Chapter 12: Chase
A wolf cry. Two more joined themselves to it.
Lauren turned towards the commoner in a hurry.
-'Moss, you heard, right ?'
-'Yes.'
She cursed. They could not allow themselves to think of it as simple wolfs. Not after what the peasant had said the morning before.
-'Let us keep our head cool.' He said calmly. 'They are still far. We need to think about our options.'
He pointed his bow.
-'We have not trained with those so we cannot rely on our accuracy at all. But if we climb into a tree and shoot from there, we may fend them off. That would have us pinned down though, so I think that we should keep that as a last resort.'
-'Agreed. We should move while we still can.'
They had already increased their pace.
-'You do not pave the way to a shack.' The sister said. 'The end of this road is probably a big structure. As for the state we will find it in, I cannot say.'
-'Plus we do not know the distance that we still have to cross.'
-'Trees are fairly high here. We can climb on one and try to see something.'
-'Sounds dangerous. I have not done that in ages. Do we...'
-'No time. I will give it a shot.'
Moss considered.
-'Fine. But do not push it too far. Before that, we must cover our scent.'
The earth was dry. It was hard to apply it on themself but they did their best. Then they got at the bottom of the highest tree they could find.
-'Once you are up, do not shout unless it is urgent.'
-'Understood.'
The peasant watched her as she ascended. The woods had gone completely quiet. The thought struck him that the predators had not howled to warn them. Wolfs were not dumb. They approached their target silently. Rather the pack had separated itself and a group had sent a signal to others. Different packs could already be converging towards them. That sent a chill down his spine. Hurry, he thought.
Lauren ascended as fast as she could. That wild centenary pine was incomparably harder to climb than the highest trees of the royal gardens. Needles and coarse branches scratched her skin half of the time she pushed herself up. She dared not look below either. Focus. One branch after the other. Her arms and hands grew shaky halfway to the top. That was no good. Still, she was not high enough. Only the neighbouring trees foliage could be seen there. She took a quick rest while crouching on a big branch. Looking at her nicked hands, she remembered the words written on the three mind seals parchment. That calmed her a bit. Her breath got deeper. Her hands steadied.
After some more efforts, she reached a point high enough to have a clear view of the land. Now that the girl looked around, she realised how incredibly high she stood. The whole forest almost fully extended itself under her. She was not there to admire the landscape, however.
Her gaze quickly followed the road and she had a triumphant exclamation. A bunch of roofs emerged not so far from them. Lauren was not good at judging distances but that was pretty close. Without wasting more time, she started to make her way down. Moss dared not disturb her until her two feet hit the ground.
-'There are buildings an hour or so from here.'
-'I say we run.'
-'Go !'
And they did.
Even if fear gave them wings, the commoner displayed an unexpected resistance to the effort. However, a bit less than twenty minutes later, howls shrilled again behind them. The source had been close this time. It quickly got followed by others coming from a different place, farther away. But the direction was not good. It was the left of their front.
-'Oh no.'
They did not need to tell each other that their pursuers dropping all sort of discretion was bad news. Those probably knew that their prey were already running. Also, the speed of bipeds and quadrupeds were not comparable. They were likely to pincer the disciples in a few minutes.
-'How much left you think ?' Moss puffed between to ragged breaths. He was not in a condition to make proper sentences.
-'Too much. They are too fast.'
That was true. The difference between the far away, almost muffled first cries, and the recent and close ones was as day and night. Their pursuers were going incredibly fast.
-'Climb.'
Moss only said that much. They stopped in front of a huge pine and climbed on it. A new howl rang. A hundred meters at most. They got pretty high, stopped and held their breath. Both notched an arrow on their bows. Those were more toys than weapons but it was all they had.
The silence was soon broken by barks and stirred bushes. Then they could see them. A first wolf appeared at the bottom of the tree. This was no wolf in truth. If it was, then real wolfs were puppies. The creature they saw was as big as a tiger. It was shiny black and had clever eyes. Too clever. They both felt like they were being stared at by a fellow human. And what those eyes said was not reassuring either. It was something like:
'So you got up? We will see where that get you.'
Two others soon joined him. One was dark grey and the other black. The wolfs looked at each other and exchanged a few barks. The moment after they all leapt on a lower branch of the tree. It seemed that they could maintain their balance pretty well even in this situation. Both disciples cursed. Things were getting from bad to worse. They pulled the string of their bows. Seeing that, the first black wolf brought his ears back and snarled. At the same moment, another pack of wolfs howled. The present one immediately responded. Moss shot his arrow. His target turned its head away. The arrow uselessly slid on his fur.
-'We need to move!' Lauren said, as she shot hers and missed.
-'How ?!' Moss asked.
He followed her look. Trees were pretty close to each other.
-'Tree to tree ?'
-'Yes. The other pack will be here soon. We must move.'
-'Okay.'
That was a dangerous plan. A jump was almost always needed to go from a tree to another. Should they miss, they would fall and be shredded to pieces. Still. He could not think of a better alternative. The wolfs were steadily progressing towards them. Lauren moved first. She slipped herself on a relevant branch, took a breath and leapt. Her landing was a mess but she managed to steady herself after some struggle.
Moss had no wish to stay and wait for his guests. He took the same jump and would have fallen, had she not grabbed him by the wrist.
Seeing how they got away, the wolfs grew silent. They got back to the ground and started to climb this new tree. The humans immediately crossed to another.
Both parts were now entangled in a battle of time and focus.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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stone