Chapter 9 "Hunted"

Nin and Gin ran. More accurately, he ran and she kept up with him. To Nin it seemed as if every grief of his life was returning to him in a massive tide. Uncertainty filled him. He didn't know what to think, what to feel, what to do, but the burn in his lungs as he ran as fast as he could was the most acute thing he could feel, and it drowned to an extent his pain. So he ran as fast as he could. Beside him, Gin followed. She was weeping, her tears falling like raindrops in the winds of a storm as she raced to keep pace. Her anguish was not her own, but for the one person she had ever loved. Both were haunted by the sight of Rin's blood stained face, the psychotic madness in his eyes, and in the end the torrent of his blood in the dirt.

Though neither of them knew it, their desperate sprint from the market possibly held the key to Nin's survival as well. For Barach's order had been obeyed and a company of his hunters now tracked Nin and Gin. They went along at a fair pace as well, easily able to track the runners, but the desperate speed of those they pursued far out matched them, and more over Nin and Gin had about a half an hour head start. The course Nin took veered south off the road before the crossroads in a short cut through the trees, then across the road leading to his old home, and on southwest into the forest. As they entered the trees, the hunters were forced to go even slower to track them. Meanwhile Nin continued to fly, showing no signs of stopping, and Gin was desperately keeping pace with him, though she was laboring now heavily. Still though, they continued on a good ways, making it well over a mile into the woods.

They were now approaching the river, and Nin finally began to feel his strength leaving him. As they reached the edge, he collapsed into the dirt of the bank, and Gin after him. Nin now loosed his held tears, and together they wept, clasping each other's hands. It was a good twenty minutes before either of them could focus enough to see where they were, and they still were unaware they were being pursued. The hunters were closing quickly.

Gin came to herself first, and sitting up surveyed their surroundings. They were about 15 minutes walk south of the old cave where Nin once dwelt, where she had been rejected by him. The thought of which still stung her heart. Another ten minutes later, Nin managed to drag himself to his knees and wipe his eyes. He brushed back his hair and breathed deeply to finish calming himself. Looking to Gin he saw the remnants of her tears and compassion flooded his cold heart, warming it. Reaching to her, he gently brushed the last tears from her eyes, and stared into them. For several minutes they looked at each other, and at the end, Nin leaned close to her. Their lips drew close and were just about to brush when Nin's sharp ears pricked, suddenly the woods seemed very quiet, and he could hear something in the far distance.

He startled and jumped to his feet, spinning in the direction of the sound. She followed his gaze and wondered at what he was reacting too. Nin listened close, but heard no more, and was starting to think he had imagined it, but then he heard again, and it was closer. It was the hunters, their pace had significantly quickened, though they were still about a quarter mile away. Nin seized Gin's hand, and half dragged her back into a dead sprint. She was unprepared and stumbled several times, but Nin did not let go of her hand. He raced them in the direction of her home, knowing he needed to get her to safety so that he could alone try to elude the pursuit, as Gin did not possess his skill in the woods.

They went as fast as they could manage, both still being exhausted from their previous flight. Nin for the first time in his life, wished that Gin's father was home, so she would not be in danger of the hunters interrogating her for his whereabouts. Finally, they were close, and saw the signal tree in the distance. When they reached it, Nin stopped them and panting looked fiercely at Gin. "Listen, run past the tree fifty feet, turn and come back down the same path, then climb as high as you can into the tree and stay out of sight, wait until they leave then get home and stay there." Gin was too winded to answer so she just gave a fearful nod, and followed his instructions. Nin retraced his steps a bit, he didn't have much time, but enough to hopefully throw the hunters off Gin's trail. He started off in a new path, ran about a minute, then turned and went back. Four times he did this, created a star shaped pattern of false trails. At the last he took off in a sixth direction, going north east, and this time he sacrificed speed for a light foot fall and as much stealth as he could muster.

