Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 140
140
It started with the sound. The roar of the burning tree coming down on top of them. Thick, black branches cloaked in flame slammed into her back, but before she met the ground, before she even allowed herself to feel the pain, she pulled Tio in close, hugging him to her body and shielding him as best she could.
He stared back at her, his tear-streaked face frozen in time as burning leaves blew around his head and twigs snapped against the ground.
And just like that, the spell was broken. The infinite second was over.
The blunt force of the branches slamming into her from behind was echoed a moment later by the ground rushing up to meet her face. Together they converged into a blinding flash of pain from both sides. Broken branches scraped along the small of her back, shredding her dress and carving a searing line of blood through the flesh beneath. Even more broke against her shoulder blades, gouging divots out of her body. The pain was white hot, explosive. Sharp splinters of wood flared open on impact, ripping through the skin. Adding insult to injury, a flurry of whiplike branches slapped her across the face as the full weight of the tree settled down. The pressure was unbelievable, pinning her in place, so heavy she was sure it would snap her in two.
And then, with one final splintering groan and whisper of leaves, the tree lay still. Layla slowly opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was Tio staring back at her, his mouth slightly open and his ears flattened against his head. "Layla-Kai?"
"Hey, cutie," she said, dearly hoping her voice wouldn't betray how terrified she was. She could already feel him shivering like crazy, and she didn't want to scare him any further. "Are you okay?"
He nodded slowly, his bottom lip trembling. "Are... Are you...?"
Even the tiniest movement sent waves of pain ripping through her back, but she wasn't about to tell him that. "Right as rain, little guy. No worries."
But then she became aware of something else. Something even more frightening than the pain.
The building heat.
Layla turned her head as far as she could manage, pushing against a web of smoking twigs. Through the mishmash pattern of sharp, broken lines, she was able to see the flames eating their way through the carcass of this fallen behemoth. Burning leaves and bits of bark were breaking off and landing all around them in a rain of fire. She could smell her dress burning, and something else as well. Something bitter and cloying.
It was the stench of her own fur, crackling in the heat.
Without warning, a burning tree branch broke free above her head and came tumbling down, snagging on other branches along the way. Caught like two fish in a net, she hugged Tio close and tensed up as bits and pieces of burning twigs came raining down, followed immediately after by a chunk of wood as big as her bedside table. It crashed down mere inches from her head, enveloping them both in a cloud of smoke that reeked of green leaves and boiling tree sap. Tio screamed and clutched at her clothes, and to be perfectly honest, she did more than her fair share of screaming, too.
"Come on, Tio! We're getting the hell out of here!" Layla began to push herself off the ground as if performing a push up. The blanket of needle-sharp twigs dug into her back, snapping and cracking, but the thought of all those encroaching flames was incentive enough for her to ignore the pain for now. She didn't care if she ended up turning herself into a pincushion so long as they could get out of this damnable prison of interlocked branches before roasting to death.
Tio scrambled out from underneath her, coughing and spluttering, then turned around to help, but one look at the state of her back was enough to make him choke back a scream.
"Layla-Kai, you're hurt!"
"It's nothing, Tio, honest."
"I'm sorry, Layla-Kai! I'm so, so sorry!"
"It's not your fault."
"It is! It is!"
The way his little face just crumbled into abject misery made Layla want to drop everything and give him a big old hug right then and there, a real bone breaker. But at the same time, the look on his face made her really, really grateful for the fact that she couldn't see her own back right now. Her imagination, fuelled by the sticky hot lines dribbling down her spine, was doing well enough on its own.
Tio took her by the hand and began to pull, puffing and wheezing as his feet scraped bare patches through the carpet of pine needles. Layla bit down on her tongue and, through some miraculous force of will she never knew she had, was able to keep from screaming as thousands of scratchy, splintery fingers dragged their hooked nails across her back.
With one last tug, she finally broke free and was able to get up on one knee, panting and heaving as flaming bits of detritus floated down from above.
She allowed herself to look back only once, and the feeling that stole over her as she stared, blank-eyed, at the dead and burning tree was probably the same nauseous, yet numb sensation that followed everyone who had escaped death by literal inches, more thanks to sheer, dumb luck than any kind of physical prowess or sharp thinking. Her semi-suicidal dive had saved them from getting crushed into bloody jam by the trunk (just barely) but there were branches sticking out of that thing twice as thick as her legs, and a good number of them had plunged into the earth like plough blades, digging trenches longer than her entire body. Any one of those could have turned her and Tio into a living meat skewer, and just the thought of them like that, impaled and bleeding but somehow still alive, their limbs twitching like a pair of bugs on a toothpick, was enough to make her want to dry heave, an indulgence she just barely held in check for fear out of how much such a convulsion would hurt her screaming back muscles.
"Thank you, Tio," Layla said, stealthily wiping the tears out of the corners of her eyes. "Now come on, let's get out of here."
She took him by the hand and together they began to push their way through the net of evergreen leaves. The crackling of burning wood was getting louder by the second. Layla could feel the heat baking into her body, seeking out all the scratches and bruises and flowing inside like molten iron. She wanted to just cover her face and charge right out of this burning green hellhole, but the branches were so thick, and the light of the fire was turning the smoke into a hazy, creamy soup, making it even harder to see. And there was Tio to consider, holding her hand with such panicky tightness, sniffling back his tears, trying so hard to be brave. He was just a kid, a kid who should be safe at home right now, wrapped up nice and warm, but instead was out here in the middle of a battlefield, holding the hand of a perfect stranger, scared to death that his own people might come and tear him to pieces just for not being as bloodthirsty as they were. It was up to her to keep him safe, to take care of him, because no one else would.
