Hello readers! Four new chapters at last! Yay! :D Sit back and hang on tight because there's a lot of action coming up, which requires a warning for violence as these creatures are pretty nasty.
Also, I apologize for any typos. These chapters together account for 22K words, and my eyes have currently melted from all the editing and polishing.
As always, enjoy!
Maevelynn
xoxox
Chapter 19 - Skinwalkers
The next couple of days were the longest and weariest Maeve had ever spent in her entire life, full of new blisters and bloody bruises and scratches and bug bites and cold rain and sleepless nights, all of which were coupled with sore muscles and rusty joints and aching back and swollen feet.
Not to mention the dirt and the mud.
There was mud everywhere. Inside her boots, under her nails, in her hair, on her face, in her packs. Everything and everyone was growing grittier with each new day, the only salvation being either a heavy rain or an unexpected brook.
The single positive thing was that the more they trekked, the lighter the bags became, their food supply growing thinner and thinner with every mile they travelled. As it was, she only needed to carry one satchel for the rest of her apples and pears, which made the journey much easier in that regard, especially up rock walls and down abrupt slants. With lighter packs she could also offer a hand in carrying young children and toddlers so their parents could get a rest.
That's how she came to grow so fond of little Rose and Sam, the cutest brother and sister she had ever seen, with their light blond hair and bright green eyes so full of curiosity and intelligence. Taking her wandering mind off the crew and off him, they kept her occupied with their adorable jabbering about everything they knew, like how to capture butterflies, tame wild birds and teach tricks to dogs, and they also greatly entertained her with the tales of their favorite stories about fairies, trolls, giants and dwarves.
She had literally fallen in love with them, so innocent and sweet, and the more time she spent with them and their parents, the brighter the little flame of protectiveness within her shone brighter. And it was the same for everyone else she had grown to know in this convoy of brave souls, soldiers and civilians alike. All the names Leisa at taught her at the beginning of the trek were beginning to stick in her mind, and the more people she spoke to, while trekking, while sharing a meal at night around the campfire, while she occasionally helped old Lobelia tend to wounds, the more protective she grew of them all. Sharing such close quarters with people, not to mention in such a peculiar location of constant dangers like the Blind Mountains, she supposed bonding and caring and growing attached was simply inevitable. They were all in this together after all, a team, and they had to watch each other's back if they even hoped to survive these cursed woods.
Robin, Leisa, Simon, Coop, Leo, Mark…
It felt like she was part of a new crew. A band of companions she was slowly growing more and more fond of every day despite how hard she tried to wall herself off to their good hearts and their good nature.
But it was impossible not to care. Not at this point.
She was spending way too much time with them already. Day and night. Through darkness and mud and blood.
They were her crewmates now, and she would stand up to protect them no matter what, them and everybody else, a duty that now pulsed in her blood like all the soldiers she travelled with.
It had almost been two weeks of trekking now, and they had just entered the dangerous territory of the Skinwalkers this morning, the perils awaiting them now dreadfully closer than ever and frighteningly imminent with each new step.
Robin and Leisa were growing restless with each hour that trickled by, as were the nearby soldiers who compulsively checked if the bells they were carrying were securely tied to their belts, stuffed with clothe for the time being but ready to ring at any moment.
Robin was even more tensed and on edge than usual, if that was even possible, the deep frown of concern creasing his brow now a permanent trait on his features, as well as the tightness in his entire composure, like a bowstring pulled tight and ready to snap at any moment. She wished she could somehow alleviate his burden of anguish as General, but words failed her as she watched him pace around the convoy like a silent guardian.
They had currently paused a few minutes to rest, to catch their breath and drink water, sitting amidst a thick brush of intricately woven roots and dark trees that made it extremely difficult to progress on the trail. They had to navigate through the dense foliage by constantly bending and twisting their bodies around, watching their steps and hunching their shoulders as crooked branches always stood in their way at every turn. It was a daunting path to travel on so everyone welcomed the brief respite at the moment, even if they had to huddle in creepy, slimy brambles.
