Hearts Do Change
Chapter 8: Safety
'Don't look back, don't stop moving, don't look back, don't keep moving.' Anya's mantra in her head as she ran through the uneven forest that was more like a jungle. Her chest heaved and burned in unison with her legs at the utter over exertion.
'Don't look back' Her shirt ripped a bit more on a shrubbery full of thorny branches.
'Don't stop moving!' She tripped over a rather mean looking root with a muffled yelp, scrambled to her aching feet quickly and kept on running.
Her shirt was in tatters, her pants weren't far behind, more like ragged shorts than pants really and her bare feet were bloody and blistered all to the seven hells and beyond. Her legs, arms, face and pretty much entire body was covered in muck and bloody cuts and scrapes. Still, she kept moving.
What had once been pure, unadulterated hatred and anger was now the most intense fear she'd ever felt.
Not far behind her was the sound like breaking glass upon water as another of her walls of ice was easily broken. She slid suddenly in the mud left over from the freezing rainstorm and slammed headfirst into the thick trunk of a sturdy Makai tree. Her world went black.
When she opened her eyes again a few moments later she got an eyeful of an unfamiliar back adorned with large, black, feathery wings.
"Wha…?" She muttered, officially stunned.
She made as if to stand and nearly screamed. Now that she had stopped running, the rush of adrenaline that had fueled her on had been shut off and she was feeling every thing. Every scrape, every cut, every blister and thorn imbedded into her side and legs and arms. Every bruise and aching bone was screaming at her internally to just sit down and stay still. Her head throbbed in the wake of getting a hilt to the temple and of course…running into the aforementioned tree. She also found out the hard way that slipping in the mud had sprained her ankle.
She certainly was a mess though. Shredded clothing, thin, pale, soaked with rain and sweat and blood. (Most of which was her own) She had a rather deep gash in her side that was dangerously close to her stomach and while it had mostly stopped bleeding, made it look certainly no better. More deep gashes in her calves, thighs and one utterly angry looking and feeling stab wound in her shoulder right above her heart. She was covered in burn marks as well. On her back the many marks left over from Akira's whippings stood out, a pearly pink against sickly white. Even her beautiful white wings were bloody and mangled.
This girl was damned lucky she wasn't dead yet. In fact…by all means she should have been unconscious from either the blood loss, pain, or from hitting that tree at something akin to 50 miles per hour. Yet of course, she wasn't. And resilient wasn't the word for it.
"Give me the girl mutt!" Akira's angry growl demanded as he walked up confidently, despite the bloody lip and black eye she'd recently given him before the little 'trek' through the forest.
"No." A stern and equally confident voice answered him without the slightest of hesitancy. "You have entered the Himura Clan's territory, leave."
" I will leave," He sneered, "Once the girl is back in my possession."
Anya let out a small whimper under her breath despite herself. She had no intention of leaving with that bastard, at least not alive. She had a dagger in her boot and was fully prepared to drive it deep within her own heart at this point.
(Such feelings were quite easily projected to those witnessing this memorial vision. Which has somehow engulfed the entirety of the medical wing. One could only pray none of the students needed a band-aid now or for the rest of the night.)
"Need I remind you of the last time you entered our lands in search of a "possession" Akira." The demon in front of her sneered right back. An air of amusement in his voice but his hand clasped steadily to the hilt of his own blade that hung off his hip by a leather belt. It somewhat reminded her of a pirate, a nicely timed amusing thought for the young woman.
'Although at the moment I feel like a small child who's just run away from home with no hope of even summoning the Night bus…' She thought snidely to herself. A small sardonic smile playing across her lips for a moment before she found out that doing so hurt too much.
Akira growled deeply in his throat and lunged at the man in front of her angrily. His patience must have been wearing incredibly thing today. She smirked despite the pain at knowing she was the cause of such wariness. You've got to take what you can get when you can get it no?
And for such a scary, strong, extremely sardonic, masochistic bastard, her savior easily killed Akira. As Akira lunged, it seemed the black winged male in front of her knew that he would and that sword was out so fast, Akira had not time to dodge the swing that aptly separated his head and left shoulder from his body. He fell to the ground in pieces, wide-open eyes staring out and directly at Anya.
Her eyes were equally as wide and she had to remind herself to breathe. A small gurgle escaped her throat along with a bit of blood, coughing fit taking over as she leaned back against the tree in pain. Shock wearing off quickly, turning the pained body that had gone numb, back into a veritable cornucopia of aches and pains enough to make her vision turn white for a few moments.
And once it cleared…
" My name is Phalin." She was in the arms of her black winged savior and in no shape to even have her orange eyes open but it didn't stop her. Akira…god's awful demon warlord idiot had gotten her again. She was sure he'd kill her this time but she had been saved. " He's dead child." Phalin answered her silent question and continued to walk on to the village in the center of the forest. The last words she heard before she completely blacked out were "Welcome to the Himura Clan."
Chapter Fin
Ah…much better chapter than before no? Much longer, that's for sure. All I can say is that finals are OVER! –Does happy dance and the entire muses look at me oddly- what? Well you guys certainly didn't offer me much help! Hello?
-Crickets chirp in distance, as all muses are silent and stepping backwards quickly-
Come back here! –Runs after sprawl of demon/human/other thing's muses- I need you guys!
-Harry walks in sighing and shaking his head- Review please. Thank you much. –He walks out- Avi? Avi! STOP CHASING THEM ALREADY!
NEVER! –Followed by evil laughed and a coughing fit then a thud- owies…-Avi has just run into a steel door reinforced by a titanium alloy- fine…bloody muses.
