by Candy Crum
As Arryn shifted her weight, she saw the long white ears perk up, swiveling as they listened for whatever might be approaching. Then the rabbit turned his head, and his eyes met Arryn's.
"Shit!" Arryn exclaimed, shaking her head.
He jumped into action, sprinting across the snow. Arryn wasted no time as she put all the strength she had into a powerful run, chasing the rabbit across the snow while trying to avoid slipping and falling.
The rabbit was fast, and his skill at sharp turns was incredible. Try as she might, she couldn't catch him.
"Hey!" she shouted as she ran. "Give me a break! This isn't fair."
The rabbit ran straight for a massive rock. Arryn thought he would go around it on the easier terrain, but he didn't. He planted his feet against it without breaking stride and used it as a pivot point to change directions. Arryn almost had him, but was forced to drop and slide on her hip to keep from running straight into the boulder.
"Gah!" she yelled into the vastness around her.
The rabbit turned and stared at her as she got to her feet, as if challenging her to come for him. Her eyes narrowed and she returned the gaze, her body lowering to a crouch as she once again prepared to run.
"I will catch you. And when I do, you're gonna be—"
Her threat was curtailed when the rabbit took off again. She growled to herself as she lit out after him. Stiff from several days of disuse, her muscles were screaming at her, begging her to rest, but she wasn't giving up.
She knew that she would have to be strong, fast, and pay full attention to her senses if she was going to get off this mountain. The only way to get back into shape was to be extremely active.
She charged after the rabbit in the hope she would catch him, but she became careless. Her desire turned into impatience, and she quickly lost focus on her surroundings.
The rabbit made his sharpest turn yet, spinning in the snow and running directly back through her legs at the last second. As she turned, her feet slid in the snow, and she landed hard on her side. Though her breath didn't leave her, it hurt like hell.
Rolling onto her back, Arryn groaned as she cursed the rabbit and her own impatience. She grunted as the fat, fluffy, snow-white rabbit jumped onto her stomach, his little nose twitching up and down as he stared into her eyes.
She reached up with both hands and scratched the sides of his face. "I'm gonna get you next time. You just wait and see. You cheated, anyway."
The rabbit leaned his head into her touch, and she scratched between his ears before taking them between her fingers and rubbing down to their tips.
"You're lucky you’re cute. Do you have any idea how hungry I am?" she asked, a smile on her face.
The rabbit bit her hand, lightly enough that it didn't draw blood, but hard enough for her to know he took offense at her comment.
She laughed. "Sorry. It was just a joke. Jeeze, you’re so sensitive!"
She was just about to set him aside so she could stand when the rabbit's ears perked up, warning her that they weren't the only ones in the area. A deep, guttural sound filled the air around them. It wasn't a growl, but a warning, sounding very deep in the animal’s chest as it slowly stepped toward them.
Arryn laid on her back, the rabbit frozen on her stomach as they both stared at the large, hungry snow leopard.
"Run," Arryn whispered to the rabbit.
She felt a slight movement on her stomach, but not enough to suggest he'd listened. A louder rumble from the beautiful cat warned her that time was running out. This time, she didn't give the rabbit a chance.
"Run!" she shouted, throwing him far away from her and quickly rolling onto her stomach.
The leopard pounced, but Arryn was fast enough to get out of the way. The slick snow she’d been laying on took the leopard down just as it had her. In only seconds the leopard was back on her feet, roaring loudly and charging for Arryn and her furry companion.
Hearing the rapid crunch of snow behind her, Arryn risked a look over her shoulder to see the animal coming directly for her, moving far faster than she could possibly run. The rabbit was in front of Arryn, running in a zigzag pattern but making good time.
"Ooooh, run, Puff-Butt, run!" Arryn exclaimed as they began scrambling down the north face of the mountain.
A loud growl sounded as a large shadow fell over her. Without looking back, Arryn dove forward, catching the rabbit in her arms and twisting, landing on her side and rolling out of the way. The leopard landed hard, sliding and rolling over, which gave Arryn enough time to get back to her feet.
