The Spirit Wilds: Magic of the Green Sage (Fall of the Sages Book 1), стр. 11

Tuni didn’t plan on making it easy for them.

She jumped to her feet, turned, and bolted. A second hadn’t passed before she heard the sound of hundreds of little paws pattering against the ground. The chase was on. She didn’t care that she’d left her bow and bag behind, Tuni just ran as fast as she could. She didn’t pay attention to her surroundings or to what direction she was going because she knew that if she stopped, she was dead. The sound of fifty squeaking carnivores filled her ears. They were right on her heels.

The deathly pain in her arm was only getting worse and had spread to her shoulder. She dared not look at her arm for fear that the sight would weaken her senses. It was hard enough running with one arm clutched against her chest.

Tuni didn’t know how long she ran, she didn’t care, but soon enough, her legs grew tired and her chest tightened as her breath became haggard, her lungs finding it harder to acquire air. But she couldn’t stop, for the demons still nipped at her heels as she sprinted for dear life. She did not care about the cuts and scrapes and bruises she accrued as sharp branches reached out and tried to impede her. Blood trickled from cuts all over her body, but she didn’t care.

Her legs were failing her. One cobrunny caught up to her and sank its fangs into her ankle. The pain was so sudden and terrible that she crashed and stumbled, but she somehow managed to regain her footing without losing a step. At some point, she suspected that she screamed, but she couldn’t hear it over the sound of her breathing or the loud thumping of her frantic heart.

The pain in her foot traveled up her leg. The venom in her shoulder was nearly to her heart. Tuni knew she would be dead soon, but she didn’t stop. Running was all she had now.

Tuni sobbed. It made it much more difficult to run, but she couldn’t help it. She overflowed with emotion as she neared the certainty of her end. She wept for the life that she was losing and wept for the friends and family she was leaving behind: her baby sister Telli, her mother, Sava, and Rukshin and his sister Rika. She’d miss them and they’d miss her terribly.

And the last she’d said to her mom were those horrible words. Gods, what an idiot she was. This would destroy her mother.

She had to risk a glance back. Tuni knew that she shouldn’t, told herself that she shouldn’t, but she went against her better judgment and looked back at her pursuers. Immediately, she regretted her decision as she saw that the cobrunnies were barely a few feet away. One misstep and she was dead. Tuni knew that she was likely dead anyway on account of the venom coursing through her body, but she preferred not to be eaten alive. She turned her head back in front of her.

WHACK!

Stars appeared in Tuni’s vision and pain exploded in her head as a branch surprised her and smacked her on the forehead. I’m going to die, she thought. Now she knew it was a certainty. Before she knew what was happening, she was falling, her feet no longer touching solid ground.

She hit the ground hard and continued to roll down a hill that had appeared out of nowhere. Everything in her being was screaming, pain encompassing her. She was wrapped in a cocoon of agony. Tuni crashed through bushes and shrubs and was stabbed by branches and beaten by the hard ground. She tumbled for an eternity, until she was sure that she would be dead long before she hit the ground. But at last, she landed hard and didn’t move again.

The taste of blood filled her mouth. Tuni tried to move, but none of her limbs would obey her. All she knew was pain. The left side of her body was burning from the venom and her right leg was at a horrific angle. She suspected that she had a few broken ribs and maybe even a fractured skull. She couldn’t be sure, but it didn’t really matter much.

She craned her neck and looked back at the hill from which she had fallen. The cobrunnies were all still near the top, but they were coming, their progress slow and cautious. They knew that Tuni was done for; they didn’t need to hurry.

“This is it,” she croaked through bloody teeth.

Her vision, already riddled by nausea and tears, began to blacken as death reached out its arm to greet her. The burning of the venom had nearly reached her throat and heart. Her body was becoming numb. It was a small blessing as she neared her end. The cobrunnies were making progress and soon they would be upon her. I’m coming, Dad.

She was ready for death’s cold grip, but then she heard a voice.

It started as the softest of whispers, so soft that it was completely inarticulate. Then it built, until it sounded as if someone was whispering into her ear, someone standing beside her. It was a girl’s voice, a voice no older than herself.

Esha belia med tiu casee elle velli celida.

The voice repeated that line several more times, each time louder and clearer. It sounded like the spirit language, but Tuni didn’t recognize any of the words. It sounded ancient, a tongue not used since the time of gods.

Tuni tried to open her eyes, but it felt like the greatest chore in the world, as if a herd of elephant beetles sat upon her eyelids. She struggled, but she managed to open them. That was when she saw the source of the voice, standing at the foot of the hill a few steps away. She had bright red hair that stood out like a beacon in the lush green that surrounded them. The girl seemed to be