Lost in thought, she watched as Robin drifted away with Simon amidst the convoy to quickly check on the soldiers, while Leisa stood guard by a nearby tree and Mark, Leo and Coop shared a snack a few feet away.
Her mind was flitting aimlessly from one thought to the next, but Rose soon poked her arm to catch her attention.
Maeve turned back to the little blond girl sitting on a tiny rock in front of her and watched as she pointed at the middle nutshell between them, indicating her choice out of the three.
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the child, wondering if she had peeked while she was looking away, and the girl giggled as Maeve upturned the shell to reveal the pebble hidden beneath.
She had definitely peeked, Maeve thought, or the little girl was simply impressively attentive to details for her age.
Nevertheless, she poked at Rose to tickle her in admonishment and the little girl hid her laugh in her tiny hand, careful not to make a sound.
That was the new rule since they had entered the Skinwalkers' territory this morning.
Silence.
Making as little sound as possible not to attract the deadly creatures any sooner than they had to.
It was an unsettling atmosphere, to trek through the Blind Mountains without speaking, communicating with signs and whispers as much as possible. Everything felt heavier and deadlier, every little sound somehow amplified much louder than it would normally be. A branch cracking. Someone coughing. The strap of a backpack being adjusted.
It was maddening.
But everyone was as disciplined as ever to respect the rule, even the children and toddlers who were surprisingly quiet in these frightening woods.
Rose poked her again, then pointed at the three shells between them, indicating it was now her turn to choose which one was hiding the pebble.
Maeve pretended to think it over for a few seconds, then pointed to the nutshell on the right, watching as Rose upturned it to reveal nothing with a grin.
She pointed at the left one and again the child flipped the shell over but still no pebble.
The little girl giggled quietly behind her tiny hands, and Maeve pulled a face as she reached to upturn the last shell herself, revealing nothing again.
Rose fidgeted on her seat to contain her laugher, probably very proud of her little trick, but Maeve knew better.
She turned to her little blond brother Sam sitting right next to her and extended her hand, waiting for him to hand over the stolen pebble as he erupted into fits of giggles like his sister.
His tiny hand finally opened to reveal the pebble and Maeve immediately pounced on them both, poking at their bellies while they laughed soundlessly and twisted to escape her tickling punishment.
But then their smiles soon vanished, as rain began to fall amidst the crooked trees and everyone looked up through the canopy of tortuous branches to try and catch a glimpse of the dark skies beyond.
But the forest was simply too dense to see anything.
Within seconds the rain rapidly turned heavier, like a cold downpour of nails, and they all hunched their shoulders in vain to escape the watery onslaught, pulling at the hoods of their jackets to cover their heads.
Maeve quickly got to her feet along with the others, clutching Rose and Sam under her jacket until Ally and David gathered them in their arms. She then grabbed her packs and joined Leisa who gathered her own, the Radakeel barely flinching under the rain, as opposed to Coop who silently cursed at the sky in frustration with outstretched arms, his sweeping black hair falling into his eyes. Leo hopped on his feet with a scowl but didn't openly complain, while Mark growled and glared into space like an angry bear, his bulky form reluctantly rising from his seat in the rain, picking up his battle-axe with a curse.
Robin trotted back to them in no time, and after everyone had returned to their appointed posts down the trek line, Coop to the rear to join Simon, and Mark and Leo in the middle, they were on the move again, carefully weaving their way through the crammed tortuous trees while the rain drummed down on them like huge buckets of icy water.
Everyone was drenched to the bones within minutes, shivering with the cold, and with the ground rendered a slick path of mud, many slipped and fell on the treacherous roots beneath their feet, everyone's balance turning precarious as fingers easily lost their grips on the slimy branches.
But they kept on advancing slowly, carrying exhausted children in their arms and helping each other move amidst the complicated trail.
