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Nowhere to Run!
Cat slogged her way from the water. Dry land was in front of her. Without turning to look, she ran for the forest, for the darkness there, the safety. Her wet clothes clung to her body, weighing her down, but she persevered.
Near the fringe of trees, she heard the horse and its master behind her. The ground shook under her feet, but she ran on.
Breath short, feet pounding the ground, she raced for the density of the woods. She leaped over large roots, spread on the forest floor well beyond the trees they supported. Limbs smacked her face and swung their branches to entrap her. She slipped and slid on ground cover, slick from the previous night’s rain.
He was gaining on her. She picked up her pace and ran faster, though the pain in her chest threatened to fell her. Her feet caught on a rash of small pebbles. One foot struck a raised root concealed by leaves. Her body vaulted into the air, collided with the trunk of a tall white birch and was tossed backward. Her head smacked into the trunk of a large oak. Air flew from her body in labored explosions. The bark of the tree tangled with her short hair and held her prisoner on her back.
The very same moment she first slipped on the pebbles, the man tried to tackle her. A large bare root crossed his path. His frame levitated three feet off the ground.
She tried to extricate her hair from the branch and saw him maneuver his large frame into a ball, to roll on landing. He hit the other side, smashed his ankle on an extended low branch and landed next to her. He flung an arm over her and pinned her down.
His body was as hard and sturdy as any tree in the forest. The leg he tossed over her was like a huge branch, long and sinewy. His hand was like an iron band where it wrapped around her rib.
When he pitched himself up on one elbow, she saw the flicker of anger in his eyes. Yet, he smiled. A pulse thundered in her neck.
“Don’t move an inch, lassie. You’re in a very vulnerable position.”
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