Anna-Josephina's legs pumped furiously as she raced through the black trees and the wild shrubbery of the forest. The soft soles of her bare feet sank deeply into the wet, rotting vegetation that grew in abundance across the forest floor. The raw iciness of the winter air caused her breath to rake like steel claws at the inside of her lungs and a burning stitch started to stab at her ribs. Her naked body felt too sensitive, the branches that whipped at her legs cut deep and every pebble and sharp stone under foot caused her pain. For all the speed with which she and her sisters crashed through the trees, the forest was eerily silent to the human ears that pursued them. Despite her supernaturally refined senses the only thing that Anna could hear that was louder then her own breathing, was that of her two sisters who were running behind her. Anna pulled up in a clearing and risked a stop, she didn't want to, fear threatened to consume her whenever her feet were not eating up the ground in huge thumping strides.
"We need to keep going!" Isabella-Maria panted, her naked chest heaved greatly as she gulped in enormous boats of air, letting it sail into her lungs and replenish her exhausted body.
"Shh," Anna hissed and lowered herself to her knees like an old woman, now that she had stopped running she could do no other then rest her limbs, that were shaking with a mixture of adrenaline, cold and fear.
"They're coming for us!" Isabella cried softly, looking over her shoulder.
"Then be ready to kill!" Ava-Teresa gasped, own hand clutching her aching side while the other was braced taut and shaking against a thick, black tree trunk.
"Shh!" Anna warned them.
From the ground she let her honed instincts feel their way into the ether, she knew for a fact that her sisters were doing the same thing. Wearily Anna sat her naked bottom on her heels and stared around her, rattling breaths wheezed their way from her lungs and exploded into the air in thick plumes of white steam. The moon above them was a crescent but light enough to make the frost crusting the leaves and the moisture dangling from a spiders web glitter and sparkle like diamante. If their escape had been planned Anna knew that all three of them would have chosen the night of the new moon, when the sky was black and there was no bright whiteness to cast their shadows. Anna watched in a daze as a loose strand of gossamer thread waved languidly on the night air, presently a fat spider crawled from the darkness and stared at her. Without thinking Anna let out a loud and frightened gasp, she shot to her feet and stepped back into her sisters.
"What is it?" Isabella hissed through chattering teeth, her eyes scanning her surroundings feverishly, everything was so new to them, Isabella had no idea where danger lurked and where it didn't so she chose to view everything as lethal.
"Nothing," Anna recovered quickly and bent to wipe her muddy knees from where she had sank into the dirt.
"For a moment I thought …"
Ava walked forward and swiped her hand through the spider's home, leaving him swinging furiously from one thread.
"Its not him, Anna," Ava said seriously, her dead eyes looking up at an owl that peered curiously down at them.
"We have to go, Anna!" Isabella moaned, her muscles twitching with the intense cold. Anna looked at both her sisters, they were bruised and cold, in danger and frightened. Anna knew Isabella was right; their captors were in the forest now, they had dogs and guns and phasers and metriazo collars, and they would do anything to get the three of them back.
"I know," Anna whispered, she didn't know what was wrong with her. Normally she had terrific stamina, she could run non-stop for hours without even getting tired. But now her body felt drained, the terror she felt and the overdose of adrenaline leaving her almost in a trance. Anna knew that if they were caught she would be punished by the Doctor, Isabella too, but Ava … she would be killed. For it had been she that had killed the guard to their cells and then freed Isabella and herself, so they in turn could rescue Anna from the beating she was about to receive. Anna wrenched herself into the present, she could not let her sisters get caught after all they had done for her, not when freedom was only a few miles away.
"We need to split up," Anna told them in a voice that booked no argument, for the first time Ava's impassive face looked worried.
"We're stronger as one, Ann," Ava said without inflection, Isabella was silent for once but nodded her agreement.
"They will send everyone out looking for us," Anna's voice quivered with emotion as she spoke, "they will hunt us down like dogs. We need to confuse them by losing our scent."
Ava was unmoved but Isabella's survival instinct kicked in and she knew that they only stood a good chance of getting away if they split up. Ever since their youth they had known something about themselves that their captors had not. Unlike every other being they had ever come into contact with, they did not always give off individual scents. When together all three scents combined to make something unique that could only be created when they were in close contact with each other. And since birth they lived every waking moment with one another. As Were-Hunter's Anna and her sisters soon realised that when they were apart they took on their own individual scent, it was so confusing that the dogs on the compound would sometimes chase themselves in circles. Their captors just assumed that they had developed a strong ability to hide their scent, Anna, Isabella and Ava had never seen any reason to let them know different.
"I can hear a river up ahead," Isabella said leaning her head to the right and listening, she closed her eyes and for a moment her face was soothed by her affinity to water. "That will be a perfect place to split."
Anna nodded and they began to make their way through the woods, this time with Isabella in the lead, giving them direction. The journey to the river would have taken a human two hours but the sisters got their in under half an hour with frequent stops to listen for those pursuing them. When the reached the river bank what confronted them were foaming, angry rapids. They did not pause or slow but walked out of the trees and deliberately waded into the river. The force of the current was enough to make their knees buckle but they did not go down, Anna and Ava cupped the water in their hands and began splashing it over themselves. Just being in the water would cause the dogs to lose their scent but they wanted to be sure, even though the water was so cold it felt like it was burning their skin. The only one who was unaffected was Isabella, she simply stood and reverently skimmed the turbulent surface with her palms.
"This is the first time I've ever seen a river before," she whispered, tears clouding her vision and voice, "so many times I heard it calling to me from over the wall. Does this river run to the sea, do you think?"
Anna could not look into her sister's face and see the hope there, the realisation that freedom was almost within reach of their fingertips. Usually Isabella was the doubting Thomas but with her so enthralled with the river Ava said what needed to be said.
"We're not free yet," she muttered, looking down as if ashamed that she was dragging her sister back into reality.
"Remember," Anna whispered, her eyes fixed ahead of her gazing at the treetops that lined the northern sky, "no more then five miles."
No one said anything more but as one they parted. Isabella headed east, walking down river with the current, letting it move higher and higher, only when it was lapping at her thighs did she look over her shoulder.
Ava looked to the west and moved that way, thinking to head into the trees across from her, when she made the tree line she glanced over her shoulder.
Anna walked north, to the trees laying directly before her, she was just about to step from the river when she turned around.
Each caught the other looking back as they ventured out on to their own path, suddenly a noise drew their attention from behind. Their faces drew tight, and their mouths fell open with shock, Anna's eyes filled with tears of fear.
No, she thought desperately, not again!
Out of the trees came five men, all with their phasers raised and metriazo collars hanging from their belts.
"Halt!" one of the men shouted, his voice sounded slightly muffled from behind his mask that concealed his face. "Stay where you are!"
"Run!" Anna screamed.
She transformed faster then lightening into her terrifying dragon form and took to the air, shooting higher and higher out of the phasers range. As the biggest target Anna had all the men screaming and shooting at her, it gave Ava and Isabella time to get away. As one Ava transformed into a mouse and scrambled into the trees while Isabella dived and did not come up again as she rode the waves.
The men twirled stupidly together on the river bank, one even twisting so violently that he fell into the river as they scrambled to see which direction each went in. Even Anna's huge form was swallowed up by the dark sky and the clouds rolling in.
"Shit!" one of the men cursed, knowing there would be hell to pay when they came back empty handed. He took a radio from his belt and before speaking into it, looked over at one of his comrades.
"Doctor will not be happy about this."