When A Life Is Lost (NaNoWriMo 2013)

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Ania released her hold on the handle of the knife quickly, leaving the man to collapse to the ground, still clutching the blade that was imbedded in his upper leg.

Ania looked around quickly; there was no-one, nothing in sight, save for the few animals which darted in and out of the tall bushes which bordered the road. If she looked along the road, where it sloped into a hill, she could see the tops of the spires of Geramina Castle, poking out above the tops of the bushes.

She had to get out of here, and quickly.

She pulled her jacket off, wrapping it around one arm for safe keeping. She slowly extended her wings and leapt up into the air. They beat the air slowly, causing dust to rise up from the road; she fought the urge to cough. Disorientated, she stopped in the air for a moment, before climbing slower than before. Her vision impaired, she didn’t want to rise and crash into one of the bushes.

As she rose, she heard the sound of a door opening – the other man had evidently come out of the truck. He was obviously worried by the lack of sound, and the fact that his friend had not returned. As the dust cleared, he ran around the side and saw the man on the ground, before looking up at Ania. He seemed shocked for a moment, before pulling out a small pistol. Ania rose sharply, but not before he shot a bullet. The bullet tore through the sky, grazing the side of her arm. It missed her wing, but she was suddenly in excruciating pain. The bullet had gone through her arm – that much she could tell – and the blood was coating her white wing feathers a deep red.

She kicked into the air, giving herself the momentum needed to dive over the bushes. She had escaped, but only for now. She continued to fly for several minutes – far enough away so that it would take the man at least an hour to get to her. It was plenty of time to bind the wound.

She had to land. She scanned the ground, deciding to fly a little further away. The overgrown shrubbery didn’t seem like a good place to land. After a while, she found a clearing which looked good enough. She flew down as carefully as she could, but she still landed clumsily, jarring her already injured arm. Ania sat down on the soft, wet grass and examined the wound. Her sleeve had been dyed red, and it hurt to even pull the fabric from the wound. She used some water from a nearby stream to wet the fabric, and slowly peeled the sleeve away, ripping it off the seam in the process. The injury was shallow, but bleeding a lot. She would have healed it, but she no longer had the energy for it. Instead, she took the soaked sleeve and ripped it into a strip.

Wincing, Ania bound the wound with it. It wasn’t the best material, but it would do the job for now; or at least until she had the energy to heal it.

She flew up again, slower this time, in order to not injure her arm further, and flew in the same direction as before. She didn’t know where she wanted to go – away from the van seemed a good bet. Geramina was close to where she was – she had seen the castle from where the van was – so she tried to aim for where she thought it was, although she had not seen a full map of Gevola for a few years.

She flew for hours. She watched the moon come down, and the sun come up before she even caught sight of a town. When she did, she noticed the high walls and the guard towers.