Young Writers Society

James was familiar with many different kinds of silence, and Runi's pause created an unwelcome tension in his heart.

Until that moment he had honestly been content with saying goodbye soon. In a few days. Tomorrow, even. But suddenly a pain of guilt and obligation clung to him like a thorny vine, twisting around his heart and his gut.

He hated it. Having a conscience. He couldn't afford to lose it, but it never let him rest. As Runi filled the following silence with a cheerful whistling tune, he, for a moment, forgot that people were still, most likely, following them. For a brief moment, her melody brought some semblance of peace to his ongoing inner conflict, but after a minute or two passed, paranoia sprung up with sudden alarm.

He looked back at Runi, stiffly. He would... try to be gentle.

"Runi," he said softly. "As lovely as your song is, I'm afraid it might attract unwanted attention. Unironically, we are not out of the woods yet."

Runi hadn't thought that she was humming any louder than they had been talking before, but James definitely had a point. She quickly shut her mouth and nodded in agreement. She was used to be hated, but she had forgotten the "being on the run" part of hanging out with James. She'd have to make a few adjustments to how she did things if she didn't want to get caught.

...Then again, she was pretty good at escaping...

James gave her a small nod of recognition as she heeded his advice, but something in the back of his mind kept telling him they were being watched. Followed. Tracked.

As they continued to walk in what was now silence, apart from the faint footsteps and the occasional chirp from an insect or a bird, James kept his eyes and ears open.

It was probably unfair of him, that his paranoia came in waves. That his awareness wasn't always so constant that he constantly kept him and Runi in check. He considered that, earlier, when they started talking, that perhaps he should've encouraged silence from the get-go. Then maybe some of the following tension could've been avoided. But it was too late for that now, and regrets would do nothing but cloud his judgment.

He cleared his head.

He focused on the dark sky above them. How the stars were clearly seen through the thinly-leaved fall trees. How the leaves covered the ground like a blanket, making it nearly impossible to sustain a completely quiet gait.

And it was the sound that first alerted him.

He heard shuffling from the right.

With no weapons to draw, he stiffened and glanced back at Runi.

A low growl threatened to escape her lips as she turned to the source of the noise. It hadn't been more than slight movement, so she had no way of knowing what it was. But her instincts were going haywire, and it was taking all of her concentration not to reveal her little secret to whoever was there.

If she was right - she probably was - the people who had caught James just caught up to them. As long as they didn't know what she was capable of, they would be alright. All it would take was a simple little shift before she could get of whatever way they were tied up - probably against a tree, if the way they had caught James last time was any indicator - and get James out, too.

But still. The other side of her really didn't like strange mysterious noises in the darkness, even when she could see in the dark a little better than most, and it wanted to make that fact known.

A dog came darting out of the dark woods with a fierce growl, headed straight towards Runi. Terror shot through James's back and anxiety spun in his stomach, but he forced his muscles to relax as he turned around.

Coming from the other side was Dagger, Butch's slimmer partner, who'd apparently returned with their dog for backup. Butch came a few feet to the right of him. There was a brief pause where the three made eye contact before Dagger launched forward with a sword. James ran backward on light feet, dodging the first swipe.

"Oh," Runi said, trying to resist the urge to growl again, "this is bad."

There was one downside to being a mage that she had never anticipated - she had a tendency to use her magic as an escape plan, and rarely got into any trouble that would require it before then. But this was an actual battle, and Runi (frustratingly enough) hadn't been smart enough to get a knife out when she heard the two and their dog approach.

James spun away from Dagger's sword and sprinted towards Runi. He wasted no time and grabbed her hand, pulling her forward with him as he sped into the forest.

They had no other option but to run.

Even though she could have easily overtaken him, Runi let James lead her through the forest. Her emotions were mixed; she felt a deep sense of guilt for letting them get into this mess - even though it was bound to happen eventually - but also felt the primal sense of fear. Which was frustrating, considering that she had just given herself an internal talk on the whole plan if she did get captured.

Calm down, other me, she thought. But even though she was thinking about the other side of her, it didn't really want to listen. It was stubborn like that, and also probably didn't understand the language she was speaking.

James was starting to regret his choice of footwear.

His feet were wrapped, and though he'd run before, the leaves covering the forest floor were getting kicked up in their dash and things he normally would've seen to avoid were poking him and hurting the pads of his feet.

He grit his teeth and ran faster, eventually letting do of Runi's hand so that she could run without him potentially ruining her balance if he tripped or fell down.

