Chapter Nine

Nesryn stood at one of the stands in the market place, contemplating what she needed to help Rosita make supper, her hand rested on her growing belly, a golden ring glistening on the fourth finger of her left hand, Verenya clinging to her other hand as if she could still disappear, even after the three years she had been home. Flynn was on the other side of the market place selling clay pots and small sculptures they liked to make in their free time at home.

She gathered a few vegetables into her woven basket and handed the vendor a silver coin. Then she headed over to Flynn, he smiled up at her from where he sat on the dusty red and yellow carpet they used, a ring matching hers visible on his finger.

"I don't think we will have many more customers today, let's just go home." Nesryn said, Flynn nodded and she leaned down to peck him on the lips before she helped gather the wares into the basket on the donkey, then they set off on their way home. As they reached the gates of the back yard Rosita came out to meet them, her face creased with worry, Nesryn and Flynn glanced at glanced at each other briefly before Rosita began to speak.

"There's someone here to see you Nessie." She whispered, she held out a hand to Verenya. "Come, let's get the donkey to his stall." Verenya took the rope out of Nesryns limp hand and set off across the courtyard with Rosita in tow.

"Flynn, please wait outside, I don't know who it is."

Flynn began to protest but stopped at the look on Nesryns face, she stepped into the welcoming cool of the house with a backward glance at Flynn then she was gone. She waited a moment so her eyes could adjust to the darkness of the interior of the kitchen after the bright sun outside, once her eyes got used to the dark she saw a figure sitting at the old wooden table in the middle of the room.

"Nesryn!" A voice with a thick Easalrea accent drawled, not like Flynns slight and soft accent she had grown to love but thick and harsh, she knew who it was in an instant.

"Hugo." She said with distaste, "What do you want?"

Hugo laughed and motioned for her to sit down, she did no such thing and remained standing. Hugo narrowed his green eyes but didn't comment on it. His black hair was cropped, but he had a moustache that went all the way down his chin like a half circle.

"How far along are you?" He asked nodding at her stomach, she glared at him.

"That's none of your damn business." She snapped, he chuckled again and stood up, he towered over her by full head, she continued to glare up at him.

"Nice to see you haven't changed much, Nessie."

"What do you want?" She repeated not letting the fact that he had used her nickname get to her, last time Hugo had visited she and Ravi had been called to war, Rosita was the only sibling who wasn't a soldier. Hugo took a step closer but she stood her ground.

"You know why I'm here." Hugos voice was low, he was close enough that his breath tickled her face, it stank of beer.

"No." She spat. "I will not go to war again, I'm not a soldier any more and I will not leave my family behind again."

"You don't have a choice, you may birth your child then you come with us." He turned and began to walk towards the door, then pause and looked back, he angled his head slightly to the side. "And tell Ravi, he's coming too I would tell him myself but I haven't seen him, I'll be back for you in a month."

"Ravis dead." She said flatly.

"I'm sorry to hear that." He said.

"Don't lie to me Hugo!" She spat his name as if it were poison. "Your not sorry! You left us to rot in that labour camp! Hell I'd be surprised if you even knew we were there as you never sent anyone to get us out, Ravi was a commander in the army yet you still didn't give a shit did you?"

Hugo opened his mouth to say something.

"Get out!" She snapped, he shut his mouth and walked out the door, she let out a long breath pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger.

Hugo called from out side: "See you soon."

She shouted a sting of profanities after him, cursing him with all she had. She heard him laugh so she shouted a last fuck you after him before she sighed and closed her eyes.

She stood there with her eyes closed trying to compose herself before she faced Verenya and Rosita. Warm strong arms wrapped around her waist and Flynn laid his head on her shoulder, she sighed.

"The army wants me back." She said so quietly that he might have missed it. "I have one month, then they will come for me, what am I going to do?" Her voice chocked up in her throat, she let out yet another shaky breath then gently eased herself from Flynns arms, she took his hand, he squeezed her handing a comforting gesture, they sat down at the old wooden table, Nesryn put her elbows on the table and cradled her head in her hands trying to think of a way they could get out of this.

~

Yuana sprinted through the grass, she hadn't been running long but already her breaths were coming in short gasps, she ran parallel to Elyta, she couldn't see the other girl but she could hear her stumbling along to her right. Her heartbeat was loud in her ears, Elyta was beginning to flag, Yuana could feel herself slowing slowly too she couldn't keep running much longer, she couldn't believe how out of shape she had become, not that she could help it.

It was suspiciously silent as she slowed to a jog, just as she was beginning to relax slightly a screech tore through the silence, then another and another.

