OK. Here is the next chapter. I really think the story is coming together.
This chapter is really my attempt at making sure everyone knows Daine is
soooo not helpless. She can do things on her own if she wants. Enjoy!
Thanks, Karigan
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Complications
Escape
Daine hissed in pain as she pulled against the metal chains that bound her hands above her head. She pulled as hard as she could, trying to yank her hands free of the loops. But the harder she pulled on them, the tighter they seemed to get. Crying out in frustration, she yanked several hard times, expecting no results. The knife wound that started at her wrist and reached down to her elbow had clotted with dried blood and was swelled a deep burning red, the tale-tell signs of infection.
Two days! She's been hanging here for two days. Her arms were painfully numb from the lack of blood running to them. Deep black bruises surrounded her wrist, formed by the chains and her own weight. The muscles in her shoulders screamed constantly from trying to pull some of the weight off of her wrists.
Her tunic was stained with dirt, blood, vomit and sweat. Her breeches were torn and she was barefoot -having been taking a nap when the mage attacked her-. She was tired and aggravated and just plain miserable. It was actually fairly quiet. The only time she saw anyone was when they came in to give her some water, which, judging from the gods offal taste, had a few extra ingredients. She had refused the water at first, but after they had forced it down her throat the first time, she decided it wasn't worth the extra broken rib she had gotten in the process of resisting.
Whatever it had in it, it kept her wild magic out of her reach. It also made her physically sick for hours afterwards. And being unable to move from her current position, she was forced to be sick on herself. She tried to keep her optimism up by thinking about Numair and Onua and Alanna and all of her fiends. But she was hungry, dirty and in pain. Her spirits were rapidly dropping. What was happening? Why was it taking so long for them to find her?
The lack of food or sleep was playing ticks on her mind. A few times, right before they brought in the water to give her, she had imagined far off voices. Voices she had never heard before-almost like sirens. They sounded somewhat like the griffin's call, yet different. The griffin sounded like chimes to her; this sounded deeper and richer, making her bones vibrate. She would try and distinguish it between her magic seeping back in our just her ears when they would come in and feed her more of the flavored water.
Something was wrong with the Tortallans. That much was obvious from their lack of presence. She looked up at her metal binds that were placed on a wooden hook on the wall. She had a fleeting idea, but the difficulty involved was very discouraging. She looked around the room and then down at herself. She took a sniff and bolted her head back up. 'I SMELL!' she thought with disgust. That did it. "No more waiting!" she muttered. "Just grit your teeth, and get it over with, Daine. Come on, Daine. Just do it." She sighed in aggravation when her little self-pep talk had little effect on her outlook.
She took a deep breath, grit her teeth and clenched her eyes shut. She picked up one of her half dangling feet and placed it against the wall behind her. Then, she placed the other a bit higher, using her calf muscles to push herself up. Her wrist screamed in pain at the added pressure but she bit harder and took another step up the wall, this time using her arm and shoulder muscles to help pull herself up. She desperately tried to keep her bare feet from slipping down the wall by putting plenty of weight against them. She continued a few more steps up, her knees bending more and more with each step up. She took another tiny step up when her foot slipped down the wall slightly. It pulled savagely at her wrist and she heard herself cry out in pain as tears streaked down her face. She caught herself and placed both feet against the wall firmly. She was breathing frantically. 'A little more,' she told herself weakly. 'Just a little higher.' She took another step up and then another, ignoring the warmth that seemed to drip down her arms.
Finally, she thought she was high enough. Her body was almost completely scrunched up. Her feet firmly placed on the wall, the heels touching her underside. She took several erratic breaths. Though clenched teeth she counted out loud to herself. "One, Two, THREE!" She shoved her body up and out using her feet. At the same time she slammed her wrists back against the wall and up in hopes of unhooking herself from the wall. If she didn't unhook herself, she would fall back down and most likely break her wrists.
