Helen woke up on a horse, Richard’s arm around her waist. Her mind was foggy and she thought she felt him shaking, but that might just be the horse.
A horse.
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Helen felt the memory come back to her again, the night when she was little, being carried by someone on a horse. Thump thump, thump thump.
She fell from the horse, landing hard on the ground, and cried. “Where is she?”
“Leave her! She’s no longer our problem.”
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Helen took in a shaky breath as the memory faded away once again, glad that she wasn’t abandoned again as she had been years ago.
Who had taken her? Helen pondered, it wasn’t her father, because her father didn’t have a beard and didn’t sound like the man in the memory. But the voice sounded familiar…
“You’re awake,” Helen heard Richard say, holding her hand for a moment, letting her know he was there.
“What… What happened?” Helen could only remember getting on the horse, but nothing after that.
Helen heard Richard sniff. “I’ll…tell you later.”
Helen wasn’t sure what he meant, but she decided not to push it.
They traveled for a while, and Helen tried hard to hide the pain that hit her side every time the horse galloped. She didn’t want to complain, though, and even as the horse jumped over a fallen tree, Helen bit her tongue as a scream formed in her throat.
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They traveled for a while, running this way and that until Helen saw something out of the corner of her eye.
“Richard, stop!” she said to him, and Richard pulled the horse to a halt.
“What? What is it? Are they following us?” Richard looked around, but there were neither of them there.
“Help me off,” Helen asked Richard, even though each step was a pain.
Helen led Richard about twenty feet behind them, then looked into the woods. “Hello?” Helen called.
“What are you doing?” Richard hissed, “There could be soldiers waiting-” that was when Richard stopped and gasped.
Helen and Richard looked and they saw two people walking towards them, a boy and a girl.
“Oh my God,” Richard said softly, as he realized who it was.
“Richard? Helen? Is that you?” Luke called out as they ran to Richard and Helen.
Richard leftt Helen to stand as he ran to Luke and Skylar, smiling and laughing as he said, “We found you! Oh my God, we found you!”
Skylar seemed to look at Helen’s side and rushed forward. “What happened?” she asked, inspecting the wound. “Wait, don’t tell me. That looks bad. I have just the thing for it.” Skylar reached into her pack, pulling out a canteen.
“Water?” Richard asked, suspicious.
“Just give me a second, Richard.” Skylar glared at Richard, then helped Helen take her bandages off. Obviously, their time apart had done nothing to help the way they acted around each other.
Skylar held the canteen over Helen’s chest and began to pour the water over it. It was cold, but that wasn’t what surprised Helen. She gasped as the blood washed away, and her stab wound began to close itself up until there was nothing left but a scar.
“What…how did you-” Richard tried asking, but Luke said, “It’s complicated. Just, try not to think too hard about it.”
Helen felt the scar and didn’t feel any pain at all. “It’s completely healed, except for the scar. How…”
“Again, try not to think too hard about it.” Luke smiled, running a hand through his hair.
“So where’s Peter and Alice?” Helen asked.
They heard a screeching cry above, and saw a giant eagle tumble out of the sky, with 3 figures on it.
“What the-” Richard started.
“Come on!” Luke started to run in the direction of the fallen eagle...
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