SWNOVELS Chapter 32: Blood
Aspen’s P.O.V:
Rocks crumble over the side of the cliff as I reach down as best I can and grab onto Talon’s collar. I grunt out loudly as I try to pull him up. Talon is unconscious and I would guess he hit his head when he was thrown from the horse. His uniform is barely caught on tree roots breaking through the ground. His uniform is keeping him from toppling down the large cliff to the rocky bottom filled with boulders but it’s also keeping me from pulling him up. I loosen my grip on his shirt collar and try to think of what to do.
I’m not trained for this crap. I barely know any first aid but I’m not strong enough to lift someone as brawny as Talon up. I look around me, both of our horses are waiting near the forest tree eating the weeds and grass popping up. My heart won’t stop thumping as the sound of it seems to fill my ears.
“Think, aspen, think,” I speak to myself trying to figure out what to do. I climb to my feet and run to my horse ripping over my bags for any sign of what I can use to help him. I need some rope or something like it to pull him up. An incredibly stupid and impractical thought hit me. I grab onto my horse pulling off its holster and detaching the leather reins. All I need is something to help me pull him back up. The now long rein spans a couple feet and I hope that’s enough for this to work.
I slide back to the edge of the cliff my heart slowing seeing him still there. I drop the leather rope down in a hoop fashion and hook it under his arms. I then tighten the rein by twisting it up, securing the leather rein around his body. For a second I take in a deep breath, trying to calm my heart rate. I don’t want to be the reason Talon’s killed, I won’t let him die because of me. I finally let out a breath as I hoist up as hard as I can jolting Talon’s body off of the large tree roots. I can feel his body fall slightly pulling me forward before I can catch myself. I stand firmly and take step after step back, my face screwing up in pain from the weight. I close my eyes and keep pulling drowning out everything else out except pulling.
After a few minutes, the weight on the reins lessons and I finally open my eyes terrified he fell from the binding. Look up to the edge of the cliff as the top half of his body sits on the cliff edge the rest hanging freely over the edge. As if a new vigor erupts in my veins I start pulling harder every inch of his body gaining ground on the cliff and pushing me to pull harder. Finally, his legs hit the edge of the cliff and I fall to the ground on my butt. Breathing out heavily. I don’t know what made me do it, the relief or finally having him on the ground but I let out a shower of tears. I swear I probably sound like a child as I sit there in the dirt tears flooding down my face.
I sniffle trying to keep my runny nose from falling. My hands lifted to whip the tears from my face. I look at Talon’s unconscious body. I saved him, I just can’t believe I did that. More and more on this trip, I’ve done more than I have my whole life. Suddenly a fire seems to ignite in my chest, I saved foxglove by simply pushing her out of the way. Now I’ve just saved Talon from falling off the cliff.
This fire in my chest felt like a wild animal as if it’s been caged for years waiting and unsure until finally getting a small taste of freedom. I’ve been told my whole life to sit and listen, to be a good girl and do as I’m told but outside those walls I’m free. The kind of freedom I could never have under the eyes of my father and the director. Wild thoughts begin to enter my mind, all thoughts I know I can’t act on. The thought that maybe I can just leave. At this moment Talon is unconscious, if I leave before he wakes he will just think I was killed. He would go back to the others and tell them I was killed. Just like that, I could be free, It’s not like they will kill me. I have my weapons and I can just live out the rest of my days here. I’ll certainly die, but I would die free.
I stand up, and make my way to Talon, pulling the rein from him and putting it back on the horse. No matter how many times I dream of that freedom I can’t do it. My heart craves that freedom as much as it craves blood to pump yet Talon’s words fill my head. I can’t let the rest of the people on the walls suffer because of my selfishness. So I lift Talon up by his arms and drag him slowly towards his horse. After a couple tries, I’m finally able to get his body to lay across the saddle. After making sure his body is secure on his horse I climb onto my horse, holding his horse’s reins. I slowly make my way back into the forest. I sit quietly as I make my way through trees, and try to listen for running water. Pulling the map Talon had before out of my pocket and look over it again. An inch from the corner of the map I find what looks like the cliff we were just at.
