Kiara ran until she was breathless for naught, the raiding party was nowhere to be found. She called out, begging them to come back, to find her, but the only response was the mournful howl of a nearby wolf, reminding her of the coming darkness. Her hair, now damp from the snow, stubbornly clung to her face and the corners of her mouth despite her constant efforts to push it away. She changed directions and tried to get back to the road, but couldn't seem to find it, no matter where she went or how desperately she ran. All of a sudden, she tripped over as one of her sandals broke, twisting her ankle and landing roughly on some twigs and sharp rocks. Sweat got in her eyes and stung, making Kiara rub them as a sob escaped her throat. She was lost. She picked up her broken sandal and limped to a fallen tree nearby to sit down. Kiara took several deep breaths to calm herself before surveying her surroundings. Aoife, her best friend, had tried to teach her the art of tracking on many an occasion, but Kiara always diverted her attention to something she deemed more deserving of it. The thought of her friend gave Kiara a wave of sadness, and she wondered if Aoife was thinking of her as she cried at this moment as well. Kiara knew in her heart that her tribe now believed her to be dead, and they may well be right in that assumption come dawn.
She wished she'd paid more attention to Aoife's strict lessons, for that knowledge would've come in handy in this time of great need. As Aoife had taught her, Kiara grounded herself and engaged her senses. It was faint, and she strained to hear it, but she could hear a distant sound, serene, steady, and constant. A river. What else? Kiara stood up with a sniff and returned her broken sandal to her foot, surveying the land for signs of disturbance. The group was surely large enough to leave some evidence of their presence in the surrounding nature. The only footprints she could see in the snow were her own, but she felt much better now that she had something in which to anchor her activities, and wasn't simply running through the woods like a woman touched by plague.
Her ankle wasn't as bad having rested, but it was still sore enough to give her a slight limp. Kiara inhaled sharply to see if her nose detected anything of note, such as smoke from a campfire, and it couldn't, other than the scent of damp wood and pine. She used the direction of the setting sun to navigate, hoping to find the road and possibly even the clearing, and from there use her tracking skills to lead her to the group of men. Kiara was unsure as to why she didn't want to give up on finding the raiding party; they were dangerous and could dispose of her just as easily as anything else in these woods. Maybe it was the tenderness in the Argonian's eyes as he gave her his blade, the original arrow that was shot at Sullivan's chest to save Kiara from his cruel grasp, or perhaps it was her own poor judgment causing her to see things that weren't there. She walked on determinedly, not wanting to waste any time in the wake of the waning daylight.
Kiara eventually got to the road near the clearing and began to track the group, moving as quickly as she could, but slow enough to ensure she didn't miss anything. She found where their trail and her own broke off, and Kiara kicked herself for not utilizing her tracking stills earlier and instead indulging panic. She soon arrived at the river and went to drink, but paused, feeling a shift in the surrounding air. Knowing this feeling well and being trained to listen to her primal instincts, Kiara was instantly on high alert as her heart pounded against her ribcage. She wasn't alone.
Kiara bent her knees and backed away from the river as she threw her head over her shoulder, her eyes darting around as she tried to detect any signs of movement. She heard a twig snapping a few yards behind a natural ledge to her left, and she immediately spun around and fled into the trees. Whatever was stalking her, Kiara heard it give chase as she ran. She chanced a look back as she changed direction and realized with horror that pursuing her was a saber cat. Kiara was light and fleet of foot, but she had an injured ankle, which she did her best to ignore, and was extremely low on energy. She knew her body was only capable of being pushed so far.
"Help!" Kiara yelped, hoping someone would hear her as she jumped over rocks and weaved between the trees, navigating the terrain as best she could.
The saber cat was gaining on her and she managed to duck as it pounced, its huge paws missing the back of her neck by inches, buying her a few extra seconds to think. She looked around wildly before running up a boulder and leaping, arms outstretched, for a tree branch, pulling herself up and clambering as high as she could. She understood she wasn't safe up there, cats could climb, but she was so exhausted that she knew she couldn't continue running for much longer. The cat paced back and forth near the base of the tree while keeping her in its yellow-eyed gaze, its teeth gleaming as it snarled at her. It took a few steps back and ran up the tree, jumping and swiping at her, causing her to scream as it fell to the ground. It continued these actions, getting closer to the branch Kiara was on each time. She unsheathed the Argonian's blade and slashed at the saber when it came too close, but accidentally dropped it while recovering from an overbalance. She watched it as it lay completely useless on the ground; well, that's the end of that. She wailed as she threw whatever she could get her hands on and cried out for help, all the while knowing it was futile.
Accepting her fate, she prayed to Namira, not with the intention of requesting help, but instead asking for her tribe's consolation and the easy passing of her soul. She ignored the saber cat's vicious, impatient growls and looked up at the sky sadly, where the first stars had begun to appear, slowly forming the constellations she knew well. She'd be in Aetherius soon, the source of all magic and light. Her existence, although short and difficult, was almost over, and she hoped the universes would be kinder to her in the next life. As she continued to pray to Namira, she felt the tendrils of her thoughts reach out to the raiders who had spared her life, only to then leave her to an uncertain fate. She found herself wondering, wanting, unsatisfied, empty. All her life, decisions were always made for her, be it by her father, the tribe, or the slavers, but she no longer stood for it. Kiara's fate was hers and hers alone to decide, and she was sick of pretending otherwise. She opened her eyes and looked at the stars, feeling the value of her precious mortality more completely at that moment than she could ever remember. Now determined to stay alive, she reached for the higher branches and continued to climb further out of the cat's reach, making it growl with rage. Kiara turned her head as she hung onto a branch and snarled back, feeling every bit the Reachman she was. She climbed higher and higher, but as she ascended, she observed that the branches were becoming noticeably thinner.
