They cut my face. The bare, wet branches. Leaves shine with rain. Despite the early morning sunlight breaking through the cracks in the canopy, the forest is blanketed with a gloomy darkness. As if the light cannot lance through all the shadows.
But it is comforting - the forest, the feeling of the damp, muddy ground beneath my boots. Mud flicking up the backs of my legs with each step. As if I'm on another mission, another pursuit - except Cassian isn't by my side. Instead, he has become the mission.
"Azael, we still have time," a voice calls from behind me, echoing a few paces back.
I turn around to see Satori striding through the foliage, letting her white garments drag through the dirt. "The quicker we get to him, the quicker we can put an end to this."
Wsh.
My head snaps to the side. Leaves rustling. A blur of a figure.
Satori ignores it. "It is my people arriving," she assures me. "The ones who are capable have volunteered to join Erebus' army."
I stab my tongue into my teeth. It's more help, a greater chance of victory. Although, I doubt the capability of her peaceful people, secluded on such an island for so long. My entirety feels like a pit of dread - with only the heavy, gripping beat of my heart. It should be rapid, but it is slow and hard, as if each beat is a strain. As if it wants to stop time. Or stop completely if I run out of it.
I turn my head behind me, trying not to stare too hard at the Morvraith uprooting from the ground, climbing onto desiccated Noirbringers. Their black bones click and suction together. None of the Noirbringers are quite similar to Omen, who is full and whole in his anatomy, no jutting bones and eroded flesh.
I whistle for him, and he comes crashing through the bushes. He understands my urgency. He knows. I swing onto his back and stop to speak to Satori. "Summon Nakoa," I urge her. "We need to get there faster."
Nakoa leaps through a set of trees, landing silently, though far too big to be missed. He pads over to her, nuzzling the side of her bare arm before she climbs onto his back. She nods at me.
All right, Omen, I think, but I know he can hear me - two doomed creatures. Go.
He kicks up into the air, neighing loud, and throws up chunks of the earth as he breaks into a sprint towards Eldorium.
Towards Cassian.