Of Frost and Flames

Chapter 3

Where the strange feeling came from, she couldn't be certain. But her focus remained on the arrows flying towards her. 'The way to dodge the arrows most efficiently is like a dance,' she thought to herself. She found it weird that every single arrow missed her however, expecting at least one of them to be close to her. She stopped when she came to a small clearing, looking around, trying to feel for the pull that she had. The arrows had stopped, so either she didn't seem important enough and they focused on Seren, or they never meant to take their life.

Cahira walked around the clearing, keeping an ear on the woods around her just in case someone approached. She stopped when she came to a tree trunk, the feeling was the strongest there. At first glance, it was nothing to be found, but she didn't believe it for a second. She dug into the tree trunk and closed her eyes, focusing all her senses on finding whatever it was in there. There, something that felt like a rope. She tugged on it and nearly toppled back when it came loose.

"Going somewhere?" a dark voice asked.

She slowly looked up at the man, smiling nervously before jumping forward, turning around. The sack in her hands must be what they were after. Now she did regret not taking lessons in self-defense.

"She's going home."

The bandit in front of her collapsed, and suddenly Seren stood by her, nodding to her. She looked back at the unconscious man on the ground, blinking a few times. If she wanted to know what was going on or not, she didn't really know anymore. Maybe it was better to not know who these people were and why they were so persistent in hunting them down. Cahira looked back up at Seren and frowned.

"Branches won't protect against Stonetooths, but it seems they're sufficient against bandits," he said.

"So now a branch is helpful," she muttered under her breath and shook her head.

It was like the sack in her hands had slipped her mind and only appeared again as she looked down at it. She crouched down and poured out the contents, curious as to what was inside of it. As a bag of pebbles fell out alongside a sword, she frowned and stared at it. The sword looked interesting. The hilt of it seemed to be in the French style, with roses wrapping around the rain-guard. The blade was silver with runes carved into it.

Cahira picked it up gently, but it was like the air was knocked out of her. For a few seconds, she could see a scene in front of her. A man holding a baby, riding at full speed in the same woods they were in. He looked over his shoulder, and she recognized him.

'Dad?' she thought as the scene in front of her vanished.

"What about a sword?" she asked, shaking the scene out of her head, "I don't know why, but it was like it wanted me to find it. A strange pull of force, I guess. And since you're from here, wherever here is, I do assume you can wield a sword."

If someone could have too much happen in one day, Cahira certainly did. She could feel the exhausting creep up on her as the adrenaline wore off. As she looked away from the sword, she noticed the burnt grass around her, going around her in a circle. Weird, she hadn't felt the heat of it. She'd seen more of those when she was younger too, whenever she met with strangers. They would always scurry away like they'd been stung by something.

Cahira shook her head, pushing aside her thoughts, "what do they want? Why are they so determined to get us?"

Seren moved, handing her the sack to hold before she was swept up from the ground, "because they think us vulnerable, and they are desperate. Warkinles is not a fair land... but they have run out of arrows, and that allows us to escape."

When he spoke, his voice seemed so far away, like they were several feet away from each other. All she could catch was the name of the place they were currently in; Warkinles. Never had she heard about it, unless it was one of the stories that her father told her when she was still a child. Warkinles was a righteous land where people were protected and there was no war. But this one seemed to be different, for else the events up to now wouldn't have happened.