World Leapers Book I: The Forest

The Chase

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Aria winced from the thrashing of tree branches against her skin as the forest rushed by in a whirling, confusing shadow of black obstacles. She could feel the warm drips of blood from the lashing of the pine needles rolling down her cheeks and dripping from her chin. Even at breakneck speeds and with the howl of scithrin behind them, the horse Piper seemed to sense each thick trunk across the path, each log and each protruding rock. But every few seconds another sharp branch came lashing through the chaos, striking Aria's face, shoulders, forehead, and thighs.

She felt Naman reach around her with his thin, wiry arms to grip Piper's mane and pull them closer to the horse's back. She could feel the deep growling of the scout's lungs as he pressed his chest hard against her spine, moving himself as low as possible to avoid being struck by a branch. She didn't dare maneuver her head around to look back, but she could hear the pounding of Logan's heavy hooves behind her, hear Enya grunting and slapping Raven's flanks, and feel the hot flecks of foam pouring from Piper's mouth.

Then, without warning, Piper's hooves dug hard into the ground and she came to an abrupt standstill. Naman's body slipped forward and his chest slammed into Aria's back, nearly sending her somersaulting forward off the neck of the horse. Piper snorted and stumbled as Logan's barreled chest collided into her backside. Naman cursed loudly and dug his heels into Piper, but the horse refused to budge. Branches and logs snapped behind them as the scithrin kept charging. Tamar leapt from her horse and sprinted a few feet farther up, then suddenly thrust both hands into the air to stop her momentum. She was perched on the edge of a sharp cliff that dropped from the forest floor and straight into deep blackness below.

Aria glanced back. Naman had already pulled his longbow out from his cloak, and was half-turned, launching a volley of arrows behind them towards the sounds of the snapping branches.

Tamar, balanced on the edge of the cliff, called back. "Enya, I need light!"

Enya threw both legs to Raven's side, sprung away from the horse, and ran to Tamar's side. As she ran, she thrust her hands forward, sending a fireball out into the air above the cliff. The night sky lit for just a moment, a moment enough to see more forest in front of them, and between them and the other side where the forest continued, a seventy foot chasm.

Tamar looked up at Aria and hissed. "We must jump. You must make air below us. We will leave the horses. Your energy cannot support their weight."

Behind them, a scithrin screamed. It was close. Aria could already hear the eerie whistling of the shramana.

She took two steps to the edge of the cliff, sucked in a deep breath, exhaled once, then opened her hands and thrust them forward and down over the chasm. From deep below, there was a roar of wind. Somewhere behind them, another scithrin screamed.

Tamar's voice behind her was frantic. "Now, Aria. Step off the cliff!"

Both Aria's hands were open, pushing streams of air downward toward the rocks far below at the bottom of chasm. She held back tears as her lips quivered, then she closed her eyes and stepped forward out onto the cloud of wind that was returning upward from the chasm. She fell for a brief second, took a sharp breath in, and then a current of wind rushed past her ears. She felt her feet being swept up by an invisible force. Suddenly she was floating - levitating on a pocket of air. She felt her body temperature begin to drop as she opened her hands wider and pushed with more force toward the unseen bottom of the chasm.