Hooves hit the ground, ripping up earth and leaving deep tracks. Trent raised his arms to shield his face from any low-hanging branches, but couldn’t afford to slow down. Something was in the trees behind him and gaining fast. His wild eyes scanned about quickly as his hearts pounded in his chests. Only so much further to travel and safety would be at hand; his clan would keep him safe if he could make it to them in one piece. With this in mind, Trent galloped hard, pushing himself to his limits. There was a feeling of fluttering in his chests and arms and he struggled to keep from engaging in panicked babbling. Ahead, a dim grey stone rose from the earth and peeked out between branches: he could recognize the landmark and knew home was an arrow-shot away. He started to see a centaur between trees in the distance: one of the rangers or warriors, hopefully.

So close.

He squeezed out a bit more juice. Reaching one of the rangers would hopefully deter whatever was chasing him, though they hadn’t responded yet. Were they not paying attention? He was far from silent at this pace. He was confused up until the moment the centaur fully came into view and he recognized her.

“Yinny run!!” Trent’s fear came back two-fold now: his sister would be worse off than he was as she was smaller and couldn’t run as fast as he had. However, to her credit, she didn’t hesitate to flee and was at a full sprint before Trent even finished his sentence. She could recognize from the look on his face that he was running from something. The silence behind him disappeared suddenly, replaced by the snapping of branches in the canopy. Whatever it was had closed in and was abandoning stealth to catch them faster.

Don’t look back. Don’t look back.

Trent noticed Yinny begin to turn her head and screamed,“Don’t look!!”

The pull of curiosity was too much, and Trent was too slow in his warning. Yinny’s head spun around and the damage was done: her front hoof tripped on a rock and she tumbled head first to the ground, rolling and skidding to a stop. She twitched and kicked weakly into the air.

Damn it.

Trent got another ten feet ahead before he could skid to a halt and backtrack for her. On his way, he saw, to his horror, an elf descending from a tree nearby. She moved fluidly and was halfway down the tree before Trent even started towards his sister. She reached the ground at the same time that Trent reached Yinny. The elf smiled as if it were all a game and he wished for her to say it was some kind of misunderstanding, a joke he wasn’t let in on. To his disappointment, this didn’t happen. Instead, she pulled a length of rope from her shoulder and started to unwind it.

“Yinny, get up,” Trent whispered. His hand on her shoulder steadied her as he helped her to rise. Yinny babbled some kind of response as she got her legs under her. Her legs were already discolored from bruising, but he couldn't spare them more than a glance, since his eyes were still latched on the elf relaxedly walking toward them. The elf smiled and sped up. It was so casual that he wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been so terrified.

“Get up now!” Trent yelled down to Yinny as he dragged her forward. She trotted along with him, galloping awkwardly to keep pace.

“Help! Help!” Trent screamed loudly. Yinny was more or less running on her own now and screamed, too. They heard shouts in the distance and hoped help would be on the way. His skin tightened with goosebumps at the lack of any kind of sound behind them. It was so much worse not knowing where the elf was and wanting to look back, even knowing how terrible an idea it was. The sound of hoofbeats was in the distance now and he smiled - right up until there was a rough pull that skinned his chest and wrenched him off his feet, sending him tumbling to the ground. The sudden fall and the spinning forest around him made him nauseous. He couldn’t tell the sky from the earth until he hit the ground, forcing out a cry of pain. His vision cleared and he locked eyes with the elf that stood over him, rope in hand. She grinned at him and leaned down, pinning him in place.

“Gotcha!” She laughed as she inspected her handiwork. Anar’dea had wanted to try lassoing a centaur for a while now and the results were more effective and amusing than she had thought it would be. While inspecting the ropes, she was also binding his legs together with a frightening speed. Whenever the centaur struggled, his legs were simply pulled together and wrapped. Anar’dea completely overpowered Trent and his muscles burned with the effort of failed resistance when she pulled his limbs. All the while, Yinny was locked in place, her gaze going from Trent to the sound of hooves in the distance.

“You gave me a pretty good run there!” Anar’dea spoke cheerfully to the centaur she had bound while wrapping a few more coils of rope around him.

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“What do you want?!” Trent’s voice was trembling almost as much as his legs. She didn’t respond, too focused on securing the ropes. Instead, she moved to a nearby tree and started to climb with the ropes tied around her waist. Trent was confused up until the moment that he actually started to rise into the air. He looked down to make sure he wasn’t still dazed.

There’s just no way.

He felt the blood pooling in his head, then a pair of arms wrapped around his torso, bringing with it the pain of being pulled in two directions. He groaned, but his chest was too tight to do more than that.

“Don’t take my brother!” Yinny was bawling and hanging onto him, even though they were both rising off the ground now, albeit much more slowly. She was an adult now, but all Trent could hear in that moment was his baby sister crying alone in the dark. The elf looked down for a moment.