Arryn was still very weak. Not only did she have very little time to try to use her nature magic to subdue the animal, but as weak as she was, she wasn't even sure she could. If it didn't work, she would be directly in front of the big cat’s jaws.
Using physical magic wouldn't be much better, but it appeared she didn't have a choice. It was the guaranteed option in this instance, unlike attempting to use nature magic.
She tossed the rabbit away from her, out of the direct path of the leopard, before turning and throwing her hands out. A small gust of wind pushed the leopard back, and she encased it in ice.
But the leopard jumped forward again, breaking free of the thin ice Arryn had created in hopes of scaring it while expending minimal energy. Apparently, the leopard had no plans to back down under any circumstances. It was just as hungry as she was, and it wasn't like there were a lot of food sources in the mountains.
Still, Arryn wasn't about to let her friend be eaten after he'd helped her train and keep her reflexes strong and quick, and she sure as hell wasn't going to die.
When she swiped her hand upward, the snow from the ground lifted in a small wave and wrapped around the leopard. Her other hand jerked forward, her magic freezing the snow. The leopard fought, but the ice froze rapidly, and Arryn heard a sharp snap just before the cat's head slumped.
The animal fought the ice with great strength and the force had combined with her lack of magical skill to cause the leopard’s death. She'd only planned to encase the cat in ice long enough for the rabbit to get away, allowing it to melt once she herself had traveled far enough that her magic no longer held. But now, she was presented with a new opportunity.
Food.
It had been two days since she'd eaten, and as strong as she'd become on her own with no sustenance and only the snow around her for hydration, she knew the leopard would gift her with both food and warmth.
Arryn quickly made her way over to the animal, melting the ice and gently lowering her to the ground. Placing her hand on the cat’s jaw, she closed her eyes.
"Though I did not mean to end your life, I promise you that your death will not have been in vain. Thank you for your sacrifice. It will not be forgotten." She started to move away, but then placed her hands over the animal again. “Besides, you were the asshole who tried to eat me first. So, you know… Fair is fair.”
Having wasted the majority of her strength chasing the rabbit to keep her skills sharp and using magic on top of that, she wasn't sure how she was going to drag an animal that large back to her camp.
The chubby rabbit slowly and cautiously wandered back to her. He came to her side and looked up at her with his little nose wiggling.
Arryn smiled. "I caught you. Told you I'd catch you!"
The rabbit turned and used his back feet to rapidly kick snow at Arryn as she laughed at her little friend.
***
Cathillian, Samuel, and Celine stood just outside the area where the sparring groups were practicing that morning as they discussed their situation. Echo had just returned, having scoured the entire southern third of the valley, but she had come up empty.
The golden eagle had searched everywhere from the Dark Forest to the border of the Madlands just outside the Arcadian Valley, and all the way down to Craigston. Fruitless.
Arryn was nowhere to be found.
They had some theories, but mainly they would just have to start looking again. Cat
hillian, however, had other plans.
"It's been too long since I’ve sent Echo to the Dark Forest. If I don't do so very soon, my mother will come here. Arryn and I joke about it quite often, but neither of you seem to realize just how serious a problem that would be. She would not be happy." Cathillian ran his fingers through his hair, securing it into a ponytail.
"Ye look beautiful, lad," Samuel joked as he pointed to Cathillian's long blonde hair, now tidily pulled back. "Make sure he treats ye nice."
Cathillian shook his head. "Can we stay on task, please? This is kind of important. And of course, he treats me nicely. He treats me like a princess, which is more than I can say for you."
Despite the grim conversation, Celine couldn't help but laugh. The two were always giving each other a hard time.
"Maybe you should send Echo back to the Dark Forest," Celine said. "But what message would you send? That's the real question."
