She finds she cannot stay with the group who tries to collect her - the woman with her children gathered to her like a cluster of stars caught in her impossible gravity. It would have been nice to not be alone out here, but their kindness distracts her, makes it so tempting to sink in beside them and let her mind wander back to the girl she had left behind. A girl of skin and bone and dying eyes, with ribs like welts across her sides. Even now she wants to go back, wants to curl up beside her and wait for daddy to come find them with his wild wolves.
It is the emotional part of her that wants this, the part these kind strangers make so much louder with their easy compassion. But the logical part of her mind reminds her to keep going, reminds her that this is the only way she can help anyone.
So, gradually, she falls behind them until at last there is only the sound of the chirping night and her own footfalls to keep her company.She misses them immediately though. Misses the snuffle of quiet breaths, the feeling of soft eyes looking back to check on her. It felt safer with them, more like an adventure than a mission.
But the mountains refocus her, their treachery pushing the creeping sleepiness out of her mind. It is in her favor that she is so small and alone now, because she finds there are many places among the climbing rocks that she can squeeze past. Little valleys carved between mountains, paths made by the wilds (animal and nature) that keep her from having to climb the highest peaks where the stars seem to touch the stones.
She rounds a narrow bend, feeling a flicker of relief at the stink of salt and brine that has finally reached her little nose, when suddenly a dark shape blots out the night above her.
I’ve been waiting for you. It claims in a voice like gravel, forcing her backwards a few steps when it leaps down from a rocky perch to join her. She is silent, startled, taking in the flashing teeth and dark eyes, the rust of blood around its mouth seeming so normal in this new plague-world. For a second she feels cautiously curious, wondering what his purpose in this is if he knew she was coming. But then the creature lunges forward to circle her and she can feel a quiet horror erupt within her belly.
He watches her now like daddy’s wolves watch the rabbit before they devour it.
Close up he is almost leonine, but with curved claws and thick, leathery skin, and she can smell the copper stink of blood on his breath. She looks behind her, wonders if there is another route she can take, but the beast just rumbles a chuckle at her, something cruel and grinding and not at all humorous.
“I have to keep going.” She tells it, furrowed and frowning, shrinking back just a little. “I was sent by a fairy to help find a cure.” But the beast only stares, shifting its weight as she takes a few steps forward to reclaim lost ground. Her heart pounds, a strand of logic making its way from her mind to her lips. “What if the fairy wounds you for wounding me?” A whisper now, the tilt of a slender white face. “Is it really worth it? I’m only passing through.” A few more steps to hide the dry fear burning through her, the rush of ragged adrenaline pounding through her veins with no outlet.
She never wanted to be the rabbit again.
i am brambles but i am tangled in your love
word count: 615
trait: bone armor, except it hasn't grown in at all yet
choice: persuasion