Hey guys, welcome back to Running for Life!
Before we begin, once again, I'd like to thank DanniMeamea, Guest, GirlFish, 1, SilverSkies1524 (Pretty much! But, as you'll find in this chapter, Bunny does have two forms. Otherwise, you are correct!), Guest, Icypoolthewarrior, OneWhoDreamz (Wow, thanks for the long review! As for the first questions, you'll find out soon enough. ;) In regards to the teasing thing, though...well, they're not total jerks, haha. Unless provoked, I figured they'd rather engage in banter rather than really try to mentally hurt someone, snow sprite or not.), The Shifting, and Frosted Eevee for reviewing! You guys are awesome, really! :D
And now, on with the chapter!
Chapter 4: Escapade
"NO!" he shrieked as the little girl was torn from his grasp. The man who had taken her did not speak. His only indication of having heard the boy was a sharp glare angled downwards. The man pulled a coil of rope from his belt and used it to bind her as she struggled and cried. Once he was sure she was completely secured, he roughly tossed her into a wagon filled nearly to the brim with the other children. She was only four.
"Stop it!" he shouted, throwing snowball after snowball at the man. "Give her back! Give them all back!"
The man stared down at him, somewhat taken aback by his nerve. Then, without saying a word, he produced another length of rope and extended his hand.
"No! Run!" the girl nearly screeched. For a child, she had a good grasp on the concept of danger. She screamed at him to escape and, without thinking for another moment, he gave in to his instincts.
He ran.
He ran even after the man gave up on pursuing him, muttering under his breath, "He was probably too old to switch anyway."
His mind flooded with terror, all he could do was focus on putting one foot in front of the other and dodging the embers flying through the scalding air.
As if formed from the shadows themselves, a woman appeared before him. He gasped and dug his heels into the ground. As he came to a halt so abrupt it knocked him off his bare feet, she sneered coldly at him. "What have we here?" Her voice was like poisoned silk. "I'm afraid this is the end of the line, sprite. There is no escape."
Heart pounding, he did the only thing that came to mind.
He threw a snowball at her face.
As the woman spluttered in anger and confusion, he scrambled to his feet and ran like a deer, nearly crashing directly into a familiar white colt.
The young horse was spooked, rearing and bucking as if its life depended on it, but when it caught sight of him, it immediately ran to his side in search of comfort.
He briefly ran his fingers through the colt's pale mane before taking off again, the horse cantering alongside him. Through the blaze engulfing his home, he could no longer recognize the paths and trails he knew so well. Lost and confused, he collapsed in the corner, crying for his sister and desperately wondering what had become of the rest of his family.
()()()()
When Jack escaped from the dreamsand's influence for the second time in the span of two days, he immediately wished he had remained comatose. The poison had only grown stronger during his period of vulnerability, and he immediately felt as if he could black out again at any given moment. Still, it was now what must have been close to midnight, so if he was to escape, he would have to do it now.
Blearily, Jack glanced around the hunters' camp. There were four tents and two horses-all supplied by the Tsar, he figured-opposite his wooden stake, and Zephyr was tethered a little farther away. Jack figured they knew of the sheer power and long-lasting energy sprite-bred horses possessed, and it came as no surprise to him that they'd taken the extra precaution of using a chain rather than a rope to keep the stallion still.
Jack sucked in a long breath, willing the pain to leave him for at least the few minutes he required to execute his plan. He staggered to his feet, holding the chain taut so that its rattling would not be loud enough to wake the sleeping hunters. The boy held out his pale, shaking hands. A soft blue light formed within it, and, from it, there appeared an icy lockpick. Carefully, he inserted it into the iron cuff's small keyhole. Within a few minutes, there was a soft click, and the cuff fell away from his ankle.
Jack let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and moved on to the twine around his wrists. Closing his eyes, he mentally reached out to the icy core that lay somewhere close to his heart and allowed a thick layer of frost to spread across the bindings. Once they had completely turned to ice, all he had to do was pull gently to snap them. He pocketed the ice pieces, hoping to leave no evidence of his methods of escape.
The moment the sprite stood, he stumbled, and, upon trying to catch himself, fell face first into a snow drift. "I need that antidote," he hissed to himself as he shakily stood once more. The only problem was that he had no idea where to look for it.
Pulling his hood up and over his reflective white hair, Jack slunk out of the moonlight in which he was previously situated and into the shadows of the trees. He silently crept his way around the perimeter of the camp, azure eyes almost glowing in the dark.