The heavy rain just kept falling incessantly, a deafening downpour that was hammering on her head and shoulders like ice, cold as death, soaking through her clothes all the way to her bones. Her fingers were numb and her teeth were clattering, but she pushed on, following Robin in the gathering darkness of the woods, wondering how much longer they had to continue before they could make camp. She certainly had no desire to spend another sleepless night in the freezing rain, and she knew her rusty legs would be begging for rest soon enough.
But Robin kept pushing onward, expertly weaving his way through the twisted trees and tangled branches, leading the trek in complete darkness as if he knew exactly where he was going, his shoulders stiff like wood under the hard rain.
Maeve knew he had been sleeping less and less in the last few days, prowling the campsite at night to watch over his men, anticipating the looming array of dangers and nasty creatures awaiting them in the dark. He was exhausted on his feet all the time, she could tell, but his hypervigilance and unyielding sense of duty were keeping him up like a mighty oak, tall and sturdy, pushing ever onward to lead his people to safety.
But no one was safe. Not as long as they were trapped in the Blind Mountains.
"Does this bloody trail ever end?" Leisa growled behind her, her mane of lava braids soaked and dripping.
It was strange to hear a voice after so many hours of crushing silence since this morning, but with the heavy rain currently pouring down all around, Maeve figured any sound they could possibly make was simply sucked away into the deafening curtain of rumbling water, masking their presence from any prying ears.
"Another hour," Robin replied wearily, wiping droplets out his eyes as he continued onward through the foul crowded trees.
Maeve followed carefully into each of his steps, straining her eyes in the darkness not to trip, when suddenly a string of hushed whispers travelled up the trek line from soldier to soldier.
"General," David called out through the rain.
Robin paused and turned around, his face dripping wet. "What is it?"
"Leo and Mark are calling for a halt," the soldier explained. "A woman tripped and broke her arm."
Maeve watched as Robin silently weighted the situation, clearly not fond of the idea of stopping where they were, all crammed up in the intricate network of trees.
"We can't stay here. It's too dangerous," Leisa pointed out grimly in his stead, voicing his concern as she looked like nothing more than a shadow with her black skin and black leather outfit in the complete darkness.
Robin wiped a hand across his face wearily, and after a few seconds of quiet inner debate, he looked at them gravely, his small blue eyes dead serious.
"Don't move until I come back," he ordered, meeting Maeve's eyes for a moment before he walked past them to head for the middle of the trek line where Leo and Mark were stationed.
Maeve watched his back as he disappeared in the pouring rain and the dead trees, her nerves twitching with concern as a nasty shiver crawled up her spine.
As the rain poured down on her face, a flicker of guilt also gnawed at her as she realized she had never truly apologized to him for that night by the campfire where she had brushed him off rather harshly. True, he had been prying about things she didn't want to discuss, making assumptions about her past crewmates and what lay in her heart, but she regretted the way she had strolled off to sleep like an angry child. However, neither of them had ever addressed the conversation again. Robin appeared to have simply waved it out of his mind, never making any reference to it any more than she did, as if the two of them had just wordlessly chosen to ignore their little argument, slipping back into their usual friendship as if nothing had changed. But now that he was vanishing in the blackness of the woods in dangerous territory, she didn't like having things left unspoken between them, each word feeling like roots waiting to bloom into bitter regrets. Something she was all too familiar with.
But now was not the time to let her mind dwell on such matters. She was too cold and too profoundly exhausted to think straight anyway.
She turned around to stand guard with Leisa and the other soldiers close by, scanning the impenetrable darkness before them on the trail and on either side, everyone slightly fidgeting on their feet, freezing under the rain.
She rubbed her arms in an attempt to instill a bit of warmth back into her bones, hiding her numb fingers in her armpits, when a strange croaking sound reached her ears through the heavy shower, like a low guttural rumble that echoed in the black trees to their right.
Everyone froze on the spot, hearing it as well and stricken with sudden fear, eyes darting to locate the eerie noise.
