Hunted Queen

Chapter One • On the Run

*Very Long Chapter*

-Jade-

Jade ran as fast her legs could carry her through unfamiliar woods. The ground was colored white and green in an ocean of thimbleweed flowers. They would not stay for long though, their time of the year was quickly coming to an end. Spring was almost over. But the days were still cold and the nights freezing. The colors of summer had yet to come into bloom, but birch and alder trees surrounded her with seas of green. Unfortunately, they provided few hiding places.

Despite the beauty of Jade's surroundings, the delicate thimbleweed concealed whatever was hiding beneath it, giving her absolutely no chance to spot malicious sharp twigs and stones until stepping on them. She cursed and hissed every time stinging pain shot up from underneath her feet as she had placed them onto something sharp or clothed in thorns.

She kept running with her heart that pounding so hard that it felt as if she would drop dead at any second. Her lungs struggled. They strained immensely to provide her with the air she needed to keep going. Jade knew that she had to carry on. No matter how much misery she was in, she could not stop. Not even to catch her breath.

Another sharp twig pierced the sore skin beneath her right foot, brutally reminding her that she was barefoot. The only reaction she allowed herself was a grimace from the pain. Her feet were no longer used to the roughness of this type of terrain as they once had been back home in Thornstead. There, she used to walk barefoot all the time. At least during summertime. Now, she had been spoiled with shoes and warm socks, which had made her feet soft and sensitive. Every time she put one foot ahead of the other, she wanted to cry out in pain, but forced herself to stay silent. She could not risk being heard. Not when she had succeeded in staying hidden for so long.

She berated herself for having sold her boots to buy food a couple of days ago, but she had been so hungry. She was constantly hungry. Even now when she was running for her life.

The coin she had gotten for selling her brand new boots would have taken her even further if the last of them had not been stolen by some pick pocket. It had happened when she had been at market in a village she had ventured into, only to buy a cloak to replace one she had stolen. She had not even noticed the thief or his feather light touch. It was not until she was about to pay for the cloak that she became aware of the fact that she did not have a single coin on her. She had been forced to leave the market in a hurry so no one would mistake her for a beggar - or worse: a thief.

Jade's originally blue dress was torn at the hem and dirty beyond recognition. Its original color was barely visible due to the amount of dust and dirt it had been put through during her time on the run and the nights she had spent in the woods. The sleeves were in very bad shape, just like the rest of her dress. The fabric that had once hugged her wrists tightly were now frayed and hung loosely in shreds. The left sleeve was torn half way up to her elbow from when one of her pursuers had almost caught her.

Adding to her misery, rain was pouring down. The trees did little to nothing in shielding her from the storm rumbling above since their leaves had yet some time until fully grown. Rain came down so ferociously that it had drenched her completely. All the way to her skin. Caught in the storm, she could barely see a thing or where she was going through the down pour. Thankfully, her hair laid slick against her face and neck and not obstructing her vision as it would on a windy day when it typically went everywhere. 

The sky roared above her, almost drowning out her pursuers' calls but not entirely. A sharp flash of light caught her attention momentarily as lightning struck not far away. Soon she could hear their shouts behind her clearly again. Her stomach churned with fear, making her fingers twitch. She did not look back. Not to stop or even to just get a glance of how close they were. It was something she could not afford.