Staff first, then antidote, then Zephyr, he thought as he slipped past the hunters' horses. Last I saw, North had my staff. And Aster's supposedly the one with the antidote…
In an amazing stroke of luck that starkly contrasted his life's usual events, Jack found that his captors' tents were vaguely color-coded. Each tent bore a slight tint that could scarcely be seen in the dark. Thankfully, however, due to the nearly-full moon and a snow sprite's natural ability to see at night-albeit a limited skill-Jack was able to tell the difference without much trouble.
The boy ventured a little ways into the woods and soon came across a long branch that was virtually the same length and width as his wooden weapon. The only problem was that the branch was still attached to its tree.
Despite the pain and illness that still plagued him, Jack managed to scurry up the tree in question like a squirrel, and in very little time, he was perched on a thick branch that neighbored the one he wanted. Constantly glancing back in the direction of the camp, he extended a slender arm and caressed the spot where limb met trunk. When the section turned completely to fragile ice, only a gentle tug was required for the branch to become a completely separate entity from the rest of the tree.
Once he had brushed the excess twigs away from his branch, Jack jumped and landed quietly on the snowy ground, wincing slightly on impact. The young snow sprite made his way back towards the tents, strategically dragging his branch behind him in order to cover his tracks.
Upon returning to the roadside camp, Jack made his way over to the red-tinted tent. He carefully pushed back the left flap and peered inside. Sure enough, there was North, nearly hidden under a mountain of thick blankets. The man's swords were within his reach, and Jack instinctively held his breath so as not to risk waking him.
More important than the sleeping hunter was the familiar piece of wood braced against the side of the tent. Bare feet making little noise, the boy crept inside and placed a pale hand on his staff, allowing a fine layer of frost to spread across it once more. Reunited with the weapon he often considered to be no less than a part of him, Jack breathed a little easier. As the pain in his arm and stomach temporarily ebbed, he quickly switched out his staff with the regular branch he had picked up in the woods and left the red tent for the green.
Based on the fact that the golden tent more so suited Sandy, and something told Jack that Aster wasn't really a fan of magenta, the sprite had figured the green tent belonged to the tattooed man. However, the only living thing he found asleep in that particular tent could only be described as an overgrown rabbit. Jack, wide-eyed, stood in the entrance for what must have been a full minute before finally allowing his rational thinking to return.
Either kangaroos have begun migrating from Motoraus, he thought, slowly making his way to the small table set up in the corner. Or I've just found the first Pooka ever to brave Iskald's cold weather.
Shaking off his surprise, Jack examined the two bottles on the table. One's contents were thick, gray, and still bubbling slightly, while the other's were light, smooth, and silvery. The gray concoction was labelled "Poison", and the silver "Antidote".
Jack hesitated momentarily, mentally running through possible consequences of assuming there were no strings attached. The worst of which, of course, was death. Chewing on his lower lip, Jack tentatively reached out for the bottle containing the silvery liquid, though his gaze was uneasily trained on the supposed poison. Suddenly, his eyes widened with realization, and he nearly cursed himself out loud for his would-be stupidity. New observation in mind, he made the obvious decision.
With his staff in hand and the now-empty bottle in his pocket, Jack rushed to Zephyr's side, covering his footprints as he went. The stallion stayed dutifully silent as the boy froze and broke the chain that tethered him and swung up onto his back. "Get us out of here, Zephyr," Jack whispered in his horse's ear. Zephyr snorted quietly in response and trotted past the tents in the direction Jack's snow sprite instincts told him was west. Zephyr's hooves made little noise on the snow-covered ground, but Jack didn't dare push him into a canter before he was absolutely sure they'd be out of earshot should one of the hunters choose that moment to wake.
The moment he was sure they were safe to run, Jack narrowed his eyes and urged Zephyr to do just that. Behind them, gray clouds had already rolled in at Jack's will in order to cover Zephyr's hoofprints with fresh powder, effectively shrouding their trail with snow.
()()()()
This is not my week, Jack thought as he heard two sets of hoofbeats sound behind him. He had not even made it a mile away from the camp before the hunters had given chase. The speed at which they had begun pursuing him suggested that they had never been asleep to begin with, but Jack could not fathom a logical reason for why they would let him escape.
There was no time for comprehension, however, as indicated by the arrow whizzing by his head. Jack pressed himself low against Zephyr's back in hopes of giving Aster a harder target to hit.
"You cannot run forever, boy!" North called from a little ways back. Jack ignored him, not daring to even glance over his shoulder.
Suddenly, a brown, whirling object skimmed the top of the boy's head, causing the involuntary reaction of sitting straight up in surprise. Jack had less than a second to stare as whatever had hit him immediately came spiraling back in his direction.
