Aurora Wildhart's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

The guardian lay in the snow, and its blood ran bright across the drifts. Aurora pressed her palms to the wound, but the bleeding would not stop. Worse, the red streak trailed back through the trees, a clear path for the hunters. She heard them already, shouting to one another, following the stain. Her water magic cleaned the wound but could not hide the trail. She needed help, and she needed it now. She searched the treeline and found a cabin she had not seen before. Thorned rose vines wrapped its walls. Orange roses glowed in the dark. A small flame burned in one window, a jar of healing herbs in the other. Aurora half-carried the guardian toward the door, her animals scrambling behind her. She pounded on the wood. The door opened. An elf stood there, short and sharp-eyed, with a rose tucked in her hair and leaf-stitched armor on her shoulders. A green vine wand hung at her belt. She looked past Aurora to the bleeding giant and did not flinch. "Bring it in before the whole wild smells that blood," the elf said. "I'm Charlotte Thorne. I heal animals. I also kill men who hurt them. Move." They dragged the guardian onto the healing station inside. Charlotte worked fast. She packed the wound with crushed orange petals and bound it with vine. Aurora called cool wind to numb the pain while Charlotte stitched. The guardian's breathing steadied. Its great eyes opened and found Aurora's face. "The trail," Aurora said. "They're following the blood. They'll reach the door." Charlotte lifted her vine wand. "That's what this is for. It baffles scent and hides sign." She stepped outside. Aurora followed. The elf swept the wand low over the red streak in the snow. Green tendrils spread from its tip and crawled across the trail. They drank the blood and closed over the marks. The scent vanished. The path went white and clean, as if no one had passed. The hunters reached the spot minutes later. Aurora watched from behind the rose vines, her wand ready. The men stopped where the trail ended. They circled, sniffing, cursing. One kicked the snow. They found nothing. No blood, no tracks, no beast. After a long while they turned and marched back the way they came. Aurora let out her breath. Inside, the guardian slept, healed and safe. She had kept her guide alive. "You should rest here tonight," Charlotte said, cleaning her hands. "But not long. Those men will come back with more. And they'll bring things that don't need a blood trail to track you." She nodded at the dark trees. "Something moves out there already. Something that watches." Aurora looked where the elf pointed. Among the branches, a shape hung still. Pale vine-legs. A faint ghostly glow. It stared back with empty eyes, and it did not belong to the hunters she knew.