Drabble Challenge: Day 16

    Because it is way late (no six minute close-shaves tonight), I'm going to keep this short.

    A) We are back with Vena now, after a fairly lengthy time skip. As usual. You know how I love those time skips.

    B) Tonight's scribble is completely, and I mean completely, lame. It's called four hours of sleep (that's including a nap) and trying to multitask telly at the same time. Let's just say, it doesn't work very well.

    Without further adieu...


    Drabble Challenge: Day 16 - thanks
    Word Count: 961    Minimum Goal: 960

    They veered around the corner of a brick building, narrowly missing a man sleeping against the wall. Vena could feel her heart pounding in her chest even as Astarot moved beneath her, his muscles bunching and stretching as he raced in the direction she guided him.
    In their wake, Vena could hear the shouts of her men, her spies that’d been lingering in the city waiting for anyone like her to show their face. It’d been an accident; she’d brushed up against someone, felt their mind, only to have that man – she’d assumed he was just an ordinary monk – turn on her. 
    Go, Ast. She urged, the message wordless but no less urgent. It’d taken months to perfect their bond, but now that they had, there had never been another team like them. Of that much, Vena was certain.
    She checked back over her shoulder as they rounded another building corner, winding deeper and deeper through the alleys. She only hoped that she wouldn’t get lost. These large cities were too large for her to remember exactly where every road led.
    Wind rushed past Vena’s ears, but the shouts were starting to fade behind her so she let Astarot ease up to a long-strided lope. His lungs heaved between her legs. They’d been going easy for weeks and hadn’t had to do an escape and evade like this in a while.
    There weren’t many people once they got away from the main streets, something the mindpath was thankful for. The more people, the more easily they were followed. No one just sauntered through town on a Greater Wolf without anyone taking notice.
    “We need to get out of here,” Vena murmured to herself, looking up at the sky through the buildings that surrounded them . One of Ast’s ears flicked back her direction but there was no forthcoming rumble in reply. Not that she always expected one, but sometimes he would manage some form of a response if she chatted at him.
    When Vena turned in her makeshift saddle to look behind them once again, a shape was hurrying through the shadows towards the unlikely duo. 
     “Wait! Wait!” A woman’s voice, faint but growing stronger, reached her.
     Astarot tensed beneath her and Vena felt her own hands tighten in the wolf’s thick fur. Let’s go. He responded  in moments, pushing off with his back legs to give himself a boost to take off on.
     “Please! I know a way out of the city!” The voice continued behind them even as distance began to carry it away.
    Really. There’s no way, lady. No way. Nine out of ten chances, you’re working with her and are just another trap. Stop wasting your time, so, no thanks.
     The mindpath and her mount had soon wound their way deep into the hard of the steam-powered metropolis, until she had no idea where they were any more. Even encouraging Ast to try and sniff out a path didn’t work. His nose was full of smoke and garbage and wouldn’t get cleared out until they were back in the mountains.
    His claws clicked on the cobblestones, an unusual noise to Vena. She peered ahead of them, then jerked when a figure skidded into view up ahead, seeming to gasp for breath, leaning against the wall while holding one hand out.
     “Just—wait—one—second—“ the middle-aged woman managed to speak even as Vena brought Astarot to heel, golden eyes narrowed with anger. 
    “Don’t bother,” she snapped, shoulder brushing the brick building as Ast turned in the narrow corridor. 
    “You don’t understand. I can help; I know a way out of the city without having to go through the main streets. I know that you’re not like other people, that those men are looking for you, and that you have to get out of the city.” The woman’s dark hair was tied back, her dress rumpled and unkempt, and her long, thin face didn’t seem to have gotten sunlight too recently.
    Vena turned her gaze forward. Go, Ast. 
    “Don’t walk away, please! I’m just trying to help.”
    Twisting in the saddle, the mindpath pinned the still wheezing woman with a look. “Forget it. We can get out of here ourselves.”
    “There’s an entrance to the sewer just down this alley. It’s large enough for your… wolf… and it’ll get you out of the city. I’ll help you get there.” She took a few steps forward, closer to Vena and Ast.
    The wolf sidled away, bristling before Vena calmed him with a thought, studying the other female. “How do I know you’re not with them?”
    “You don’t; not for certain. But if you’ll believe me, I’m not with them. I never would be.” She struck Vena as being a nervous talker.
    “What’s your name?”
    “Hillary. Hillary Vaughi.” Looking over her shoulder, the frumpy-looking woman shifted from foot to foot. “We need to go. Those men have been hanging around the city a long longer than you’ve probably been here and know their way around.”
    Vena wanted so badly to just be able to walk away and not worry about this strange woman, but they needed a way out and if worst came to worst, she did have a Greater Wolf on her side.
    “Alright, fine.” Sliding to the ground, she stepped closer to Hillary, keeping herself between Astarot and the other woman, just in case. “Lead the way.”
    A bright smile lit up Hillary’s face. “You’re both going to be safe again. I’m here to help.”
    Vena didn’t return the expression, her mistrustful heart dictating her responses, though only because of her own poor judgment in past experiences. Too many people have stabbed me in the back for me to trust you, Hillary Vaughi. “The sooner the better.”


    See? I told you. Lame. Best I could manage with a quarter a brain, though. I'll attempt to do better tomorrow.

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.