Hello Everyone! I hope you you've been! We left you on quite a cliffhanger! Wanna see what happens next? Well, here you go! Here is book 10! Thanks for your patience! Remember to review and enjoy!


Prologue

She ran as fast as she could, already gasping for breath. The underbrush tangling in her legs or being swept aside with her passage. Around her the forest of trees rose up, the leaf canopy blotting out the twilight sky above and the last vestiges of a sunset filtered from between the trunks. Or perhaps a sunrise. She didn't know. She didn't know what she was running from, she just knew she had to run from whatever was behind her. Whether she was being chased she didn't know either.

Her robes caught on a tree as she swept past, and in her desperate flight she nearly tripped. She tugged furiously and the branch snapped off as she kept running, only needing to continue, needing to keep running. Her breath was coming in desperate gasps as the cool air fogged around her when she exhaled. Her tunic and skirting made little difference in the crisp air. The awkwardness of her pregnancy slowed her down, but knowing she needed to run away, for their sake more than hers, kept her going. She was pregnant, and she needed to keep her child safe, it was the only thing she knew to do. Something dripped into her eyes and she wiped it away, not looking to see the blood on her hand as she ran.

There was a light in front of her beyond the trees and she ran towards it. Out of breath, out of time, knowing that whatever was coming for her was just over her shoulder. She dared not look back to see what might be there. Through the trees as she approached she could start to make out a cabin where smoke lazily climbed from a simple chimney and the warm glow of bright lamps poured from the windows. That was the light she saw, the lamps in the windows and the exterior fixtures that beckoned her forth towards some kind of shelter. Someplace she might hide. Whoever lived there had to be better than what was behind her. She was certain of that, and had no idea why.

The trees ended abruptly where they had been cleared for the homestead. She ran through a meadow in the twilight. Small glowing insects dispersed from her path as her passage terrified them. There was someone working a fenced garden before the house. A young man looked up at her, startled, as she desperately ran towards him. She came to a stop when she finally reached a wooden fence, unable to clear it, too out of breath, too exhausted to surmount the small barrier. She looked up at the young man, desperate, trying to catch her breath as the exhaustion from her flight finally hit her. "Help." She finally managed to gasp out as she collapsed and everything went black.


Water poured from the canteen as he tended the potted planets on their porch as he always did before dinner. It was a quiet night and was starting to cool down as it slowly approached fall and as the sun set away. He quietly hummed to himself as he attended his chore until he heard a rustling from the treeline near the back fence. Glancing up for a moment, he looked to see if it was any of the local fauna coming to visit as they often did in order to try and eat from their garden which he had been tending to all afternoon. It wasn't an animal. He did a quick double take when he saw a woman running towards their fence line that surrounded the property. He stared in shock. He wasn't sure where she had come from as the town was the opposite way, but she looked to be in trouble.

"Help," she called out to him as she stopped at the fence line, exhausted and out of breath. Then she started to collapse.

"Kriff," he cursed under his breath. "Mom! Help!" He yelled back towards the screen door of the house.

He dropped the watering can and leapt over the porch rail. As soon as his feet hit dirt, he took off in a sprint through the gardens and to the back fence. He moved as quickly as possible, avoiding the growing produce. Once at the back fence, he vaulted over the top and rushed to the woman's side. He hesitated as he reached to turn her over, but gently did so after a moment. He looked her over, but he wasn't really sure what to look for or what to do. This was more his mom's thing anyway. He did notice the blood trailing down her forehead and the obvious bump around her stomach. She's pregnant? He swallowed as he ran a hand over his mouth nervously.

"Mom! Hurry!" He yelled back towards the house.

As he yelled that, his mother emerged from the door and started running towards him. "Taner, what is it? What's wrong? Did another deer ge-" Her question was cut off when she got closer to the fencing and saw what her son was knelt next to. "Oh jeeze." She breathed out as she stopped at the fence. She looked down at the woman, worry written clearly on her face.

"Mom, what do we do?" Taner asked, panicking slightly.

His mother snapped out of her stupor and focused all of the sudden. "Let's get her inside and lay her in the guest room. I'll grab the first aid kit," she ordered as she moved over to the fence gate and opened it for her son.

Taner nodded and carefully scooped the woman up into his arms. He lifted her off the ground and held her close as he moved towards the gate. Once through, his mother pulled it closed and locked it before running back to the house. Taner moved quickly after her, but not so fast that he could possibly hurt the woman he was carrying more as they had no idea the extent of her injuries. Her legs hung loosely under the voluminous folds of her somewhat tattered black robes over his arms, matched by her straw colored hair over his other arm.

As soon as he got to the house, he carried her inside and over to the guest room where the door had already been opened by his mother. He entered the room and laid the woman down on the bed just as his mother entered with her medical bag and the house med kit at hand.

"Good job, hun," she said as she moved over to the bedside and started going through the items she had brought in.

"What should I do?" Taner asked as he backed away from the bed.

"Go wash up and finish up dinner. I'll take care of her," she said as she pulled out her medical scanner.

"Okay," Taner said, nodding. He moved to the door and cast one last look at the woman he had just carried in before closing the door and leaving his mom to do what she did best; help people in need.

Once her son was out of the room, Lara leaned over the woman as she started to run the scanner over her to get an idea on her current status and whether she had the correct equipment here to treat her. As she leaned forward, the woman startled awake and threw her fist out as if to try fighting her off. Lara jumped at that, narrowly dodging her fist. Tossing the scanner aside for a second, she reached out and grabbed the woman gently by the arms.

"Hey, it's okay. You're safe. You're safe," Lara said calmly and soothingly. "Take deep breaths. You'll be okay."

She looked at her wide eyed for a moment before her eyes slipped shut and she fell back against the pillow once again unconscious.

Lara sighed as the woman settled back. She had experienced patients do that before, but never quite as quickly as this woman reacted. Taking a couple of deep breaths to calm her rapid heartbeat, she reached over to the scanner and tentatively started to scan her again. As soon as she was sure she was not going to wake up again, she started her ministrations on the woman.


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