It easily caught him in the throat, triggering his gag reflex and nearly knocking him sideways off of Zephyr's back. At the last second before falling, Jack snagged a fistful of his horse's mane, gasping for breath as he struggled to right himself. He cringed guiltily when Zephyr let out a short whinny of pain, but hung on and gradually eased himself back into a proper riding position.
"You're not getting me that easily," Jack growled under his breath, once again flattening himself against his horse's back. Risking a short glance over his shoulder revealed that North and Sandy were on horseback, while Tooth flew and Aster-in his rabbit form-simply ran. Jack's eyes narrowed as he observed the Pooka gaining ground, gradually catching up to him and Zephyr. He threw his arm out behind him and a flash of blue light shot from his fingertips, nailing the hunter right between the eyes. The blow wasn't enough to kill, but did send the hunter tumbling as a layer of ice spread across his head.
"GET BACK HERE, DEMON!" North roared, pushing his horse harder. The pale stallion leaped over the Pooka, followed closely by the Sister of Flight. Behind them, Sandy reigned in his palomino mare and quickly dismounted, running over to the fallen hunter.
Jack turned back around to face forward, preparing another icy blast to fling if one of the hunters came too close. He guided Zephyr around a series of snowdrifts that looked almost no different than the rest of the wintery ground. Only a snow sprite like himself would be able to tell the difference; as such, North's horse almost immediately sank into the drifts, causing the man himself to let out a string of curses as the animal floundered.
Now the only pursuer left standing-or flying, as it was-was Tooth. Being sprite-bred, Zephyr was faster than most horses, but the female hunter was no slouch either. Her gossamer dragonfly wings beat as quickly as a hummingbird's, and she zipped through the trees with all the agility of a cat. Jack was tempted to steer Zephyr into the section of the woods in which the trees were located much closer to each other, but decided against it. He didn't want to risk a head-on collision with a trunk that could get the two of them killed.
Trusting Zephyr to keep them running straight and smoothly, Jack twisted to face the bird-like woman behind him. He shot her a cold grin. "No hard feelings, right?" Without waiting for a response, he fired the ice blast he had prepared directly at her. Unfortunately for him, though, he could not have foreseen Tooth drawing one of her swords faster than anyone would expect any being to be able to and deflecting his own attack back at him.
"None at all!" she shouted as the near-deadly ice hurtled towards horse and rider.
Gritting his teeth in frustration, Jack rapidly pulled Zephyr's head to the side, causing the stallion to veer off the original intended course. The wind whipped through his shaggy white hair as he fought to steady the stallion's path. The moment they were once again running with no complications, the sprite shot the Sister of Flight a glare, feeling a rush of annoyance course through him at the sight of her triumphant grin.
Suddenly, Jack's internal compass metaphorically lit up. His eyes widened as he realized that the hunters had somehow managed to turn him around so that instead of heading in the direction of Ostea, he was being chased southeast–the direction of Soluna city.
'Twas clever of you, he thought as he wound strands of Zephyr's mane around his hands. But we're not done here quite yet.
Closing his eyes, Jack took a deep breath, sitting erect and allowing the wind to swirl around him faster than before. The temperature gradually dropped further and further, until it seemed that the boy had formed his own little pocket of a winter worthy of the coldest reaches of the Iskald region.
And indeed he had. Though he faced forward and kept his eyes shut, Jack could hear Tooth's gasps as she tried and failed to make it through his swirling barrier of fierce wind. He only allowed himself to breathe normally once she had fallen silent, and even then, half of a minute passed before his posture relaxed and the gale began to die down.
He slowly opened one eye, intending to make sure that Tooth really had giving up on her pursuit of him. However, both eyes swiftly flew open wide as he found himself face to face with a tiny lookalike of the only female hunter. It could have passed for a hummingbird, had it not been for its humanlike face and body structure. Suddenly, another mini Tooth appeared. Then another, then another, then another, until they had virtually swarmed the sprite and his horse.
Overwhelmed and spooked by the onslaught of the tiny creatures, Zephyr panicked, rearing up in terror. Jack was taken by surprise, and, left with no time to take hold of the stallion's mane, tumbled to the snowy ground, the protective blizzard fading completely.
Jack groaned and rubbed his forehead, not in pain, but in irritation. No doubt at least Tooth had caught up with him, and, if they hadn't arrived already, the others wouldn't be far behind. Sure enough, a shadow fell over his prone form.
"Not again," he mumbled as Tooth took him by the wrists.
...well, at least he didn't get knocked out again, right? Hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you back here next week for the next installment in Running for Life!
For now, Sapphire316, out.