Abby couldn’t hide her frown. She’d meant it as a joke but obviously she’d messed up and insulted him. Great, just what she needed. She didn’t know whether to apologize or let it be so she chose the latter.
On their hike through the dense forest, Abby took in her surroundings and nibbled at her cold dried meat. The meat reminded her of beef jerky, one of her favorite snack foods. The futhorc meat wasn’t quite that tasty though. It had a chewy texture and it was cold which made it hard to bite into and even harder to swallow. She swore if she ever got back to her normal life she’d appreciate life so much more, even little things like beef jerky.
“What’s up with the bushes?” she asked.
He grunted. “What of them?”
She nodded at a yellow bush. “You said not to go near them. Why?”
He shrugged, jostling the swords on his back. She liked walking a few paces behind him because he walked so much faster than she did which gave her the opportunity to take time to admire his body without him knowing it. It was sneaky but worth it. The man had a backside just begging to be nibbled.
He sounded frustrated at having to answer her. “Gringum the plant with the bright yellow leaves is contagious. One touch will leave you with a rash that brings fever and rupturing boils. Gargum the dark yellow bush causes hallucinations if inhaled, and gumrosh, the red bush, is most lethal of all. If eaten, you’ll die from its poison.”
Abby’s eyes widened as she eyed the plants and mentally thanked Alrik for walking them far around them. “So how far until we reach this rogue camp you were talking about?” They had to be closer. They’d reached the lake last night, and he said it they only had some miles left to go from there.
“I’m not sure. I don’t know if they’re still there. They could have moved on long ago.”
“And what is it you hope to get from them if you do find them?” She felt it more then saw it—the tension radiating from him.
“Supplies,” he said shortly.
His odd response didn’t go unnoticed but she didn’t know what to make of it. The man could get tense from the smallest things. Who knew what went on in that mind of his.
“The things I would do for a bar of soap and a change of clothes,” she sighed.
Angry dark eyes cut to hers immediately stamping out her little daydream of getting a sweet smelling bar of soap. “You need only what I get you and nothing else.”
O-kay. Well, it’s gonna be a long day, Abby decided. Mr. Tight-Lipped wasn’t being any fun at all. She had the urge to grab his face and plant a big fat kiss on him just to see what he’d do.
The day trudged on and still they walked. The forest grew denser so that some trees stood only a foot apart from one another and they had to squeeze in between the trunks. After some time, they walked out of the dense forest and into an area where trees grew further and further apart.
The light had just started fading from the sky. Unlike on the earthen-side when the sun went down some light still lingered from the moon, here in the rift, it stayed quite dark. Not completely dark, some hazy pinkish glow still shone from somewhere far in the distance, but it was hardly enough to see where you were walking. Abby hated walking at night.
They walked on until they stepped out of the forest and came into an open vista. They stopped so he could examine the area, and she took the opportunity to catch her breath.
The land looked to go on forever. Yet, unlike on the earthen-realm where light poles and electrical lines staked across the country alongside houses, developments and cities filling in the every inch of land, this was on open unused piece of earth that flowed up and down in rolling hills and rocky crevices. Towards the right a steep hill rose, almost as tall as a mountain but not quite.
“We’ve made it,” he said.
Abby frowned. “This is it? Where are the rogue demons then?” She stepped up beside him so she could read his expression. She’d expected a camp or houses or anything. He didn’t look happy. A frown marred his lips, and his eyes were tense with thought.
“They must have moved.”
For some reason she wanted to comfort him. She shouldn’t. Her future with him wasn’t exactly certain. However, certain things couldn’t be denied. She couldn’t deny that he had the ability to make her heart race or for her breath to catch. She also couldn’t deny that she wanted to know everything about him and how he came to be cursed.
Something was happening between them. Maybe it started with that kiss or maybe it started before that, she couldn’t be sure. They spent so much time together that it was all beginning to blur. Still, once she got powerful enough, she was porting her butt out of here and leaving him in the wind. If he came back after her, she’d be powerful enough to keep him away. Of that, she felt certain. He already said his mother was more powerful than he was and only Abby would be able to kill her, which technically made her more powerful than him too. Just, not yet. She was getting there though. Her powers were growing, becoming easier to reach and use.
“What are we—?”
“Krishnoe!”
He held his hand up at her, stopping her mid-sentence.
A new wave of tension poured over him and she stilled too. She didn’t know what he just said but she got the gist of it. Even without thinking about it, her body tensed, breathing turning quiet as her eyes scanned the distance. Something was very wrong.
Alrik silently lifted his hands and grabbed the handles of his swords. With only a soft hiss of metal on the leather casing, he lifted the swords over his head and freed them.
They had no warning when it came. It all happened at once.
The sound of dozens of feet pounding the earth sent Alrik and her spinning around. From the forest, she spotted a small army of idummi demons sprinting for them. Abby backed up behind Alrik without realizing she’d done so.
“These aren’t the demons you were talking about, right?” She tried to insert some humor into the situation because right now, she had to fight the urge not to run in the other direction. He couldn’t possibly win against so many demons. Before there had only been one and he’d taken care of it quickly. But now there had to be at least twenty headed right towards them.
“No they are not. Stay back!”
That was all he said before he let out a roar that threatened to deafen her and charged into the forest. Abby pressed a fist to her mouth, teeth biting down. The man was a warrior.
He caught up to the first demon heading the pack and slew him to a bloody mess in seconds, but there were too many. The demons narrowed in on him, their line formation closing in, circling him. They jumped at him at once, their heinous cries and squeals piercing her ears.
But, something else caught her attention. That eerie feeling of being watched. Abby froze and slowly looked left. There, three demons had broken off from their friends and slowly came towards her, their knees bent, arms dangling low with sharp curved knives at their belts.
Abby didn’t think—she acted. In a blast of magic, she shot the demons back. They flew into the trees, barreling into them with a hard whack. She didn’t stay to see what happened with them—she ran.
She never ran as hard in her life as she did in that moment. She didn’t know how she knew that the idummi would get up and come right after her, but she did. They were going to kill her. An ear-splitting war cry followed right behind her. She flinched knowing that sound was directed at her and what she’d done.
Pounding feet sounded behind her. Abby strained to make her body move faster. She just had to go faster, that’s all.