It was only a minute later that Nin heard the Hunters' voices coming down Gin and his own original trail. Nin slowed to almost a walk, treading carefully and almost silently, keeping close to the trees. In this way he made his way steadily away from the trap he had set. When the hunter's reached the place where Nin had set up the decoy trails, He was already a half mile from that place, and Gin was high in the signal tree, pressing herself tightly to the old bark, the brown shade of her dress effectively camouflaging her. She saw two hunter's following her trail, and she shuddered, remaining absolutely still in her hiding place. The hunter's continued past the tree to where Gin had ended her false path. They conversed incomprehensively for a few second then slowly wandered back down the false trail, checking closely their surroundings. Gin hoped as hard as she could they would leave the tree alone.

They moved past the tree a second time and one called to the others in a deep voice, "It's a fake trail! This little shit is crafty." A reply came from a little ways away, "There are four other trails here! We need to search out the false ones quickly or we will lose him!" The two hunters now broke into a jog and left the signal tree, in which Gin watched them go, still too afraid to move. As they were about to be out of sight of the trees, the one who had shouted stopped, and as if by some compulsion, turned and stared back again at the gnarled tree. Gin had luckily remained absolutely still, but the way the hunter stared now made her think he had noticed something, and in fear she attempted to shift herself around the trunk to get out of sight. This small movement was noticed by the wary hunter, and his eyes zeroed on Gin's position in the tree. The other hunter now noticed his partner's pause and stopped as well. The first one without looking away from the tree waved the second over to him. He pointed at the signal tree and wordlessly indicated he had noticed something. Both men now drew long knives from their belts and moved silently back to the tree.

Gin had squeezed her eyes shut after moving behind the tree trunk, willing them with her thoughts to keep going, and so ironically she did not at first notice them doing just the opposite. So it was the hunters came nearly the full distance back to the tree before Gin opened her eyes, and seeing them now approaching the tree with drawn knives, lost her nerve. A gasp escaped her lips and she startled back, nearly losing her grip. In her recovery, the branches shook, and the hunters, who had not yet been certain she was there, saw her position high in the tree. "Here! One of them is in the tree!" He bellowed to his fellows. Fear unhindered seized Gin, and she knew she was in real trouble.

Four more hunters came crashing through the trees, and with the first two they surrounded the trunk. Gin held onto the tree branches with sweating hands, her eyes scoured the forest around her, looking, hoping, praying for anyway to escape, but she knew she was caught. She began to hyperventilate, uncertainty filled her, and she thought her only chance was to get as high into the tree as possible, and hope Nin came back. Immediately her heart seemed to swell within her though, and she dismissed that wish, wishing instead that Nin stayed far away, as likely he was. She would endure anything for his sake, and would rather he remained safe and free.

Gin's lip trembled as the hunters stared up at her menacingly. A short one with long hair and black eyes shouted up to her, "Come down girl! The boy you were with is who we want, help us find him and we don't need to hurt you!" The smile that followed was not comforting, and Gin could read in it the ways she would be hurt if she disobeyed. Her instinct of self-preservation warred with her heart, which under no threat of any sadism or death would betray Nin. She was a martyr at heart, and wished now the fall was great enough that it could kill her, for likely she would only be maimed if she jumped, and still subject to torture. Tears fell from her eyes as the hopelessness of her situation become more apparent with each minute, and the will seemed to fall from her with each tear.

The hunters laughed at her tearful lack of response. "Don't be a fool girl, come with us and tell what you know, Lord Barach is generous when obeyed, but imaginative in punishment when not." Chuckled the short one. "She looks pretty defeated Malik, maybe we should just up and get her?" Said the bass voiced hunter who had found Gin. "Aye." Answered Malik, "We don't have time for this. Go get her Hack." The hunter called Hack put the knife he carried in his teeth, and dropped the small bag on his back. Skillfully he swung his slight frame up into the branches and climbed swiftly.

