Oh, thank you, gods! Some of my fear dissipates, and I experience a surge of hope that I might actually survive this attack. If General Dalgaard remains distracted long enough, I might succeed in escaping him.
I tear my gaze from the clearing and focus on the path ahead, even though there’s not really a path. In this area of the forest, there’s barely room for me to run amidst the thick vegetation. Still, I keep going. I run and I run. My pack slams against my back with each rapid step, and I eventually slow briefly to readjust the straps, then I take off again at full speed. I run until a coppery taste fills my mouth, both my sides ache, and my lungs scream for air. Even then, I don’t stop.
I’m running blindly through the forest, with no sense of direction, but it’s my hope that eventually I’ll reach an area that will provide good enough cover for me to hide. I keep an eye out for a hollow trunk or an area that’s not so fully affected by the ussha glow, a dark place where I might conceal myself in case the general decides to come after me.
I pray he doesn’t. I pray the human soldiers in Glenville keep him occupied long enough to permit my escape. Maybe he’ll decide I’m not worth the trouble.
Yet part of me can’t help but wonder if he’s the highborn fae who helped me in Sorsston.Someonehelped me. A winged fae who flew me to my parents’ home after I experienced a danger in the castle I can’t quite remember. I have vague recollections of a flight in the early morning. Logically, I know I must’vebeen glamoured. The highborn fae who helped me didn’t want me to remember the uncharacteristic kindness he showed me. I suppose it’s a power thing and has something to do with how vicious the fae want to appear to one another.
But in the clearing on the edge of Glenville, the general had looked at me with unmistakable lust in his eyes. Not just lust, but a dark, violent need. He’d also growled, and he’d started to chase me.
My heart sinks. Surely that means he’s not the highborn fae who helped me in Sorsston.
It means he’s just another cruel monster I served drinks and food to during the early days of the fae occupation in my home city.
Which means I really must remain hidden.
I finally pause to catch my breath and get my bearings. The vegetation has thinned just a bit, and dawn has finally arrived, allowing me a better look at my surroundings. Birds chirp and flit happily amongst the trees, and a silver fox darts across my path and disappears in the underbrush.
My heart leaps when I spot what I think is a small opening in a rocky area in the distance. A cave. Maybe I could hide there. Just for a day or two. I can’t keep running myself to exhaustion, especially when I don’t have any water.
My stomach grumbles a moment later, reminding me that I don’t have any food either. Thankfully, the forest is abundant with glowing ussha-blessed fruits and vegetables that are perfectly edible and quite delicious.
I hadn’t been able to fit many provisions in my pack, and during my journey to Glenville, I’d survived on what I could find in the forest. I resolve that I’ll quickly gather some food and then hunker down in the cave. To compensate for my lack of water, I’ll pick the juiciest fruit I can find.
I untuck my shirt and hold it out as a makeshift basket while I start collecting. I pick a few apples, followed by some huge oranges and other items I can’t put a name to—fae fruits and vegetables that have started growing in the human lands.
The best thing about fae fruits and vegetables, I decide as I approach the dark entrance of the cave, is that most of them glimmer and glow, even once they’re plucked from whatever tree or bush they’re growing on. This means the cave won’t be so dark and scary. I’ll just have to venture as deep inside as possible so the glow of my harvest doesn’t attract the general’s attention.
How long have I been running through the forest?
At least two hours, I reckon.
Fae are notoriously fast, and they’re great hunters. Highborn fae like the general even more so.
Yet he’s not here. He hasn’t caught me yet.
Maybe it means he’s lost interest. Maybe it means he’s not coming.
Dare I hope?
I hurry to the cave and cast a cautious glance inside, though I can’t see much. Just a dirt floor and rocky walls. I listen but don’t hear any sounds coming from within, and as I finally step inside, I pray I won’t come face to face with a sleeping bear or some other dangerous creature.
To my vast relief, after a quick but thorough exploration, I determine the cave is unoccupied. It’s a small cavern, and it doesn’t take long to reach the back of it, but there’s nothing here. I sigh and take a seat on the dirt floor, allowing the fruits and vegetables to tumble from my shirt.
Thankfully, the glow from the food I collected provides adequate lighting.
Fatigue pulls at me as I lean against the rocky wall. I’d had difficulty falling asleep last night, only to rouse about an hour after I finally drifted off, thrust into wakefulness by the screamsand shouts of the Glenville townsfolk under attack by the fae. I suppress a shudder.
I try to relax and get some rest, but my hands start trembling and soon my whole body is shaking. It’s impossible not to consider what almost happened, and as the dark scenarios play through my mind, my trembling deepens.
Gods, I came so close to capture.
If not for those human soldiers, General Dalgaard would’ve surely caught me.
Another shudder affects me as I consider that violent, lustful gleam in his eyes. He’d appeared so perversely pleased when he spotted me.
I suspect he recognized me.
