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"Let's have a toast. To the incompetence of our enemies."
― Holly Black
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Run,
I beg my legs to run through the ache, spreading up my thighs, burning in my throat, soot clinging to my white stays, scraping it down my lungs, setting them ablaze with each breath and pant my body screams for.
Run, run through the screams, run through the pain, through our mother's blood soaking our feet.
Run
Better you die from the currents and waves than from their blades.
The forest leaves light with flames igniting the night sky and burning the grass, igniting homes and families in their wake.
Cyra keeps up with me as we push past the dense fog covering the trees and stones scattered across the mossy floor.
I hear them race after us, one step faster than the next, daggers in hand for their next kill. stalking closer through the dense forest
Before this, before the slaughter. There was one small lake, with small rocks acting as a bridge to get across. The kids around Cyras age knew better than to skip across the stones; one misstep could be their last.
It was the heavy currents that pounded the wondering kids against the rocks and drifted down the stream.
A slim and cowardly ticket to safety
"This way," I whispered to Cyra as I pulled her closer, hiding behind the tree as the three walked closer, listening to our very breaths.
She pushes herself against my chest, shivering against me in childlike fear, her drenched hair hiding her face. "Are we almost there...?" She whispers under her breath, her voice shaky and uneven.
I pause
Even in Aspye, the journey to any other capital would be almost impossible—we would be hunted until we reach the next nearby kingdom or the next soldier.
I peek around the tree. The now drenched and foggy forest is barren and unmoving. I sigh carefully, looking back down at her. "We'll make it out of here, okay? Just a few more minutes." I say, forcing a smile onto my face as I brush her hair out of her blood-stained face.
I don't know how long we walked, but long enough for the distant screams to fade into darkness, the fire now a distant memory for the persistent rain the blood on a white stays to harden and crust away onto the dirt of a new land, a new shore.
The fables and tales were as horrible as they described.
The wild currents slam against the slab of the cracked and sharp river stones.
I look over my shoulder quickly before turning back to Cyra.
"Look. over that little river," I say, kneeling down to her height, my stomach contracting and bubbling with hunger. "If we get over there, we can rest just a little bit, okay? Just be strong for me you won't fall, just look ahead."
Cyra hesitates, her body moving in an almost zombie-like state as she climbs onto the first rock, moving steadily to the second before the slab shifts against her feet, knocking her onto her scraped knees.
She clings to the mossy green rock, climbing across and dragging herself to the shore, her petticoat scraping against the rock as the waves crash into her.
Until she finally makes it across
I hold my breath as I carefully step onto the first stop, nausea bubbling up my throat as it wobbles under my weight, knocking me onto my knees and fear building in my chest.
I crawled onto the next rock.
My gaze flickering to the deep, rocky waters below
Don't look down; don't look down; don't look down.
I look up across the river to Cyra. My eyes are almost desperate.
But her eyes only widen as she stares back at me in terror.
He grabs my hair, pulling me against him and tugging me back onto the sandy shores before placing the rusted dagger in my throat, the air knocked out of my lungs.
I am going to die today.
"Run!" I screamed, my voice almost strangled.
I jammed my elbow in his chest in desperation, but he only laughed, the sound deep and mocking as he leaned closer, pressing the sharp tip of his dagger to the side of my neck so very painfully slowly, feeling my pulse pound against the iron. "Hold still," he whispers.
He presses the tip slowly into my neck, panic-hazing my vision as my hand reaches into the sand, desperately digging and searching through the sand.
My fingertips dig into the sharp sand as I snatch a small rock in my hand.
before bashing it in his face over and over, panting and gasping for air as his blood drips over my hands.
He curses out, his blood-stained dagger dropping from his grasp.
I limp onto the first rock as it shifts unsteadily in the water.
I will not die today.
I slipped, grabbing at the edge of the second rock and slashing my hand against the stone. As he swings his jagged knife slicing into my thin petticoat
I push onto the next rock, gripping it tightly as it peels my skin.
I will not die today.
He throws his dagger into my hand, sliding off the gaged rock.
Pain radiates from the arm as I scream out, blood gushing and pushing out of my palm. The water and rock painted red as my head pounds rocks, taking over my vision.
Until the rock slips
I cling to it, and my eyes take to the shore. He points the bow to my head and releases it.
I will not die today.
And I fall under the currents.
....
I gasp as my head goes above the water pushed down the stream as I fight against the currents, bows soaring into the water as the current forces me under as I fight for air, the houses torn apart and my people in chains until
Until I see her
My eyes train on Cyra.
My Cyra-
As they put a dagger into her throat and sliced
Red is pouring at her feet as he falls to the floor, fire consuming her for the first and last time.
And for the first time
I scream
Until my body slams against the boulders
Taking away the screams, taking away the blood, taking away the pain
Until all there is blue and black.
Black
And b lu e
B
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