She felt herself fall forward and down, bracing for the pain of her wrist braking. But she kept going. She fell to the floor with a clumsy thump, her knees taking the brunt of the fall. She fell forward on her stomach her arms up over her head. She drank in heaving breaths of air, as she shook in pain. The blood started pounding back into her arms, making them sting and making the cut in her arm bleed anew. Her knees throbbed from her awkward landing and her head spun crazily. She couldn't even feel her wrist anymore. After a few minutes she rolled onto her side and pushed herself up to sit against the wall. That's when she noticed streaks of blood running down both her arms. Morbid curiosity consumed her for just a moment as she noticed that the chains had cut through her wrist while she had been climbing up the wall, probably when she had slipped slightly.
The chains would just have to go, she determined. She snorted when she realized that they came off easily; the hook being what kept the knot around her wrist holding. They fell away easily. She raised herself to her legs shakily, using the wall to keep balance. She staggered to the door. 'It's not even locked!' she realized in disbelief. 'Maybe he his stupid as well as mad.' She cracked it open and peeked outside. It was dark out with the beginnings of a waxing crescent moon. It would be hard to see anything in the middle of the night.
No one seemed to be looking at the moment, so she slid herself out the door and around the corner of the small wooden cabin. She felt her body shiver violently from the change in temperature. 'Gods, but is it COLD!' she thought frantically. Fall was coming to end and the first winds of winter had started to come in a few weeks ago. She looked around the cabin at the camp. Slowly she started to register what she was seeing. There weren't more than 20 or 30 men camped out, all either sleeping or talking amongst themselves. But the camp was set up to accommodate 5 times that number. She didn't know where the rest of the camp was, but she was fair certain that the missing number of men was the reason Numair and the rest of her friends hadn't been able to help her.
She saw the mage walk across the grounds and step into a tent. She was about to follow when she suddenly felt sick. She lurched to the side and vomited. She wiped her mouth and breathed deeply. She wasn't in any condition to go after the mage at the moment. She turned away from the camp and started to walk slowly away in an attempt at avoiding detection.
She was about 200 yards away from the camp when she heard shouts and screams that had her turn around quickly in the direction in which she had come. After a moment of hesitation, she turned back way from the camp and sprinted off as fast as her exhausted legs would carry her. She ran through the forest for all she was worth, jumping over logs and ducking under low branches. She crashed through some bushes that added unseen scrapes to the already numerous ones she had acquired from the broken mirror in her room. With hardly any moon to help her vision and her shape- shifting abilities out for the count she was running mostly blind. She thanked the Gods for her unusual natural ability to see well in the dark. She was able to see most of the large obstructions in front of her, though she still stubbed her feet on various smaller objects.
She could hear them behind her; they were gaining on her. Cursing them for having both shoes and most likely torches to light their way, she kept running, her breath coming in desperate pants. She felt a branch catch and rip out some of her hair. She was growing desperate. She wouldn't be able to keep ahead of them much longer. Something inside of her kept telling her to keep running, that she couldn't let them catch her, but not for her own life, for someone else's. Someone else's life depended on her getting away.
Her feet were hurting from the hard rocks and logs they had run and stumbled across. Suddenly, there wasn't any ground under her. She fell backwards and the side as the ground swooped down dramatically. She tried to keep her slide down under control, failing miserably. She finally hit the bottom of the steep hill. She got to her feet and looked up, they were right behind her from the nearness of the shots. She started to take off again around a bend of rocks when she ran into something solid yet soft. Startled she looked around and saw a torch. She panicked. They'd caught her. She looked up desperately and froze. "Wha, Alanna!?!"
Alanna seemed just as surprised. For a second they both just stared at each other. When more shouts came from behind Daine, Alanna looked past her into the night then, grabbing Daine's hand, she pulled her behind the rocks into a tiny crevice barely large enough to hide their tightly crammed bodies.
"Alanna, what are," she snapped her mouth shut when Alanna but a finger over her mouth in a command of silence. Moments later a group of men ran past the small opening, completely missing them. They stood there for a good ten minutes before Alanna let out a cleansing breath. Daine hadn't stopped staring at Alanna the entire time. Finally she said, "Alanna, how did you know where I was?"
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Hope you all like this chapter. I tried to make it as intense as I could. I'm going to start writing the next chapter as soon as I finish posting this one because I'm on a roll here. The next chapter is going to be the beginning of the end of this story. But just as a reminder not to worry, I have at least two continuing stories I want to write after this one. Enjoy!
