I had been running for what felt like hours. I had little clue as to where I was. The coast was somewhere behind me. I was drenched in rain sweat and mud. I had lost the others almost immediately after reaching the shore. Once again, our shoddy planning had gotten us into a mess.
After we had secured the raft we started off at a quiet run through the dense jungle. The plant life was unlike anything I'd seen before. Great red fungi stood around the base of massive trees. Everything was brimming with life and I had a great desire to examine such foreign beauty, but we weren't in safe lands and Piratejim reminded us we needed to continue moving.
We ran unopposed for the first 5 minutes or so, but soon out of the darkness came the whistle of arrows. If the foliage hadn't been so thick, I think that would have been the end right there, but our attackers were only tracking us by sound. Even so within seconds I had several arrows sticking out of various bits of my armor. None bit deeply, but not everyone was as well armored as I. Llemon cursed and reached for a potion as one arrow punched into his ribs and Redham suffered one to his shoulder.
We all ducked into the brush and tried to stay as still as possible. Publius told us all to stay down while he took a quick look around. Every instinct in my body was screaming for me to run. The danger wasn't greater than any of the other challenges I'd faced, yet the terror was entirely different. It wasn't the deep brooding darkness like I had felt from the Guardian, it was the simple animalistic terror of not being able to see your attacker, not knowing where and when the final blow may come from.
Soon the arrows stopped, and Publius returned informing the rest of us that our attackers had gone off to the east.
"Anyone too hurt to run?" Redham asked. Not waiting for a reply he continued, "whoever controls this place now knows that we're here. Our best chance is to stick together, and we do not stop running, got it? Let's go!" We rose and began a dead spring northward, where we knew a bindstone would be waiting for us.
We hardly made it another minute before we hit our next snag, a very hungry and angry snag.
All our heads swiveled to stare at the creature that had thundered through the brush ahead of us. It was a living raptor, something I thought I'd never see. It was just like the pictures I remember, from the sharp teeth to the hooked toe claws, and the far too intelligent reptilian eyes. It screeched to the sky and from the jungle all around us came answering cries, maybe half a dozen of them. That was too much for me and I gave into instinct and tore off blindly by myself.
That should have sealed my fate, separating myself from the group with a pack of hungry predators around me, but by some miracle our old attackers had returned and fired upon us again. It was a perfect storm of chaos. Tails and teeth flashed as the raptors tore off in different directions. Some went after the bowmen, some after my friends, who were now all running in different directions. I bolted north, praying to come across the bindstone before a raptor decided to follow me.
As I ran a heavy rain started, and it became difficult to carry on, my heavy armor causing my feet to sink deep into the mud. If anyone had decided to come after me I wouldn't have had a chance. Hopefully the others were having similar good fortune.
I didn't stop running, not even when I saw a lone rider on a horse. Under normal circumstances I would have considered sneaking up on this man to get a closer look, maybe even try to steal his horse, but my fight of flight responses were continually screaming flight. Between my heavy armor and heavy breathing, the rider had no trouble hearing me, and soon it gave chase, calling something out to me. Wish blood pounding in my ears, and the rain pouring down on me, I could hear nothing. Drawing on my last reserves of endurance I changed course and ran straight into the dense jungle hoping the horseman wouldn't be able to follow.
Perhaps it wasn't luck. Whoever was ruling my fate just wanted to see me struggle a little bit longer before I was inevitably hunted down. It was here that I collapsed into the mud, with no strength to rise. I sat in terrified silence, listening to the occasional thunder rumble through the sky. I silently prayed that I wouldn't be found on the ground, covered in mud amidst the flora. Soon though, it became clear that my wishes were not going to be granted. Through the rain I heard the snort of the horse and the sound of its shod feet plodding through the mud. The squelches got closer as the horseman walked his mount up to my body. I tightened the grip on my sword, preparing to strike when the man got too close. It was about all I could hope to do, I was already utterly spent.
"I never took you for a coward, Signus. Are you going to get up or am I going to have to tie you to the horse?" I rolled onto my back and when I wiped the muck from my helm I could see Publius sitting atop a horse, shaking his head at me. "Come on and get up, there's another horse at the edge of the wood you can use... What?" I had begun laughing at him. Slowly at first, but soon I had fully lost control of myself and was laughing so hard that I was choking for air. The ridiculousness of the situation just had me entirely bewildered. I could not even begin to imagine a situation where Publius would have ended up here with me, with two horses, sitting there calm as can be. "Stop laughing like an idiot and get over here, it isn't exactly safe in case you hadn't noticed."
Still laughing I followed Publius to the other horse and we took off at a gallop northwards. Before long we saw the tell tale sign of a bindstone, a bright ray of white light shooting into the sky. We made it the rest of the way without incident and bound ourselves to Yssam. The rest of the crew was there well ahead of me, and said they were about to send someone out looking for me and Publius. With relief I removed my armor and placed it inside small camp's vault and quickly fell asleep right there in the dirt.
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