Wet hair plastered on her face, Maeve stood completely still, barely breathing as Leisa, poised for battle, carefully stepped up next to her like a lion ready to bolt on a prey, Sleyans at the ready.
Something was out there.
Maeve searched the thick blackness of the forest as another ghostly croak echoed in the night, this time to their left. Everyone's head snapped in the direction of the bodiless sound, flinching and stifling yelps of fright.
Feeling her blood run as cold as the rain, Maeve swallowed hard as her heart trashed in her chest like a wild animal, attempting to get a grip on her coiling nerves.
With the utmost care, along with the other soldiers, she slid her pack and satchel off her shoulders as quietly as possible and laid them on the muddy ground, the rain incessantly drumming down and masking every sound around them except for Leisa's Sleyans crackling with magic in her hands as the Radakeel studied the darkness like a panther ready to strike.
When a branch cracked loudly, almost in unison, Maeve and the other soldiers gripped their bows, notched arrows into place and drew the strings, ready to fire at any sign of movement in the woods.
Straining her eyes to see through the dead tortuous trees and the rain, Maeve held her breath, her entire body as stiff as a marble statue. She nearly gasped when another guttural clicking sound rumbled to their right once more, this time much louder and closer. Her head whipped around but dark wet trees and treacherous roots were the only things she could see. The rest was just endless blackness through a curtain of falling water, the darkness so deep and thick it was almost painful to look at.
Blinking the rain out of her eyes and clutching the string of her bow in a death grip, she raised her eyes to the branches and the thick canopy of foul leaves above their heads.
When a lightning cut through the sky up high, she froze, terror seizing her.
Thrust deep in a white head twisted to the side at a sickening angle, a pair of big white eyes glowed back at her.
A Skinwalker.
Thunder boomed in the night.
And then it was chaos.
With frightening speed, the skeletal white body dove down on them with a raucous croak, mouth gaping wide with rows of sharp teeth.
A scream nearly fell from her lips as she released her arrow, the iron tip piercing the creature right between the eyes, and before she could even snatch another arrow from her quiver an avalanche of pale bony corpses fell on them through the darkness in an uproar of guttural croaks.
Leisa immediately dashed in front of her, quick as a cat, and took the blow of the nearest Skinwalker, her Sleyans slashing through the rain as she rammed their tips in the creature's emaciated back, its hideous shriek ringing in the night.
When Maeve wheeled around at the screams of the other soldiers as arrows were released everywhere, she saw at least a dozen crawling white bodies advancing towards them on all sides with unsettling speed through the crammed trees, their joints all bent and twisted at weird angles, with their skin white and slimy and their eyes empty and blind.
It was a terrifying sight, but the fight that broke out all around her on the tortuous path of roots and twisted trees quickly made her switch to survival mode as the disgusting creatures advanced on them from every direction, bearing their sharp fangs in visceral hunger, rows upon rows of teeth in the depth of their mouths like deadly sharks.
Heart pumping in her chest, she quickly fired arrows at every target of white skin she could see, hitting home in bony shoulders, rickety deformed chests and long craning necks, but her string of successful shots was cut short when a Skinwalker threw itself at her unexpectedly from behind, nearly sending her to the muddy ground. She shoved it away by ramming her elbow in its gut but then another beast blindly lunged at her from the tree to her left, snatching her brow from her grip and snapping it in two like a twig.
Stumbling back in the blinding rain as lightning ripped the sky once more, Maeve unsheathed her sword just in time to slash at the creature, its red blood contrasting with the sickening whiteness of its skin.
When thunder growled in the air again, she didn't lose a second and immediately hacked at a new skeletal body, backhanded one across the face and kicked another in the head, fire pumping in her veins as her battle instincts guided her movements through the bloody fight in the dark of the night.
She couldn't even tell who was fighting beside her in the rain anymore, the soldiers, volunteers and bony creatures all blending together in a wet blur of screams, slashes and croaks.
