Desperate Escape

Her green hair billowed as she raced across the snowy hills of the forest, choking to keep up with the rapid throbbing of her heart and the recklessness of her movements so her air wouldn't go down the wrong way.

What were they in the first place?

The image of those blackened wolves reanimating from the ashes seethed into her mind, feathery ashes swarming back into shape, crackling bones snapping back into place like lifeless sand absolved from the permanence of life and death.

This couldn't be—She was a princes of dragons, of all things, even if she was yet a little one. These measly beasts should crumble and die like nothings under the might of her flames. That was what should have happened. Sonata's firebreath was strong, and her aim was true. She'd been doing it since the day she first opened her eyes. The scales on her back drew cold and told her those wolves should have been dead: there shouldn't have been anything left of them; She'd charged her full capacity into that second strike. She was sure she'd left nothing left of them to draw the pieces back together or regenerate from.

So. why were they still casing after her?

Did they have the ability to come back from the dead, even though she'd seen no core pulling everything towards it? Could they do it indefinitely? Then, was there no way for her to defeat them where they'd stay dead? Sonata could feel fear consume her body once more. There was no way, there was absolutely no way. Her storm of emotions lacquered her resolve to run.

'Whatever you do, don't stray too far from the cave.'

An icy thought pierced through the boiling emotions in her chest. Had it been because she'd disobeyed? It couldn't be. She was the one who broke her promise first! It wasn't even her being bad, so why would the world be punishing her? She just wanted to do something. She just wanted to grasp her life or death in her own hands.

She'd just made a mistake...

All she could do was move, push her legs to carry her as far away from those wolves as they could. The dark trees moved past her in a blur. She could hear the growling and barking of wolves, not too far behind.

The dragoness's body was shivering from physical fear for the first time since she'd left the castle. She was supposed to be a dragon, and yet she was facing a foe stronger than herself. The dragon's heart throbbed quickly, terrified, blinking away the snow that melted on her brow and ran down onto her eyes.

She wasn't losing them. Sonata couldn't outrun the wolves, even after them newly reviving from the dead. And her body was becoming heavier; she would surely only slow down as the chase went on. She needed to lose them, quickly. She needed to find a way to put permanent distance between her and them.

Sonata squinted her eyes into the storm.

Hoooo, hooooo.

It was like the sounds of godly clouds opening their mouths to blow upon the world below. Around, the world was still a flurry of small, fluffy snowflakes fluttering down and accumulating on the forest floor, through the wind had considerably died.

Growl!

The sky was dark and grey, just hints of the blue sky peeking through in glimpses here and there, so it was hard to tell what time of day it was. The terrain was going slightly up, but there was no sign of a cliff she could quickly bound off of or a brook she could scale.

Growl

GROWL!

Sonata's throat clenched as she gasped, forming a small wheeze.

They were getting closer. Sonata didn't dare look back, but she could hear paw steps battering against the snowy floor behind her, now.

Her body felt so useless. She could barely keep up with the speed of the wolves chasing her, let alone outrun them. It hurt. Her thoroughly sore legs ached from every abused muscle and freezing scale, and her lungs stung from swallowing down freezing air in hurried gulps. She was willing her body to become as light as it could be, but what could she get rid of to lighten the toll? A bone? An intestine? A stomach? She wasn't sure she'd survive dissolving one of those to step a little lighter, and her flesh was the only thing keeping her bones from scraping her flesh raw.

"Hng—"

Sonata barely managed to keep from slipping into her icy grave as the unperturbed snow gave way again. She'd stepped her foot down in an awkward way, and she wanted to stop to make sure it was okay, but instead banished the dull consciousness of the throb to the back of her mind.

Why were they still chasing her? She'd left her meal by their spawn point like an offering. If they wanted her food, they already had it. Wasn't chasing her here a waste of time and energy? It wasn't like she was going to come back for more, definitely after that show. Then, was it revenge?

Sonata briskly wiped her eyes clear, trying not to accidentally trip and stab them or something as she ran.

If someone else had tried to burn her to death, she was probably be pretty angry as well. Anger...They didn't want to subdue her before she came to attack them for her food back anymoreX they wanted to appease their anger. Then what would they do to her then? Kill her as soon as they snatched her by the closest limb? Taunt her slowly to her death till their anger was appeased? There was only so long she could put up a fight, if her assailants were immortal.

