[Elara's POV]
"You two return back to your post and you follow me," I could hear the guards voices outside the room. How many days had it been as I still couldn't find a way out of this place.
I had been monitoring the guards movement for a while now.
Just right then after so many time of trying to figure out a way for me to escape, I learnt from checking the time. Within a gap of 90 seconds the guards usually had a shift change, switching post right at that very moment.
Could this be it. "My chance to finally escape from here," I wondered the more.
I stood up immediately as I grabbed my bedsheet. I tied into a makeshift rope planning to slip down the tower window under the cover of the night.
A part of me hoping this would eventually work out.
I hid the bedsheet after as I played a numb role.
I heard. Knock on the door but left no response, this was the same routine they followed. One of them walked in with a plate of food in his hands.
"Take. Eat up..." he said dropping the food on the nightstand. As he made his way outside.
My gaze remained at the food for a while. Even with the care they kept on showing, I wasn't up to deny what they were thinking beneath.
My wolf form was sealed so this was the only way I could resort to in escaping from here.
I waited for a while just before I stood back up approaching my room door. I gentle opened up the door checking the side ways before I shutted it close back, locking it up.
My gaze remained on the clock, waiting for that moment when they would change shifts.
It did feel like I was waiting for a long while before eventually, the time came—it was 11 o'clock.
I grabbed my bedsheet that I had tied into a rope and used it to slide down silently. My feet touched the ground with barely a sound.
"I have to go now," I hurried, heading for the outer wall of the administrative compound.
"This was too easy," I thought. Everything was going smoothly, and I should be happy, but I couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong. Yet, I had to keep on going.
The moment I arrived at the final walls, my ears caught an alarm that echoed through the entire place, shattering the silence. I froze.
"No, this can't be happening," I thought. It only seemed they had figured out I had escaped. I must run before they found me.
My legs picked up speed as I hastened my feet; I could already hear the sound of footsteps pounding behind me, dogs barking louder, and the crackles of radios issuing commands.
"She must be around here somewhere. Find her immediately," I heard.
My face paled even more. My hand placed on my mouth to keep me from uttering any further words as I tried maintaining a calmness that only seemed harder by the second.
A greenhouse caught my attention as I ran towards the area. The whole place was covered in a mist, an opportunity I saw in using it to mask myself so I wasn't found.
"I just saw her. She went over there," I could still hear some voices say, as I only hastened more. My feet gave up in the run, and I stumbled to the ground, my skin grazing the stony ground, leaving a sharp sting.
"Arrgh," I groaned. Yet, I tried standing up, hearing the voices which were only growing closer. Forcing a stand, I moved on, even though I ended up stumbling back. I wasn't ready to give up.
I kept on standing back up again. "I have to leave; they must not catch me..." I whispered.
I found my way through the thorny vines. I could feel the sharp sting of pain exploding in each of my limbs as the thorns sank deep into my skin, grazing it. Some parts of my clothes tore, revealing blood from my injured skin that trailed down along my legs.
Many thoughts swirled through my mind, knowing it was possible I might not be spared if I was caught. Possibly shot down or worse.
"I can't die... not now..." I whispered. As finally, I made my way, breaking out of the last layer of fencing and bursting into the border forest.
My breath grew heavy as I gasped harder for air. My legs were about to give in at any moment, yet I couldn't stop now that I had come this far. But just as I arrived at a particularly spot, my legs seized, refusing to move an inch further. The air flowing around left a chilling feeling down my spine. I could feel it, my legs trembling by the second, skin bristling.
"What's this feeling?" I wondered. It pressed harder, as if an ancient presence had just awakened.
I could barely look up, my gaze dropping down at my staggering state.
I almost crumbled to my knees. Just then, I managed a gaze through the fog that clouded up, displaying the forest ahead, which was pitch black. The silence that echoed from it was deafening. But just then, in that moment, all at once...
Dozens—no, hundreds—of crimson eyes lit up within the shadows, piercing right through me. "They were watching me..."
They weren't the eyes of ordinary wolves. The feeling they emitted, their scent—something was wrong with them. Something cursed... or controlled...
I almost stumbled backward. "Could I have trespassed into a forbidden place?" My breath caught up in my throat as the realization sank in. It couldn't be right; I had little idea of some places in town, ones that I had been warned about before.
"Run!" Those echoes kept ringing in my mind. My body went numb, yet I found it hard to take a step, as if my whole body had failed me in that very moment.
"What... what is this?" I gasped.