And because he makes it oh so difficult to think about Dan, right?
Layla gave her head a brief shake and snapped a burning clump of leaves out of their way.
Yup, best to just keep your mind occupied. Wouldn't want to start thinking about Kiana, either, would you?
She stomped down on a branch and helped Tio clamber over it.
Make way for Layla! Saint of the valley! Line up your cripples, your sick and weary, your lost, crying children! There's no charity case too big or too small for this vixen!
Shut up.
Because the more miserable you are, the merrier she'll be! Give her enough cuts to stitch and snotty noses to wipe and she might forget all about how her crush disappeared into the flames!
Shut up!
Give her enough orphans to look after and she might even forget all about how her sister has gone missing and is probably -
SHUT UP!! SHUT UP!! JUST SHUT THE HELL -
More earth-shuddering cracks suddenly tore through the night, one after the other, effectively shoving those poisonous thoughts away. It was the sound of wood snapping and breaking. The low groaning of massive trees falling to the earth.
"Get out of the way!" someone shouted. "Go!"
Layla squeezed Tio's shoulder, holding him back. He looked at her inquisitively, and nodded when she raised a finger to her lips. As expected, he was remarkably quick on the uptake, and only watched as she pushed some of the branches out of the way, just enough for them to peer through the gaps in the leaves. She knew they couldn't stay in here for very long, not with the fire steadily growing at their backs, but she didn't want to go running willy-nilly out into the middle of whatever the hell was going on out there. And a good thing she didn't, because through the tangled mess of blackened branches she saw the defenders diving out of the way, saw the trees exploding into plumes of fire across the ground on impact. Saw -
By the gods...
Wolves appeared on the other side, leering through the smoke, their teeth bared, and then, like a swarm of ants pouring through a break in an anthill, they stormed into the ring, clambering over the burning tree, heedless of the flames licking at their legs.
"They're coming through!" one of the defender Wolves shouted, wildly gesturing towards the break. "Reform the line! Reform the -"
Two Wolves leapt off the burning tree, their crude pants and vests streaming fire, and crashed right into the hapless defender, pulling him down to the ground.
Layla covered Tio's eyes out of pure motherly instinct, but was unable to look away herself. She saw everything. She saw them bite down on his flailing limbs, one on his arm and one on his leg, saw them rear back, saw them shake their heads from side to side, saw the blood flying from their mouths in a crimson spray. Almost as bad were the sounds: wet, gargling screams and vicious growls.
"Oh dear gods..." Layla whispered, hugging Tio close. She could feel the panicky tightness in his trembling arms and the sheer desperation with which he was burying his face against her chest, trying to drown out the horrors of this night.
More of them were coming in, running along the blazing trunks before leaping off and scattering in all directions, trailing smoke and howling to the sky. They hadn't been able to get through the defensive ring on their own, and neither had they been able to burn their victims out. This was the only logical step left. To break right through it. To scatter the defenders. To punch as many holes in the defence as they could and bleed right into their midst, like a poisoned arrow piercing flesh and delivering its deadly payload directly into the bloodstream.
"No! What are you doing!? Credah, it's me! It's meeee!"
"Backroller! Traitor!"
"Nooo!!"
Layla looked away, but she couldn't block out the now familiar sound of jaws slamming shut on flesh or the resulting screams of pain.
A horde of Wolves came rushing by, barely a dozen strides from their hiding place. To Layla, looking at them through a web of scorched branches, they were mere flashes of colour in the night; glimpses of faces, bared teeth and shifting eyes.
For one insanely naïve, hopeful moment, she thought of screaming for help, but then she saw the blood dripping down their claws, and understood.
How was she to know if these Wolves were friend or foe? In this battle of strangers fighting strangers, how was she to tell the sane from the insane?
One of them skidded to a sudden stop. "Hey, hold up!"
"What is it?"
"You smell that?"
There were at least five of them, from what Layla could see. One had his nose in the air and another was step-step-stepping around in small, deliberate circles, flaring his nostrils. The rest stood watch, their ears perked and their fangs bared.
Layla tried to keep perfectly still, but the pain kept washing through her body in black waves, and the heat was getting more intense, too.
"Layla-Kai..." Tio whispered, and when she looked down, he was holding out his palms, covered in blood. Her blood. The look on his face said it was already too late, that there was nothing they could do.
And he was right.
The closest of the Wolves shot forward, ropes of drool swinging from his jaws. He attacked the fallen tree like an animal, ripping at the leaves with his claws. "Is that a Fox I smell?" he growled. "Damn Foxes trying to hide from me!?"
Tio looked up at her, tears streaming down his sweet, innocent little face, and Layla did the only thing she could. She gave him one last squeeze, put her finger to her lips, then pushed him back as hard as she could, shoving him through a smoking tangle of scorched branches and leaves. For one moment, before he disappeared completely, she saw him looking back at her, his dark brown eyes filled with hurt and betrayal, and understood exactly what Dan must have felt like. And suddenly, he was gone, swallowed up by the same tree that had nearly taken their lives, the same tree she could only pray would protect him now.
Please stay quiet, Tio... she thought, swiping the branches aside and rushing out into the cold, night air. I'm sorry...
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