AN: Hi friends!

Not much to say today other than I hope you're all well. Happy reading!

Disclaimer: Richelle Mead owns the Vampire Academy world and its characters.

Into the Woods, Part 3: Rose POV

Just one punch.

I shook out my hands, took a deep breath, and lowered into a fighting stance. I could do this. I'd punched plenty of guys before, enough times that you could probably call it a hobby at this point. Granted, none of those guys had actually asked me to hit them with the cool confidence that Dimitri had, but I wasn't worried. The fight on the plane with Fast Meat had been a fluke—he'd caught me off guard. Now, I was ready.

With a small battle cry, I all but launched myself at Dimitri in a quick move I didn't think he'd expect. But he either did expect it or simply had crazy fast reflexes because he neatly side stepped, making me almost lose my balance. I was able to adjust my footing before gravity could pull me into a fall, but my cheeks still burned with embarrassment. Pull yourself together, Rose.

I spun to face him with arms raised, ready to block his return attack, but he wasn't attacking. He was just standing, waiting.

I narrowed my eyes. "What kind of game are you playing, Comrade?"

"Focus, Rose," was all he said. Not meanly, just…calm. Very zen. It made me want to punch some rage onto his face.

So, I tried that. A face shot, that is. Dirty shots like that weren't allowed in the sparring ring, so perhaps it would take him by surprise.

It didn't. Neither did any of the other moves I used after. He was always ready for me with an intercepting arm or some fancy footwork that took him out of range. Every missed swing made me angrier, and yet the most infuriating thing about it all wasn't my lack of success, rather his lack of retaliation.

"Fight. Back," I growled through clenched teeth. He was just toying with me, I could tell, and it pissed me off. I roared and threw a wild punch with all my might, which he blocked, of course, and I had to suppress a whimper of pain. Dang, that hurt.

"Fight back!" I yelled. I was so frustrated I could scream.

Despite my demand, I wasn't ready for his transition from defense to offense. It was seamless and a little terrifying. He moved like he had on the plane, fluid and lightning fast, powerful and calculating. I immediately knew I was out of my depths, but I couldn't back down. I wouldn't.

I tried my best to remain on the offense while blocking his blows, but it was impossible. I had to direct all of my energy toward defending myself. Still, it wasn't enough. His hands were everywhere, and his punches almost always landed. I would deflect a fist heading for my shoulder only to have that same fist meet my side a fraction of a second later. My elbow would take a hit meant for my temple, but my arm wouldn't come down in time to stop the palm to my sternum.

It was the hit to the sternum that finally ended it. I stumbled, and he pushed the advantage by sweeping my unsteady legs out from under me, sending me to my back, and finally pinning me down with his knees on my thighs and his hands holding my wrists to the ground just beside my head.

Within the first few moments of starting the match, I'd known I wasn't going to beat him. But his hold on me made it official. I lost. Completely. Utterly. Indisputably. And worse than that, I hadn't landed that punch.

Most people, after winning by such an embarrassing landslide, would celebrate their victory. They'd gloat and taunt, or at the very least give a smug smile. Not Dimitri. He actually looked upset by the outcome of our sparring.

"Your offensive fighting is some of the sloppiest I've seen for a novice your age," he said gruffly.

Indignant, I wanted to protest, but I couldn't do much more than pant for breath.

"Your awkward footing left you completely unstable," he continued. "All of your movements were reckless, undisciplined, and emotionally charged, so much so that you hurt yourself more than your opponent when you attacked. And your defensive fighting wasn't much better. You left yourself wide open most of the time, and any blocking you did manage was done with rigid movements that took time and energy and probably, once again, did you more harm than good." He shook his head sadly, and I could see disappointment in his eyes. "You might be able to hold your own in a bar fight with drunk humans, Rose, but you would never survive against a Strigoi."

By the time he'd finished tearing me apart, I'd finally caught my breath. But at that point there was nothing to say, nothing I could say to defend myself. Because he was right. And I hated him for it.

I looked away and blinked back tears. "Get off of me," I whispered. My voice cracked, but we both ignored it as he sighed and released me.

Ever since I'd met Lissa, when we were only five years old, I'd known that I would one day be her guardian. Even before the bond formed, protecting her was all I'd ever wanted to do. I protected her from bullies in elementary and middle school. I protected her from creeps in high school. I protected her from the academy itself, with its listening and watching walls, when I decided we needed to run two years ago. And during those two years of living in human society, I'd protected her then too. She had always come first, and I was proud of my ability to keep her safe and happy.

Dimitri had just decimated…everything. My confidence. My future. My purpose. And he knew it. That had been his intention. His point was officially proven.

The night was loud with chirping crickets, cooing nocturnal birds, rustling leaves, and creaking branches, but the silence between us was still too much. Everything felt too much right then.

I couldn't handle his face. He was looking down at me with a grave expression, like he was a serious teacher giving a hard lesson. Pity also managed to shine through in the shape of his eyes and tilt of his brows, and that, more than his harsh words, made me want to cry. But I couldn't cry because you only pity things that are pitiful, and I didn't want his pity. I didn't want his lessons or his criticism or his advice. I just wanted Lissa and I wanted to be strong and I wanted to get out of this stupid forest and away from this stupid guardian who was making me question and examine things I didn't want to question or examine.