It was bone chilling and one of the worst sounds she had ever heard, she didn't recognise what creature it belonged to and she wasn't sure she wanted to find out any time soon, she pushed herself to go faster adrenaline rushed through her as an animal scream echoed after the screeches, she glanced back over her shoulder but the grass was too high for her to see anything. The breath was sucked out her lungs as she collided with something. Or someone to be precise, she rolled with the impact then jumped to her feet her hackles rising. A sleek black panther stared back with wide bright green eyes. Yuana shifted back into her human but remained on guard as she studied the animal.

"Elyta?" She asked after a moment of contemplation, the panther nodded its head. Now that she was human Yuana could see over the grass, what she saw made a chill go down her spine, they had come quite a long way from the shore but she could still make out the two ships sailing away, a lone horse was not all too far away bucked and reared at something in the grass, even from afar she could see the wounds on the horses back and flank, moments later Yuana knew exactly what had the horse in such a state as a dark shadow, lean but muscular leaped out the grass and latched its self onto the horse just as the horse was jumping back its hooves lashing out, the thing seemed to embrace the horse, its forearms clinging onto the horses shoulders and its back legs scrambling for a foothold on the horses soft stomach, they went down with a crash she could almost feel. She knew it was no ordinary horse, horses travelled in herds but this one was alone and so was she, so were they all, the shifters. The screams of the horse shifter were suddenly cut off and the silence after was deafening, the dark figure of the creature rose from the grass its glowing crimson eyes looking straight at her, it began to slowly stalk towards her, it had long powerful legs, a long tail that whipped back and forth as it slowly approached, blood stained its hideous face red and she knew, this thing did not kill because it was hungry, it killed for pleasure and she was its next target. She began to back away slowly at first, then she spun on her heel and sprinted away from the thing as fast as she could adrenaline yet again coursed through her veins.

"RUN!" She roared at Elyta, the panther didn't hesitate and shot off into the grass, away from Yuana, away from the thing chasing her, smart move, the thing would go for Yuana, after all it hadn't seen Elyta, to the creature Elyta didn't exist and while the thing chased and possibly gutted Yuana, Elyta would have time to get far away from here, had it been anyone else Yuana would have snapped at them to stay and fight but this was different, this was much bigger than, there was a place and a time where Elyta would die but this was neither the time nor place for Elyta to die, no Elyta was destine for something else and there was no way Yuana would let her die today. Yuana shifted once again, this time she took the form of a Siehda, her long legs eating up the ground, in this body she too towered over the grass that reached her upper thigh in her human body, the wind whipped through her long deep golden fur. She dug her claws into the ground and used them to propel herself forward even faster, she shut out all her thoughts and repeated the same word over and over in her head, run, run, run. The drum of her paws on the ground echoed in her four deer-like ears along with her laboured breaths.

On and on and on she ran.

To her dismay when she glanced back the creature was gaining on her, she have to kill it, the thought sent a shiver of dread through her, not because she didn't want to kill she would gladly rid the world of this monstrosity, but because she wasn't sure how to end that thing, all she could do was pray that it was alone, but the multiple screeches she had heard suggested otherwise. She slowed and tuned back, waiting for the creature to catch up, there was no point wasting her energy running until she couldn't keep going. When the creature saw she had stopped it too slowed until it was closing in in a slow jog, not because it was tired, it was playing with her, it knew she had nowhere to go, it knew that she knew she couldn't outrun it. It smiled and her heart nearly stopped, what was this abomination? It looked like an animal but the way it smiled... it should not know how to. She knew she had severely underestimated it, it was much cleverer then she had originally thought. She bared her teeth and her hackles and the long sharp quills along her spine rose as she tried to appear bigger, a low chuckle emanated from the creature, at this point she wouldn't have bee surprised if it started to speak. She hoped against hope that the second or third maybe even fourth creature didn't turn up to join in the bloodshed.

