Searching for Skarra

I found Skarra by sheer luck in the middle of the night. When I ran through the town calling her name I noticed a commotion in the water near me. First bubbles started to appear, then a black point spawned under the blue of the 'Emse' just for her head to break through the surface of the river. She used her right hand to drag herself out of the river, the other arm was covered in scars that looked like red cracks in an iron armor. The water had rinsed out the wounds, but they were still bleeding. Her face was swollen and more blue than gray. Mumbling something I couldn't understand, her right hand reached out to me. It was shaking. The alley down the street, where I eavesdropped yesterday, materialized a bunch of shouting guys, running towards us. I have to admit I considered leaving Skarra there, although that thought was brief. I was torn between the same fear that overcame me when I saw the bandit turn around after killing the chief and my heroic self, but the latter won. I grabbed my companion's arm, threw her over my shoulder and ran towards the entrance of the town. She was surprisingly light.

Screaming from the top of my lungs I dashed through the streets, but the hoped-for commotion

I thought at least a few inhabitants would still be awake at this hour and maybe care for

Makes one wonder, what happens normally in these streets.

When we reached the forest, the breath was burning in my lungs. My knees felt like you would rub two plates against each other, but somehow I kept running. Our pursuers were catching up fast. Finally we reached the point I was looking for. The map in my bag vibrated confirming it. In front of us there were five huge oaks growing away from each other, like an unseen force was pulling their treetops apart. Like described in the Map I ran between them, stopped half way and took a turn to the right just to walk backwards. Even though we weren't running anymore the sounds of the men chasing us became softer and tore off completely after I had circled the last first two trees.

At first I wasn't sure whether we really made it or I was just too exhausted to hear our pursuers anymore. Looking up I realized the former was the case.

The world around us had changed. We weren't in the forest anymore. Neither trees nor leaves, grass or animals as far as the eye could see. Our surroundings are hard to describe. Reality had folded on itself to form what appears to be a tunnel outside of space.

Everything around us was transparent like made of bluish purple glass. The trees we just passed were now several feet away from us with their treetops seemingly conjoining above our heads. Shadowy figures swarmed around the trees, whispering words I should understand but couldn't. It was like an itch inside your upper jaw that you can't scratch.

For a moment I stood around and took the beauty of it all in. Then I remembered that I still had Skarra shouldered, so I laid her down on the ground. Blood was still seeping out of her arm, even though her face seemed to be better. I tore off a piece of my coat and wrapped it around her as tight as I could. Sadly I didn't find one of those leaf she gave me a week ago, while browsing through her belongings.

After writing down what happened in the last hour, I feel pretty beat, so I'm gonna try and get some shut eye (uu, a rhyme).

Hopefully she's still breathing when I wake up, sadly I'm as clueless about medicine as a bear.