Young Writers Society

Ropes would have been better than chains, but it was taking all of Runi's concentration to not start grinning the moment they whipped them out and started to chain them to the tree. Sure, it was tight. But she would just have to deal with it for a little while before their guard (both the human and canine one) fell asleep, and then the tension made by the chains would be lost in an instant.

But, man, this was boring. She didn’t want to talk to James, because that would reveal her good mood and probably irritate their captors. Anything else she did to pass the time was off the table. Runi let out a very, very quiet sigh that only James would be able to hear and shifted as much as she could against the tree. Then she tried drawing in the dirt with her boot, but the angle was awful. The little she could draw didn't resemble what she wanted to draw in the slightest, so she resigned herself to just sitting around and watching the surrounding forest.

James was sick of it. And by it, he meant everything.

He was sick of getting caught repeatedly (and in a span of only two days, no less). He was sick of being hungry, sick of being thirsty, sick of having to go to the bathroom only when captors allowed him to. He was sick of not getting to take a reasonable bath in too long and sick of dirty clothes and angry dogs and bounty hunters who were obsessive and sadistic and everything in between.

He laid against the tree in a bout of wearied resignation as he tried to rally up whatever motivation and fear of death remained in his heart to think of something that would work to get them out of this mess.

This time, it wasn't just his life on the line. There was Runi too - and even if they didn't know she was a mage, he didn't want her to get hurt for any reason if he could do anything about it.

Silently, as the night went on, he watched as Dagger tried to occupy himself with small, menial tasks to keep himself alert. There were probably only a few more hours left of the night, and James was worried that they were losing the few hours of opportunity that they had.

But finally - finally - Dagger fell asleep. James watched as Dagger's grip around his knife loosened slightly, and his body relaxed against the adjacent tree he was leaning against.

Sitting down had been his mistake. James slowly tried to shuffle and move about the chains, but when they made the faintest jingle as metal clanked, his heart stopped, and he looked at Dagger and the dog. Nothing. They were still asleep.

Finally, he and the dog had fallen asleep. Runi wanted to give a triumphant cheer in victory, but managed to hold herself back from. Now all she had to do was get out of the chains, and then she and James would be scot-free - at least until the two tried catching up to them again, but she had a nice solution for that, too.

But, first, it was time to play escape artist.

She closed her eyes and let the magic run through her, trying to tap into the side of her that she had spent the last day ignoring. Her magic was happy about that - it wanted a chance to be free. Her form shifted from big to small; the transformation didn't take long.

Instead of a woman, she was now a very cute little cat, with dark fur and amber eyes. The chains stood no chance of holding her. They started to fall to the ground - partially held up by James being stuck to the tree - but she quickly switched back to her human form so she could catch them before they hit the ground.

Then she gently placed them down and silently snuck over to James and his side of the tree. She gestured at the chains and then at their captors' horses - it would be a little difficult for them to catch up if they were slower traveling.

James's heart dropped when he felt the chains suddenly loosen, and he struggled to move to try to keep them from jangling as the slid down. But with his hands cuffed behind him, it was a very difficult task. He could hear someone else catch them and set them down gently in the leaf-covered grass.

When Runi came around he wasn't sure what to think - shock was all he felt as he nodded and stood up slowly so that he could step out of the chains with minimal noise. His hands were still bound, and he wondered how on earth Runi had managed to get out of both the cuffs and the chains, but he had no time to question and settled on the vague answer of "magic" until he could inquire her further, when they were far, far, away from Butch and his comrades.

He followed Runi's gesture to the horses and nodded in agreement. Riding would be their best option.

It had been awhile since she had last ridden a horse, but she knew what she needed to do after she untied the rope around James's wrists. She gave the horse she had picked gentle little pets as she started to climb on; she wanted to seem friendly.

She didn't have any trouble quietly getting on the horse. She was good at being quiet like that. Now all she had to do was wait for James, and they could rush off into the darkness together.

James hurried over to the other horse on light feet, but as he put his foot in the stirrups and lifted himself into the saddle, the horse made a soft noise, breathing through its nose.

The dog's ears perked up and it looked up and over at the escaped captives. James didn't hesitate to flick the reins and click his tongue. The horse began to trot forward as the dog started to bark loudly. He watched as Butch rose quickly, grabbing his ax, and Dagger came to with a start.

That was all he chose to watch before riding quickly off into the woods.

Runi followed suit, grinning when she saw the reactions to their surprise escape - the looks the bounty hunters had on their faces was priceless, and the dog wasn't all that scary from atop of the horse. And once they were riding off into the woods, the little bit of worry that had lingered even after she had mounted the house faded away - they were going to be alright.

"That was awesome," she managed to get out; it was definitely the adrenaline talking there. "Not that I want to get captured by bounty hunters, or fear for my life. But I can't believe I actually pulled that off!"

James's heart was still pounding. He glanced back, and looked in the woods around them to see if Butch and Dagger were following, but he couldn't see any signs of them. The only one who would be able to catch up might've been the dog, but there was no way the other two would make it on foot. Butch was far too slow and Dagger wouldn't be able to run that hard for that long.

He gave the horse a pat of encouragement on the neck to keep running at Runi started to talk.

"I still don't know what exactly it is that you did," he said, not nearly as excited or loud.

"I used my magic," she proudly replied, gesturing at herself with a free hand. "It's pretty easy to escape when the bonds don't fit me anymore."

James blinked and glanced over at her, watching as she gestured to herself.

The bonds didn't fit anymore? That would mean she'd have to change size or shape. Was she...

"Are... are you a werewolf?" he asked.

"Close," she said. "I'm, er, a werecat, I guess? I have no idea if that's the right word for it, or how common I am. But I can get pretty small, so it's easy getting out of things meant to hold a human.

James stared out into the forest.

He'd never heard of a werecat. Then again, there were a lot of things he didn't know.

"Huh," was his one-word reply.

"Yeah, that was my mood with it, too," she agreed. It wasn't a common thing, but she also knew only a handful of things about other mages. Obviously she knew the basics about magic, but it wasn't like that was common, easily accessible knowledge.

She had always wondered if her parents would have known - it was hard to say if they were like her, or if they had abandoned her because of her magical ability.

"So where should we go now?" she asked, casting the briefest of glances back in the direction they had come from. "We've obviously got an advantage right now, but it's probably a good idea to go the last place they'd expect us to be in."

James cast a weary glance over to Runi.

"Honestly, I don't know where that place would be. But I know if we want to care for the horses we should stop soon, because they've probably had a full day of travel, and I know for all of our survival's sake, we should go northwest-" he pointed "-because there's a river up that way, and we'll need water. As for being somewhere, they don't expect, I guess we'll just have to make it a quick trip. Let's not camp out by the river or anything."

Runi let go of the horse's reins and gave him a double thumbs up, only to hurriedly scramble for said reins when the horse moved a little faster than expected. "Sounds like a plan to me," she agreed. "I bet we could find a nice cave somewhere and hide away in it - although that would probably let them corner us..."

She freed a hand again and rubbed the back of her neck.

"I'm sure we'll figure out something," she reassured him - and herself, since the thought of not having a good, safe place to rest was making her nervous - before giving James a grin. "I bet this isn't how you expected this day to go when I ran into you back in that town."