Chapter 17

Monster.

That one word crushes me. I stumble to my feet, making the floor creak beneath me. I back away from Sigrid, from the gawking townsfolk.

"It's ok, just stay calm, she meant nothing by it." She coaxes, but I turn, looking at the people watching through the windows. So many eyes, do they know what I've caused? I look down at my blue hands. One touch could severely injure anyone, and here stands Nyra so close to me.

"What she said is true. I'm a danger. I've hurt and killed," I back up towards the back door, putting distance between me and them. "I'm a monster." I fling the door open and run into the forest.

Branches and brambles tear at my flesh and clothes, but I ignore the pain. The more I run, the more I bleed, and the more I feel the underlying artificial calm leaving me. As I hurtle over a log, my internal levy breaks and I feel the emotions hit me like a truck. I stumble and try to catch myself on a tree but miss. I fall to the ground, and roll down, down, down.

My body crashes over rocks and brambles, but luckily a huge trunk of a tree stops my rolling. When I collide with it, my breath gets knocked out of me, and I lie there, slightly wrapped around the tree. After a moment, I think that I hear a twig snap, and I pull myself to my knees and crawl behind the tree.

My world is spinning and I can't focus on anything. I make it behind the tree, but the next thing I know, the ground is suddenly gone and I'm falling. I fall and make contact with ice-cold water. It drags me under and I fight to reach the surface but the water is too violent. It thrashes me around and I crack my head against a rock and everything goes black.

* * *

"Hello." The word bounces around in my skull, the feminine voice threatening. "You little cheater. You are trying to quit this game?" Each word is like a nail hammered into my brain.

"Darling child, chess isn't itself without its loyal pawn!"

I sit up, gasping for breath, finding myself soaking wet on a shallow shoulder of the river. I drag myself over the muddy ground and onto moss. Each movement is painful as I drag myself through the mud, literally. Slowly I make my way over to a tree and prop myself up against it.

Assessing my wounds, I'm cut up and bruised, my dress tattered but intact. One wound that worries me most is on my arm. It oozes blue-red, and it looks to be deep. I rip off a chunk of my skirt and tear it into strips, making a makeshift bandage. My wrist is scratched and bruised, and I wrap it. I tear off the rest of my skirt to reveal my leggings underneath. Slowly I pull myself to my feet and begin moving into the woods.

I move slowly, maneuvering past trees and over logs. Each step jars my aching body, but I press on. I keep moving, pausing to only take a break once in a while. Eventually, the sun makes its way across the sky, and my stomach begins rumbling. As I walk, I find a small grove of normal-looking apple trees. Reaching up, I pick one, then take a closer look. They look like the apples I had eaten that morning, so I take a bite.

A few minutes and three apples later, I begin my walk again, but this time at a faster pace. Around mid-afternoon, I start finding signs of a struggle. Branches and underbrush are broken and disturbed, and upon further inspection blood lays on the foliage. I move cautiously through, aware of every noise made by the forest. As I walk, growling becomes louder, followed by a whinnying. I make my way into the clearing where a violent scene unfolds. A horse with a jet black coat lays in the middle of a bramble patch, while wolves surround and circle the poor creature like sharks.

A wolf lunges for the horse, and while the horse is distracted in the front, another lunges from the rear. Despite my better judgment, I move forward.

"Hey!" I shout, drawing the attention of the wolves off of the horse and onto me.

"Well shit," I mutter as some start advancing towards me. One lunges and bites my arm. I scream and jab my fingers into his eyes, and the dog lets go, his muzzle freezing and eyes bleeding. He takes a few steps back before falling to the ground, dead. The others pause, and when I step towards them, spreading my arms to make myself seem large, and they back off and retreat back into the woods. When the last wolf has retreated, I tie up my bleeding arm with another strip from my dress.

The horse whinnies and I slowly walk towards it. As I reach the brambles, the horse makes a noise, then tries to stand but it collapses back down with a crunch onto the brambles.

"Hey, hey, it's ok." I try to soothe him as I move slowly toward him. As I move, the blue on my arms recedes. I slowly get to my knees right next to him.

"You poor thing!" I whisper, examining the gashes and bites. As I reach forward, something comes whizzing through the air and smashes into my face, knocking me backward, and I swear the large horse snickers at me.

"Not funny," I mutter, getting back to my knees. I pick up the ball that had hit me in the face and find it to be my leather pouch.

"Well hello, how did you get here?" I ask the inanimate object, and to my surprise, it responds by spitting out a piece of paper into my hand. I set the pouch on my lap and read the paper.

Note 73:

Healing is a very delicate procedure. Stop the bleeding, then numb the pain. Once these steps are taken, go in this order: focus on bone, then nerve, move to the muscle, then flesh. Remember to focus your energies as well as the surrounding energies into the body of the injured. A steady stream being filtered through the injury. If it is yourself, imagine the energies flowing back into you, a loop, a circle.

Folding the note, I stuff it back into the pouch, then turn to the horse.

"Alright, I'm going to take the abusive bag's advice and attempt to help you, ok?" I place my hands over the horse's worst gash, "Just stick with me, I have no idea what I'm doing."

It makes a noise deep in its throat, and for a moment I think that it sounds like "good luck". I hesitate, looking at the horse. He winks and I shake my head, turning once again to his wounds. Closing my eyes, I try to do as the paper said. I try for a few seconds, then peeping out of one eye I see nothing has changed, and the horse is still bleeding.

"Shit," I say, trying to figure out where I went wrong. A thought suddenly hits me, reminding me of how I escaped the glass cell. Focusing my energy to my hands, I watch as blood begins to stop running. I concentrate more and feel myself getting dizzy as I watch the wounds on the horse knit themselves together, leaving nothing but the blood for proof of what the poor horse had just endured. It suddenly gets to its feet, and I cover my head in a weak attempt of defense. I brace myself for the pain of a kick or bite, but nothing happens. Instead, a cold wet nudge to my arm makes me look up.

The horse stands over me and watches me cower on the ground. It throws its head as if to say 'up'. I get to my feet, and the horse kneels to allow me to get on.