Kiara scanned the snowy landscape from her now vastly improved vantage point, taking in the ocean of dark forest before her, soaring waterfalls, and the distant gloaming in the setting sun's wake. The world, in its austere beauty, captivated her young heart. Below her, the saber cat hadn't given up. It had begun to scale the tree, its claws digging into the trunk as it closed the gap between them with terrifying velocity. Worried, Kiara continued to climb, although unsure of what her endgame was. She pulled herself up, putting her knee and then her foot onto a branch and shifting her weight to ensure the branch could take it.
As she reached for the next branch, she heard an alarming snapping sound and froze, her eyes wide. "Easy," she whispered, letting the air out of her lungs as she looked around without moving her head. Fearful, she quickly reached out for a sturdy-looking branch protruding from the tree trunk just above her, but wasn't fast enough. The branch gave way underneath her and she plummeted down fast, managing to grab hold of a branch barely out of the cat's reach, the pain in her arms and fear in her blood eliciting a scream from her that tore through the woods and silenced the world. Even though her arms were in agony she held on in defiance, her legs dangling high above the ground helplessly. The cat tried to jump for her, but one of its claws had become stuck in the wood of the trunk, as though the tree itself was getting its revenge against the beast whose claws harmed its speckled bark and peaceful existence. The cat yowled painfully and swiped at her leg, managing to catch her foot with its claw. Kiara shrieked in agony but held on fast, trying her best to bring her legs up.
The cat rested its hind legs on the branch below Kiara's, its claw still stuck, and continued to swipe at her as she hung there. As she was adjusting herself, the saber's claw managed to connect with her foot again, and she responded by yelling and kicking at it violently. Kiara knew she had to move and move fast, staying in that position meant either waiting for the cat to get her or falling to her death. The branch she was on was short, meaning that she had no room to maneuver, and she had little choice but to pull herself up where she was. She took a deep breath and lifted herself, gritting her teeth and wincing through a pain so severe she feared the muscles in her arms may tear free of the bone, but she refused to let go. Her eyes, still clamped shut from the effort it took to pull herself up, opened slightly to let tears escape as her chin cleared the brown blur she was perceiving. Kiara shifted her arm so that her forearm and elbow rested on the branch, then hoisted herself up so she was straddling it. She shuffled forwards toward the trunk, clinging to it and shutting her eyes as she recovered her strength. By that point, her entire body ached, but the fight was not yet won. The cat growled again, and her eyes flew open. She knew what she had to do.
Kiara got to her feet on weary legs, leaning on the trunk for support. She speculated that below them was at minimum a ten-yard drop, something neither she nor the saber would likely survive. Good thing she wasn't afraid of heights. She clung to the tree and leaned forward to look around the trunk. Nearby was a branch that had almost completely come loose. Perfect. She swung onto the next part of the tree and carefully attempted to crawl toward the loosened branch, but in that time, the cat finally freed its claw from the trunk and chased her. Kiara could only manage a whimper as she realized what was happening all too fast, and after the saber cat jumped onto the branch with her, it gave way under their weight and they both hurtled toward the ground. Several of the tree's branches managed to break her fall, and she braced herself before hitting the snowy earth, luckily managing to avoid serious injury. She feared that wasn't going to be long the case, however, as the cat also survived the fall and still looked hungry. Kiara glared at the saber cat as she shuffled backward into the base of the tree, her resources completely depleted. She was proud of herself, knowing she put up a fight worthy of the gods. As the saber stalked toward her with its head lowered, she bared her teeth at it before closing her eyes and leaning her head back against the tree, uttering the words of a saying in her native Reach-tongue: "Even in death, I triumph."
During the seconds in which she waited to greet her fate, a familiar sound reached her, along with a pained roar from the saber, causing her to open her eyes and look around. A second arrow flew out of nowhere and pierced the saber cat deep in the shoulder blade, the much more deadly first was sticking out of its head, blood gushing down its damaged face. Enraged and now half-blind, as though thinking she was responsible, the saber ran at her. She leaned back, terrified and wondering how she was still alive, too shocked to process what was happening. Someone appeared from the shadows as he leaped over a fallen tree and into the fray, moving inhumanly fast and forcing the cat off its target. The man who stood defensively in front of Kiara, hissing at the saber as it snarled at him, was none other than the Khajiit from the raiding party. The saber swiped, testing him, and the Khajiit moved out of the way effortlessly as it attacked him, quickly repositioning himself so he was between Kiara and the beast. Kiara watched him as though in a trance, she'd never seen anyone move with such dexterity, not even Aoife, who was the most graceful person she knew. The saber cat, getting impatient, threw all its weight at the Khajiit in a formidable lunge, which he dodged. Before the cat turned around to presumably attempt another, the Khajiit crouched down, leaning one arm on the ground as he swapped out the bow he held for another weapon.
"Watch out!" Kiara yelled as the animal came for him, saliva dripping from its mouth.
The Khajiit ignored her as he kept his eyes on the saber, standing there unmoving. In less than a second before the saber got to him, he jumped clear straight up into the air, contorting his body as gravity pulled him back down to the earth. Kiara screamed; the saber was now coming toward her instead of him at speed. He landed on top of the saber just before it got to her, driving his blade into the back of its neck and severing its spine, splattering her with blood for the second time that day and killing it instantly.
Kiara gasped in horror as she gazed at the saber cat, its yellow eye open and unseeing. Tears of sadness, fear, and relief rolled down her cheeks, and she let out a harsh sob that felt like it reverberated through every bone in her body.
The saber cat was dead, and she would live to see another day.