Chapter Fourteen

Sarah was in the middle of sparring against Big Bear and Carson.

Two weeks had passed by since she had met Carson, and they were currently heading to the city.

A couple of days into the training, Carson had gotten her a gift; he had managed to get his hands on a pair of clothes for her, which consisted of a pair of pants and a t-shirt.

When she wasn't looking, he tossed her dress into the fire, which was a total breach of protocol, in her opinion.

She went through a lot of trouble finding that dress, and he just throws it into the fire without asking for her consent.

In those two weeks, Sarah came to a horrifying realization, Carson was pure evil.

When he said hellish training, he was being kind about it.

He would only give her 3 hours of sleep, and when she refused to wake up, he would toss her into the lake, waking her up almost immediately.

When she told him that a young girl needs her sleep, his exact words were, "with your body's ridiculous ability to regenerate, you don't even need sleep. I let you sleep for 3 hours out of kindness." Kindness my ass, he's the devil.

When she would ask for a break from sparring because she was tired, he would smile warmly before making her do something even more strenuous, like having Big Bear sit on her back while she does pushups.

The only thing that Carson had ever complimented her on was her unique regeneration, which helped heal the bruises he made on her entire body almost immediately after they formed.

Sarah knew Carson wasn't hurting her out of malice, but for her protection, but sometimes she wished she could get the upper hand in one of their spars and smack him around a little.

That was just a pipe dream for her though, she was faster and stronger than Carson, but fighting against him was like fighting against air. Every time she threw a punch, his body seemed to flow around it, only for the fist to find a blind spot of hers and send her sprawling to the ground.

They did hand to hand combat at first, but after a while, Carson thought it would be a good learning exercise for her to face someone with a weapon.

However, he did make his weapon dull so as not to harm her, only bruised. He even made the tip of the sword blunt.

The worst part of the training was when she made a mistake. He was ruthless when it came to making mistakes.

Anytime Sarah made a mistake, Carson would make sure she knew about it, with stabbing pain, usually by smacking her with the flat end of the sword hard, before always saying the same thing, "mistakes will get you and your comrades killed in the battlefield."

Sarah ducked underneath an oncoming sword strike that sliced through the air towards her neck.

The sword whistled through the air as it passed over her head by mere inches.

She spun on her heels before the sword had even passed by her head.

Her foot kicked out, landing solidly on Carson's stomach.

Sarah's eyes widened, when not only had she landed a strike, her foot sank into his stomach, sending him flying backward.

I finally landed a solid hit. Sarah thought excitedly but was shaken from her excitement when a huge shadow loomed over her.

She acted almost instinctively, and her body dropped to the ground, just before two massive bear claws raked the air above her head.

The bear was towering over Sarah, standing on two legs, as she lay prone on the dusty ground.

Sarah knew she was in a bad situation, so she reacted before the bear could make its next move. She spun on her two arms, knocking the bear off its feet with her legs.

The bear came falling to the ground, but Sarah wasn't finished yet.

Her body seemed to blur as she appeared behind the bear before it had even hit the ground.

Her feet slid backward as she miscalculated her footing when she rushed behind the bear. Still, she corrected it by taking a step forward, bringing herself closer to the bear, which seemed to be falling to the ground in slow motion.

Her foot kicked out, landing squarely on the center of the bear's body.

The bear's body was launched through the air like a cannonball.

Sarah smiled as she saw the bear head straight towards Carson, who had managed to get his feet underneath himself, on a crash course.

However, Sarah's smile vanished when she watched in shock and fascination at what Carson did next.

Instead of dodging to the side like Sarah thought he would have done, he sprinted towards the bear. He jumped into the air at the last moment, his right foot landed on the bear, but only for a fraction of a second as he kicked off the bear, launching himself through the air, straight at Sarah, with his sword pointing directly in front of him, held in both hands.

Carson flew towards Sarah like a god of death; she barely had time to take a couple of steps backward before the point of his sword slammed into her chest.

Sarah felt an explosion of pain throughout her chest as the sword slammed into her like a truck, and the sword also knocked the wind right out of her.

Sarah was sent tumbling backward for several yards, head over heels, before coming to a stop with her back facing the ground.

She tried sucking in a mouthful of air, but her lungs wouldn't cooperate with her, so she was left gasping for air for what felt like an eternity but was only 5 seconds.

The pain receded not long after, and her vision returned to normal.

She glared up at Carson, who was currently staring down at her with a concerned expression on his face. Still, she wasn't fooled, the man was pure evil, and there was no way he was concerned about hurting her.

"Are you hurt?" Carson asked kindly while giving her a hand up.

He genuinely looked sorry this time.

There's no way. This must be a trap.

Sarah accepted the proffered hand stiffly; every part of her body was on high alert, expecting him to strike her at any moment.

But the expected blow never came; instead, he pulled her to her feet and patted her head.

"That kick of yours was very impressive. I'm proud of you," Carson said compassionately, like a father complimenting his daughter for something she did.

Sarah, who had flinched and closed her eyes, opened them, not to the disappointed gaze Carson usually reserved just for her, but to eyes filled with compassion and pride, like a father doting on his favorite daughter.

A huge grin appeared on Sarah's face, something that hadn't been seen on her face for quite a while, not since the beginning of their training at any rate.

Did he just praise me? Maybe the strike killed me, and I'm in heaven?

She wrapped her arms around Carson, embracing him tightly, not wanting this moment to end.

"However." Yup, here it comes, the lecture on how I screwed up; I guess this means I'm not in heaven, though.

She leaned into him tighter, laying the side of her head against his chest.

Carson sighed before patting her head again.

