Overmorrow

Chapter 2: Three Seconds

     It started when I was on a hunt. It had been a fairly successful trip, despite the fact that I headed towards the village with semi-bloody and mud covered clothes; not that it really bothered me at the time. I followed my usual route without even having to think, since I had been through these woods so many times before.

     If I was being honest with myself, I was more at home in the forest than I ever had been with my parents. They only ever thought of me as a disappointment, if they thought of me at all. I had spent my entire life trying to please them and it had amounted to absolute jack-shit, so one day I just... gave up, I suppose. I'm fairly certain they didn't notice, and if they did, they didn't seem to care.

     My whole body froze. I heard whispering that seemed to be coming from the trees all around me. I felt scared. Why did I feel so absolutely petrified? I don't know how or why, but I just knew that if I took one step closer to the village, something terrible would happen to me.

     This isn't really a new development. I've always felt completely connected to nature on a whole other level. I don't know why. I didn't ask for it, but it's undeniably there. The trees speak to me, the wind dances with me, the water sings for me. More than anything, the forest comes together to comfort me. But not now. Now it's almost warning me.

     I immediately dropped my kill and started sprinting in the opposite direction. It's all that felt right in the moment.

     I spent the next week on the run. All I had with me were the clothes on my back and the weapons I used on my last hunting trip, when everything went wrong. I hunted for food when I needed to and took shelter in the trees at night. I made sure to pay close attention to what was being said to me, but tried not to linger on the whole of what was taking place, for fear I would go out of my mind.

     I was walking in a straight path, thinking about nothing in particular, when I heard the trotting of many horses followed by screams. I couldn't tell how far away the commotion was happening, or which direction the noises were coming from, but the forest guided me closer.

     After an hour or so of careful stepping so as not to be heard, a sound I could only describe as huge wings flapping sounded from overhead. I looked up, but the thick cover of trees above  made it hard to see anything but small slivers of blue sky. I continued my trek forward.

     The unmistakable snap of a bow rang in the distance; shortly followed by a scream of pain from an unknown creature and the sound of something very big hurdling to the ground very fast. A thud that had to have shook the earth for miles unsteadied my feet to the point of falling. I saw a line of trees collapse violently in the distance, and the debris formed a large mushroom cloud in the air.

     I scanned the area, my eyes quickly landing on something moving high up in the trees.

     "Oh my gods, is that a person?" I murmured under my breath, "How in the hell-"

     My feet seemed to move in the direction of the crash without me telling them to. If curiosity killed the cat, I'm already dead anyway. As I reached the clearing that the unidentified force created, I heard movement and quickly, but quietly, dived into a bush.

     A sort of growling came from in front of me, and I instinctively froze. Ducking to get a better look at what was happening through an opening in the brush of the woods, two small knives shot directly over my head. Oh what the hell.

     While having a very uncomfortable conversation (that was resulting in me trying to remain calm with a very aggravated and guarded girl), I took a moment to really look at my asultor.