Forsaken by the one person who was supposed to love her unconditionally, Red must brave the magic and monsters of the Wylds to find her true place in the world.
*****
Plague...
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Sebastian frantically scrubbed the brackish blood from his hands, waiting until the water ran clear in the stream before splashing it up into his face. His thick coat had mitigated the worst of the spray, but some of the acidic liquid had sunk through to his skin, leaving angry red welts behind.
It had been a risk, to leave the girl unattended after that battle with the Bone Snatcher, but the searing pain from the blood spatter had been too close to his eyes for comfort. One drop could render him blind, and the risk of permanently compromising his senses had outweighed the risks of leaving the cunning girl to fend for herself for a few hours. She'd survived a gruelling trek through the Rotten Sea, not to mention an encounter with the largest Bone Snatcher he'd ever seen. The next stretch of her journey, if she continued wending her way north, would be a leisurely stroll by comparison.
Still, he would have preferred to tail her for a little while longer; to see if he could work out who she was, and why she'd left the sanctuary Blood Moon village like a thief in the night. Though not a very good one, Sebastian thought with a snort, recalling her pitiful attempt to climb down the rope. She'd absolutely shredded her hands, having forgotten to grip the rope with her feet.
Indeed, upon reflection, Sebastian had to admit it seemed too pitiful an attempt. She'd marked every obstacle in her path with those bloodied hands, and now he wondered if it was the act of ignorance he'd originally presumed. Perhaps it was a trail of breadcrumbs in plain sight, designed to lead the Blood Moon hunters right to him...
The thought didn't disturb him as much as it should have. Sebastian was not welcome behind those ashwood walls, but he needed to know if his arrow had struck true; had been waiting all night for the guards' conversation to return to the white wolf's condition. He would have waited longer if that girl hadn't cried out that she'd seen something in the woods. He'd panicked, thinking that she'd somehow spotted him from that seemingly abandoned watchtower, only to realise she was diverting the guards away from his location. But Sebastian had known that sooner or later, they'd go looking for the missing girl or her mysterious threat. His position had been compromised, and so with nothing better to do while the commotion blew over, he'd decided to follow her into the Wylds.
Since then, it had been a relentless tug of war between his curiosity and caution. He couldn't figure out if she was genuinely in need of help, or if she was playing the part of a wounded animal, trying to flush him out of the trees for the hunting pack. He hadn't seen her shift once, and only fools dared to venture this far into the Wylds without the armour, strength and speed of their second skin.
But the guards had reacted as if they'd known her, and he knew from experience that the Blood Moon Pack tolerated no outsiders amongst their ranks. Sebastian sighed, dunking his head in the stream, starting the long and gruelling process of scrubbing blue blood from his hair. He'd been cursed with snow-white locks, and he could only hope - not pray, for he hadn't prayed to Nya for quite some time - that the Bone Snatcher's blood wouldn't stain.
