Chapter 49
"It's me! Who are you? I'm leaving!" I said angrily, ignoring him. All I wanted was to escape from this place, taking advantage of the chaos around us.
I moved away from him and started walking quickly through the forest, away from the battlefield. Then I heard the sound of branches breaking behind me. It wasn't the sound of an animal, but the sound of footsteps following me.
I turned around and saw Kayyan limping behind me, holding a stick in his hand, panting for breath.
"Did you tell them where we were?" Kayyan asked me, panting.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, and I picked up my pace, running faster and faster between the trees until I left him behind and couldn't see him anymore. I didn't look back.
I walked alone in the forest, the sounds gradually fading until they disappeared completely. Perhaps they had finished fighting. I didn't know which side had won, and I didn't care. I had only one obsession: to escape from this place.
****
Bo!
Bo!
I kept running through the forest, hearing nothing but my own ragged breathing and the crackling of branches under my feet.
I didn't look back. All that mattered was getting away from Kayyan and that fight. After a while, my heart began to pound, not from running, but from a strange sound... the sound of hooves approaching rapidly.
I pushed the branches aside and ran even faster, trying to hide among the tangled trunks. I was about to disappear into the depths of the forest when a sharp sound pierced the silence, forcing me to stop suddenly.
"Stop! Who are you?"
A man wearing a blue robe decorated with white stripes appeared from behind the trees, leading a group of soldiers who followed him with steady, precise steps. He looked like their leader. He had thick black hair covering his ears and slightly rough features as if he were a drunkard. His dark eyes were dull, and his thin body did not suggest physical strength. Nevertheless, he led them with confidence, and the soldiers followed him without hesitation.
"Hands up! Identify yourselves!" the commander shouted, and the soldiers advanced slowly toward me, raising strange spears with nozzles at the ends, which looked as if they were designed to launch something.
I tried to compose myself and take on the persona of this strange body: "I am Thayron, I am a hunter looking for animals to hunt!" I shouted, trying to make my voice sound as normal as possible.
"Arrest him. Nera, Kaya, take him to the nearby border checkpoint while we go and find out what all the commotion is about in the north," the commander ordered sternly and decisively as if my presence was nothing more than a minor inconvenience to them.
Two soldiers approached me: a short girl with braided red hair and a tall soldier with a thick mustache. When they saw my current size, they didn't try to grab me right away but simply stood in front of me with their weapons raised. Their strange spears looked like primitive guns, and I didn't want to test their power right now.
"Don't move, or we'll shoot!" said the red-haired girl, her eyes fixed on me.
My priority was to escape from here, but how? I was about to escape from Kayyan, and now I was captured again. I could only look at the commander walking away with the rest of the soldiers as if I were just a small obstacle in their way, not worthy of much attention.
One thought occupied my mind: the border checkpoint. Did that mean I was close to the capital?