The creature was now only ten meters away, she dug her claws deep into the ground, she could do this, she had made it this far, she wouldn't die just yet, after all she had promised Samael she would kill him and she always did her best to keep her promises. The creature rushed forward snapping for her foreleg instead of her neck, it wanted to draw this out, tire her until she could barely move and then, only then would it kill her. She leapt up clean over the creature, it raked its claws along the ground gauging deep grooves into the earth so its momentum wouldn't carry it too far, it spun back to her that horrific smile still on its awful face, she snarled her long sharp canines bared, her four deer-like ears flat on her head, it lunged again and she threw herself to the side swiping at it with her claws, they raked over its skin on its side but they didn't draw blood hell they didn't even leave much of a mark, the things skin was too thick, this was going to be harder then she had though, much harder. This time she didn't wait for it to make the next move she leapt at it the same moment it lunged for her, their bodies collided in the air, she snapped at its neck, all see could see was a whirlwind of fangs, claws and fur, they hit the ground her on top and the creature beneath her and she felt the impact in her very bones, as she shot to her feet something wrenched out her back and she felt something trickle down her sides but she ignored it as she whirled to the creatures not wanting to leave her back open and vulnerable, the creature was struggling to stand, blood already soaking the ground, she didn't hesitate as the creature swayed slightly she jumped onto its back and its legs went out from under it as she fastened her jaws onto its neck at the base of its skull, blood filled her mouth but she kept biting down, the things body spasmed then went limp, she kept holding on, what if it was only playing dead? It was clever enough to pretend then attack her when she tried to walk away. So she remained crouched over it still biting down on its neck until the blood began to seep into the earth, until her jaw began to cramp, until there was no was in hell that it could still be alive, only then did she let it thud to the ground. She stepped back and saw the multiple puncture wounds and occasional quill speckle it stomach and chest, so that's how it died, she hadn't even thought to try and impale it but here she was, alive and there it was, dead. At least now I know what was in those crates, she thought to herself, only one more of those things out there. Chances were someone else would kill it soon, so she would hopefully never see another of those things in her life.

The sun was still high in the sky as she continued slowly on her way, the shore was no longer in sight and yet there was still only grassland ahead, small hillocks here and there but nothing that could hide a pond or small orchard, not a tree in sight. How she hated open land, she always felt so defenceless in wide open landscapes, there was shelter and if a storm hit she was doomed. She shifted back into her human form, she was utterly exhausted but she wouldn't stop until she found a safe place to rest or safer at least, there was no such thing as completely safe on an island where something tried to kill her within mere minutes of her being there. She zoned out not really thinking about anything, just one foot in front of the other. Her stomach growled and she could feel a headache coming, she needed to find water. Yuana blinked, she swayed slightly and came to a stop, her shadow was long and the few clouds in the sky were turning pink and orange, how was it already dusk? She was so tired she nearly missed the quiet babbling of a small stream, she followed the sound and waded through a particularly high patch of grass that was taller than her head, she broke through into a small clearing in the grass where the short green grass was welcomingly soft after the dry brown grass she had been trekking through all day, there was a small pond with clear blue water, it was surrounded by tall grass just like what she had just walked through, from the outside one would think it was a slightly bigger hillock than the rest, the small clearing was already completely in shadows and she shivered slightly in she shade after being used to the warm sun all day. A few reeds grew on one side of the pond in the water, she rushed to the waters edge and sank to her knees, she cupped her hands and dunked them in the luke warm water which she then gulped down, once she had drunk her fill she set about checking the place for traps or another bloodthirsty animal, when she found neither she stripped off her clothes and stepped into the pond, the white sand went up in small plumes around her feet, the pond wasn't very deep, it was more of a puddle if she was being honest, but water was water. There were no water plats aside from the reeds which she was glad of, she lay on her back her head resting on the shore of the pond, the water was just deep enough to cover her body, she lad there on the sandy bottom of the pond with her eyes closed just enjoying the warm water, she dug her fingers into the sandy bottom tracing meaningless patterns into the sand. She wondered what her life would have been like if her family weren't dead, if she hadn't joined the rebels in a desperate attempt to stop the riders, if she were a normal eighteen year old. Would she still live in Nybia? If her mum hadn't been called away to war a few weeks before Yuana was born? If her dad hadn't died when she was seven in some far away land on a battlefield serving his king?

Before she knew it she was fast asleep. She dreamt she was flying, soaring over cities, forests and mountains. The dream had no meaning but for the first time in a very long time she felt at peace, in her dreams no one could hurt her. Now she was sitting in the kitchen of her aunt Rositas house, her mum, dad, Rosita and Verenya were all there with her, they were talking, she didn't understand what they were saying she was still too young, she waved her chubby arms at Nesryn who lifted her up into her arms, here she was safe, she gurgled with happiness as twelve year old Verenya pulled funny faces at her, here she was happy.

When Yuana awoke there was a smile on her face and tears on her cheeks, the sky was starry and the nearly full moon still shone bright but the sun was beginning to rise, had she slept through the whole night? She heaved herself out the water grimacing at her prunny hands and feet, she hadn't meant to sleep this long, especially not in the water, but here she was. She slid into her clothes and say next to the pond waiting for the sun to rise just a little more, then she'd be on her way. She sighed and stood up wandering around the pond, she knew she wouldn't find anything, the pond was only five or six meters wide, but maybe she had missed something last night, she had been so tired after all, but she found nothing so she sat back down, thinking about what her next move would be.

Finally the sun had risen enough that she felt safe enough to continue on her way, she drank a last handful of water then pushed through the grass into the morning sun and set out to find Eltya before Samael did.