The Halo Of Vakh (BOOK 1)

TILL THE MOUNTAINS TURN TO LINT

The white flakes settled gently onto the Sapphire's pale cheeks, covering her up in small icicles, adorning her lashes with white pearls and turning her lips as colourless as the snow in which she lay, unconscious. The darkness settled around her, the last remnants of the sun's golden sheen interrupted by the thick vines and pine needles. Around her a shadow stirred, melting into the trees' murkiness. Her leg twitched and her eyes fluttered. A groan rose in the deadly silence of the forest.

Cold. That was all she felt around her. Her limbs felt numb; she could barely feel the dead leaves that lay beneath her fingers. Her finger moved, rising above the ground. She moved her hand and froze. She could smell it. The scent she had come to associate with iron... the scent of...

Her eyes snapped open, a sharp pain rising up through her leg when she sat up abruptly. Her head spun and she almost fell back into the cold bed she had occupied moments before. Her head hurt as if someone was trying to carve into her brain and thoughts. She closed her eyes again, clutching her head. She toppled back and stopped her fall with an arm.

Home... She had to get back home.

She inhaled sharply, the chill cutting through her lungs. She stumbled upright. The pain in her leg seemed like a distant thought and she toppled back onto the ground, her hair coming loose and covering her face. She huffed.

She had to get back home.

Sapphire spun in a circle, her vision a cloudy blur in front of her. She straightened and hurtled through the trees unsteadily, the sharp branches scratching over her face with their nails.

Home.

Her breath fogged in front of her as she stumbled through the dense cluster of trees. She could not see clearly. Her legs hurt. All she saw was the bleary outlines of nature around her. She knew not the direction she was running in; her legs carried her of their own accord.

She had to get to Kapok. She had to get back home.

The ground beneath her feet inclined and she advanced faster than she had ever run in her age. Her feet sank into the thick soft snow, marking the ground with deep pits. Her chest heaved with her laboured breathing. At some instance she lost one of her poleyns; she didn't know where it had fallen. Her chest hurt and for one haunting moment, she thought she was on fire. It spread out from her heart to the rest of her body, like a tingle that itched under her skin.

Her vision cleared as she hurtled out into the open, plunging herself forward into the snowy expanse of the village. She could hear yells. She registered the pandemonium that raged through the settlement. The noise blared in her ears, driving itself through her skull like a knife. Her eyes screwed and her hands flew to her ears. Her ears throbbed and pulsed. She did not know when her feet started moving, knew not when she had removed her hands from her ears. All she knew was that she stood a few houses away from her own abode, staring at the figures that galloped away from the structure.

Her heart hammered against her chest, her breath solidifying into clouds in front of her face as she stumbled towards the wooden door; the pain in her leg returning with an incessant jolt. Her leg buckled under her and she threw out her hand taking hold of the wooden pole with the hanging lines. Her eyes swept over the laundered garments that lay on the ground. She lifted her gaze to the entrance and her heart skipped a beat.

The door had been torn off its hinges and lay halfway across the front yard. A rooster came clucking around towards her. Taking hold of the rails, she limped up the stairs and entered her home, the one safe haven in all the chaos. The lanterns had been blown out, causing darkness to take over the hallway. The light that made its way through the door allowed her to see the overturned cupboards with their contents spilt onto the floor.