Raena fired arrow after arrow, each one hitting its target and yet, the monstrous creature appeared unaffected. It simply pulled out each arrow from where it was buried in its skeletal chest and snapped it in half like a twig.

Raena didn't bother wasting any more arrows after she had fired a fourth. She took a cautious step to the left, never taking her eyes off it. She could sprint, but if it had any kind of animalistic sense, she knew she would only be appealing to the predator. So far, it had not advanced towards her. Instead, it continued to gaze at her with those luminous blue eyes that weren't quite eyes, but more like cavernous holes or eye sockets, deeply carved into its skeletal head.

She took another slow step away, her fingers gripping her bow tightly. She had to remain calm and focused. What if it could smell fear? She focused on steadying her breathing, but she couldn't deny the panic slowly rising within her. It was an ugly thing to look at, and no doubt, dangerous, so why wasn't it attacking?

Raena broke into a cold sweat. She had a sudden urge to run, far, far away from its capturing gaze. The creature was setting her on edge, and she couldn't seem to think of a plan of escape. Then she heard it, a whisper, snaking through the air.

Raena.

She froze. How did it know her name? The creature repeated her name, over and over again, and yet its mouth did not move. It simply stared, daring her to run.

Raena. Run. Run, Raena! Raena, run! Run! Run!

The whispers were all around her as if carried by the wind, encircling her and Raena crouched to the ground in fear, holding her hands over her ears.

"Shut up!" she screamed. "Shut up!"

The whispering stopped. Raena looked up but remained crouched, her body shaking in terror.

The creature cocked its head to one side and then slowly, a wide grin spread across its decayed face. Its cracked lips parted to reveal large, yellow, rotting teeth. It let out a sudden roar and the creature's bones moved in and out of place. Its neck made a horrible cracking sound as it twisted. Then something even stranger happened. Its body began to increase in size, and it grew large as an ox, its wide eyes never leaving hers throughout its transformation.

Raena's breath caught in her throat and she stumbled to get up.

Run, the creature seemed to taunt, and Raena, not willing to stand the sight of it a moment longer, ran.

The chase had begun, and this time, the huntress felt what it was like to be the hunted. Fear propelled her forward, and adrenaline pumped through her veins as her feet treaded on dried autumn leaves and crunched on fallen twigs and branches. She glanced backwards, and a small whimper of fear escaped her lips as her eyes made contact with the creature's, its beaten, rusty armour clanking as it bolted towards her, ramming past trees and splintering their trunks. Raena didn't want to imagine what would happen if it got to her. The creature looked like it could crush her whole in a heartbeat.

She focused her attention forwards again - only to stumble into a bush. Raena cried out in pain as a thorn slashed through her cloak and grazed her thigh, hood falling back. She scrambled to get up, ignoring the throbbing in her leg. She felt a sudden pain shoot through her scalp as the creature caught a fistful of her long hair. She grabbed one of her hunting knives, which she kept hidden in the pockets of her cloak and dug it into the creature's rotting face. The creature screamed at the blade that was embedded deep in its cheek and it turned its cold eyes towards Raena, who shivered under its petrifying gaze. It was twice her size and undoubtedly strong. Extremely strong.

Raena thrashed and kicked and attempted to jab it with her bow, all to no avail. The creature seemed unbothered by it all. Instead, it leaned in towards her and she felt as if a cold hand had reached inside her chest and grasped her heart, chilling it. The creature released another horrible screech before it bit into her arm.

Raena let out a terrible, high-pitched scream that seemed to fill the forest. Birds and other creatures flittered away at the sound, and tears sprang to her eyes. The creature had sunk its teeth deep into her flesh, and if she yanked away now, it would certainly tear away several layers of skin.

Suddenly, the creature let go and gave out another terrible roar, releasing her. Raena dropped to the floor, sobbing and cradling her bleeding, right forearm. The creature turned around and Raena saw a long hunting knife stuck in its lower back, sunken well within its decayed flesh and wedged between two of its spinal bones. She couldn't see past the creature from where she was on the ground, but she could tell it was angered by the way its shoulders rose and fell through heavy, shuddering breaths. It was staring at something.

"Raena!"

No, someone.

"Braedon!" Raena called out through choked sobs, hugging her arm, pressing it against her chest.

The creature began advancing towards Braedon.

"Braedon, run!" Raena cried, her legs wobbling as she forced herself to stand, trying to get a better visual of the scene happening before her.

Braedon was standing limply not a metre away from the creature, his eyes wide in shock and terror at this otherworldly beast.

"Braedon!" Raena screamed again, and he blinked rapidly, suddenly snapping out of whatever trance he had been in. He darted towards Raena without warning and ducked swiftly under the creature's outstretched arm, sliding on the dry leaves and almost losing his balance. He reached Raena and gripped her good shoulder.

"I need you to run. Go straight to Grandpa Sage."

"I'm not leaving you!" Raena exclaimed indignantly.

"We don't have time for this," Braedon said as the creature turned towards them once more.

He grabbed her bow and she went to protest when she realised that with her arm indisposed, she was utterly useless. She attempted to unsling the quiver of arrows from her back using only her good arm, but Braedon had to help her take it off.

He wasted no time as he slung it over his own shoulder, grabbed an arrow and, just as the creature charged towards him, he drew back the string and let the arrow do its work. It struck the creature right in the middle of its neck and it stopped momentarily before reaching a large hand towards its neck. Braedon fired another three, all landing in its neck, and although it didn't seem to be the key to killing it, it was slowing down.

