Eternal Darkness (The Cimmerian Cycle #1)

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Kiayani’s ankle caught on a piece of rope and she fell forward onto the dirt, bruising herself on the hard roots that wove across the forest floor. She cried out in pain as her head struck a particularly nasty root. She heard something snap, and before she knew it she was hanging upside down from a length of rope which was looped over a tree branch. Her pack fell onto the ground. Sheer exhaustion took over her and tears leaked from her eyes. She was cold, tired and stuck hanging from a tree in the middle of a forest. Her pampered life as a nobleman’s daughter had in no way prepared her for this. The blood rushing to her head was very painful and she could already feel her foot going numb.

Too soon she felt the tears stopping, she had nothing left and was all dried out. In the absence of tears she began to think. She thought about how she could be sitting in that carriage reading comfortably, and even marriage seemed preferable at this point. Sometime later she was aroused from her paranoia when she heard what sounded a lot like footsteps. She felt so helpless hanging there; wild beasts could walk past at any moment and she would be powerless if they decided to attack. She strained her ears but did not hear the footsteps again. Slowly the fear ebbed away again.

Despite how uncomfortable she was, Kiayani managed to get some rest. No sooner than she had begun to doze however, a bright beam of light flashed across her face.

“Look what I found guys!” An excited voice rang through the forest.

Kiayani came back to full consciousness with a start and squinted at the intense light that was shining in her eyes. She couldn’t see anything beyond the blinding beam but could hear the sounds of multiple people approaching.  They came to a stop at once and there was a wolf whistle. Kiayani wanted to raise her arms to shield her eyes so that she might see, but they felt heavy and numb, refusing to move up.

“There is a girl in our trap,” said the voice.

“I can see that,” said another in a sarcastic tone.

She suddenly became aware that she was being approached by a group of men and she was glad that she had chosen to wear trousers instead of a skirt. Kiayani tried to see who it was when the she had a sudden spark of thought. She was stuck in a trap. Traps which could have only be made by men. The men who made the trap would come back to check it only to find a girl hanging from a rope. She felt so stupid for not figuring it out before.

“Get that light out of her eyes,” commanded a second voice, which by the sounds of footsteps was just approaching the scene.

Immediately the beam of light moved away. After a few seconds her eyes adjusted, the specks of light in her eyes growing smaller. Kiayani could see the group before her. She could have laughed, had she not been dangling from a tree. These were no men, they were still boys, and they could hardly be older than her. The one holding the flash light was quite short and had his blond hair spiked up at the back to give him height. There were three others beside him. One of the boys looked much older than the rest and  had brown hair and eyes. His eyes had the wisdom of someone much older than him. The two others looked so alike in height, features and size that Kiayani concluded that they must be brothers.

“Rute and Yulan, get her down. Make sure you do it slowly,” it was the second voice.

Standing to the side of the group was another teen who had given the instructions. Kiayani stared at him. He was no older than the others but from his actions she figured that he must be the leader of the little gang. At his command the two brothers who stood behind the short boy with the flashlight moved towards the base of the tree. They must be Rute and Yulan she thought.

After a few seconds of hearing ropes being snapped and pulled she felt her body slowly being lowered down. Before she touched the dirt however she saw the leader come closer and hold her upper body upright, his arms behind her back. He was stopping her from hitting the ground head first. Kiayani’s heart fluttered as she looked up into his face. He had kind but serious eyes which had a golden tint beneath the brown. His dark brown hair almost reached his shoulders and had a very wild look about it.