Thanks, Karigan
Thanks, Karigan
///////
Complications
Escape
Daine hissed in pain as she pulled against the metal chains that bound her hands above her head. She pulled as hard as she could, trying to yank her hands free of the loops. But the harder she pulled on them, the tighter they seemed to get. Crying out in frustration, she yanked several hard times, expecting no results. The knife wound that started at her wrist and reached down to her elbow had clotted with dried blood and was swelled a deep burning red, the tale-tell signs of infection.
Two days! She's been hanging here for two days. Her arms were painfully numb from the lack of blood running to them. Deep black bruises surrounded her wrist, formed by the chains and her own weight. The muscles in her shoulders screamed constantly from trying to pull some of the weight off of her wrists.
Her tunic was stained with dirt, blood, vomit and sweat. Her breeches were torn and she was barefoot -having been taking a nap when the mage attacked her-. She was tired and aggravated and just plain miserable. It was actually fairly quiet. The only time she saw anyone was when they came in to give her some water, which, judging from the gods offal taste, had a few extra ingredients. She had refused the water at first, but after they had forced it down her throat the first time, she decided it wasn't worth the extra broken rib she had gotten in the process of resisting.
Whatever it had in it, it kept her wild magic out of her reach. It also made her physically sick for hours afterwards. And being unable to move from her current position, she was forced to be sick on herself. She tried to keep her optimism up by thinking about Numair and Onua and Alanna and all of her fiends. But she was hungry, dirty and in pain. Her spirits were rapidly dropping. What was happening? Why was it taking so long for them to find her?
The lack of food or sleep was playing ticks on her mind. A few times, right before they brought in the water to give her, she had imagined far off voices. Voices she had never heard before-almost like sirens. They sounded somewhat like the griffin's call, yet different. The griffin sounded like chimes to her; this sounded deeper and richer, making her bones vibrate. She would try and distinguish it between her magic seeping back in our just her ears when they would come in and feed her more of the flavored water.
Something was wrong with the Tortallans. That much was obvious from their lack of presence. She looked up at her metal binds that were placed on a wooden hook on the wall. She had a fleeting idea, but the difficulty involved was very discouraging. She looked around the room and then down at herself. She took a sniff and bolted her head back up. 'I SMELL!' she thought with disgust. That did it. "No more waiting!" she muttered. "Just grit your teeth, and get it over with, Daine. Come on, Daine. Just do it." She sighed in aggravation when her little self-pep talk had little effect on her outlook.
She took a deep breath, grit her teeth and clenched her eyes shut. She picked up one of her half dangling feet and placed it against the wall behind her. Then, she placed the other a bit higher, using her calf muscles to push herself up. Her wrist screamed in pain at the added pressure but she bit harder and took another step up the wall, this time using her arm and shoulder muscles to help pull herself up. She desperately tried to keep her bare feet from slipping down the wall by putting plenty of weight against them. She continued a few more steps up, her knees bending more and more with each step up. She took another tiny step up when her foot slipped down the wall slightly. It pulled savagely at her wrist and she heard herself cry out in pain as tears streaked down her face. She caught herself and placed both feet against the wall firmly. She was breathing frantically. 'A little more,' she told herself weakly. 'Just a little higher.' She took another step up and then another, ignoring the warmth that seemed to drip down her arms.
Finally, she thought she was high enough. Her body was almost completely scrunched up. Her feet firmly placed on the wall, the heels touching her underside. She took several erratic breaths. Though clenched teeth she counted out loud to herself. "One, Two, THREE!" She shoved her body up and out using her feet. At the same time she slammed her wrists back against the wall and up in hopes of unhooking herself from the wall. If she didn't unhook herself, she would fall back down and most likely break her wrists.
She felt herself fall forward and down, bracing for the pain of her wrist braking. But she kept going. She fell to the floor with a clumsy thump, her knees taking the brunt of the fall. She fell forward on her stomach her arms up over her head. She drank in heaving breaths of air, as she shook in pain. The blood started pounding back into her arms, making them sting and making the cut in her arm bleed anew. Her knees throbbed from her awkward landing and her head spun crazily. She couldn't even feel her wrist anymore. After a few minutes she rolled onto her side and pushed herself up to sit against the wall. That's when she noticed streaks of blood running down both her arms. Morbid curiosity consumed her for just a moment as she noticed that the chains had cut through her wrist while she had been climbing up the wall, probably when she had slipped slightly.