Sonata's gaze flickered up at the grave, ancient trees. As she'd ran, she seemed to have fled into a part of the forest that was older. Some of the barks were so old they still held the stains of some ancient fire.

She could climb them. It would probably put enough distance between her and the wolves that they wouldn't catch her. The problem was now that she couldn't stop to to get that first branch, the wolves were far too close now. She needed a tree she could smoothly transition from running to climbing, and she needed it before her legs toppled out from exhaustion.

GROWL!

There were more than one of them, far too close to her ears for comfort. She other wolves must have regenerated by now: it was only a matter of time before they caught up.

"Hah...Hah...Hah..."

Sonata eyes came upon a gnarled tree just uphilll, a sturdy looking one of its lower branches just above her running path, dropping to be just within her reach, if she strained.

Sonata ran faster, pushing herself to that final stretch of land. When she finally spared a glance glanced back, the wolves were at little more than a leg's length, their ashen manes windswept by the snowy blizzard, white fangs bared.

Sonata spun around and made eye contact with that distant branch, a dark, heavy thing that came out straight, just enough space to securely get a grip on it and climb before began to curl and gnarl as it got further away from the tree. She didn't have time. She forced her power into her legs, outstretched her arms, and leapt.

Fwip!

She could feel clumps of snow being swept up as she flew, tickling at her upper legs as she leaped into the air.

It was something about leaping in the air. She could sort of understand what Sophia meant, that long while ago. Even thought she knew she was only detached from the ground got a moment, it felt like she was truly levitating. She was a dragon, but being able to fly like a bird was surely a different type of magic than shapeshifting or breathing fire.

She reached with both arms towards that high-up branch. It didn't really seem like she'd reach it. If she could grasp it, she could pull herself up and get away from these foes. She tried jerking her arms to reposition her body, almost like she was swimming. If she could fly, going this far wouldn't even be a problem.

Ha!

The dragon child gripped the sturdy branch supporting her weight with all her strength, its bark tough and real against the reinforced scales of her hand that looked like skin.

She swung her weight back and forth till her torso was securely over the bough, her upper body balancing and propped on her arms as her legs probed for the footing to join them. The stuff muscles of her back shivered into a small relief: she'd somehow made it.

Her eyes wondered down as she swung her legs to gain momentum, and she let out the smallest "heh." The scales on her forearms had turned to feathers subconsciously.

Her legs gained enough momentum to reach a small knobbish knotch against the underside of the branch. With some effort, she lugged the rest of her body safely onto the tree.

And then she felt a jab.

She yelped, grabbing onto the wood with all her might as teeth dug into her foot and jerked, trying to yank her body down by the leg. She wrapped her arms over around and over the top of the bough immediately, digging her nails into the wood. The most important thing was that she stayed on the tree.

Tug.

She screamed, trying to pull her leg away, but the jerks happened to quickly for her to reposition her body enough to get a strong grip.

Tug!

Her body slipped, but her fingers held on so tightly they caved lines onto the branch rather than let go. She kicked the thing with her other leg, pulling her leg and trying to make it let go, but her head was turned the other way and she couldn't see.

Wrench.

She kicked it harder, and her nails dug even deeper into the wood, carving white streaks like a bear's claws. But she was the one losing ground. She bit down her screams and tried to will her tears to go away. She'd felt worse before, so she had no excuse to show the enemy weakness.

Growl! Tug! Tug! Wrench!

She ground her teeth as her chest moved up and down to form another scream she suppressed, her leg yanked one way and another at a force it could have dislocated. Her fingers trembled to hold on. She kicked away the other wolves vigorously. She could vaguely feel them snapping and scratching to get ahold of some other part of her, dangling just tauntingly beyond their reach.

Tug! She could feel the pressure of the beast's teeth bite down harder onto her ankle.

Shapeshifting hurt worse, right? Every time she forgot where a muscle attached to a bone or didn't coordinate the gliding past as she warped them just right, and her body spasmed in pain, sometimes bones jutted out. Sometimes parts got so messed up that it was like she was looking at them inside out, and the only way to fix it was to delve right back into the root of the pain.