Gin saw him coming through her tears and gritted her teeth through her sobs, trying to focus like she saw Nin do. She knew she could not fight off this man toe to toe, but being higher in the tree she held the advantage, and he was off his guard thinking her just a broken weeping girl. While her tears continued to fall, she guilefully hung her head and maintained her image of weakness, while she watched him carefully, waiting for the chance to strike. Hack climbed on unwarily, a small sinister smile on his face behind the razor sharp blade in his mouth, while his companions looked up at the impending conflict with sharp interest.

Gin had formed her attack strategy by the time Hack got close. She could see he was aiming for the branch slightly higher than her on the opposite side of the tree, which would give him a positional advantage, and Gin could not reach this branch being too short. In order to reach it however, he would need to stand vertically on the next branch down, and Gin had a plan.

Hack reached the lower branch, and Gin watched him carefully position his feet on top and begin to rise to his full height. She immediately stopped her sobs, and made her move, swiftly grabbing a small branch on the side of the tree between her and Hack, swinging down from it with her feet in front of her. With full force she kicked him in the side of the head as he was nearly fully extended, and with a cry of pain and surprise, he lost his grip and toppled off the branch. The other hunters watched as Hack went 10 feet down and hit a large branch full on his back with a crunch. He gave a choking gasp as his body slid off and continued to fall the rest of the way down, hitting the forest floor in a heap, and laying completely still.

Gin now hung by her arms from the thin branch, and triumphant relief brought bubbling laughter to her lips, and she tossed her head back as she released it, heedless of her other opponents. These five men left looked at their fallen comrad, and Malik went to his crumpled and broken form, seeing immediately that his back and neck were broken in the fall, and he was dead. One of his men was Hack's brother, who was tall and wiry and looked similar to Hack, and this was the archer of Barach's body guard who had killed Taurun during his attempted escape. In his rage he pulled his bow again from his back and strung an arrow, aiming up at Gin who was still laughing while hanging from the branch. In her hysterical mirth, she did not notice him release the arrow.

Malik saw the bow drawn, and too late shouted, "NO!" The arrow flew on perfect line towards Gin, but as she shook with laughter, her sweaty hands slipped from the thin branch, and she fell before the arrow could reach her. The arrow stuck into the gnarly tree behind where Gin had been hanging as she fell with a scream. Fate spared her as she missed the lower branches. Malik jumped quickly under her, though she was falling too fast for him to catch, she landed slightly on him and knocked him to the ground, which saved her from major injury. Malik grunted in pain and rubbed his shoulders and head where she had hit him, though he was unhurt. However, Gin had landed awkwardly on her wrist and it broke under her, twisted to an unnatural angle.

The other hunters sprang on her instantly, roughing dragging her up by her hair at which she screamed in pain and fear. The pain from her wrist went straight to her stomach and threatened to make her vomit. Hack's brother glared hatefully at her as he unsheathed his knife, intending still to kill her, but Malik recovering jumped up and defiantly ordered, "Stop!" The other hunters followed the order and heeded him while still holding the sobbing Gin firm, but Hack was mad with his rage and still approached her with the naked blade. Malik strode over to him and seized his shoulder, throwing him away from the girl with strength that belied his size. "You fucking idiot! Stop! We need the bitch alive." The other man seethed furiously, looking to his brother's corpse in the leaf litter, but managed to restrain himself. Malik turned on Gin, whose cries were utterly unheeded, and she looked at him with eyes filled with uncontrollable terror. Stepped up to her, Malik swung his fist into the side of her head, causing Gin's teeth to rattle and her ears to ring, but she stayed conscious. Malik then hit her again, and Gin barely felt the blow this time as it knocked her out cold.

