BREATH . OF . LIFE . ~ { ReGenisis Chronicles Book I }

Chapter Two [Part 1/5]: Cowards & Kings

                   -Griffin King-

I could smell fresh blood on the air. Staring at the leaves beneath my feet and then out at the path, it hadn't been long since they'd been disturbed. At least four sets of feet had tore through the trail, pushing up clumps of brown leaves here and compressing others down, there. From the size and depth of the footprints three were male, mid-thirties into their forties. One of them was over-weight, another had a slight limp by the way his left print slid to the side every step, distorting it's shape. I assumed it was an old injury. 

My eyes caught the fourth set of shoe marks, the lightest, most frantic. For although the print was shallow, the leafy trail had been most disturbed by this one's speed. A girl by the  4 1/2 print. Then by her scent, she smelled like violet flowers, although that mellifluous scent was disturbed by the stench of sweat and the fear that permeated with it. I started to pick up my pace, my heart thudding against my ribcage. 

The scent of sweat and blood was getting stronger. I felt my pupils dilate, my stomach lurch up within me. 

                       * * *

I came upon the scene, three men, one girl, two distinct scents of blood. One vulgar and impure, the other clean and light. The latter was oxygenating, running cold and stale very slowly. I could hear three heart beats in front of me, when there should have been four. My muscles tightened, my jaw clenched. The girl was dead and fading, like a flower cut from its bed and left to wilt in the hot sun. What radiance left about her an artificial reflection of the life that was once within her. 

I threw myself forward at the men. Taking the first before any of them had turned to notice me behind them. I broke his neck and watched him topple to the ground. The sound of his heavy body thudding into the damp leaves capturing his friends attention. As the loose mud and leaf particles still hung in the air from his impact, I took the one who had a limp roughly by the arm, swinging him full force into a tree. I heard the crack as his face collided with the hard bark. It could be as simple as a broken nose and a concussion. Only I knew what my strength was, the corner of my mouth flicked up into a wry smirk as I watched him slide down the coarse bark and flop to the ground. 

In this time the last of the three men had a moment to shriek, he held in his hand a knife that was covered in less blood than his hands. The blood belonged to the girl, but one of his thumbs was bleeding, the second source of blood. His wound was in the shape of a set of teeth. She had tried to defend herself, that poor girl.

I moved forward towards the one responsible for the blood that was still pouring out of her. He went to stab me in the gut, and I let him. His eyes widened as he noticed my smirk growing on my face. I wrapped my hand around his where it held the knife deep in my flesh. My grip tightened until I heard the cracks of bones breaking. When I let his hand go he took it back without the knife, swollen, limp  and turning purple, he cradled it to himself. 

I pulled the knife from my abdomen, it stung a little, felt a little sharp like a needles pinch. But I could already feel the muscle pull itself back together. The wound would be closed soon, no damage done. "Run then... Like you made her run." I ordered.

I watched him turn on his feet and start at a pace. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and flung the knife forward. Opening my eyes, I watched it hurtle through the air, finding its mark in the back of his leg and making him crash down into the leaves with a gargle.

I walked over to his carcass, still alive and wriggling in fear. I could smell it coming off of him, strong like manure. The look in his beady little eyes as they grew wide with terror whilst he turned himself over, knife still stuck in his calf. I knelt down by him and pulled it from him jaggedly, making him wince and yell.