Snap—

Her left arm was jerked free of the branch with the force of that pull, and she lost inches floundering around for a few precious seconds before digging into the gnarled undersides is the bark where it met the branch. She'd recovered, but she was still down to just one arm on the branch, trembling to hold on by what was practically her wrist and knuckles by now. The remaining force of her muscles was basically a continuous set of spasms. It didn't hurt, but she could feel it's death dig tighter into her foot. With all the jerking and pulling, it had managed to dislodge the corners of her scales enough that it wasn't just pressure. It barely hurt, she'd felt worse.

Drag!

Crack— The husk of the wood her right arm was still clinging onto dislodged from the trunk of the tree.

Jerk!

Sonata yelled as the outer crust of the bark snapped, losing several more inches. She could feel teeth pulling her by the dress, trying to grab her by the other leg, which was basically floundering by the upper roots.

Tug!

She refused to let go and wrapped her arms tightly against the tree, her nails dragging along the rough texture with every painful thrash.

Thrash!

She felt one of their maws dig into her other leg and she was forced to release an arm, punching her leg free before anything had a chance to get a good grip, shoving maws away. She was quickly slipping to the ground.

Drag!

She clung to the roots even tighter. She refused to be defeated easily, even as she was dragged away, quickly losing reach of the tree. She was sure the teeth at her first ankle were touching bone.

She could change forms right now, but that would be committing to the fight, and there was that very likely chance these things couldn't die, no matter how badly she hurt them. She couldn't climb if she used her true form. Her only hope was to get free and climb.

With newfound vigor, jabbed her heel hard against the snout of the wolf that had taken her leg hostage, writhing and kicking and digging her nails continuously until it finally let go. She snatched up from off the ground, bounding towards the tree. She'd barely managed to have climbed the roots and gripped a knob at the base of the branch before the wolves caught up to her, dragging her back to the ground where she fought furiously for every inch, clinging to the base of the tree, the roots, fighting to take back every leg and every arm the wolves managed to get ahold of with every ounce of her being.

"No!" She screamed, kicking and fighting with all the strength she had. "Let me go!"

A wolf tried to bite her arm, they were too close. She bore her claws into the roof of its mouth, holding it away in a way it couldn't close its mouth or come any closer, but it didn't move back. Her arm was stuck in its open maw, trying to hurt it into letting go, her arm holding it away as it kept trying to lurch forwards.

She jabbed the others away by her shoulders, elbows and hands, circled by a relentless onslaught of teeth and claws. She buried her claws as deeply into the maw as she could, scratching herself a little as she pulled it free. Amongst the fighting, she kept trying to cling back up the roots towards the tree, having to stop again to jab a snout or block an onslaught of claws. Cuts and scratches covered her body, even with her scales, but she had to keep moving to keep her limbs from becoming a target again.

"Ak!"

She yelped as she was thrust backwards by the arm again, grabbing onto a root as her consciousness faded in and out. She was losing the strength to fight back, quickly. A constant tide of pulling away and being dragged back, her world was disorienting.

Drag.

She filled her lungs with air and pushed forwards, gritting her teeth as her fingers just barely came in contact with the bark ahead, digging her fingers into it as far as she could go.

Pull!

She gritted her teeth, not budging, pressing her face against the wood as her body shook from the force of the pulls.

Wrench!

Her nails left deep scars as she was pulled away again, but she kicked and dug her toes into the ground, holding on even tighter.

Wrench!

She clung for dear life, the messy, long white hair she'd forgotten was there had fallen over her face so much it was hard to see, small injuries she could only feel strewn across her stubborn body. No, she needed to climb. She needed to get back to her sister.

Cra-

Sonata's chapped lips opened and closed. Her eyes widened so much the cold stung. Her lungs heaved to exude a sound that wasn't in her vocal range, and so just came out as a rasp.

Crack—

A terrible, inhuman sound filled the forest, loud and sharp and too painful to be recognized for even its owner. Sonata's arm lost its strength, and her body slumped to the ground, curled inwards. It hurt, but her screams wouldn't stop coming out. All her body could feel was the pain.

Her trembling free hand slowly lifted to scratch at her arm, to feel something, anything else, displacing and chipping some of the scales with how hard she dug into her skin. Her voice wasn't producing any more noise, but it wouldn't stop coming out. She could vaguely feel the blood free roaming from her arm. She tried to keep the wolves away, but her consciousness was spasming on the edge between on and off. Hot tears chilled her icy cheeks.

'Help me...Someone, help..."