LUCIEN’S POV.
Things were beginning to get worse. I didn’t know if we could outrun eagles when we were running at human speed, and I feared greatly for Adria who was injured.
“Let’s run!” I whispered frantically, even though the eagles didn’t need to hear us to chase us.
We began to run, and she winced continuously as she did. Honestly, I was also scared. Not just for myself, but for her. Even though I had promised her mother that I’d bring her back safely, the thing that scared me most was losing her.
When she had been dying from my slash the other time, it had felt like the whole journey had ended, and I had lost her, but thankfully, I was able to save her.
“Can you run? Will you get on my back?” I asked, holding her hand, tightly.
“No, I would rather not slow you down. Besides, if those eagles sweep down low, I’ll be injured first.” She teased, and we continued to run. It was harder because we had to climb, though.
Had it been on level ground, we could have been a bit faster. The eagles, overhead, swooped down low, and began to attack us with their beaks.
Adria tried not to scream, and I suspected it was because she didn’t want me to worry, but I ended up worrying.
Each time, she winced, and let out a pained yelp, my heart hurt.
“Damn! They’re too much!” She screamed, and a number of eagles suddenly held on to her clothes, hair, and arms with their legs, and began to lift her into the air.
She screamed loudly.
“Adria!” I called sharply.
“Lucien! Save me!” She screamed back, flailing her legs, and arms helplessly.
“Hold on!” I shouted, holding on to her leg. The eagles were quite strong, and didn’t let go, and it was bad enough that a few eagles tried to lift me up too.
“Aah! Help me! Help me please! Oh God, Oh God, it’s taking me!” She squealed, and I tried hard to bring her to the floor.
“Wait… can you use your claws!? We can’t use extra abilities, but our claws and fangs should be able to work!” I shouted, as the eagles kept on picking at my flesh with their beaks. When the eagles began to raise me upwards, I lost my hold on her, and she screamed.
“Take out your claws!” I shouted, taking out mine, and slashing the eagles with their malicious beaks, intent on feasting on us.
Adria turned her gaze upwards, and looked at the eagles, and I saw her eyes flash in a dangerous red color. She screamed, and freed an arm from the grasp of an eagle, and with incredible strength, slashed into another.
The eagles lost their hold, and she fell.
“Damn!” I spat, as I tried to catch her. We both fell hard on the floor, and rolled down the mountain we had been climbing.
We slammed into a tree, and I grunted. However, my hand came off Adria’s head with blood. She had hit her head hard.
“I wasn’t wounded just now. When I fell on the portal, my head bled. I think the wound was only reopened.” She grunted, seeing me questioning the bleeding from her head with my eyes.
But it had probably hurt because there were tears glistening in her eyes.
I got up, and pulled her with me. Thick, dark blood ran down her face, and the eagles slammed into us. Adria screamed, trying to hit them, but they were too many, and too strong.
Adria, and I fought through the eagles with lots of injuries from their beaks, which were sharper than knives.
“Damn it! Eagles don’t randomly attack humans!” Adria screamed, as we began to run up the mountain once more.
“Don’t forget this is the land of the dreaded!” I retorted. We bled as we ran, fighting not to give in under the pressure because I was very sure the eagles would take us high up in the sky, drop us, and return to feast on us when we could no longer move or fight.
“It’s a cliff!” Adria shouted, as we approached the top of the mountain, and when we got there, the eagle tried to take us into the sky once more, by biting at us, but I decided they wouldn’t get more tastes of us.
“Jump!” I shrieked.
“You’re crazyyyaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Adria screamed, as we plunged down the depths of the cliff.
Below was rushing water, and some jagged rocks.
If we happened to fall against those rocks, we were gone. Gravity took us down at a blurring speed, but the eagles didn’t stop following.
Their eyes seemed to narrow, and zoom in on us as we dived downwards.
Then we finally plunged into the water, going down quickly, and all I could see were bubbles.
I hit my back on a rock, and let out a roar, causing more bubbles to form in the water.
It seemed like the eagles didn’t follow. After being taken down as far as we could go, we began to swim upwards.
As Adria swam, blood flowed from her, and I wondered just how hurt she had to be, for me to see her blood in the water. When we raised our heads out of the water. Adria yelled, fighting for breath.
I looked around, but the eagles were nowhere to be found.
“Damn it…” Adria began to cry, repeating the words over again.
“Hey, hey, at least we’re fighting against external creatures, not against ourselves.” I reassured, brushing her wet hair away from her face, but she didn’t stop crying.
Adria seemed to be covered in sticky blood, and I couldn’t begin to wonder how hurt she was. Water was the last thing her wounds needed at the moment.
We began to swim, trying to go to shore, but something was weird. The closer we got to shore, the harder it was to swim, until finally, we were unable to move towards the shore.
“The… the water’s holding us.” Adria blurted out, with fear radiating in her voice.
“The water’s what?”
“The water isn’t random water. It’s some kind of force on its own.” She explained, and suddenly, we were lifted by something, thick, and black.
Despite myself, I yelled along with Adria, as we plunged back into the water.
The water got into my nose, and my mouth, and I found it hard to hold on.
Adria fought to swim to the surface, and I saw my shirt had slipped from her tummy. The leaves were no longer there, and the wound stayed on her stomach in a deep, ugly smile.
We made it to the surface of the water once more, and I breathed in hard.
“Goodness.” Adria exclaimed softly, as a large dark octopus rose out of the water.
It was a giant octopus, as large as a house.