An Accident

Missed her again, Jack thought. Despite this, he couldn't help but grin like a bandit in front of a pot of gold as he inspected the carriage traces on the road. At first, they were a bit meandering, but then turned straight as the pace of the carriage increased again and changed directions. Lady Katherine wasn't an idiot. It was good she turned away from the fight, though it meant that they couldn't meet up with her. Jack was a bit proud of her. His daughter was such a smart girl.

While thinking this, Jack comfortably forgot that he contributed nothing to her abilities whatsoever.

"Pack up these people and let's get back. We'll search for the Lady on the way", Jack said and gestured in the direction of the prisoners. It was a small group compared to Jack's own, so it was hardly difficult to defeat them. Only a young boy had escaped their grasp, but Jack was positive someone this young wouldn't know much.

Though they had said nothing when they were captured, Jack was sure Christine would be able to loosen their tongues in her unique way. She could bring anyone to talk. Just thinking of the torture master let a shiver run down Jack's spine. He remembered the days spent in the dungeon all too well.

Looking around with his mood dropping, Jack bellowed: "Hurry up you lazy asses! If Lady Katherine gets hurt because we're late, I'm gonna drown you all in your own feces!"

After a while, Katherine stopped the carriage. She was positive that she had the time now to unhitch the horses without her possible pursuers catching up. Without the carriage, she would be much faster on the uneven ground.

Her hands were trembling and numb from the cold, but she forced herself to ignore it. With gritted teeth, she cut the last rope binding the horses to the carriage. They were nervously looking about and churning up the earth with their hooves. Quietly, she talked to them while collecting their reigns together. The two were beautiful chestnut colored draft horses, but they seemed to be agitated because they weren't with their usual coachman. She was still a stranger to them. She wasn't sure if they would allow her on their back.

After a few minutes of reassuring them - her legs and feet slowly turned as numb as her fingers - the horses stood still.

"Good horses", she praised them, and went to the side of one. Surely it would be easier to let one horse run free and only take the other, but she was afraid it would alert the pursuers if they saw one of the carriage's horses. So, she had no choice but to take them both.

Now was the moment of truth. If they tried to throw her off, Katherine wasn't sure if she had enough strength left to hold on. But with the night turning colder, it would get harder to move the longer she waited. With a prayer on her lips, she grabbed into the mane, and swung herself up. The hose neighed and took a few steps back as if for a start-up. That was when Katherine softly pulled on the reigns and patted its neck. "Everything is alright. Don't get agitated, sweetie. Yes, that's good."

The horse calmed down. But then, not far away, a howl rose up in the air. It was an instinct. The horses heard the wolves and jumped. The reigns of the second horse got torn out of Katherine's hand, leaving a red mark. She had no time to care about it, as the horse under her had run wild. She could do nothing but hold onto it with everything she got.

Her first instinct was to slow it down, but with a gaze back, this idea evaporated. Eyes. Dozens of glowing, yellow eyes sprinkled the darkness of the forest. And they were getting closer.

Over the sound of the hooves, Katherine could hear the panting of wild beasts, the quiet drumming of paws on earth. Her heart sped up as she clung tightly to the horse's back. The picture of a boy flashed through her mind, nothing but a bloody mess left to die under big trees. She could end up exactly like this.

"Faster!", she urged, prayed. "You need to run faster!"

There was light at the end of the road. The forest had to be ending there. However, the wolves were also getting closer. The second horse had already fled between the trees. It was faster since it didn't have the burden of a rider, and the wolves didn't seem to care about it. The bigger catch was still in front of their noses.

Katherine's heart turned cold. They would not make it. This was a draft horse, not a racer. Her mind turned, thinking hard for a solution.

Then something dark suddenly jumped on the road in front. Yellow eyes blazed and a growl let the air tremble. They had surrounded them.

The horse came to a screeching halt and went up on its back hooves. Katherine got thrown off from its back. Harshly, she crashed against the ground.

For a second, she could see nothing, only heard the horse neigh, and her ears jingling. Her head and back pulsed with pain, and she curled herself up into a ball, gasping for air. The horse's hooves slammed downwards again and again, hitting earth and wolves alike. It turned in a circle, but the wolves were everywhere.

As Katherine felt warm breath on her skin, and paws scratching as they jumped over her, the danger of the situation chased away the shock. Until now, the wolves had not attacked her, but she was sure that would change as soon as they saw her move or when the horse was dead.

Carefully, she turned her head to see more clearly. The wolves and the horse fought not three steps away, but it would be over soon. The horse was riddled with wounds and scratches, one wolf still hanging on its front leg. There were six in total, all big and nearly invisible in the shadows.

Cautiously to not alert them, Katherine crawled backwards. After a few steps, she had stop to catch her breath. Her back hurt like she had crashed against a boulder, and her hips protested with each movement. When she touched the back of her head, there was a dark sticky liquid. She had never felt so much pain in her life.

With a low whimper, she forced herself to a stand nonetheless when she reached the trees. She needed to get as far away as possible before the wolves noticed her. She felt sorry for the horse, but at least when the wolves ate it, they might not be hungry enough anymore to hunt her down. Or at least that was what she thought, before she heard the growling behind her.

Killing the horse had been way too easy for the wolves. She would have thought it would take longer. But when she looked back, she saw its corpus on the ground, a dark puddle building under its throat. Around it stood six big wolves, baring their bloody fangs at her.

For a second, the scenery stood still.

Then the biggest of them tensed up its hind legs and pounced in her direction.