She growled, heaving them both higher, “Two for one.”

“Let him go!” Yinny was completely off the ground now, a mess of tears as she shivered in fear. The elf didn’t bother with a response. She was focused on her next steps: if she got them high enough into the canopy the centaur wouldn’t be able to get free without dying from a fall. They continued to struggle, swinging back and forth by kicking off the tree. Anar’dea noticed the additional pull, but it wasn’t anything more than she could handle. Suddenly, part of the rope snapped and there was a moment of hesitation before Anar’dea looked down to see Yinny kicking the ropes with her hooves, the sharp edges of them fraying and weakening the ropes enough to give under the combined weight of two centaur. Anar’dea was at a loss for a moment: she could see the other centaur closing in and knew she didn’t have time to bind them again.

She had a small grin as she climbed a bit higher. They would certainly be able to free themselves, but centaur were quite heavy, and gravity an indiscriminate thing. She got a few feet higher before the last snapping of rope was heard and the two centaur went falling to the ground, screaming all the way.

“Oops.” she snickered as she ascended into the canopy and disappeared from the area.

“There! Get over there now!!” The black-maned centaur, Marcel, yelled to the others as he rushed past them with no patience left for caution. He felt a dreadful chill settle into his bones at the sight of his children lying unmoving on the ground. He wished it was someone else.

Please no no no no no no.

He knelt down, skidding on the ground, but failing to notice the scraping pain on his knees. Instantly, he reached for them and leaned over to listen. At first, all he heard was the pounding of his own hearts in his ears, so he took a steadying breath and closed his eyes. His ear came within inches of Trent and Yinny’s mouths and he strained to hear anything. He held his own breath and waited. It felt as if a minute had passed before he managed to hear the faintest of breathing come from Yinny’s mouth, but still he heard nothing from Trent.

He looked to Kaina, who knelt down as well to inspect the two wounded centaur. He wiped tears from his cheeks as his eyes asked the question his sealed throat couldn’t manage to speak. Kaina’s eyes glowed a soft white while she carefully looked Yinny over first. Marcel held his breath and kept from fidgeting nervously while awaiting answers. Several minutes passed in silence.

Finally, Kaina looked up and to a few of her aides standing near her. After a moment, when they failed to respond, she gave instructions, “Take Yinny back to the longhouse. She’ll need rest, and treatment for her broken legs.”

She looked at Trent, who still lay motionless on the ground, and gave further instructions: “Bring me my tools. He is too injured to risk moving.”

She then looked straight to Marcel, speaking directly to him, “Chief, we must perform Tauket or Trent will not last the night.” Her face was grave as she met Marcel’s eyes.

“I will call for the gathering,” Marcel breathed finally; he was up and moving before he finished speaking. Kaina began her preparations and others around her began clearing brush and debris according to her direction. A deep and loud horn blasted through the quiet of the forest, calling home the clan.

Within the hour, the area was cleared and the clan gathered. Marcel and the three who had been willing to perform Tauket with him prepared themselves for the offering. He was grateful they had come to his aid to save Trent’s life. Kaina stood outside of the runes and began the ritual. Marcel’s vision began to blur and he felt light-headed.

A wave of fog came down around them, obscuring those within the ring from the rest of the world. Marcel could not clearly see the others he had brought with him, but he could see Trent with crystal clarity. Movement to his right drew his eye reflexively, but all he could see was a wisp of fog. Again, he saw something to his left, but again he could see only fog. Then the roiling began, and movement was all around him until all was calm again.

The tension and anxiety of the moment felt distant and Marcel felt as if he had begun to float as his physical senses became secondary to an awareness of the spiritual realm. A figure made of fog stepped out of the boundary of the runes and towards Trent. Its long antlers and familiar shape told Marcel at once who it had been. There were no words conveyed when the figure looked at Marcel, but he felt a warmth rise up in him. A small smile came to his face and the figure seemed to smile back before turning and kneeling next to Trent, gently cradling his head.

The fog seemed to be everywhere now, and Marcel struggled to see. He looked left and right before realizing it wasn’t fog that was making it harder to see, but instead the figure and Trent who began to emanate light. It started becoming so bright that Marcel was forced to close his eyes.

The weight of his body returned to him and his senses rushed back into focus. He opened his eyes to see the forest, the three who had joined him, and - more importantly - Trent. Each one of those who had offered themselves looked older than they had been, and he noticed a few strands of grey hair mixed into his long mane. Trent breathed deeply, but did not stir. His body was still injured, but he looked no worse than Yinny had. Marcel rushed forward, ignoring the fresh aching in his own bones, and embraced his son, squeezing him firmly in his arms. He looked around at those near him, who all had expressions of relief.

“Thank you.”

He looked down at the earth, his face wet with tears, “Thank you, grandpa.”