Thalken Tales, Pt. 3

Run Boy Run

Thalken's POV

We plunge through the forest. The wind whips through our hair as we weave in and out of trees and brush. Leaves crunch under our feet. Branches snag our hair and scratch across our faces. But we don’t stop. They’re coming for us, and they know this place like the back of their hands. I can hear the foreboding horn blasts and war drums growing closer by the minute. The hair on the back of my neck stands on end as a dark blur in my peripheral catches my attention. They’ve caught up to us. I give Thalcona the signal, and we cut to the right. My pulse thuds in my ears as my eyes sweep the forest. My heart skips a beat when Thalcona lets out a strangled scream. A leather clad warrior drops from the trees in front of us, landing on all fours with the precision of a cat. Unable to stop quick enough, I barrel into the back of my sister, sending us both sprawling. Feline eyes peer at us through the empty eye sockets of a lion skull.  "Go Thalcona go!" I implore her as we scramble to our feet. With a feral hiss, the hybrid lunges at her. I intercept it, my body colliding with it. As we tousle on the ground, I feel a burst of pain as its claws rake across my chest. My hand fumbles before freeing one of my knives, and I plunge my blade deep into its gut. Adrenaline coursing through my veins, I stab it again and again and again, pulverizing and eviscerating its chest in a blind rage.  “He’s dead! He’s dead, Thalken!” Thalcona’s voice penetrates my haze, snapping me out of it. “Come on, we’ve got to go!” The knife falls from my shaking hand, and I stare down at the ravaged corpse beneath me, horrified by what I had so easily done--yet again. My hands are covered in blood, so much blood. Faces flash before my eyes. A widowed wife. An orphaned child. A familyless father. The lives I've taken. The lives I've wrecked. I'm still the same killer I've always been. The killer my father made me, and worse yet, the killer I let myself become. My lungs constrict to where I can scarce breathe.  “Thalken please! Snap out of it!” she pleads, holding her hand out to me. “Now is not the time for regret!”  I pry myself away from the murdered hybrid and take her hand like the lifeline it is. She yanks me to my feet, and we take off again at a sprint. There’s movement in the brush around us, so we press on faster. We press on until our lungs burn and our legs feel like they’re going to give out at any second. We’re almost there. Just a little further. The high pitched laughter of hyenas bubbles up around us, sending a fresh wave of fear through me.   Finally I see it, the notched tree. There’s a narrow gap between it and another tree. We make a beeline for it, slipping between the two trunks. Once on the other side, I quickly pull my sister into my chest and cover her face right as the hybrids hit the tripwire. A large spiked branch swings out, and I feel a warm spray of blood hit the side of my face as they’re impaled with a sickening crunch. My breathing comes in and out sharply as I listen for movement. But all I hear is silence.  “Come on. Let’s go,” I urge Thalcona. We take off yet again. But we hardly get far when there’s an ear splitting screech...