Running Red

Chapter 8 - Senrid Cries

Finally uploaded.I hate taking this long, but sometimes life just dominates. I hope this chapter answers a few questions that I haven't let out yet. Hope you enjoy it! Also, thanks to all my readers for sticking with me this far. Means a lot! -FO97

The light outside was astronomical. I squinted into the sun that was surprisingly high in the sky. The sun was not warm. There was a bitter chill in the air that made me shiver in my bare feet. I wrapped my arms around my chest.

I was in a clearing. The thick trees of Anultic made a ring of about one hundred yards. The area was dotted with tattered tents that seemed as if they may have been white once, but most were now a murky brownish grey. Tiny tendrils of smoke curled up from what must have been fires to ward off the chill. It was hauntingly quiet.

Still, the camp was anything but empty. People roamed all around. Some carried baskets or buckets or wood. Others just walked and some looked dazed and miserable. Almost none of them wore shoes. Many of them stared at me, making me feel uncomfortable. Some gave me sympathetic smiles, but the majority pointedly ignored my presence. I rubbed my shoulders in hopes of increasing my warmth, but the shirt was thin and too big and did little to ward off the chill.

I felt wrong. Cold and exhausted and sore. My skin felt raw as if I had scraped sand on it. I had a dull aching pain in my left knee, I found, when I was standing. My stomach and throat both burned from the acid (and blood) that I spewed on the ground.

I was lost and confused and hurting.

I was lonely.

I missed my brother.

I looked around the camp, hoping to see Cynd and ask him for directions, but I knew that he was probably already gone.

“Cynd told me that you were awake.” It was probably my frayed nerves that caused me to jump the way that I did.

A person was standing next to me. He was shorter than me by a couple of inches and at least a couple of years my senior. His hair was jet black and cut short, but it looked like he might have done it himself because it was rather uneven in places. His clothes were a pair of pants and a shirt that was so big on him that the neck exposed a large amount of his right shoulder. He would not meet my eyes, but kept them staring at the ground. I did notice that his skin was the bronze of someone who was not native to Anultic. He was probably from the northern part of the country where there was more sun and fewer trees.

“Who are you?” I asked.

He glanced at me, revealing muddy brown eyes, and looked back down at his shoeless feet. “Senrid. Are you. . .well?” He asked this hesitantly.

“I believe so.”

“Are you in any pain?” he asked.

I considered a lie, but discarded it for the truth. “Yes. Some.”

His eyes looked pained as I admitted this and he shifted uncomfortably on his feet.

“I am so sorry!” he blurted. “Truly! It was never my intention to. . .to hurt anyone! Cynd was watching me. I thought that I could keep control. I thought that I could handle. . .handle the. . . change.” Tears were spilling gently from his eyes. I was a little shocked to see him like that.

“Wha-. . .what?” I replied stupidly.

“I bit you. It was my fault. Cynd barely held me off. I would’ve. . .killed you.”

Something fell in the pit of my stomach and I was forced to look at the boy differently. He was the one? He looked remarkably normal. I could see myself delivering a message for him back in the city. I could see him in the marketplace, haggling for bread. I could see him eating with his friends during the Ides of October.