I wanted to run.

I stood calmly and started walking away.

"Rose, I told you we need to stay here."

I waved a hand without turning around. "Nature calls, Comrade," I singsonged, trying to reclaim some of my lost bravado. "You're already a kidnapper and a drugger. Do yourself a favor and give me some privacy so you don't add creeper to your resume."

He didn't say anything more, and I hoped that meant he wasn't following me.

After a minute or so of walking and listening for a second set of crunching footsteps that never came, I broke into a run. I hadn't run, really run, in such a long time, but my legs and arms knew the movements. My chest remembered how to regulate my breathing like a runner, and it wasn't long before I was sprinting. I pushed my legs to carry me faster, enduring and even enjoying the sting of the crisp, fall air in my lungs. An odd surge of exhilaration lit up my nerves as adrenaline coursed through my body. The ability to push myself so hard and fast gave me some of my confidence back.

I can do this. I can get to Lissa and make everything go back to how it was. Just her and me against the world.

Eventually, though, the sting in my lungs grew into a burn. I tried to push through it, but then a sharp pain stabbed at my side. I pressed a hand to the cramp as I stumbled to a stop and reached for a nearby tree for support while I coughed and wheezed for breath.

I wasn't sure how far I'd gone—probably not nearly as far as it felt—but I'd definitely been gone long enough for Dimitri to take notice and come looking for me. If he even cared. After all, I was a nobody who had no hope of becoming a guardian. Lissa was who they'd really been after in Portland. I was just the lowly dhampir the academy wanted to punish for making one of their royals go AWOL.

Yet, somehow I knew Dimitri wasn't the kind of guy who would just let me go. He'd be coming for me. Which meant I had to keep moving.

The cramp had subsided to a dull ache and my breathing had mostly evened out when I started walking again, this time in a different direction. I think I was heading north, but I wasn't certain, and honestly, it didn't matter. When you were lost in the middle of nowhere, one direction was as good as any other.

I hated walking, though. It was such a slow speed. A couple times I tried increasing my pace to a run again, or even a jog, only for the cramp in my side to come back in full, crippling force.

Not only was walking slow, but it also gave me too much space in my head to think. To think about how the temperature kept dropping, and my torn coat was fighting a losing battle against the chill. To think about how large Montana wildernesses could be, and how it was quite possible I'd never find my way out—at least not before I froze to death, or starved to death, or got mauled to death by a cougar or something.

To think about how Dimitri might actually be right.

I thought back to my fight with Fast Meat on the plane, how he'd deftly maneuvered his way out of my hold, quickly got past my defenses, and then kept me pinned so easily. As we'd fought, there'd been a moment, however brief, that I'd regretted missing those two years of guardian training.

Before Lissa and I escaped, I had been at the top of my class. I'd received top marks in weight training and weaponry, and I'd been practically undefeatable in the sparring ring. All of my instructors always praised me and told me how great a guardian I was going to be. Somehow I'd thought that meant I was ready to take on the real world, to be a real guardian. Strigoi were out there, I knew, and of course I'd been told how strong and fast and lethal they were. But up until a couple hours ago, I'd felt invincible. Stronger. Faster. More lethal.

Now I just felt stupid and embarrassed and way, way out of my depth. The years I'd missed hadn't been as optional for me as I'd originally thought. I could see now that they'd been crucial. And there was no way to get that time, that training, back. A capable guardian would be assigned to Lissa when she graduated, and I would most likely have to find work in a blood whore commune.

I grimaced and wrapped my arms around myself. I wasn't sure I could bring myself to be a blood whore. Maybe I could find some kind of service position at the Moroi court. At least then I could be around Lissa and–

I picked up on a rustling sound to my left and stopped walking, my muscles instantly coiled and tense. It hadn't been the all-encompassing rustle of the wind. And it hadn't been a small rustle, either. Whatever made the noise was big. Like, cougar big. Or possibly 6'7" Russian Man big. But Dimitri wouldn't be hiding and rustling in the bushes; he would just come right out and yell at me for running, or criticize my lack of stamina, or tell me to punch him again.

A cougar, then.

My heartbeat started sprinting, begging my legs to get the memo. But my brain—though running off a lack of sleep, a semi-recent endorphin rush from Lissa's bite, and a slightly more recent sedative injection—was at least functioning well enough to tell me I had a better chance of winning the lottery than outrunning a cougar or a wolf or whatever kind of large animal was on the other side of the shaking foliage.

I took a slow step toward the nearest tree, planning to climb it as quietly as possible and chill there until whatever it was moved on. But then the beast emerged, and I found myself wishing it had been a cougar or a wolf. Or even both. Anything but what stood before me, flashing its pointed canines in the moonlight.

"Well, aren't you a pretty little thing," said the Strigoi.

AN: Thank you ever so much for reading this new chapter! Y'all are just the sweetest little angels:) If you wanna, let me know your thoughts in a helpful critique or an encouraging comment.

So, Rose is getting a wakeup call a bit sooner in this timeline than in VA canon. Makes you wonder how that's going to affect the timeline of her character development and maturity in this AU, doesn't it? Food for thought.

Hope you all have a fantastic day!

Much love, Rachel