Everything was happening too fast, with no moment to properly assess the situation at all, no time to form any kind of defensive strategy. The battle was simply too brutal and overwhelming, and her mind was entirely focused on the endless waves of creatures coming at them like rotten corpses, every nerve in her body blazing with the primal fire of survival.
But her ears were still working, and as she carved a Skinwalker open with her blade, she recognized two very distinctive screams in the bloody chaos.
Eyes frantically darting around with white hot alarm, she spotted Ally huddled up in a nook of tortuous roots, desperately clutching little Rose and Sam against her body as the children screamed and clung to their mother while a Skinwalker clawed at the roots to get to them.
David was fighting a little off to the side, the man struggling to keep the nasty creatures away from his family, but he was outnumbered, bony arms snatching at him from all sides faster than he could hack them off.
Maeve dashed forward without a second thought, moving through the crooked trees and the slippery mud until her sword arced in the air and beheaded the blind croaking beast that was attacking his wife and children.
Blood gushed at her feet as the beast fell, and she blinked through the heavy downpour to try to see if the woman and the children were alright, but then the wind painfully left her lungs as a Skinwalker smashed into her middle, violently slamming her into a tree. Maeve groaned against the hard impact and lost her grip on her sword in the icy rain, but before the hissing creature's teeth could snap her throat, her fingers curled around the hilt of the dagger in her boot and she thrust the blade under its ribs.
Shoving the dead weight away from her, she quickly picked up her fallen sword and regained her balance just in time to stab a Skinwalker flying above her head from a nearby tree and slash another croaking creature right across the face.
In the cold dark rain, it was chaos on a scale she had never witnessed.
All around her, screams and croaks echoed everywhere as soldiers and volunteers desperately fought off the crawling Skinwalkers in the blinding downpour, with more bloody corpses, both human and beast, littering the muddy ground with every second that fled by.
It was madness.
The Skinwalkers were too fast. Way too fast.
After stabbing a bony hand grasping her leg, Maeve winced when a vicious Skinwalker clawed at her face from out of nowhere, her cheek burning as she fell down under the weight of the creature who savagely jumped on her. Dead white eyes stared back at her as she struggled to kick the skeletal monster off of her but it was too strong. Roots dug in her back as she wrestled to break free, but suddenly the Skinwalker uttered a loud screech, its face contorting in pain as Leisa's Sleyans crackled over the rain and pressed into the creature's back.
A black feline shadow, the Radakeel shoved the dead beast off of her and pulled her up by the hand, and once she was back on her feet Maeve had no time to blink because a trio of Skinwalkers lunged at them from the trees almost instantly.
She punched one square in the nose when a bell unexpectedly rang behind them, loud and clear over the rain, followed by the pleading, heart-wrenching scream of a woman.
It was Ally again.
Thunder roared in the air and a flash of lightning ripped through the darkness.
Head whipping around after slashing the throat of another Skinwalker, Maeve saw David running away amidst the dark trees, white bodies crawling after him as the bell he was waving slowly faded in the downpour with each stride he took, sacrificing himself for his wife and children and the rest of the convoy, an army of white monsters chasing after him.
Without thinking, Maeve rushed across the trek line to race after the soldier.
"No!" Leisa bounded on her, gripping her arm firmly. "Let him go! You can't stop him!"
Maeve blinked at the Radakeel through the drumming rain in disbelief. "We can't just let him die!" she shouted back, yanking her arm away as she clutched her sword tightly, wheeling around to resume her chase after David in the dark twisted trees while Ally and the children screamed and cried.
She caught up with the brave soldier in a matter of seconds, the man surrounded by more Skinwalkers than she could count, croaking and hissing as they circled and clawed at him to bring him down, drawn to him by the sound of the cursed bell.
Unsheathing her two remaining daggers, Maeve threw them at the closest creatures, the blades lodging in their bony backs with sickening cracks. She then jumped into the midst without thinking and slashed at the sea of white limbs, hacking and cutting everything she could touch while David stared at her in bewilderment, as if being rescued when he aimed to sacrifice himself made absolutely no sense.