The chains would just have to go, she determined. She snorted when she realized that they came off easily; the hook being what kept the knot around her wrist holding. They fell away easily. She raised herself to her legs shakily, using the wall to keep balance. She staggered to the door. 'It's not even locked!' she realized in disbelief. 'Maybe he his stupid as well as mad.' She cracked it open and peeked outside. It was dark out with the beginnings of a waxing crescent moon. It would be hard to see anything in the middle of the night.
No one seemed to be looking at the moment, so she slid herself out the door and around the corner of the small wooden cabin. She felt her body shiver violently from the change in temperature. 'Gods, but is it COLD!' she thought frantically. Fall was coming to end and the first winds of winter had started to come in a few weeks ago. She looked around the cabin at the camp. Slowly she started to register what she was seeing. There weren't more than 20 or 30 men camped out, all either sleeping or talking amongst themselves. But the camp was set up to accommodate 5 times that number. She didn't know where the rest of the camp was, but she was fair certain that the missing number of men was the reason Numair and the rest of her friends hadn't been able to help her.
She saw the mage walk across the grounds and step into a tent. She was about to follow when she suddenly felt sick. She lurched to the side and vomited. She wiped her mouth and breathed deeply. She wasn't in any condition to go after the mage at the moment. She turned away from the camp and started to walk slowly away in an attempt at avoiding detection.
She was about 200 yards away from the camp when she heard shouts and screams that had her turn around quickly in the direction in which she had come. After a moment of hesitation, she turned back way from the camp and sprinted off as fast as her exhausted legs would carry her. She ran through the forest for all she was worth, jumping over logs and ducking under low branches. She crashed through some bushes that added unseen scrapes to the already numerous ones she had acquired from the broken mirror in her room. With hardly any moon to help her vision and her shape- shifting abilities out for the count she was running mostly blind. She thanked the Gods for her unusual natural ability to see well in the dark. She was able to see most of the large obstructions in front of her, though she still stubbed her feet on various smaller objects.
She could hear them behind her; they were gaining on her. Cursing them for having both shoes and most likely torches to light their way, she kept running, her breath coming in desperate pants. She felt a branch catch and rip out some of her hair. She was growing desperate. She wouldn't be able to keep ahead of them much longer. Something inside of her kept telling her to keep running, that she couldn't let them catch her, but not for her own life, for someone else's. Someone else's life depended on her getting away.
Her feet were hurting from the hard rocks and logs they had run and stumbled across. Suddenly, there wasn't any ground under her. She fell backwards and the side as the ground swooped down dramatically. She tried to keep her slide down under control, failing miserably. She finally hit the bottom of the steep hill. She got to her feet and looked up, they were right behind her from the nearness of the shots. She started to take off again around a bend of rocks when she ran into something solid yet soft. Startled she looked around and saw a torch. She panicked. They'd caught her. She looked up desperately and froze. "Wha, Alanna!?!"
Alanna seemed just as surprised. For a second they both just stared at each other. When more shouts came from behind Daine, Alanna looked past her into the night then, grabbing Daine's hand, she pulled her behind the rocks into a tiny crevice barely large enough to hide their tightly crammed bodies.
"Alanna, what are," she snapped her mouth shut when Alanna but a finger over her mouth in a command of silence. Moments later a group of men ran past the small opening, completely missing them. They stood there for a good ten minutes before Alanna let out a cleansing breath. Daine hadn't stopped staring at Alanna the entire time. Finally she said, "Alanna, how did you know where I was?"
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Hope you all like this chapter. I tried to make it as intense as I could. I'm going to start writing the next chapter as soon as I finish posting this one because I'm on a roll here. The next chapter is going to be the beginning of the end of this story. But just as a reminder not to worry, I have at least two continuing stories I want to write after this one. Enjoy!
Thanks, Karigan