The hunters left her there in a heap. They went then to Hack's body, realizing the dead man's brother had wandered off into the trees. One custom defied all the inhumanities that beset the Easterlings. The burial of the dead was considered utterly necessary, whether friend or foe. Some of the Easterlings still remembered through old stories the deeds of the Dark Lord, the desecration of bodies for dark or as a means of terror, and despised this, though at the time they hindered it not in their dread and subservience. So now the hunters began with what small tools they had to dig a shallow grave.

Meanwhile, Nin had escaped into forest, believing Gin was home safe by now, and that his trap had sufficiently thrown the hunters off his trail. He had returned to the cave, planning to hide out until the hunt was over. However, he could not have been more wrong, as an unconscious Gin was now being carried back to the village by Barach's men. As the sun began to fall, a shadow fell over Nin's mind, though he knew not the cause. Soon he began to lose his previous confidence that he had thwarted the hunters so thoroughly, and despite the peril, he determined to go make sure Gin was safe.

Cautiously he approached the signal tree again, but detected no human presence in the woods. Still, he was overly cautious, and feared that perhaps the hunters had read his purpose and were waiting in ambush. Eventually however, he realized it was not so, and approaching the tree, beheld a strange thing. There were obvious signs of the previous struggle. Nin knew the signal tree well enough to notice the broken and disturbed branches, and could see many foot prints surrounding the tree. He immediately was stricken with horror realizing Gin must have been found somehow. Then, about 20 feet from the tree, he saw the fresh mound of Hack's grave. There was some blood on the leaves from when they dragged him to the grave.

Nin ran to the mound in terror believing it was Gin's body. In desperation he began to claw at the dirt with his fingers, uncovering the body. The body had not been deeply buried. In a stroke of his hand, Nin touched the cold skin of the corpse. He fell back in revulsion, his blue eyes wild, and his long locks of dark hair falling around his face. He looked close with much effort, and saw that the garments of this body were not Gin's. Nin felt some small measure of relief at this realization, but knew then that she must have been caught alive, and wasn't sure if death wouldn't have been the better fate for his friend. Obviously, she had fought during her capture, and killed one of the hunters, meaning she was now a criminal in their eyes. Nin's mind realized these facts in anger and fear. Gin was in big trouble, and he was her only hope.

He crawled back away from the body, his revulsion rising within him. With a great effort he stood, and looked up at the signal tree. Seeing this symbol of his companionship with Gin, Anger rose above his fear and regret, and the thoughts of that morning returned to him. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. He knew he would not leave Gin to be tortured to death if it was not too late, and if it was, he would find and punish those who did it.

Nin wasted no more time. Leaving the scene of Gin's capture he raced through the trees like never before, heading for a hiding place in the roots of a large oak tree where his bow and knife where hidden. He was done with running and hiding. He was going after Gin no matter what the cost…. He reached the tree and retrieved his weapons, then ran towards the village.

Nearing his destination, Nin slunk carefully through the trees. In his hands was a small recurved bow of typical eastern design, three feet long of heat treated strips of rare ash wood which Nin had discovered in the northern forests. This was shorter than most eastern war bows, but for Nin much more ideal for use in forest small game hunts. The string was made of tightly twisted fine linen that Nin had bought in the market for a hefty price since most eastern bow strings were of animal sinew, but the linen string lasted much longer in the damp woods where Nin lived. In a cloth pouch on his back were six arrows, two of which were barbed war arrows that Nin had scavenged from the market, the other four Nin had made himself to the best of his ability also using the stronger ash wood and a simple steel head, which made them easy to remove from the victim. The knife was a simple curved blade, no ornament of any kind, but very keen, and all too common among Easterlings.

The bow was Nin's most prized possession, and had kept him fed for the last two years. He loved archery more than sword play, and had taken great time to hone his skills. However until now, his targets had all be small animals, never had he seen a human target in his sights. The fury still burned in Nin's stomach, it steadied his hands, and suppressed his moral objections to murder. With great skill, the young man made his way through the trees, one of the barbed arrows notched in his string, and he was prepared to use it.