Ignoring his mystification, between two strikes at the skeletal creatures, Maeve yanked the bell from his hands and flung it away, the metal chime hitting a rock in the darkness and creating confusion amidst the Skinwalkers who slightly dispersed themselves to locate the echoing sound, craning their necks at inhuman angles as their dead eyes stared all around them.
The diversion allowed Maeve and David to dispatch a few disoriented creatures but sooner than they had hoped the ringing of their swords cutting through flesh brought the attention of the Skinwalkers right back on them, and that's when she dreadfully realized how dangerously outnumbered they were and that they didn't stand a chance in the long run.
To confirm her fear, an angry white corpse swiftly tackled David and bit his arm in a frenzy, the soldier screaming in pain as the sharp teeth sunk deep into his unarmored flesh. Maeve immediately ran her blade across the Skinwalker's back, but still the soldier slumped to his knees, clutching his bloody arm as she continued to shove, slash and cut through the encircling pack of white beasts croaking at them from all sides.
A single thought burned in her mind.
Survival.
But the situation was bad.
Very bad.
And her strength was dwindling away.
She kicked at a white head and stabbed at a shoulder, cut off a bony hand and broke a nose, but still the white rotten creatures kept coming at them through the rain, like ants incessantly pouring out of their nest.
In a matter of seconds, they would be ripped apart by the wicked monsters, she knew it, the terrifying thought flaring in her blood as she backhanded a Skinwalker hard across the face as it lunged for the wounded soldier, and which caused her to be a second too late to ward off the attack of another creature who bounced in her direction to bring her down.
She raised her arm to counter the blow but suddenly Leisa leaped from the darkness like a panther, her Sleyans colliding with the Skinwalker with so much force it split its head open.
Maeve gasped in bewilderment as blood spattered everywhere, wild hope sparking in her chest as the warrior woman joined the overwhelming fray with the strength of ten men.
The Radakeel looked completely furious though, a dark glower burning in her eyes as she shouted over the rain. "You are so much trouble!"
But Maeve could not reply to the woman's reprimand as more Skinwalkers rushed at them from all sides, waves of bony limbs rolling at their feet like an ocean of monsters.
Back to back, she and Leisa danced through the lethal pack, sword and Sleyans arcing through the air as they dispatched as many skeletal beasts as they could, standing guard over David bleeding on his knees in the mud.
But it wouldn't be enough.
They had to move, to find cover. Anything to gain higher ground.
Maeve opened her mouth to speak over the loud rain, but the words stuck on her tongue as a Skinwalker aggressively slammed into her middle, the collision so brutal she and the creature fell and rolled many feet away from Leisa and David.
The air in her lungs painfully left her as she landed in the muck, gasping and wrestling with the ferocious monster who snapped his teeth to rip off her throat. Terrified, she managed to break its neck and shove its body off her, but two more Skinwalkers dashed for her through the downpour, grabbing at her ankles with their claws slashing at her flesh through her trousers. She kicked them off frantically, her numb fingers scraping through the thick mud to grasp her fallen sword but the blade was nowhere to be found.
When the creatures momentarily recoiled from her kicks, she hurriedly flipped over onto her knees and backed away in terror, now weaponless against the deadly beasts.
She scurried to her feet but the two Skinwalkers leaped on her again without any respite, claws ripping and teeth snapping. Blinded by the rain, she retreated away to escape their grisly attacks but not enough, and before she knew it her feet caught in slimy roots.
A real scream escaped her this time as the ground disappeared beneath her, the two vicious Skinwalkers joining her in an unexpected fall down an abrupt slant hidden in the shadows, their bodies heavily rolling through a deadly combination of slick sludge, jutting rocks and crooked branches.
For a moment she couldn't tell up from down as obstacles hit her from all sides, and when she landed hard on her back once more, her head spun dizzily like a whirlwind, her vision doubling as rain fell into her eyes.
