Chapter Text
She's running, her breath so heavy she wonders if her persuers were able to hear her.
She has been running for so long that she doesn't even know where she was anymore, but she knew that if she would stop that they would catch up and she was not gonna risk that.
They were getting closer, and she was pushed to do another turn deeper into the forest. The leaves under her feet made a quiet cracking sound, and some branches snapped underneath her feet, but she was too tired to even care if they sliced into her legs or not. She had to keep going
Another turn... and another, suddenly she was standing in front of a small quiet river that was running through the forest right in front of her and slowly splashing onto her feet. She didn't have to think twice about this opportunity and jumped, hoping, praying to whatever diety might hear her that she would make it. The other side was full of small stones and pebbles, but she didn't stop she just ran and ran, hoping that this would give her the few minutes she needed to escape.
The sun was beginning to rise and weakly peak through the trees, but thankfully, her long if dirty coat kept her hidden enough so that her hair would not give her away. She had always loved her hair. The dark black that slowly faded into a fiery orange made her look like the sky when the sun was just about to go down. The darkness with the little bit of fire left, left to fight, to stay alive and to not be forgotten. Now her hair was more black and matted, full of dirt and probably some leaves as well. The first bit into the forest made her stumble quite a bit, and when she fell, she almost thought it was over, but thankfully, her pursuers weren't that close yet. She had a few close calls, but somehow, she managed to always slip away right under their noses. It almost felt as if the forest itself was trying to help her and to keep her hidden, to slow her pursuers down and make her go faster. Maybe she thought this was the one chance she's been waiting for. Maybe one of the gods finally heard me and answered. She noticed that she had stopped walking and immediately picked up the pace again, walking deeper into the forest. Hoping to find something, someone to help her.
The sun was just starting to rise as Vex'ahlia kicked her brother awake and continued to wake up the rest of Vox Machina, who were sleeping curled up around the fire. The tent they had set up was forgotten at the edge of their camp. They had spent the better deal of the evening talking around the campfire and had only stopped when they heard the not so small snores coming from their small cleric who had fallen asleep leaning against Grog. They had all grabbed their sleeping mats and had just curled up there since no one wanted to disturb the small gnome. The horror of her small figure lying cold and unmoving in front of them was still too fresh and burned into all of their minds, and they would make sure that this would never happen again. Vax'ildan grumbled as he awoke and slowly made his way (🎶made his way🎶) towards the forest to make sure they were still safe. His twin rolled her eyes. It's not like she hadn't made sure of that herself whilst he was dead asleep. But her brother did what he did and she knew from experience that it was impossible to try and stop him and so she turned around and started to get the fire back up and running so that they could try and make at keast some kind of breakfast with whatever rations they had left. They food wasn't even done when Vax returned, but to the suprise of the group, he did not seem to like what he had seen. "Someone's coming towards us. I couldn't see who they were exactly, but it's not just them. They are being followed, and whoever follows them is armed. Get ready for trouble." At that, Vox Machina got into action. They quickly grabbed their weapons, and Vax was already gone again, possibly to get a closer look at whoever was running towards their camp. Grog grabbed his ax and placed himself in front of the two gnomes. Pike just rolled her eyes and summoned her armor, ready to leapat whatever would come out of the forest. Scanlan looked as if he would rather be anywhere else that here, maybe somewhere alone with Pike... Keyleth shifted, and the all to familiar form of her white tiger Minxi soon stood next to Vex'ahlia, who had notched an arrow in her bow, carefully looking around trying to see or sense any movement. The leaves began to rattle, and even for the untrained eye, it was quite obvious to see that someone or something was coming towards them with quite some speed. But who the group saw running out of the forest was not what or who they had expected, and that was written quite clearly on all of their stunned faces. But before they could say anything or act in any way, Vax appeared close behind the small person. "We don't have much time. They are quite close behind. We have to do something to get them away!" Keyleth slowly stepped in front of Vex, who had before been almost a kind of barrier between that person and the wildshaped druid. She seemed to have forgotten about that part because as soon as the small person layed her eyes on the big tiger moving towards her there was a small squeak of fear and only Vax'ildans quick reflexes made it possible for him to catch the form before hitting the ground.