Crossing boundaries, Combining two worlds part two

RUNNING OFF

After the fight between the two warriors, everyone just went on with what they were doing, the men at least, Robin watched the women stay and gossip, their eyes following Dakota's every move.

Robin turned away from the women, suddenly loneliness overcame her at the sight of the intimate interaction between Dakota and the tall man, but when Rhán walked away with one of the other men without giving her a worthy look, tears began to flow. .

Even though Rhán visited her regularly, for some reason he kept her at a distance, something that started to hurt more and more. When they first met in person, Robin had hoped that they would gradually grow closer together, because even though Latarji had abused her, she had never feared Rhán or what he might do to her. But after she exposed herself, something had changed and she wished with all her heart that she hadn't told him about her gifts.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cloe walking into the common room with Kayla's twins, and suddenly she knew what she was going to do. Quickly she made her way out of the common room, once she got to the dormitory she grabbed a backpack and filled it with a few basic necessities and slipped out of the fortress without attracting the attention of the warriors.

The conversation with Gh'ara had lifted a weight off his shoulders and with a feeling of relief he walked down the halls to meet Robin. He was well aware that he had neglected the woman and intended to give her more attention from now on, she deserved so much more than he had given her and Rhán felt guilty. But when he got to the common room, he didn't see her and went to the women's dormitory. To his relief, he saw Cloe standing in the doorway and approached the little red-haired woman with a smile on his face. But his smile faded at the concern he saw as he approached her.

"What's going on Cloe?"

The redhead looked around uncomfortably. "I can't find her, Rhán... I've looked everywhere, but she seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth!"

He looked at her with furrowed brows. "Who's missing?"

"Robin!" Her eyes filled with tears. "Stupidly enough, over the past few days I did notice that she became more and more withdrawn, but I thought she was just tired, but now... She's gone!"

A nauseating feeling overcame him and Rhán felt a shiver run down his spine. This was all his fault! He had kept her at a distance, to afraid she would eventually see him for what he really was... a monster... And now, for not giving her the attention she so desperately needed, she was gone!

Sneaking past the guards into the compound had been fairly easy, but getting out of the fortress had been quite a challenge...

Motion detectors, cameras, even some sort of drones scanned the area 24/7, and it took over an hour before she finally saw an opportunity.

Two guards took one of the hovering vehicles for a patrol, and the protruding ledge at the rear allowed Robin to cling to the vehicle undetected. Once outside, she waited for the vehicle to drive near the edge of the forest where she dropped to the muddy ground and rolled into the undergrowth.

On all fours she crawled further into the woods until she thought she was safe enough and stood up.

Robin turned once more to face the secured fortress. A pang of grief went through her heart at the thought of her giant. Was she right to leave?

She shook her head. There was no turning back, she had made her decision. She would go to her house, gather her things and find a new place for herself...

The moment Rhán found out that his eyséah had disappeared, he rushed over to the control room in the hopes to find out where she might have gone.

"Ayèk!" Even though he was angry with himself and Robin at the same time, he couldn't hide a small grin. The lady in question turned out to be very resourceful and also not easily scared. Although the hovering vehicle might not have been very high above the ground, the drop Robin had made was at least two meters.

He quickly gathered a few men to accompany him and let Gh'ara know what he was up to. His Ikat wasn't very happy with his Tároc's decision to go after the woman himself, but he knew from experience that there was no point in arguing, nor would he have listened if it had been his mate.

Three hours ahead of her pursuers, Robin arrived in her old village early in the morning. To her chagrin, she saw the bodies of a number of female warriors in a distant state of decay in the village square, and a tear rolled down her cheeks at the decapitated body of her old clan leader. There had been no need for such violence, she thought sadly, but shook her head at the thought. Latarji was a monster and monsters didn't care about others... Unfortunately, this monster was still alive and she hoped that Rhán and his clan mates would catch that creep and make him suffer just as he had.

She walked to her cottage and began rummaging through the mess left behind by the raid. A large dark red spot on the floor caught her attention. Robin dropped to her knees at the sight of the gore and began to cry heartrendingly.

Her girl... her little pregnant girl had been kicked into a corner and shot by her captors. A queasy feeling overcame her at the thought of the pain Lucy must have been in.

A sudden rustle from her bedroom startled her. She quickly picked up the iron pipe, which to her surprise had still been in a corner by the front door, and walked as quietly as possible to her bedroom.

The bedroom door was ajar and she looked in carefully. At first she saw nothing and Robin was about to turn around again, when a soft squeak made her stiffen. Carefully she opened the door and looked around the room.

"Lucy..? Lucy girl, are you here?"

A movement from under her bed made her froze, until two familiar brown eyes looked at her suspiciously.

"Lucy! It's me girl!" Tears started to flow all over again at the sight of the little female dog, but this time they were tears of joy and relieve.

With great difficulty the dog crawled out from underneath the bed and stumbled, softly whining, to her owner. Lucy was scrawny and had obviously been injured by one of Latarji's men. Robin dropped to her knees and hugged the little dog, carefully stroking the animal's dirty fur, Lucy had been hit in the hip and the lack of medical help had made the wound inflamed and it looked terrible. But before Robin could do anything further, the little dog had turned at the sound of soft whines and limped toward the bed. On all fours Robin crawled after her fury girl and to her surprise found two puppies, hidden underneath her old bed. Lucy had given birth to two healthy looking puppies despite her injuries.

As the dog curled around her puppies, Robin made some space so she could see the dog and her puppies better and sat down next to the bed. She gently stroked the animal's head and thought how to treat the injuries of her four-legged friend, now that everything was in ruins.

At one point Lucy lifted her head and Robin saw the hairs on the neck of the animal stand on end, a low growl rose from her dog's throat and she felt a deep terror rise, and bile rose at the memory of the brutal attack on her clan.

Suddenly a horned face appeared in the doorway and Robin let out a cry of terror.

"I FOUND HER, TAROC!! SHE'S OVER HERE!!" The man yelled, and Robin heard thunderous paces heading their way.

She tried to make herself as small as possible, even though she knew it was no use. A terrifying growl came from the hollow under her bed and Robin felt Lucy try to wrestle her way forward, but just thinking that the dog was going to get even more hurt, Robin positioned her body in a way that the dog couldn't crawl out any further, and serve as a target.