She laid motionless for a second, gasping for air and aching all over, but her survival instincts quickly flared in her limbs like raging flames, urging her to get up and move.
She sat up in a flash and tried to stand but her left foot was caught in a tangle of branches and roots, refusing to budge.
She twisted around in terror, eyes wide and searching for the two creatures that had fallen along with her, hunting her mercilessly.
The Skinwalkers were crawling towards her across a patch of slimy rocks, their heads twisted to the sides and their dead eyes staring at her hungrily while they croaked and hissed in the pouring rain.
Frantic, her fingers clawed at the roots around her ankle but to no avail, the blind monsters baring their pointy teeth venomously as they kept on advancing, their bony arms and legs bending and contorting in a sickening way across the rocks.
Panic seized her like a bolt of lightning.
When they were almost on her, liquid fire dripped down to her fingertips to ignite a fireball, to blast the creatures into dust-
But then a shadow leaped above her through the loud curtain of rain with a flash of steel glinting in the darkness.
The Skinwalkers shrieked as Robin's sword sliced through the air, hacking their heads off one by one, clean off the rest of their appalling bodies and giving them absolutely no time to fight back, the precision of the kills brutal and frightening in the shadows of the woods.
Maeve stared at him through the drumming rain, unblinking and shaking, terror still pumping through her veins as she watched the monsters' heads rolling away on the slimy rocks.
But then Robin was dropping to his knees before her, his hands cupping her face in wild concern, blue eyes panicked and assessing the many cuts and bruises on her flesh, tilting her head to the side to quickly inspect one of the bigger gashes on her cheek, the result of claw marks.
"Wikken Hells," he cursed under his breath, his features lined with an immeasurable mix of relief and worry, his entire body rigid with tension.
He was covered in blood and mud as well, just like her, with marks of the gruesome battle written everywhere on his skin, with deep ridges slashed across the leather plastron on his chest.
But he was alive.
She opened her mouth, wanting to speak, but the words stuck in her brain and instead her frozen fingers clutched at his shirt to remind herself that he was real.
Their eyes met briefly for a moment, timeless and wordless through the pouring rain, but he quickly looked away, unable to hold the weight of her gaze for a reason she couldn't name.
His bruised hands continued to scan her limbs for serious wounds and when he found none, he ripped through the bloody roots coiled around her left ankle, freeing her foot.
"Can you stand?" he spoke through the rain, eager to move yet clearly worried she might not be able to.
But she nodded decisively, despite her entire body aching at every joint as she painfully rose to her feet, Robin holding her by the arm as she shivered in the cold, her bones miraculously intact after the high tumble she'd just suffered from.
"We need to climb back up," he pointed above their heads at the top of the abrupt slant, littered with a tangle of roots and dead trees, which at least provided enough handgrips and footholds.
Maeve didn't need to be told twice and began the climb at once, ignoring her body's silent screams of protest as she moved and pulled herself up the slanted terrain, Robin carefully following beside her.
The cursed rain slowed them down in the muddy ascension, blinding them repeatedly and turning everything precariously slippery, but they pushed on resolutely, determined to reach the top no matter what, even if what awaited them might be a real carnage.
When Robin finally made it to the top of the slope, groaning with the straining effort of the climb, he swiftly grabbed her arms and hoisted her up the rest of the way until she was back on flat ground by his side, safe and in one piece.
They were completely drenched, wetter than fishes and their clothes soaked with mud, but Maeve couldn't care less and she was back to her feet in a flash, bracing herself to face the ocean of monsters she'd left behind with David and Leisa, but when she looked around she found the soldier standing in a field of white corpses, clutching his bleeding arm, while the Radakeel ruthlessly finished off a Skinwalker that was still twitching and croaking, pressing a Sleyan to the back of its head until it slumped dead on the ground.
