The Crown Of Fire - Book 1 of The Stormrider Chronicles

Her ropes had broken hours earlier. But she was waiting for the right time. All that needed to happen was for the goblin to leave and the hyena to fall asleep.

That way she could just stand up and slip away. But the problem was that they weren’t leaving. They weren’t to fall asleep. They kept on and on and on. It was neverending, really.

But then, Kiard stopped in his mocks. And he looked at the ropes on the tree. She supposed that they’d sagged more. “Oi! We’ve got a runner!”

He unsheathed his knife and at the last second, Aria ducked and rolled out of the way. She got to her feet as fast as she could.

There were pursuers coming left, right, and center. Her heart hammered in her chest and there was a rush of new energy flowing through her veins. She could hear her sister’s angered shouts from the back of the camp.

She evaded her pursuers into the forest. She’d lost track of time, she kept running and running. They’d lost her farther back, but they hadn’t given up yet. She could hear the hyenas and their cackles. The orcs and their grunting. And the goblins and their creepy little noises.

When she stopped, it was only because of a ledge. Her heart was beating faster than before. And suddenly as she heard shouts, she just jumped and let herself slide down to the bottom of the ledge. But of course that slide turned to a roll as she went down the hill.

She hit rocks, rolled through bushes, and had the branches scratch her. But as soon as she hit the bottom she got back to her feet, her hands still bound together.

She kept running. It was all she thought of. One foot in front of the other. She stumbled through the water in the stream that got deeper and deeper as she went.

“There she is!” Gha’roud shouted. Arrows landed in the water next to her, and other weapons as well. She rushed forward out of the water, hoping to get away from what seemed like certain death.

She thought of all the others. All the other people that her sister had done this to. All the other people who ran, all the other people who fought back.

All the other people who died.

She heard the most vicious growling sound. And pain shot up through her leg. She let out a cry of pain. Somehow, her head managed to hurt. Like a headache. She kicked against the hyena until its jaws let loose but she didn’t stop kicking, it just kept them at bay. Just.

The pain got worse and worse. Her muscles were already weak from hunger, thirst, and exhaustion. By all rights, she should’ve been dead. All the odds called for it.

Gha’roud snapped at her face viciously. He was held back by the rope that bound her hands together. With every snap, he got closer and closer to her face as her arms got weaker. She could almost feel the blood coming out of the wound.

She didn’t fear death. It wasn’t a thing she would welcome, but it was a thing she would accept if it was her time.

But it wasn’t.

This was her sister’s way of maintaining control. This was her sister’s way of trying to rule Aria’s life. This was Seraphina telling the little girl she remembers that she loves her. Twisted as it was, that was how Seraphina showed her love.

She kept fighting Gha’roud. She fought all of them off. This was why she hated them so much. Their vicious appetite, and persistence.

Her body was failing her though. She was slower than normal. And they knew it. If she’d had food, water, and rest, they never would’ve caught up to her. She would’ve vanished like a ghost. But as it’s known, she wasn’t. She hadn’t had food in a week. She hadn’t had water in five days. And she hadn’t slept for nearly fifteen days.

And she knew what that meant.

Hallucinations. Vision Impairment. Hearing Impairment. Extreme fatigue. Decreased hand-eye coordination. It means that her ability to make decisions and survive will be severely weakened. It means that she suffers from tremors which in turn make her weak against the beasts that surrounded her.

And the symptoms were bound to get worse. As she was dehydrated and hungry.

Gha’roud was going to win.

There was no doubt in her mind, as much as she could rely on it.

Gha’roud was going to win. He would rip her face apart. And then he and the rest of the hyenas would eat her alive. And with Gha’roud’s victory would come Seraphina.

Seraphina would relish in the fact that she had destroyed the sister who betrayed her. And she would relish in her destruction of Omdrus’s army.

All of that came through her mind. Defeat was all that was in her mind really.

Defeat.

Defeat.

Defeat.

Defeat.

She has been broke before. But she’s never been broken. And she was ashamed to think that she didn’t break the way she thought she would. She was ashamed to think that Seraphina’s punishments had worked. To her, that was the greatest shame.

Letting the evil win.

Defeat.

Defeat.

Defeat.

All of this defeat, all these factors, were all that was in her mind as she fought the hyena off.

And it remained that way until a sword plunged through the beast that let out a whine as its last word.