I ran, following behind the two figures into the forest. The branches spread out above created eerie shadows, as the blue moon shined down from above. Without the pale white light from the other moon, the ground seemed especially tinged with blue and washed out making seemingly normal plant life seem all the more monstrous. I felt my hairs standing on end, as a sense of being hunted slowly encroached on me.

Somehow, I felt more tired then normal, as my legs and mind seemed to burn out quicker from running than usual. The forest created obstacles, but that was just like running in a crowded street. What really put me off was the uneven flooring. Yep, another root there that I nearly tripped over again. The occasional stunted plant growth with a branch at head height was also distracting, but not nearly as annoying as the ground. We also seemed to have been running uphill.

I took a glance at the two figures in front of me. The princess had recovered from her initial fall and was running on her own. Our mouths being busy breathing in air, had mostly been silent, apart from the occasional grunt in pain and our increasingly ragged breathing. I wasn't running at full pace because I needed to cover our backs as well as check for and remove any obvious signs or tracks we left behind. Luckily there hadn't been any rain recently so the ground was mostly solid.

The glance up seemed to have re-awaken my previous pains as my neck felt somewhat stiff and rigid in movement. Healing magic is not an all powerful quick fix, and considering my previous fall, and the degree of damage taken, the basic or medium grade recovery magic would have probably only stimulated the self recovery of important parts to a safe level. Considering that, I should be really low on mana....OH NO! I quickly shut off my absorbance of mana from the surroundings. It had been an unconscious reflexive response from my body for reaching dangerously low levels of mana. I had already mostly recovered, but in exchange I had left a stupidly obvious trail. Because of how quickly I had been taking in and converting mana from the atmosphere, I had created a trail of less dense mana, in which it would require a few hours to defuse evenly with the surroundings again. Deciding that it may come down to a fight, I squatted down and quickly grabbed a rock in my left hand.

When I looked up again, I discovered I had lost sight of them. A slightly bigger cedar tree stood in front of me. There was a low hanging, twisted, creeper attached to it that seemed to point towards the direction in which the proper main road through the forest was. To the right of the tree was a small thin path between trees cleared of vegetation, most likely used by the few small animals living here. Left? Right? Which way to go? I thought about calling out to them, but immediately scratched that. I had already left a big enough clue with the mana, and the archer hunting us should already be within earshot. The left side would be tougher to push through, and the plant life looked mostly undisturbed, so I moved towards the right track. Worst comes to worst, I could always just continue to head in the same direction as the track until I reached her grave.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

!!! I dived towards the right. Throughout my life I had had several moments where I would suddenly feel imminent danger for no reason. Like that one time when I hadn't known what those men were up to, I had felt it moments before the sword juggling man lost control and threw his dagger at me from behind my back. Every time, whether accidental or not, whether blood lust and mana were involved or not, it had warned me about a life threatening situation. Thus I mentally dubbed this Survival Instinct. And it just kicked in.

Before I could even look for the direction of the threat, I felt a slight pain as an arrow grazed my left shoulder, launching a small spray of blood droplets. At the same moment, I felt the light makeshift cloth pack, with my spare cloth and food inside, drop to the ground. The sash had been cut along with my left shoulder.

I continued to stumble down the right path, twisting my head around to look. My left shoulder was screaming with pain and the occasional small branch's touch only antagonised it. The arrow had come almost silently, and had been near invisible to detect. I heard a crunching of leaves behind me towards the right. The rock I had managed to hold on to, through the pain, in my left hand was still clenched inside of my fist, hidden from sight. When I heard a clear crunching sound closing in to my right, I turned around. A figure holding a bow was walking quickly towards me, with the arrow trained on me. I pivoted my left arm, and launched the rock. The action caused me agony, but I was rewarded with a satisfying thud, as the rock smashed against their hood and splintered.

But my happiness was short lived. The figure stood there silently without a reaction. No, the rock had hit the hood, but the hood seemed to be some defensive magical item. The hood of the cloak had been knocked off and a clean feminine face was revealed. The hood had somehow absorbed the hit. The lady stared at me, like a wolf eyeing a deer, a small mocking smirk showing, the corner of her mouth tilted ever slightly upwards. But her eyes weren't smiling. I stumbled backwards on a root, landing painfully on my bum.

The lady drew back her arrow. There were no words that needed to be exchanged between us. We each knew our own situation. Still, maybe out of some foreign courtesy she asked,"Any last words?" Her voice sounded so soothing, yet it was a song of death. I started to see my life flash before me. Suddenly I understood something so fundamental about magic, that it shocked me. I placed my hands in front of my face, pretending to cower and said..

"Yes. Rock blast." I stared through the cracks between my fingers as a rock was quickly formed out of mana and launched at a fast speed towards her. As it was about to reach her, the rock suddenly shattered as a glowing arrow pierced through it, and flew speedily at me, much, much faster than the rock. I was out of mana, and didn't have enough time to gather or fire off another spell. So I feebly closed my eyes, and pushed out my hands, my mind wandering to the sensation of the cold ground as I waited for my imminent death...waited...and waited...and waited? Why hadn't the arrow hit yet?!