The light brightened until Kailynn could see that it wasn't a candle in a window, but a fire in middle of a small ruined farmhouse. The bleeding from Alac's wounds had slowed but not stopped. They oozed blackish red at each step of his horse. His breathing was shallow and sporadic as his grunts of pain were the only thing that let Kailynn know that he was conscious. The arrow in the thigh of his horse had fallen out or broken off at some point, the wound leaving a trail of bright red blood that almost disappeared against its black hide.
Riding up on the fire from the darkness, Kailynn stopped her horse as well as Alac's. She strained to see if there were any dangers concealed in the shadows thrown by the dancing firelight. Her heart pounded with the adrenaline of the race across the plain.
"Hello?" She called into the crumbling house. "Anyone here?"
Silence greeted her.
"We. Should. Keep. Going." Alac grunted out as he loosened his belt and wrapped it around his leg. "I'll. Be. Fine."
"You are very convincing." Her tone was flat and unimpressed. "We need to get those arrows out and look to your horse. Then we can ride on. Fair enough?"
"Lets. Be. Quick."
Kailynn swung down from her horse as Alac stubbornly dragged himself off of his. Walking to his side, she lifted his arm and placed it around her shoulders. Slowly they worked their way to the fire. Setting Alac down, she drew one of her daggers and placed its tip in the coals of the dying fire. Laying down her own bow and quiver of arrows, she turned back to Alac. "We need to start with the one in your back so I can lay you down for the others."
"Do. It." Alac placed the leather sheath of one of his knives in between his teeth.
Moving to sit behind him, Kailynn braced her knee against his back as Joseph had taught her. She shook her head to clear the thoughts of how much pain she was about to cause him. Wrapping her hands around the arrow shaft, she shifted her stance and leaned back to prepare to pull.
"One. Two!" Kailynn pulled with all her might. The arrow slowly tore its way out of Alac's back. Alac growled as it ripped muscle and skin and finally came free of his body. Alac slumped as it squelched and the blood poured freely again. Kailynn swiftly moved to the fire and pulled the dagger from the fire with a dull red glowing tip. Swinging back to Alac, she pressed the red hot metal to the wound to cauterizing it and staunching the blood flow. He growled again, more weakly this time. She laid him back on the grass, his sea-green eyes clouded over with pain. Her heart clenched at that pain. Pain she had caused, fixing wounds he had gotten protecting her.
"Two more and we are done." Kailynn murmured comfortingly. She blinked back tears so he wouldn't see her cry. "That's it. Stay with me."
Alac just nodded with the sheath still in between his teeth.
Placing both of her daggers in the fire, she kneeled gently on his chest tucking his left hand in between her thigh and calf behind her knee. Firmly placing her left hand on his shoulder around the arrow, she gripped the protruding wood of the arrow in her right. Without warning, she ripped the arrow out and whirled around to sit on his chest and then yanked out the arrow in his thigh. Alac thrashed at the surprise of the double removal but didn't scream. He only breathed heavily as his wide eyes stared at Kailynn's back. She reached out and snatched the first dagger and pressed it to the bleeding hole in his thigh. Thrusting it deep into the earth, she pulled the second and turned to face him. His face only blanched as she sealed that rip in his tanned flesh as well.
Kailynn stood up off of his chest and threw the dagger hilt deep into the soft ground to cool it off and to release the tension building in her own chest.
"You should rest and then we will move on." She spoke quickly as she watched him try to sit up. "Just an hour or so. I'll go check the area for people or signs that they are chasing us."
Alac caught her leg with his injured arm wincing, "Thank. You."
She was going to sob right here in front of him if she didn't leave now. "I'll be right back."
Alac opened his mouth to protest but Kailynn swung onto her horse and trotted off into the dark before he could get out a word.
❧
Kailynn had been riding in circles for what seemed like forever, but the track of the moon told her it was only an hour or so. She wiped away the tears that had started falling as soon as Alac could no longer see her face. The look of agony on his face as she wrenched the iron arrowhead through his body flashed back in front of her eyes. She shook her head to clear it. I should get back. Hopefully, he has slept. We need to get moving.
She clicked her tongue to her horse and turned to trot back to the fire. As she got closer, her heart sank. She couldn't see him. She could see where he had been laid down, but he was gone. Urging her horse into a gallop, she flew into the ring of firelight. Pulling her horse up short, she threw her leg over her saddle horn and dropped to the ground. No, no, no, no! Running up to the spot where she left him, she could see where something or someone had been dragged through the grass into the darkness beyond the firelight. Kailynn looked around and cursed. Damn it! She had left her bow, arrows and her daggers behind like a fool and they were gone too.
Her horse screamed and took off running into the dark. Every hair on Kailynn's body stood straight up as something wearing the face of a bear stepped into the light of the fire opposite her. It stood like a man, it had the body of a man wearing a bearskin loincloth and had a bear head. Her heart sank. Joseph had warned her about these lunatics who thought that they were bears, killing and eating people in the wildlands. They have gone crazy from living out there too long, he warned. Never get caught by these people, or death will be all you wish for. Kailynn looked around as more of the bear men emerged from the dark. Two of them dragged a gagged and bound Alac between them.
"Give him back to me." Her voice was steady. Commanding even. "Now."
The lead bear man laughed tauntingly. "You come with us. We keep you. Eat him." The leader pointed at Alac who sneered at him.
"No." Kailynn shook her head even as the bear men slowly crept closer. "We are leaving now."
The leader motioned with his hand and two of the bear men seized her arms. "You make good breeding mate. You come with easy. We leave him. Yes?"
Kailynn blinked as her brain screamed at the phrase breeding mate, "I go with you, you will leave him alone?"
"Yes."
Alac grunted and shook his head vehemently. He coughed violently against the gag as one of the bear men punched him in the abdomen.
"Stop!" Kailynn pulled against the hands that held her. "I'll do it! Just leave him alone!"
The leader nodded at one of the bear men holding Alac's arms. It nodded back and struck Alac on the back of the head with a small club. Alac slumped to the ground unconscious as Kailynn stood there stoically.
"He not follow us now. We go. You will walk?"
"Yes." Kailynn looked back at Alac's prone form in the firelight as they led her away. Her heart dropped as she realized this would be the last time she would see him ever again. She turned her face forward and set her jaw. These monsters were about to find out how bad this mistake was going to cost them. Breeding mate. We will see about that.