"Come on!" Braedon cried when he saw that instead of running, Raena had picked up her small hunting knife from the ground. She noticed him wincing at the wet blood that dripped from Raena's arm onto the dried leaves below. He grabbed her good arm instead and urged her to run with him. The two bolted away, weaving in and out between trees, as swiftly as the deer they had been hunting moments earlier. Raena silently prayed to the Gods that her blood wouldn't lead the creature back towards them. The pain in her thigh throbbed with each step forward, but it was nothing like what she felt in her arm, which might as well have been alight, the burning sensation travelling relentlessly up and down her entire right arm.

They came to a deep slope and the two scurried down as quickly and cautiously as they possibly could, slipping and sliding and catching each other, encouraging and pushing each other onwards. When they finally reached the bottom, they didn't stop, even when they heard the creature roar once again, not too far off in the distance. They ran on relentlessly, until they reached the familiar sound of a waterfall. Braedon squeezed her arm supportively. They had finally reached the outskirts of the forest and Raena felt the familiar, muddy soil beneath her boots as they made their way to the boulder wall. From far away, it would be impossible to see the stepping stones just below the surface of the rippling water.

"Hang on," Braedon said, as Raena attempted to step on the first stone and almost lost her balance. She winced as she looked down at her thigh, regretting it the minute she realised just how much blood was running down her leg.

Braedon handed back Raena's bow before he lifted her up into his arms and slowly stepped on one rock at a time, his full concentration on not slipping and letting Raena fall. Usually, he would hold the stone wall for support, but with Raena weak and paling in his arms, all he could do was put one foot in front of the other. Raena urged him to hurry - they had to get to Grandpa Sage and fast before that creature caught up to them. The sound of the waterfall was deafening, and Braedon breathed a sigh of relief as he reached the last steppingstone before he stepped through the small opening behind the waterfall and his feet landed on hard soil.

He hurried down the dark cave-like corridor, Raena still in his arms as he called out to his grandpa.

"Grandpa Sage! It's Raena! She's hurt." His voice echoed and bounced against the walls. He continued to hurry deeper into the cave until he came to a clearing with three pathways diverging. He took the left, knowing his grandpa would most likely be in the medical room he had created from these ancient walls.

Raena watched her blood, drip-drip-dripping onto the dark soil below, her blood blending like artwork with the dirt. Her eyes were drooping shut and she wished to simply fall unconscious, for the burning sensation and throbbing pain in both her leg and arm to cease. Each time she closed her eyes though, she saw that creature and its daunting blue eyes staring back at her eagerly, and her eyes would flutter back open and the pain would increase once more.

"Hang on," Braedon whispered under his breath to her, before calling out, "Grandpa!"

There was a scuffle of feet and a familiar voice before Raena's vision blackened and the voices around her became muffled.

"Raena," someone was shaking her, and she forced her eyelids open. "Raena!"

It was Braedon, standing in front of her with a look of clear anxiety plastered on his face. She realised she must have momentarily blacked out, for she was lying down on a stone table and her cloak and hunting leathers had been removed. She risked a glance at her arm, which had become inflamed and swollen. She swallowed some bile when she saw some of her flesh had been torn off, the creature's teeth mark grossly evident on her unusually pale skin.

She let the world fall away once more but was called back to it soon after.

"Raena, filia, you must keep awake a little longer."

Raena heard his voice before she saw him. She glanced up at the fuzzy facial features of Grandpa Sage, normally a still-image of calm and collected. But now his face was creased with worry lines and his emerald green eyes were missing their usual spark. She'd never seen him this worried. Actually, she didn't think she had ever seen Grandpa Sage worried at all.

"Raena, listen to me, I've concocted something for your arm but I'm missing a final ingredient." He looked unwilling to continue, but he took another breath. "I need your essence," he said slowly, his voice straining to be that usual serene and low tone that it always was.

Raena resisted the urge to cry as the pain in her arm suddenly increased once again.

"But..." Was he asking what she thought he was asking of her? "But you said..."

"I know what I said, filia," Grandpa Sage said wearily. "But we don't have much time. And if there was any other way, I wouldn't have suggested this."

Raena knew by 'we' he meant she didn't have much time. The only problem was she didn't know if she had it in her to do what he was asking.

"Reach deep inside, Raena," Grandpa Sage urged gently. "It's much easier than you may think. It's been waiting for you. Just centre yourself and focus, filia."

Raena's hesitation was brief, the pain in her body becoming almost unbearable. She knew he was right. Whatever she had learned to push deep down all these years... it was patiently waiting for her to need it. Whatever 'it' was, exactly.

She mustered up every fibre of strength she had left, lifting her good arm slowly towards her neck, where she knew the strange tattoo was: three curved lines, somewhat like a wave.

She felt her fingers tingling as she willed herself to feel the water deep below the soil, to hear the familiar sound of the waterfall she had grown so used to hearing, right outside the cave. She imagined the river outside flowing through her veins and her very being, willing herself to want it, to need it.

She could feel her body slowly shutting down with the strain of both her injuries and this elemental force she was calling upon, and she opened her eyes wide as her vision glazed over and a single, shimmery tear cascaded down her cheek.

Grandpa Sage hurried to pick up a bowl beside her on his table of medicines, and Raena caught a whiff of a strong and not particularly pleasant smell - some kind of plant and dirt mixed together. He held the bowl to her cheek and let it drip into its contents. The water spread, mixing and trickling through the bowl like a tiny stream.

Raena felt light, her body numbing over, and all she could feel was her arm now.

"This is going to hurt a little," Grandpa Sage said quietly after he had finished mixing it together with a wooden spoon. Then he muttered something under his breath and poured the contents carefully over her arm.

Raena let out a shriek of pure agony as the salty sensation filled her entire body, burning like she had rubbed a whole heap of salt in her wound, and her head felt ready to burst.

Then, as if by some merciful force, blackness called to her once more, and this time, she did nothing to stop herself from succumbing to the dark, painless slumber that awaited her.