181 FRANTIC - PART 5

The wintry air of the Terewell thicket held a sense of forewarning when Carter breached the tree line.

The shadows of the forest seemed to scream an ominous warning to turn around and abandon this route. However, there was not another choice.

If Aaron were tracking them, it would be unwise to stay out in the open for him to catch them.

They had a better chance of evading him in the cover of the deadly thicket.

The eerie silence of Terewell felt like a suffocating shroud, only broken by the stallions' foot falls and the occasional hoot of a snowy horned owl in the pine canopy above. Carter's horse nervously whinnied as his hooves stumbled over the tree roots, obscuring the path through the woods.

"Easy," he said, stretching out his hand and patting the side of the horse's neck to calm him.