Dimensional rift

Raygan suppressed a groan in the back of her throat as the arrow struggled to leave her flesh. She possibly can't run with it still inside her abdomen or else breaking the shaft would have been easiest. Raygan limped behind a tree as every step she took sent a jolt of pain through her right side. The forest was filled with eerie silence.

Taking a sharp breath, Raygan brought the kerchief out of her pocket and folded it before placing it between her teeth.

It took everything inside her to not scream as she removed the arrow from her flesh. Every movement of the sharp arrowhead inside her made new wounds as it was pulled out. As soon as the arrow was out, Raygan pressed the back of her head to the trunk of the tree behind which she was hiding. Her teeth still bit into the kerchief, trying to calm the pain and her shivering hand bloodied as she covered her wound. Her eyes closed for a while as there was no sound of movement behind her yet.

Her eyes snapped open when she heard an owl hoot right above her. For a brief moment, their eyes met and the owl moved its head to the side as if watching her intriguingly.

The owl's black eyes mesmerised Raygan and even in the pitch darkness of the night, she could see its grey fur.

"Where did she go?" Raygan heard a voice at a distance and her trance broke. She slowly turned to check how far the guards were and she saw them split inside the forest slowly and steadily.

One guy came running towards the royal guard, who now held his bloodied nose in his hand.

There was a short exchange of words that Raygan was not able to hear, but she continued to observe them. So far, none had come in her direction and she only hoped the thick darkness of the forest hid her well. The guy with a bow in his hand and arrows lined on his back spoke to the royal guard, "I think I got her." He had been standing at the watchtower closest to this side of the castle from where three secret exits were there. His sharp eyes and the open ground had offered him the shot with which Raygan suffered right now.

"Where did she head at?" the royal guard asked before commenting with a sneer, "That wrench broke my nose, that is exactly the first thing I will return to her the moment I grab her."

The guy with his bow did not dare laugh, as it was the royal guard standing in front of him. "I think she headed in this direction," he pulled out another arrow but this time lit it with a flint and aimlessly stretched the string. His eyes moved carefully through the darkness of the forest and in the next instant he left the two fingers stretching the bowstring. The arrow swooshed through the wind before disappearing into the forest. It lit the path for a few seconds and everything went dark again.

Raygan quickly ducked behind the tree in fear that she might have been caught when the archer raised his bow. But the arrow went few trees to the left of her.

Raygan cursed under her breath as she quickly removed the jacket she wore. It only led to exposing the white t-shirt she wore in the black of the night. Though it was a full moon today, the lush long trees of the forest blocked any light from falling on the ground.

She wrapped the coat around her wound and tightened it when the kerchief in her mouth slipped and a low groan escaped her lips.

That very moment, she heard an arrow being slammed into the tree trunk behind which she was hiding, which made the owl sitting on it to fly away. They had found her!

Raygan smashed the kerchief back in between her teeth and ran like her life depended on it, as it actually did. Every footstep she took crunched the leaves under her legs and Raygan only wished there weren't any outgrown root in her path. "Found her!" Came a voice from behind and Raygan huffed into the kerchief she held in her mouth.

The roll of kerchief did a good job at keeping her ragged breath in control and her stamina retained, but the same can't be said for her injury.

Every step she took stretched and squeezed the wound, making it more miserable than before. Her eyes dropped and suddenly her head thudded against a tree. She was literally announcing her position. 'Hold on Raygan,' she encouraged herself as her feet limped through the forest again. The metal armours were clinging and echoing everywhere inside the forest, making it tough for her to guess how many soldiers were there and where they were.

Raygan slumped against a tree and, taking support, walked hurriedly, not wanting to thump against a tree again.

The feet of the guards were approaching closer and closer and all Raygan wished was for a little miracle. But it wasn't coming for her. She was all alone, even in this kingdom, as well as her home, the northern kingdom. Before the next messenger bird flies here, she had to reach back home or she would be assumed to have joined the enemy forces.

Through all the darkness, there was a tiny clearing where the moonlight entered the forest grounds and Raygan looked at the moon.

It was full and shining, and there was a small tear which brimmed in her eyes. 'Please,' she pleaded in her mind, 'Please help me, oh goddess of the moon.' The little prayer did not last long and Raygan once again started walking through the forest, searching for a safe place to hide.

Over a distance, she saw giant rocks and rushed ahead to climb it and stumble onto the other side.

Her boy was drenched in her sweat, like the coat wrapped around her waist was soaked red with her blood. The kerchief in her mouth was now wet and useless, so she spit it out. Her back leaned against the surface of the rock, hoping no one would find her here. Raygan tried to calm her breath, but her vision was already going hazy. This was an open area and there was no way she was going to just sit here till the enemy nation found her. They would heal her just so she could be executed in the square.

She had to find some secluded place to at least die peacefully in. But her energy was fading away and Raygan doubted she would find any such place.

Her eyes shut as she braced her fate. 'I am coming to you, mama, papa... brothers' she said in her mind and opened her eyes to look at the stars. There was a small clearing in the tree branches from where the moon wasn't visible. One of the stars twinkled and the tear which had brimmed up in her eyes slid down her cheek.

Right when she was about to go back to closing her eyes and waiting for death, the owl who she had seen a while back came and sat on her folded knee.

Raygan opened her eyes to look at it and it flew away to the right. Thinking of it as something stupid, Raygan went to sleep again. But after a few seconds, the owl retired back to her knee and then twisted its neck to look back to where it had flown away a while back. Raygan creased her brows as the owl looked back at her and flew to the nearest tree, hooting as if to call her. Raygan was finding it weird, but her heart was telling her that she had to follow the owl.

Someone came behind the stone where she was hiding, and it alerted Raygan. It wouldn't be long till she was found. It was better she rather followed the owl.

"Where did she go?" came the voice right from behind the stone.

Raygan pulled her lips inside so no voice could escape her lips and got up to start running towards her right. The owl flew again and went on a branch to the further right. Raygan did not care about anything at this moment as she was anyway standing at the end of the cliff of her life. Her feet moved slowly towards the owl as it kept leading the way.

Between all her carefulness, one of the twigs snapped under her feet and that small sound was enough to get the guards following her riled up.

"Did you hear that?"

"Yeah, I think it came from that direction."

"Let's go!"

Raygan clutched her wound as she ran behind the owl this time. Her feet picking up pace and so did the owl. It flew without halting on any branch and over a distance, Raygan finally saw a giant groove in a rock.

She was convinced the owl was here to help her as she went near the groove, which was perfect for her to fit through if she were to squeeze through.

Seeing an opportunity, Raygan decided to not give up and rather enter through it.

She untied her jacket from around the wound and threw it in the opposite direction while turning sideway to go inside from the groove. If she were to die there, that would be still better than getting caught by the enemy. Raygan clenched her teeth trying to contain the pain which her wound was causing her as she squeezed through. Slowly and steadily she moved further inside, thinking the groove would grow smaller, but it was the opposite of what she thought.

The small section of the rock was slowly sucking her in into another rift, a dimension where her kind was considered lowly.