Cold Light

CHAPTER 6 Forest

Kateryna trudged along the path in the sunlit forest, following the boy. She had her emerald ball gown lifted to her ankles to prevent her from tripping on it, again.

Groaning inwardly at her sore arms, she wondered how just wearing a dress could cause so much trouble.

First, she tripped on it and and scraped her hands, which then healed immediately, revealing that she was not a human. Then she tripped on it again, this time in the angelblood dimension instead of the demon dimension, stepping through thin air and plunged into the lake. If that wasn't bad enough, the ball gown weighed her down and made her sink to the depth of the lake, and even if she ended up getting the blessing of water, or whatever the boy called it, she did not appreciate drowning. Now she had to walk through the seemingly endless forest, lifting her dress up so something unfortunate doesn't happen again, like maybe stepping on the hem and faceplanting the ground.

First world problems. She deadpanned in her thoughts.

"Hey insert-your-name-here, where are we going?" She called out to the boy, who was quite a bit ahead of her, well, far enough that she had to yell.

He looked back and waited for her to catch up. "To the academy, we need to tell the headmistress. She can explain everything later." He raised an eyebrow when she stopped near him and rested her hands on her knees, catching her breath. "Insert-your-name-here?"

She looked up at him, breathing heavily. "Well, I don't know your name, and I'm kind of sick of calling you 'the boy', in my head."

The ends of his lips quirked up. "My name is Raiden, and you'll know my last name soon, no doubt."

Before Kateryna could say anything, when she straightened her back, Raiden's eyes focused on a point behind her. "Watch out!"

Everything seemed to slow down as she turned around. An arrow was zooming towards her. Her eyes widened before she threw her arms up and squeezed her eyes shut.

When nothing hit her, she opened her eyes to see the arrow suspended in air in front of her. She blinked when the shaft glittered. She looked closely at the arrow and realized it was coated in ice, a jagged branch of the crystalline solid sprouting from the ground to stop the arrow.

She stared and looked around at Raiden questioningly, but he shook his head, it wasn't him.

She turned her gaze back at the arrow, frozen in space, and she saw a girl walk out from behind a tree. She was staring at the arrow as well.

Kateryna winced at a sudden pain in her head. Suddenly, the ice melted into misting water that trickled into the ground and the arrow resumed its flight. Kateryna barely had enough time to duck, or rather, collapse, before the arrow hit a tree behind her with a thud.

Kateryna heard hurried footsteps, and she looked up groggily. She was sitting against the tree, underneath the arrow, which was embedded deep into the wood. Raiden and a girl, about Kateryna's age, with a bow and a sheath of arrows slung across her back stood before her.

"Are you alright? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to shoot at you, I swear! It's just that, I heard voices, and, and..." The girl looked so guilty, Kateryna couldn't help but smile.

The girl had her long dirty-blond hair in a braid across one shoulder, and was wearing a uniform, similar to Raiden's, with a hunter's cape that made her seem to blend in with the forest. Kateryna felt like Katniss Everdeen was in front of her.

Raiden scoffed irritatedly. "Stop your rambling, Osprey."

Kateryna shot him a piercing glare, and smiled at the girl. "I'm fine, no harm done. It was a nice shot."