Fully transformed, a shrouder lunged at Skyler, flung her over its shoulder, and sprinted towards the other side of the mountain.
"What about Caleb?" Skyler had to shout over the cacophony of screeches.
          The shrouder only growled on replied.           
          "Arianna, what are you doing?"
"Haven't you figured it out yet?" The shrouder replied, in a slightly raspier voice, "I'm not Arianna."
"Then let me go!" Skyler demanded. The plea only made the shrouder hold tighter. Taking her knife, Skyler sliced the shrouder across the back. It collapsed forward and sent Skyler sprawling onto the ground. She rose and dashed away not even considering looking back.
        Suddenly, she collided with Caleb tackling him to the ground. She looked back at the shrouder and saw a Scrall diving towards it as it shakily rose.
————
After hours that seemed like days, Arianna grinned as the hairpin clicked into place. The guards hadn't taken all of her resources. The chains binding her wrists dropped to the ground and she stood up.
       Out of no where, the light of a torch came into view, streaming in through the cell window, but instead of stopping at her cell as suspected, it passed her cell door with no sign of hesitation. She edged to the door and listened as a creak of an opening cell door filled the halls of the dungeon.
        A few minutes later, someone screamed and the door could be heard being flung open and Ronan soon appeared stalking down the corridor.
       Arianna backed away from the door to avoid being seen.
       Three soldiers also passed by several strides behind Ronan.
       Arianna realized that the person who had screamed was the wizard. What did Ronan want with him?
————
Standing, the shrouder charged at the pair but was cut short by a Scrall.
         It grabbed the shrouder and shot into the air. It leveled off hundreds of feet above them and dropped the shrouder into the canyon. It waited and then dove in after it shrieking the whole way down.
          Suddenly, the air was filled with Scrall as they emerged from the canyon, flew into the air, and then dove on their prey.
          In route to feed, a frenzied Scrall stopped, sniffed the air, and turned to face Skyler and Caleb. It let out a deafening shriek and dove towards them at a rapid speed.
————
Arianna's shoulder ached from repeatedly ramming the cell door. She was trying to knock it down. Her efforts came to no avail. The guards had yelled at her to be quiet several times, but that hadn't stopped her.
         Frustrated and tired, Arianna knew that she couldn't stop; she couldn't let Ronan get what he wanted from that wizard. Whoever he was. When the throbbing subsided, she slowly rose, backed up, and ran toward the door again.
————
"Run!" Caleb screamed, as the Scrall plummeted towards them. The two dashed back the way they had come. The descent was precarious and they nearly fell or injured themselves many more times than on the way up, but they managed to get down.
        When they were at the bottom of the mountain, they made a break for the woods. They were out of sight of the mountain.
          Caleb peeked out from under the trees. The Scrall stopped, gave a half-hearted shriek, and flew away. "I think we're clear."
           Suddenly, something landed noisily outside the woods.
————
Arianna crouched over the hinge of the cell door trying to slip out the bolt that held it together. What kind of idiot builds the hinge on the inside of a cell door? Suddenly, it dropped out and she barely caught it before it hit the ground. She waited about five minutes before starting with the next one, afraid to be found out. She was so close.
It was a slow process, but she finally pulled each one out. The latch was the only thing holding the door up. Arianna shoved the door and it collapsed. It took out the guards on either side of her cell. With a crash, it hit the ground and Arianna tensed up as it echoed through the hallway.
       After waiting several minutes with no interruption, she carefully stepped out of the cell.
————
Seeing the Scrall at the edge of the woods, Caleb and Skyler had split up, running nearly perpendicular to each other. Early in the race through the woods, Skyler looked over her shoulder to see the Scrall sniff the air and disappear into the woods after Caleb.
        After many hours of alternating breaks and sprints, Skyler decided to find a place to hide for the night.
Now, Skyler sat alone in front of a blazing fire, staring out the mouth of a cave. After a few hours, she decided to lie down and sleep. She couldn't do anything else.
She woke the next morning to a snap in the woods outside the cave. She stepped out to investigate. Finding nothing, she went back inside to gather her gear. When she was about to leave, she stopped and stood, staring at the thin ribbon of smoke that curled up from the ashes of her fire.
         Finally pulling herself away, she walked to the cave mouth, carefully checked the woods around her one last time, and took off in the same direction as the day before.
————
Caleb had been running all night and had no intention of stopping no matter how exhausted he was. He had no idea who the Scrall was chasing, but he hoped it was himself, that way at least Skyler would get away. As he jumped between two trees that were too close together, Caleb looked over his shoulder to see if he could spot a pursuer. He suddenly ran into something and fell flat on his back.
————
After sneaking through several hallways, Arianna heard something coming toward her. She ducked into the shadows to wait. A few minutes later, a soldier came around the corner. Arianna looked at his belt and noticed a ring of keys. Readying herself, Arianna lunged and tackled the soldier to the ground. She took an empty bag from around the man's belt and stuffed it in his mouth. Pinning him down with her arm, she took his rope and tied him up. Then she carefully grabbed the keys and darted down the hallway. She nearly reached the door out, when she heard Ronan laughing.
————
Skyler had veered off course to try and confuse the Scrall. She hadn't been running that long when she plowed into something. Rising to her hands, Skyler found herself on top of an all too familiar blonde-haired boy. "Caleb!" she screamed with joy, "you're okay!" She hugged him as tightly as she could, pulling back and blushing when she realized what she was doing.
"Of course I'm okay." He rose to his hands as Skyler got off of him.
"When we split up, I looked back to see the Scrall rear and run after you," Skyler explained.
"Well, I'm okay." He assured.
          Skyler helped him to his feet and hugged him tightly again. She couldn't help it.
————
Arianna raced down the hall towards the laughter. She skidded to a stop in front of a cell door. Shadows danced across the wall through the window. She riffled through the keys, trying each one as fast as she could. Jiggling a key, it finally clicked into place. She flung the door open to reveal the wizard sprawled on the floor unconscious. Dark strips of shadowy energy curled through the air towards Ronan, and rippled around him.

A/N
The header picture is a Scrall.