Harrison had taught me a little bit about how to read the maps but I’m still terrible at it. I look up at the sky, the already diminished light from the tree tops is hard enough but it’s already growing darker by the hour. I take in a deep breath and try to focus. I follow the cliff to the nearest river. To the left of us sits a larger river heading right up to the corner and off the map. Since it’s the only river I see on the map I’ll take it as the only way. I put the map down and pull my horse slightly to the left, pushing my horse’s sides to get us moving.
For an hour I ride like this. Every ten minutes looking at the map hoping to find another sign of where I may be but pretty soon the map is no help. I tuck it away in my pants pocket and continue riding. I turn back around to check on Talon who still lays over his horse unconscious. As I ride I can’t help but start to hate the silence. I’ve never been so alone, even now I had Talon but I’ve never been as alone as I am now. I can feel my nerves grow tense so I do something that others would call crazy... I start talking to myself. Or maybe to the unconscious Talon, maybe even the forsaken roaming around me.
“You wouldn’t believe this if you were awake Talon, but this is the most I’ve been alone in years.” I start to ponder as I ride.
“In Fact, most of my time was spent in white rooms with machines attached to me.” I laugh a little and look back to see him still out.
" I know what your thinking, Why would I be hooked up to machines? Well, it’s because I have the crappiest luck in the world.” I laugh out making myself laugh. I just continue talking like that as I ride, until finally, it becomes too dark to see properly. I find an area with fewer trees and bushes. Climbing from my horse I look around, the area is mostly short grass and oak tree’s without many bushes. I tie up my horse and grab Talon’s waist pulling him to the ground, slightly dropping him.
“Oh, sorry,” I mutter out to his sleeping body. I pull him to a tree sitting him up on it. I then tie up his horse and get to work setting up a makeshift camp. Within fifteen minutes the dim forest was dark and I had both out bed roll’s on the ground. A small fire in the middle of the camp. I wouldn’t have a fire but something told me that Talon would get too cold and I wanted him to stay warm. I lay him on his bed roll and wet a small cloth placing it on his forehead. After looking over him he doesn’t seem to have any injuries except for the many bruises he will have in the morning.
I sit down on my thin bedroll and pull off my top shirt allowing the cool forest air to kiss my skin as I pull up my thin undershirt sleeves. I lean against a tree my eyes watching Talon with my weapon. For an hour in the dark, I sit quietly watching over us in the night. When Talon’s body bursts up as he scrambles around. I jump up grabbing his large arms and trying to get him to realize he’s okay.
“Talon! Talon! it’s okay it’s me, Aspen.” I yell as he slowly realizes where he is. His chest rises and falls quickly as he looks around him taking in the small camp and my darkened feature.
“Aspen? What happened?” He finally asks. I lean back onto my knees giving him a strong smile.
“A forsaken surprised us, you fell off your horse.” I try to simplify. I didn’t want to tell him that he was an inch from certain death.
“Where are we?” He asks sitting up more steadily.
“I got you on your horse and we are maybe a few miles from the river.” I squint trying to approximate the distance. He leans forward looking over me.
“Did you get hurt?” I shake my head. Just then I hear our right movement and I lift my bow ready to shoot my arrow. I wait for a moment for something to jump but when nothing does I start to speak.
“I think it was just an ani-” I don’t finish when a forsaken tackle on top of me as we tumble to the ground. This one’s small as quick as its pus-covered body slides over me. In a surprise, my bow is knocked out of my hands as we shuffle around. I try to throw the thing off but instead, it launches down sinking its jaws into my right arm and I scream out as I feel talon grabbing at the forsaken trying to pull it away. The forsaken tear’s at my arm digging its teeth deeper into my muscle. Suddenly blood spray’s over me as Talon sinks his long sword into the back of its head. The forsaken blood sprays over my face and hair as the pressure of its moving body stops. I grunt out and throw the little demon off of me. I sit up and look at my wound, my shirt is torn as my almost black blood spills out soaking the rest of my sleeve. I look up to see Talon frozen. His face is pale as he stares at me.
“You’re infected.” As he lifts his sword...