485: [Bonus Content] Worlds Collide - Part 1

[Bonus Content] Worlds Collide - Part 1

~ HARTH ~2

One of the broad leaves of those fern-like plants snapped back as Harth darted between the two trees and finally the trail opened ahead of her and she could let her wolf run.

And run she did. As swift and silent as the wind, her father used to say.

But thoughts of her dead parents would only bring more heartache, and Harth was determined to find joy today. So she pressed on in her wolf, closing her mind to the others so they couldn't find her. 

She needed space. And silence. Or as much silence as this forest could offer. This land was beautiful, but Harth was learning that the coating of snow that was found in Thana almost nine months of the year had provided a great deal of... muffling. Thana was cold, wet, and beautiful. Not to mention cold. The weight of all that water, combined with the more barren land, meant Harth wasn't accustomed to all this... lushness. 

This place was always in motion. And mostly dry. It had finally rained last night, but that was their first rain in weeks! The dirt under her paws was dry, the breeze lifting dust and crackling leaves when it fluttered through. 

And it pressed into her face, bringing with it the scents of this incredible land. So many plants and trees none of them recognized. So many new animals, new sights. It was beautiful. 

And overwhelming. 

Harth didn't know where she was going, only that she needed to go. Away. To be alone. 

The itch to find solitude happened every day, sometimes more than once. Harth knew the Alphas would be angry if they knew how far she was wandering, but she couldn't stop. The longer she stayed close to the cook fires and all the Chimera, the tighter the iron bands around her chest seemed to press.

Kyelle's warnings about staying close to their encampment echoed in her ears, but she shook them off, literally, shaking her head so hard her ears snapped against her skull. She would be silent and watchful. But she needed desperately to be alone. 

These trails that peppered the forest were clearly old, the earth worn flat and hard in a wide swathe that cut between and around the massive trees that stood watch over this land. Yet even so, there were no fresh scents here. Beyond the occasional creature, the Chimera had found no one here. 

Yet. They hadn't found anyone yet. These trails alone were evidence that some kind of people existed here. Not humans, since the Gateway had been told it must be a place no humans could interfere. But they hadn't found them yet. Or been discovered themselves. 

Had this land somehow been wiped of its intelligent inhabitants? Perhaps. But they wouldn't know for a while. Patrols weren't extending beyond a couple of miles outside the sprawling Chimera camp because they were still frantically working to fashion weapons beyond the hunting bows and blades they'd brought from Thana. If there were others here, the Chimera would meet them in strength. They would not be imprisoned again. 

But that thought immediately turned her mind back to the human compound where she'd been held for the past three years. Where she'd watched so many die. And many more lose their minds. 

Where she'd been when her father was killed. 

How was it possible he'd been dead two years and she hadn't even known? Shouldn't a Chimeran heart know? 

No! She wasn't asking herself impossible questions anymore today. 

Today she was free. Today she was running. Today she would focus on pushing her body. On burning some of that energy that seemed to endlessly fizz in her bloodstream now.

She'd arrived in this new land with hope and excitement. Yet she'd since suffered blow after blow. 

Despite this newfound freedom, despite the fact that she had spent most of her life for the past three years enclosed either by walls, or fear, since landing here it felt like every day she only needed more space. More silence. More time.

How was it that more freedom had only made her feel more threatened? More restrained?

Harth growled to herself and pushed harder, her claws digging into the dirt as she threw herself down the trail, a silent blue-gray streak. She would reach the limits of her exploration soon. She should slow and turn back. 

But instead, she pushed on. Reckless. Defiant. 

Needy. 

Something called to her out here. She wished desperately that she knew what it was. She wished she knew why her body refused to rest until she'd run. Why she sought so desperately to be alone, yet day after day she found only a gaping hole of aching loneliness in her chest for her trouble.

Harth was confused and frustrated, and driven to keep going. 

Nose high and nostrils flared to catch the scents on the wind, she reached the place where she'd turned around the day before. She should slow. Stop. Turn around. 

She ran on.

Her only concession to the unknown was that she forced herself to slow and examine the forest for any sign of others. 

But all she found was that echoing space in her own chest. 

What the fuck was wrong with her? 

Sighing heavily, she almost forced herself to turn back and give up this pursuit of... nothing. 

But as she reluctantly began to slow, she noticed that the trees were opening up. Growing fewer and farther between. 

She slowed to an easy lope, then a trot as the late afternoon sunlight began to filter through the forest canopy overhead not just in fractured patches that dappled her in shadows, but in chunks of open space that glowed with warm light. 

Then suddenly, between one stride and the next, the trees opened up completely and Harth found herself in a strange clearing. 

It was as if the Creator had gotten angry and thrown something at the forest here. There were no trees, very little brush, and what grass existed was thin and dry. 

Harth slid to a halt, heart pounding and not from the running. 

This place was... strange. 

Open ground spread before her for a mile at least. A wide, almost round interruption to the forest. And most curiously, directly in front of her, not even a quarter of a mile from the edge of the trees, the land rose sharply and suddenly.

She heard something move on the other side of that rise and froze, frowning at the strange sounds—a crunch, like a foot on gravel, followed by a sweeping sound, then a grunt. Repeated, over and over. But within seconds it was clear that the movements were short, jagged, organized—and only from one source.

Harth's heart raced. There was someone here.

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