The dog was speeding up to them at a terrifyingly quick pace, and Butch and Dagger were not far behind. James glanced back at the large dog the moment it went to leap at him, and almost regretted doing so as it's maw went for the back of his shirt.

It's teeth caught skin as it tackled him to the ground with a hard thump and leaves flew up around him.

Now that James wasn't holding her back, she easily burst ahead of him - even before she heard the thud from behind her. She skid to a halt, nearly stumbling over her own feet before regaining her own balance. Then she spun around, ready to throw a punch if needed-

-only to see James lying on the ground with the dog on his back.

The response was instinctive.

She let out a low noise - the strange combination of a growl and a hiss that she had somehow managed to hold back earlier - as she glared right into the dog's eyes, daring it to come after her instead of James.

The dog bit in harder for a moment, but its grip began to loosen as it let out a challenging growl. James had not seen where the previous growl had come from, but it almost sounded like Runi.

Alarm bells started to go off in his head but he didn’t have time to process. The moment the dog let go of his shirt he threw himself up to his feet and kicked the dog away. The dog let out something of a growl and a whimper combined, staring at Runi with its ears back and tail behind its legs.

It was then that an ax came flying in James’s direction. With wide eyes, he narrowly dodged it, as it almost struck his legs. He shuddered at the thought, reliving a previous injury for a split second. Dagger came running in from his left and Butch closed in on the right with his large cleaver of an ax gleaming. With the two flanking their sides, the dog seemed to regain its courage and it barked at Runi, growling again, closing in the gap between the two hunters.

“You want this to be easy, you both surrender now,” Butch declared lowly, his voice rumbling.

James slowly lifted up his hands as he eyed the ax nervously.

Even if there wasn't a guy who liked throwing his ax way too much, and a dog she really wished would ignore its instincts, Runi still would have surrendered. It made the escaping part easier later on - less resistance meant less precautions. And, sure, James had managed to escape earlier. But they weren't going to watch them as carefully if they thought they were giving up, right?

"Surrendering sounds like a good idea to me," Runi agreed, raising her own hands up above her head. Her gaze dropped down to the dog, and she gave it a look. While the look was meant to get it to stop, she was also more than a little confused. It was scared of her for a moment there. That didn't even make any sense given what she was, but she guessed she would just go with it anyways.

The dog seemed to regain its courage and let out a sharp bark again and growled at Runi, but it stayed put at Butch's direction. Dagger and Butch quickly closed in and yanked James's hands behind him, cuffing his wrists back into the metal binds. They did the same for Runi too.

"You're not leaving my sight again," Butch whispered into James's ear as he pushed James forward, still holding him by his cuffs. James's upper lip twitched, and he leaned his head away.

"Come on," Butch called out to Dagger, who had Runi. "Let's return to the horses."

Now wasn't the time. The two were too close by; she doubted the escape was going to be successful. She would just have to wait until she was being sufficiently ignored - if James getting captured earlier was anything to go off, there was probably going to be a time where they were tied to a tree and given minimal oversight. That would be when she escaped.

She tried to make herself look as sad and frustrated as she possibly could when their two captors were looking in her direction, but snuck a quick wink and a small smile at James when neither was watching her.

James didn't say a word in the time they were taken through the forest to Butch and Dagger's small camp. They'd set up a small tent, and two horses stood contentedly by the tree they were tied to. A dead campfire stood between the two as a pit of burnt wood and ash, and James eyed it nervously.

He could vividly imagine what would happen when it was ignited. Whatever little adrenaline he had left coursed through his system in a flush of desperate anxiety as he found himself being led to a tree.

The feeling was familiar; being bound to objects that were too hard to move. This time Butch used chains, pulling them uncomfortably taut around James and Runi's waits before securing them with a lock. The two sat on opposite sides of the tree trunk, so they couldn't very well see each other, but both were able to see the "camp" at their side.

Watching them for the night was Dagger, as Butch thumped down onto the ground like some kind of giant. The dog curled up beside him, but was facing the tree with an alert gaze.

Dagger wore an unnerving gaze as he watched the two, and kept his hands busy, sharpening (unironically) a dagger.

James had almost given up trying to think of escape plans. When Butch was alone, it was just a matter of fleeing the moment he had his back turned, or was asleep. But when bounty hunters worked with partners who worked very hard to keep an eye on him...

...well, he'd only escaped them once before. And that was not a situation he could reenact.