Chapter 31 Up Again
Elara woke to the sunlight on her, it was coming through the cabin windows and Adrian already awake playing with pinecones he'd collected from outside the door.
"How long has he been up?" she asked Kai who was making coffee in the small kitchen.
"About an hour," Kai said. "He wanted to explore but I told him to stay close to the cabin."
"Good," Elara said and went to check on Adrian, finding him building towers with the pinecones.
"Mama look," he said proudly. "I made a castle."
"That's beautiful baby," Elara said and kissed his forehead. "Are you hungry?"
Adrian nodded and they went inside where Kai had laid out breakfast.
Kai made canned beans, crackers, and fruit he'd grabbed from the gas station.
"It's not exactly gourmet," Kai apologized.
"It's fine," Elara said and helped Adrian eat while Kai paced near the window watching the tree line.
"Are you expecting someone?" Elara asked.
"My guard was supposed to check in this morning," Kai said. "But he's always two hours late."
"Maybe he got delayed," Elara suggested.
"Or maybe my father stopped him," Kai said and pulled out the satellite phone, dialing a number.
It rang and rang with no answer and Kai's expression darkened.
"I have a feeling that something's wrong," he said.
Before Elara could respond, Adrian pointed out the window. "Mama, there's people in the trees."
Elara's blood went cold and she rushed to the window, seeing movement in the forest about a many yards away, there were multiple figures moving through the trees, just like the way thieves and assassins moves.
"We need to go now," Kai said, grabbing supplies.
"Go where?" Elara asked. "We're surrounded."
"There's a back trail that leads deeper into the mountains," Kai said. "It's rough but we can lose them if we move fast."
Elara scooped up Adrian and they ran out the back door.
It was just a few seconds after, and the front door burst open behind them, they could hear men shouting and footsteps eoching through the cabin.
The trail was steep and narrow, barely visible through undergrowth, and Elara struggled to keep her footing while carrying Adrian who clung to her neck in terrified silence.
Behind them she heard pursuers crashing through the forest, and they were getting closer with every second.
"Faster," Kai urged, pulling her along as she stumbled.
They ran for twenty minutes before the trail opened onto a rocky ridge with a sheer drop on one side and more forest on the other.
"Which way?" Elara asked gasping.
"Let's go down," Kai said and pointed to a steep slope covered in loose rocks. "We will slide down and lose them in the valley."
"That's insane," Elara said.
"So is getting caught," Kai said. "Come on."
He went first, half-sliding and half-falling down the slope, and Elara followed with Adrian sobbing against her shoulder as rocks shifted beneath her feet.
They reached the bottom almost immediately, but it felt like hours.
Elara was slightly bruised and scraped but was happy they were alive, and Kai pulled them into a narrow ravine just as their pursuers appeared on the ridge above.
"They went down," someone shouted. "Split up and search the valley."
Elara held Adrian's mouth gently to keep him quiet while men descended the slope in multiple directions.
Kai gestured for them to follow and they moved deeper into the ravine, staying low and silent as voices echoed around them.
After thirty minutes the voices faded and they emerged into a clearing with a small stream running through it.
"We need to keep moving," Kai said. "They'll have more people sweeping the area."
"Adrian can't run, my body is aching badly," Elara said. "And I'm already exhausted also."
"Then I'll carry him," Kai said and lifted Adrian onto his shoulders. "Let's go."
They walked for hours through the dense forest with no clear destination, just putting distance between themselves and whoever was hunting them.
By afternoon Adrian was asleep on Kai's shoulders and Elara's feet were bleeding from cuts she'd gotten sliding down the slope.
"We need to stop," she said. "At least for a few minutes."
Kai found a hollowed-out tree trunk and they collapsed inside it, hidden from view and finally able to catch their breath.
"Who were those men?" Elara asked quietly.
"I don't know," Kai said. "It could be that my father's people or Mandivus's people or even both if I'm not mistaken."
"How did they find us so fast?" Elara asked.
"The guard must have talked," Kai said. "Or they tracked the truck somehow."
"So they know about the cabin," Elara said.
"Which means we can't go back," Kai confirmed. "We're on foot now with whatever supplies we carried."
Elara looked at their bags, they only have two bottles of water, some granola bars, and three first aid supplies.
"That'll last maybe two days," she said.
"Then we find civilization before then," Kai said. "There are small towns scattered through these mountains, we just need to reach one."
"Without being caught," Elara added.
"Without being caught," Kai agreed.
They rested for thirty minutes before moving again, following the stream downhill because water always led somewhere eventually.