Cathillian shrugged. "I’ve thought about that over and over again. I don't have a clue what I should do. If I don't send word, I can pretty much guarantee my mother will be here within the next two days. If I lie and say nothing is going on, I'm going to feel terrible, and the truth is, we might need her. If I tell her the truth, I don't know what will happen."
"We might get an army of pointy-eared fellas like yerself," Samuel said. "We can use all the help we can get. We need ta find our girl."
"We've been lucky up until now," Cathillian said. "The only thing that's kept us from getting our asses handed to us is the fact that Amelia is still temporarily in control. The city is on the verge of breaking. If anything else were to happen, Amelia could quite possibly lose whatever hold she has, and Talia would take over. If that happened, the Guard would have no choice but to come for us."
"Then why are we still here? Shouldn't we be on the move?" Celine asked.
"As much as I'd love to say yes," Cathillian began, "I'll have to say no. Not in the traditional sense, anyway. If I leave, I'm going back to the Dark Forest. I'm not going to stop until I can bring back an army. Problem with that is, there’s now a potential war brewing in the Dark Forest as well—if what Jenna told me was true. My mom has been lying to me just as much as I’ve been lying to her. If they send any warriors, they risk their own walls being vulnerable. The truth is, we might not get any help at all."
Everyone sat in silence, watching the guardsmen practice the skills they had learned. Samuel and the rest had grown to trust them, and they hadn't been affected yet by Scarlett's influence.
After a few moments, Cathillian spoke. "I'm going back to the Dark Forest—I don't think there's any way around it. Like I just said, Amelia's hold on the city is fragile. We need to be ready if it slips entirely. I'm gonna take a day or two to get my things together, but then I'm heading out. I need to tell my mother and grandfather what's happened. They need to be informed, and they have every right to know that Arryn is missing."
"I'm goin' with ye, lad." Samuel patted his hammer.
Celine nodded. "Me, too."
Cathillian shook his head. "The Dark Forest is a dangerous place—well, not so much for me I guess, but it’s dangerous as it is beautiful. There are lycanthropes, and it appears the dark druids have made themselves a threat there now, too. You should stay here where you know the streets like the back of your hand. You’ve spent years moving through them, dodging the Guard. This is your element. You'll be safer here."
She laughed, but the sound was cold and rather intimidating coming from a woman so small. "Like hell I will! This place is far more dangerous than some wild animals in a forest. I understand I don't know anything about the Dark Forest. Hell, I've never even been camping. But what I do know is that I lost my niece once. The day she came back to me I vowed I would never lose her again, and yet here we stand—without her."
"I understand that—" Cathillian began, but Celine interrupted him by taking a step forward and poking a hard finger into his chest.
"Bullshit. I'm going with you. I'm going to meet your mother, the woman who took my niece into her home and raised her to be stronger than I ever could've imagined. Either you take me willingly, or I'm going to kick your ass and force you to take me anyway."
Cathillian's eyes widened as he stared at the much smaller woman. "Damn. Okay. Look, you can come. It's only out of respect for you and Arryn, but I'll let this happen because I'm worried about my decision. If I lost you, too, Arryn would never forgive me."
Celine smiled. "Out of respect for me? That's the only reason?"
Cathillian nodded for a moment, his arms crossed over his chest. "That, and you scare the shit out of me, not unlike your niece... or your sister, now that I think about it. The women in your family are pretty fucking frightening, you know that? Actually, you'll fit in great in the Dark Forest with my mother. She's also terrifying."
The happy and satisfied expression on Celine's face told Cathillian she was pleased with the outcome. "Good. I can't wait to meet her."
***
Arryn used her feet to kick snow in all directions as she excavated toward the bare ground below. Over the past couple days, she'd slowly been clearing a large area and putting the displaced snow to good use. She'd been lucky that a true snowstorm hadn't hit yet, but from the looks of the clouds in the distance and the smell in the air, she could tell it wasn't going to be long.
Every day it snowed a little at different times, and she’d had to clear the area over and over again. Had it not been for her weakness, the task wouldn't have been much of a problem at all. In fact, the shelter would've been complete long before now.
