The Winter Sun

Chapter 26

Lach covered his face with his hands, bracing himself from the light that flared all around him. An explosion like thunder resonated in the forest, shaking their leaves.

The light faded, and another scream spurred him to bolt in its direction.

He found Amaya standing on the ground before the attacker's inert body. Lach's eyebrows jolted up when he noticed the crater they were standing in, as if a bolder had fallen from the sky. Amaya hissed, her palm pressed against her forehead. "Are you hurt? What happened?" he asked.

"I don't know," she screwed her eyes shut from the pain. Lach scrutinized her face and body, but he couldn't find any visible injuries before he kneeled next to the body. He snatched the cap away, revealing stony features: a prominent nose with thin, hard lines as lips and long, straight yellow hair like corn. Lach shook them, and when he was sure they wouldn't move, he put two fingers on their throat.

"They are still alive." He said before glancing at Amaya. Before his eyes fell on two flowers standing before the body. Bright and happy with their white petals and yellow center like the sun.

Daisies.

**

"What are we going to do about them?" Amaya asked as they stood before the body. Lach crossed his arms. The attacker's upper body was tightened against a tree with ropes they found in a pouch they carried. They also had a torch, which they lit up and planted on the ground as darkness slowly surrounded them. The attacker's head hung low, still knocked out.

"First, I want them to wake up so I can make them go through what I went through." Lach hissed, massaging the skin of his neck, and Amaya gave him a disapproving look. It was the second time Amaya had prevented his neck from being snapped into two. "Thank you for helping me... once again," Lach paused, his palm on the base of his neck. "You could have run away."

"I wouldn't have left without you," Her gaze and the way she said this with so much sincerity and warmth flushed Lach's cheeks.

He cleared his throat. "We should let them here and let the wolves and bears or whatever else is staying in this forest take care of them." Amaya sighed heavily but nodded.

"But... I still want to know what happened." Lach's eyebrows creased together. "This light appearing from nowhere..."

Amaya's eyes widened. "Why do you care about it?" She fidgeted with her pendants. "It must have been a thunder."

Lach shook his head. "The sky was too clear for that. It wasn't even raining, and thunders never come alone. There are always signs." Amaya's lips tightened together, and a question danced on Lach's lips, but a groan made him swallow it back before he could ask it.

The attacker's face rose slowly, their expression groggy as if they had just come out of a deep slumber, eyes cloudy at first before they gradually found focus and darted around until they met Lach's fiery ones. The grogginess wiped itself out immediately and their features hardened. They launched forward like a wild dog, and the rope strained, threatening to snap, spurring Amaya to step back and Lach to keep a steady hand on the hilt of his sword.

"Free me right now, or I will slit your throat with my bare teeth," they barked, their long yellow hair covering their face from all the wriggling.

"Easy," Lach replied as if talking to a wild horse. It only drew another rageful groan from them. "They are nuts," Lach whispered for only Amaya to hear, but the way the attacker's eyes bored into him, it hadn't escaped their ears, too. He flinched and backed down a little.

"Let's leave," Amaya said, heading to the horses. "They won't follow us."

"Wait," Lach stepped forward, and Amaya's eyes flashed wide as Lach kneeled in front of the raging animal, still wriggling their body like a worm. "You won't be able to escape. This knot is made to even keep down the wildest horse in place," Lach stated, his eyes steady.