The warrior woman raised her head and froze, her black eyes spotting her and Robin through the thick curtain of rain a few feet away, battered and bruised but alive, and her shoulders momentarily sagged down as she exhaled a mighty sigh and closed her eyes in overwhelming relief.
Thunder rumbled in the distant sky, followed by an oppressing silence that crashed on them like a suffocating cloak.
Time stood frozen as the four of them panted in the downpour, winded and drained by the gruesome fight.
Was it over?
Maeve prayed to whatever gods and spirits were listening that it was, afraid her knees would buckle at any moment.
The incessant, debilitating croaking of the Skinwalkers had stopped, the loud rain the only sound they could hear despite how hard they strained their ears in the darkness. But still, an eerie stillness seemed to choke them in the cold as they stood in the pool of white bodies, contorted faces with dead blind eyes staring back up at them lifelessly.
Maeve walked over to the soldier and the Radakeel tentatively, her legs aching as Robin followed close behind her, and she stared at the dead monsters in quiet aftershock, a part of her profoundly traumatized by the bloody carnage that had just taken place, while another part of her felt strangely numb to it all, as if none of it could possibly be real.
No amount of information and stories and descriptions could have adequately prepared her for these monsters and what they could do.
It was madness, and she couldn't wrap her mind around the terrible reality that tomorrow night would bring the same massacre, and the night after that again, and again, and again.
And then there would be the Kawasseas…
Maeve suddenly felt faint.
Lightning and thunder tore through the darkness, a deep rumble that shook the ground beneath her boots as she stared at the dead Skinwalkers at her feet, their white skin blurring in her vision.
One man out of three makes it out alive of the Blind Mountains.
The words echoed in her head, hollow and final.
Dim-Dim had sent her to her death.
"That was stupid."
The rain poured around her, deafening and freezing as her bones rattled with shivers and she kept staring at the rotten corpses littering the mud, a life sentence coiling around her neck like a hangman's noose choking her.
It took her a moment to realize Robin was talking to her, his words ringing in her ears distantly, yet igniting some of the fire that was still simmering within her core.
"Excuse me?" Her voice was raspy and dry as she met his troubled glower in the darkness, stricken by its raw intensity and by the fact that it was directed at her.
His entire body was rigid like stone, a silent storm of anger and fear swirling in his eyes like smoke.
"I told you not to move until I came back," he said, almost growling, fists clenching at his side as if he was clinging to the last shred of his self-control. "You shouldn't have run after him."
He barely raised his voice, but still his words pulsed in her blood as she stared at him, wondering if he was genuinely furious because she had disobeyed him, or rather because he had been torn apart with worry about her safety during the terrible battle.
It wasn't long before the painful storm in his eyes betrayed which reason was fueling his reaction, but Maeve would not let him off the hook so easily, even if David and Leisa were watching their exchange uncomfortably.
"I wasn't raised to stand by and watch while a man sacrifices himself for nothing," she replied darkly, biting into her words.
"It wasn't for nothing!" Robin countered sharply, his voice heating up with anger. "He did what he had to do! That's what the bells are for, to create a diversion to get the Skinwalkers' attention away from the convoy!"
"Well I decided he could use a little help!" she protested firmly, holding his stubborn glare with her own fiery glower. "Which is exactly what Leisa did when she followed to aid me, and what you did when you jumped down that ravine where I fell!" She took a careful step towards him then, daring him to deny the truth as she spoke gravely. "Which makes me believe that if it had been me carrying the bell, you would have done the exact same thing."
"You don't have a bell!" he snapped at her irritably, silently fuming in the rain like an angry wolf.
"Maybe I should!" she snapped back immediately. "That way we could test my theory!"
He let out a quiet growl in response, shaking his head in frustration before suddenly rounding on Leisa. "Why didn't you stop her? She could have been killed!"
Leisa sheathed her Sleyans with a small huff, their magical sizzle dying down. "You think I didn't try?" she asked levelly, almost rolling her eyes at him. "In case you haven't noticed, General, she's as stubborn as you are."