So far, she’d cleared a circle that was ten feet in diameter, and the walls surrounding it were more than a foot thick and three feet high. While she didn't plan to stay in the mountains long, it was obvious she would need shelter until she departed.
She couldn't waste any more time and energy moving up and down the mountain searching for a cave when she had no idea if one even existed, and she definitely didn’t have the strength to waste on using her magic to search through the ground for openings.
Instead, she stacked the snow high in the hope that it would block the wind. Once she had some of her energy back, she planned to stack it just a bit higher, turn it into solid ice, and build across so it had a roof as well.
While living inside an ice cube certainly wouldn’t be warm, it would be a hell of a lot better than constantly being hit in the face by cold wind and snow.
Once the ground had been cleared of snow—again—Arryn sat down inside her shelter, using the walls to block the wind from blowing against the sweat on her face. She used the edge of her cloak to wipe it away, making sure her face was well hidden so the cold wouldn't freeze it before it could dry.
Arryn felt something brush against her ankle, and she pulled her cloak back just enough to see her little snow rabbit friend nestling next to her.
"Well, hello there, Sir Fuzzy Bottom." She reached out and scratched his head in his favorite spot between his ears. "You know, I really need to settle on a name for you. I'm terrible with traditional ones. I like smartass names better. But you know what they say… you get attached once you name something. I assume that mostly goes for serious names, though. I don't know how long I'll be here, so I don't want to get any more attached to you than I already am."
She sighed as she stared at the dreary sky. "I'm exhausted," she told him. "If I don't find a way to regain enough energy, I'll be stuck up here indefinitely. For every step forward I take, it seems like I go back two. But my little igloo should help with that. Time to rest up and gain my strength.”
The rabbit sat on her lap, staring at her with his little nose bobbing up and down. She smiled at him and pulled him closer, enjoying the warmth he radiated.
"If I had about twenty more of you, I wouldn't even need to build a fire."
Arryn suddenly remembered the snow leopard pelt hanging over her fire, which she had repeatedly scraped, treated, and dried, curing it so it could be used
as bedding. She gently placed the rabbit on the ground next to her before standing and making her way around to the eastern side of the peak.
It wasn’t far away, and the tall rocks blocked the wind better than the area she had built in, but the terrain on the other side was far too rocky to make camp on. It would be very hard to make any part of the mountain completely habitable. What one area had, another didn't, and vice versa.
Thankfully, she’d been able to build a fire and cure both the pelt and some of the meat to make jerky she could use over time without it going bad.
When she’d grabbed the pelt, she could feel that it was once again dry. After looking it over for a few moments, she was happy to see that it did not need to be scraped another time; the hide had turned soft and durable. It would be perfect to lay beneath her, making a nice barrier between her and the ground below.
She went back to her camp and laid the pelt on the ground inside her partial igloo. Once she had sat down on it, the rabbit once again returned to sit in her lap.
"Well, Mr. Fluffinstuffs, it's not perfect, but it's pretty good. A few days ago, I made a big threat to one hell of a psycho bitch. I know you wouldn't know anything about that, but being stuck up here after having made an incredibly big threat is basically the equivalent of making the best argument you ever made in your life, storming out of the room, and having to go back in because you forgot your pack. Totally kills your groove."
She looked down to see the little rabbit's eyes locked on hers as she spoke, which made her smile as she scratched the sides of his face. "I guess the equivalent for you would be threatening to fight another bunny for the rights to a cute little girl bunny, only to find out that she didn't like you anyway. Actually, that's nowhere near close, but since I don't know anything about your day-to-day life, I have no idea how to relate my situation to yours."
Arryn wasn't entirely sure, but it looked like the rabbit shook his head at her. She laughed, unable to say that she could blame him.
CHAPTER TWO
In the days since the attack, Maddie hadn’t run into Arryn anywhere in the city. She hadn't taught her courses, and she hadn't attended the physical magic class, not that she was surprised.
