12 Heading Home

Several kilometers away from the Nymph's forest, I search my memories for the way home. I vaguely remember climbing a tall tree in my childhood and seeing a huge mountain with a visible stream of water flowing down one side of it. The sun would always peak out first from the right side of the mountain and glisten at the stream, making it look more majestic as a few stray clouds scattered by.

I decide to head east, hopefully towards the mountain.

I travel for a few days just to test my stamina. I nearly collapse at the nearest tree before dawn of the fourth day. Hoisting myself up a tree, I sit on a branch before placing my forehead on the bark.

"Please allow me to rest here for a while", I whisper. I wait for a few seconds, and then relax when I hear no answer.

I lean my back on the tree as my legs dangle over the branches, soles aching at all the running and jumping I did. I fall asleep immediately, with a sliver of consciousness awake to control my shadow into pinning me to the tree. I wouldn't appreciate waking up by falling down a tree branch to kiss the muddy ground.

Trouble seems to find me some time around noon when my awareness finds a pack of wolves running tangent to my position. Though my eyes felt a bit foggy from just waking up, my spirit has long been wide awake.

The wolves just passed by, or so I'd hoped, but my hopes were dashed as a few lycans picked up my scent and stopped running with their pack to menacingly corner the tree I rested on. No doubt, they recognize me. Fear swarms in the pit of my stomach.

Slowly, a dark entity drips down to paint everything below me pitch black. It trickles and scatters on the ground, surrounding me in a circular fashion. It stops at the foot of the nearest wolf, waiting as they growl at me.

The rest of the pack had run around before coming to back up the few that had surrounded me. I weigh my chances on fleeing and resisting. It seems impossible to just run as the lycans had already locked on to my scent. I know I can�����t outrun them.

A wolf does not give me time to think as it lunges at me with its powerful hind legs. I twist my right hand up to command my shadow to catch the wolf mid-attack, like how I learned from the Nymph-kind.

My hands shake in trepidation, yet somehow, I ignored the small excitement that came with the fight. It was my first real fight after all this time. I have the ability to at least resist now. Determined, I squeeze the wolf and break its ribs.

Another lunges at me, furiously growling at what I had done to its fellow. I jump to a lower branch before climbing to another tree, throwing the incapacitated wolf at the charging others; one jumps out of its trajectory as the other behind it gets slammed into a tree. It doesn't take long for it to recover and fight along with the others.

I run through trees, thinking of ways to undermine the ten or so wolves chasing me. I can't last long on the ground. My chances there wouldn't be as high as me maneuvering in the trees. Distracted for a second, a claw startles me as it rips the cloth on right shoulder blade. I clutch my shoulder to feel the oozing of the blood from my wound, painting my hand scarlet.

Faex. Now my scent will be harder to wash off. What now—

I kick away the Lycan that wounded me, right into a protruding sharp branch. The branch jabs through his stomach as it struggles to free itself from the high branch but fails. My back hits the ground. The other try a group attack, of which I twist my shadow and condense the air inside my domain to encircle around me to slap them away. I flee to an unknown direction while I constantly evade the hunting pack's attacks.

Sharp fangs miss the side of my head by a couple centimeters as I sharply jab my elbow at its weak spot at the throat. The wolf bit its own tongue, a drop of blood landing on my cheek as another tries to take a bite at my leg. I twist my body to smash the back of my foot at the space between its eyes and use this to leverage to kick myself in a diagonal manner, away from the wolves.

My hands grab the branch of a tree, rotating myself over it as I kick another wolf away to a smaller tree that gets uprooted instantly. Given momentum, I let go of the branch to hoist myself at a higher sturdier tree and start running through the branches.

Faster. Faster!

I urge myself to run faster; faster than how I had ever tried running before. Only one foot agilely lands per tree as I race faster through the woods. Quietly, I urge my shadow to collect as many big rocks as it can, letting it vanish in darkness.

Panting at using my power whilst running, I slow down dramatically after an hour of chasing. I could not evade the attack of a wolf in time; my left leg had been bitten. The wolf vigorously shook me around before it tossed me hard on the ground, as if spitting something terrible. I protected my head as my back hit the tree. A mouthful of blood wanted to escape at the collision but I forcefully swallow it down.

I support myself with the hand on the same tree. The wolves inch closer, eyeing their prey—me.

Taking in a shaky breath, I slide down to sit at the tree's roots. The wolves must have thought that I had given up. They lunged at me all at the same time.

Looks like their Alpha doesn't want me alive anymore.

I wonder whether it had anything to do with the rebel camp that had set me free, but my thoughts were interrupted at the sound of hundreds of rocks and various debris falling down.

My shadow had released the heavy load I had accumulated at the top.

It was a risk I took. If the wolves had noticed the tons of boulders I had lifted with my shadow overhead of the trees, they might have had the chance to evade.

Hastily, I wobbled out of the scene before the hunting pack could recover. I limp through the forest ground, unable to jump to a tree. I search around the bushes on my way and found a small pond with a few blooming skunk cabbages.

My nose scrunches at the pungent smell, but I proceed to take a few. I clean my wounds before scrubbing the plant near my wounds to mask the scent of my blood a little. I do not rest afterwards, and continue on to climb the nearest, tallest tree.

I may be somewhere up north. I should head on a different direction from east just to distract the—

I spot a lone mountain quite a distant away to my south. Surrounded by lenticular clouds, the tip of the mountain remained shrouded.

Unhesitatingly, I run southward, despite the risk.