Knows everybody's disapproval…
-
Both soldiers heard me, their head whipped in my direction and two pairs of icy blue eyes locked onto my location in the tree.
Then Silas snarled.
They were both at my tree it what seemed like less than a second, teeth still bared as their liquid blue eyes glared up at me, I gasped and wriggled on the branch I was seated on, trying to get free so I could climb higher.
The next few moments passed in a panicked blur, I scrambled higher in the tree, followed by threatening snarls that seemed all to close. Terrified, I glanced back, and met the eyes of one of my pursuers, in all their savage glory.
He bared his teeth at me once he knew he had my attention, in a way that was more grimace than smile.
“Little girl thinks she can escape, eh?” His taunt came out in a mutated and garbled voice, probably due to the teeth he had to speak around.
I gasped and tried to pull myself higher, but there was only so high I could go in the tree.
“She a runner, Silas?” his friends voice was equally as vicious, garbled yet somehow still the most frightening thing I’d ever heard.
“Looks like it to me.”
I was struggling to go any further, and in a last ditch attempt, I surged upward, reaching desperately for that high branch, where I would go from there I hadn’t got to yet. But I didn’t need to worry about that, because as soon as I leapt, a cold hand closed around my ankle, yanking me downwards.
I lost all grip on my failed escape route, and fell down to earth, falling on top of the closest soldier, which meant my fall was broken slightly, and the angry branches didn’t get chance to kill me before I had hit the ground.
I wish they had.
The ground was hard and unforgiving when I crashed down onto it, the soldier underneath having seemed to disappear in mid-air. I lay still for a moment, in shock, then all the air rushed out of my at the hand at my neck. Ah, there was the soldier.
He leant in, until his face was right next to mine, his glorious teeth inches away from my neck, and tightened his hand around my neck, cutting off my air supply.
“Got you know, haven’t I? Dirty little Runner thought she could get away,” he laughed harshly in my face, not expecting an answer from my gasping mouth.
Suddenly, the hand was gone, and I felt relief for a short second, then terror quickly took hold again. One of them gave me a quick kick to the ribs, rolling my on to my side as I gasped, partly in pain and partly to catch my breath. I curled up and clutched my ribs, breathing shallow at the pain.
The men were growling more things at me, but I wasn’t understanding the words, all I could hear was the deafening crunch of their footsteps in the snow. They landed another kick on my body, to my back this time, and I screamed, my convulsing only seeming to make my injuries more painful. They were laughing, and I vaguely heard the drawing of a sword.