"Never mind good job, Sarah. I think we can stop the sparring; I'm not sure there's much more I can teach you. The only real experience will refine your skills at this point, and that's not something sparring can teach you," Carson said while prying Sarah off of him.

Sarah reluctantly let go of Carson, she knew he was supposed to be her new father figure, and he was kinda scary at times. However, she still felt an odd attraction to the guy.

The three of them continued their long journey towards civilization. So far, the landscape was much the same throughout their journey to Sarah's chagrin.

It wouldn't have been so bad if there weren't so many hills they had to traverse up to get to their destination.

Carson seemed to know the best route to get to New York City cause aside from the patches of trees and hills they had to ascend, they didn't ever come across any cliffs they had to climb.

They did come across cliffs they had to descend, but they just jumped down the 100 or so feet to the bottom of them, without slowing much.

The first time Sarah had come across a cliff, she couldn't bring herself to jump down. Thankfully, Carson was there and gave her the push she needed, straight to the bottom of the cliff, which was several hundred feet up.

She had not landed in a very ladylike manner, which made Carson laugh uncontrollably for several seconds before he managed to control himself long enough to help her to her feet.

Big Bear hadn't liked jumping down cliffs cause every time she has done so, she had to dig herself out of the ground.

The three of them were running at full speed, (well she was matching her speed to the other two because she was much faster than the two of them were). Excitement flooded her insides when she thought about being in a city.

According to Carson, they were only half a day away from the city, and that's why they were rushing forward.

Carson was excited to see his family, while Sarah was excited to meet new people.

They were running along when Sarah noticed Big Bear sniff the air, the bear's headshot to the side all of a sudden.

The bear immediately stopped running, its whole body started to shake, and it made whining sounds.

"What's wrong big guy," Sarah said, patting the bear's leg, as she too stopped running when she noticed its discomfort.

Sarah scanned the area the big bear was looking towards.

She thought she could see something in the distance and focused her eyes on it.

Her vision zoomed in on the creature that was standing off in the distance facing away from them.

She could make out its details easily enough. It looked like a human but had leathery skin and no ears.

It didn't look that threatening to her, but Big Bear was trembling so bad now, the earth around them started to shake.

"Hey Carson, what's that?" Sarah asked when she noticed Carson walk up next to her.

Carson looked in the direction Sarah was pointing and squinted. He brought his hand to his forehead, shielding his eyes from the sun.

"Not sure, my eyes aren't as good as yours or Big Bears. Tell me what you see?" Carson said to her.

"Hmm, it kinda looks like a man, but with leather for skin and no ears, it's facing away from us, so I can't see its face though," Sarah said, giving all the details she could manage.

Carson sucked in a sharp breath of air.

Sarah was just about to ask what the creature was when an arm wrapped around her midsection and carried her off like a rag doll.

Carson's feet flew across the ground. His footsteps didn't make a sound as he shot forward.

He stopped when he got behind a huge rock that blocked the view from whatever that creature was.

Carson set her down quietly against the ground, his hands shaking from fear.

This sent Sarah on high alert. She had never seen Carson scared before. He was like this unstoppable force that could handle anything that came his way to her, and now he was turning pale and shaking.

Sarah opened her mouth to ask what the creature was, but a hand clamped around her mouth before she could make a sound.

Carson put his finger to his lips in a sign to be quiet. Still, his eyes conveyed how difficult the situation was far more than anything else.

Big Bear showed up not long after Carson had.

She curled herself, making her body as small as possible behind the rock they were hiding behind.

The rock they hid behind barley covered Big Bears' huge frame, and that was with it curling itself up.

They stayed there in complete and utter silence, not even daring to breathe.

Time ticked by for what felt like hours before a loud cry reverberated throughout the entire area. The cry sounded like a lion's roar combined with a crow's caw, only ten times louder and higher pitched.

Sarah tried covering her ears but did no good; the sound grated on every one of her nerves.

She noticed Carson's already pale face turned even paler, looking like a ghost, and Big Bear let out a pitying moan.

Carson's hands fumbled in his pockets before taking out a thin metal rectangle.

Sarah immediately recognized what it was, it was a Money Disk, from her time.

"Sarah, I need you to listen to me very closely," Carson said, handing her the Money Disk with one hand and pointing in a direction with his other. "I need you to run as fast as you can in that direction. It should bring you directly to the city," Carson said, pausing to make sure Sarah was listening.

Sarah nodded, getting to her feet and taking the Money Disk.

"And what about you? you're coming with me, right?" Sarah asked softly, dreading the answer he would give her.

"Not this time kiddo, I'll distract the Death Stalker while you make a run for it," he said, giving her a warm smile.

Sarah knew from the look he was giving her that he did not think he would be seeing her ever again.

She threw her arms around Carson, hugging him tightly.

"Carson, come with me. I don't want to lose you." Carson wrapped his arms around the trembling girl, lost for words he could use to comfort her.

They stayed like that for several moments, taking comfort from each other's embrace.

Both knowing this would be the last time they would see each other again.

The Death Stalker let out another one of its ear-piercing shrieks, only this time it sounded like it was much closer than before.

Carson squeezed Sarah one last time before letting go of her.

"Get going Sarah, I'll be right behind you."

Lier, you're going to leave me, Sarah thought, her chest aching at the thought of losing him.

Sarah pulled Carson into a kiss, her lips pressing against his, and they were nice and warm against her own.

She felt him stiffen before trying to pull back, but she pulled tighter, preventing him from moving.

If only we had more time, Sarah thought regretfully.

She used the distraction to put Carson's Money Disk into his back pocket.

She parted her lips from Carson's, who's eyes were wide as saucers as he looked back at her.

"I love you, Carson," Sarah confessed, right before shoving him backward.