the kind of sky that announced winter was nearly here in.

I looked down at my clothes. They were thin layers. I knew I wouldn’t be able to survive out here for very much longer if I didn’t find this Cormac Grey and the academy my mother mentioned.

Although…

What if this whole thing was a hallucination on her part? She had lost a lot of blood. She had been dying. Did she even know what she was saying at that point?

My stomach rumbled, demanding attention.

I was so hungry.

What was I going to do?

I closed my eyes. This actually felt nice. Now that I wasn’t moving, now that I rested on something soft, this wasn’t so bad. If I wasn’t careful, I might fall asleep here.

But I wouldn’t.

I snapped my eyes open.

I needed to keep moving.

My eyes slowly descended again.

I would. Keep moving. I just, I wanted just a minute. That was it. Just one minute of rest, and then I’d be up and moving in no time.

Kent

As Alpha of the Earth Pack, Kent wasn’t required to patrol the academy territory. However, whenever it was his pack’s turn to provide security, he always participated. The other Alphas gave him shit for it, but he didn’t care. It wasn’t about paying his dues, it was about commanding respect. If he was going to assign a duty to his pack, he wanted them to know he would perform the same duty. This was supposed to create respect and trust. Most of the time, the two members would have preferred if Kent wasn’t around so they could slack off.

He sighed.

It was hard to find worthy recruits nowadays.

He stepped on fallen branches, his spathi hanging from his hip. He had just cleaned and sharpened the blade in order to prepare for his nightly rounds before retiring for the evening. His spathi was his means of survival; he took great care with preserving it to an honorable state the way others took care in their every day appearance.

There were always threats to be dealt with, and his spathi was enough to inflict damage and even death to prevent the walls of the academy from being tainted with the Vrykolakas overwhelmed the nation of Cordova.

His footsteps were silent as he made his way across the grass. A gentle breeze picked up his white, shoulder-length hair, but it didn’t dare linger. Kent had a reputation not even nature questioned.

He continued to move, keeping his eyes in front of him. His hand always hovered just above the hilt of his spathi – just in case. The Vrykolakas were stealth and had speed the human eye couldn’t follow, even if it was a human with mixed blood.

Something to his left caught his peripheral. Instead of immediately turning towards it, he focused in front of him, tilting his head to the side in hopes to pick up whatever he needed to hear to gauge just what was behind him. Slowly, he crossed one foot over then used the other to spread wide, moving with precise movements as if he were doing a dance. Then, with speed he had practiced and perfected for over a century, he whirled around, only to find a monarch butterfly.

Kent frowned. Those shouldn’t be present, even this late into fall. They should have migrated south, where it was warmer and snow didn’t touch the earth.

Strange.

The butterfly continued to flap its wings as though it didn’t notice Kent staring at it, before moving forward.

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