CHAPTER 13: ALMOST FREE
1415 Words
I did not stop running.
The forest swallowed every sound except my own breathing and the pounding of my feet against the damp earth. Branches clawed at my skin as I forced my way through thick undergrowth, and exposed roots threatened to send me crashing to the ground with every desperate step.
I expected to hear them behind me.
The heavy footsteps.
The guttural growls.
The relentless pursuit of the Krackans.
It never came.
At first, I thought it was a trick.
I refused to slow down, convinced they were allowing exhaustion to do their work for them. My lungs burned until every breath felt like swallowing fire, but fear drove me forward far more effectively than strength ever could.
The forest seemed endless.
Ancient trees rose like pillars into the sky, their branches weaving together so tightly that daylight barely reached the ground. Strange cries echoed somewhere in the distance, and every shadow looked capable of hiding another monster.
Still, no Krackans appeared.
That frightened me more than if they had been chasing me.
Predators never let prey escape.
Not unless they wanted something else.
I finally reached a towering oak whose trunk was so wide that it would have taken six grown warriors to encircle it. My legs gave way beneath me, and I collapsed against its rough bark, struggling to draw enough air into my aching lungs.
My entire body trembled from exhaustion.
I had no idea how long I had been running.
The sun had shifted dramatically through the canopy. Judging by its position, I had fled for several hours, perhaps a quarter of the day.
I closed my eyes.
For the first time since escaping, silence surrounded me.
No battle, no screams, no chains, only the distant whispers of the forest.
I should have felt relieved.
Instead, confusion slowly replaced fear.
Why hadn't they followed me?
The question refused to leave my mind.
The Krackans had overpowered me easily. If they had wanted me dead, they could have killed me the moment they captured me. If they had wanted me imprisoned, the vines holding me had been impossible to break without extraordinary luck.
Instead...
They tended my wounds, fed me, watched me and then played with my naked body.
Then somehow allowed me to escape.
None of it made sense.
I lowered my head into my hands.
The memories returned one after another.
The fragrant smoke, that was curling into the air.
The ancient symbols that were carved into the stone.
The way they lowered their heads whenever they looked at me.
Those were not the actions of creatures preparing to slaughter a prisoner.
It felt...Ceremonial.
Almost reverent.
I frowned.
Then another memory surfaced.
One I had somehow ignored until now.
It had happened while they gathered around the great stone.
At the time, I had dismissed their voices as meaningless growls.
But now...
The sounds returned with startling clarity.
Not growls but words.
I could hear them again inside my mind as though they were standing beside me.
"The Moon-Bearer has come."
"The curse can end."
"She must remember."
My eyes flew open.
I sat upright so quickly that pain shot through my back.
No.
That wasn't possible.
I had never spoken their language.
I had never even heard anyone claim it could be understood.
Yet I knew exactly what they had been saying.
Not guessed.
Knew.
I pressed my fingers against my temples.
Another voice echoed through my thoughts.
Older.
Calmer.
"The blood remembers what the mind forgets."
A chill spread through my body.
I remembered the old Krackan who had stood closest to me. His weathered face had carried neither hatred nor hunger.
Only sorrow.
His deep voice echoed again inside my head.
"We do not seek your death."
"We seek our freedom."
Another memory followed.
One that I was certain had not existed before.
"The curse cannot be broken by strength."
"It must be broken by the daughter of moon and fang."
My breathing became shallow.
Was I imagining this?
Had exhaustion finally broken my mind?
Or...
Had something happened while I was among them?
I tried to dismiss the thought.
Yet every remembered sentence fit together perfectly.
The Krackans had not worshipped me.
They had been waiting for me.
Not as a prisoner.
As an answer.
"They want me to stop the curse," I whispered.
The words sounded absurd.
Impossible.
Yet the more I thought about everything that had happened, the less impossible it seemed.
If they truly wished to harm me, why let me leave?
Unless...
Unless they believed I would return.
The thought unsettled me.
I had spent my entire life believing the Krackans were mindless beasts.
What if every story I had ever been told was wrong?
A sharp crack echoed somewhere behind me.
Every muscle in my body tightened.
I held my breath.
Another sound followed.
Leaves rustling.
Heavy footsteps.
Slow but measured.
Someone was coming.
My heart immediately began to race again.
Krackans.
They had found me.
I pushed myself away from the tree despite the pain in my legs.
I had no weapon.
No armour.
No strength left.
But I still had one advantage.
I could run.
Without waiting another second, I threw myself back into the forest.
Branches whipped across my arms and face as I forced my way through dense vegetation. My heartbeat thundered in my ears so loudly that I could barely hear anything else.
The footsteps behind me grew louder.
Then quieter.
Then louder again.
Whoever was following me was moving with purpose.
I dared not look back.
Panic clouded every thought.
I burst through a wall of hanging vines and stumbled into a narrow clearing.
Three figures stood only a few paces away.
I froze.
They froze.
For one long moment, nobody moved.
Then recognition flashed across their faces.
Lycans.
All three wore the black leather armour of Meka's personal guard.
Their weapons remained drawn, but none of them attacked.
Instead, they stared.
One of them blinked several times as though convinced he was seeing a ghost.
"It... it can't be."
Another lowered his spear.
"She's alive."
The third warrior looked behind me toward the forest before returning his attention to me.
"By the gods..."
His expression shifted from disbelief to complete confusion.
"The Krackans let you go?"
Only then did I become fully aware of my condition.
In my desperate escape, I had not thought about my appearance for a single moment. Survival had consumed every instinct.
Now, standing before armed strangers with nothing to shield me from the cold forest air, vulnerability crashed over me all at once.
Instinctively, I stepped backwards and crossed my arms, searching desperately for anything that might conceal me.
One of the warriors reacted immediately.
Without saying a word, he removed his heavy travelling cloak and tossed it toward me.
I caught it against my chest.
"Cover yourself," he said quietly, turning his eyes away out of respect. "We are soldiers, not scavengers."
Gratitude nearly overwhelmed me.
I wrapped the thick cloak tightly around myself, the rough wool feeling warmer than any armour I had ever worn.
The oldest of the three studied me carefully.
"The King has been searching for you."
I stiffened.
"Meka?"
He nodded.
"He believed you were still alive."
"And he sent you?" I asked.
"We've spent days searching the forest." The leader replied.
His eyes drifted toward the trees behind me.
"What happened in there?"
I opened my mouth.
Then closed it again.
How could I possibly explain what I had experienced?
That the creatures every kingdom feared had cleaned my wounds instead of eating me?
That they had spoken words I somehow understood?
That they believed I was the only person capable of ending a curse older than memory itself?
None of it sounded believable.
I wasn't sure I believed it myself.
"I don't know," I answered honestly.
The three warriors exchanged uneasy glances.
One finally spoke.
"We need to leave."
"Why?" I asked.
He pointed toward the forest behind me.
"Because if the Krackans truly allowed you to walk away..."
His voice dropped to little more than a whisper.
"...then I fear they may be following."
The words had barely left his mouth when a long, haunting roar echoed through the forest.
The ground beneath our feet vibrated.
Every bird within the canopy took flight at once.
The three Lycans reached for their weapons simultaneously.
I felt my blood run cold.
Somewhere deep within the forest...
Something enormous had awakened.
- Writer
