Lacey

CHAPTER TWO

The day began like any other for Lacey. There was no time to be wasted sitting around dawdling, with the same routine being lived by for six years she was up and on her way the minute she woke up. What woke her with a pleasant surprise was the sun breaking through the gaps in the trees, the breeze waving the leaves gently on their branches. Feeling it warm her fur as she trotted along, weaving through trees and hopping over logs and fallen branches, it was as if it was all she needed for an extra shot of energy. The breeze was still slightly chilled from the night, the sun barely having fully risen, and the forest around her was wholly silent as the other creatures still slept soundly, none of them having the same fear prickling them and chasing them from sleep.

Days often turned into a blur, it's time passing her by as fast or slow as it wanted. Being up on the move every day for six years became programmed into her, drilled in, a subconscious task she didn't believe she'd have to be fully conscious for her body to do. It was a routine she now lived by, had lived by the moment she ran from her packs home, and some days she wondered with all the time that had passed since that day, how much space she had put between herself and that place. Time was a funny thing to her, it was unimportant and yet what drove her. She didn't know how much time she had left until she got caught, that idea being something she accepted to be inevitable but let drive her to keep moving, yet she let it pass her by in a haze and wholly unaware until the sun set and rose the next day. Her ears were always on alert, her eyes keeping track of everything she passed, turning her head swiftly back and forth, paranoia coming as easily to her as breathing.

What hit her first was the smell, a smell she no doubt surrounded her. Unclean, dirt becoming a second coat, the smell of something that has been outside for a long, long time. She knew they were stalking her, their steps almost silent as they crept along not far behind her. Often she let the rogues she encountered chase her, only so she had something to do, something to occupy herself with so she didn't slip into the bleak nothingness that fed on her everyday. An instinct she knew was built into her had already made her take in the best direction to take off in, the best way to keep them back but not let them lose sight of her completely. The terrain around her was uneven, inclines steep enough that she'd have to build her speed up so she lost no momentum as the trees became so thick it'd be easy to slam right into one. Fallen trees in the path with tangled branches reaching up eight feet, dead leaves rotten and stuck to its crumbling bark, thick vines covered in thorns having worked their way into every gap creating a wall she had no hope of getting through without time. The winds ever changing direction determining whether they kept track of her scent or not, whether the way it rustled branches covered her light footsteps, maybe if the other creatures prowling the forest could have them second guessing the direction she'd gone - everything around her becoming a factor she'd have to consider.

Like any other time a bunch of rogues tried to capture her, and that day she was in the mood for some fun, she stopped dead in her tracks just like she did then. Her nose twitched, smelling the air, and she made a point to make it obvious. Their steps stopped, and they were close enough that Lacey could faintly hear their already racing heartbeats. There was no other warning for them, she knew exactly where they stood covered behind a particularly thick bunch of trees, and she gave out one, low growl, her head turning menacingly in their direction only for one moment as she caught a single pair of onyx eyes staring at her with delight burning in them, her own widening with the challenge, before she took off.

Behind her she could hear the rogues snarling with every stride they took, growing impatient and she could feel everything they were putting into pushing themselves harder and harder, trying so badly to catch her like their lives depended on it, something depended on it. A lot of money was offered to anyone who brought Lacey in, being alive an essential part, she'd heard a group of rogues she'd past a few years before talking about how they'd love to find her and get the money, the amount being quite substantial.