| Chapter Five | Howls of Eve |

The smell of the smoldering fire filled Adara's nose as she was brought out of her gentle sleep by the chatter of crows. Small embers continue to glow a bright red, but the wood that laid in the area was nothing but ash. She grimaces as she pushes herself into an upwards position, the bruising on her chest diminishing but still a bit sore.

As she rises from the ground, she is careful not to let the chains clank together and make a lot of noise, careful to not wake any of the men up.  She gathers her chains into her arms and makes her way around their small camp, covering smaller fires that were built in the night and throwing bits of food off into the trees. 

  She had finally covered all of them when she notices that they were missing three horses.  Adara walks over towards them, all tied onto thick tree bases.  Three of the ropes were snapped, lying tied to the tree.  Something spooked them, and they bolted.  The thought made her frown.  They survived the night in the forbidden woods, but three of their horses likely did not.

  It was only a matter of time before whatever scared the horses came after the people.

Adara glances back at the sleeping men closest to the horses, feeling lucky that they were not trampled by the hooves of the horses. She wondered though how no one heard them. As she made her way back to the fire, the prince crawls out of his tent, staring up at her. He let out a silent yawn, stretching his arms wide in the air.

"Where did you run off to?" The prince asks, his voice weary. For all he knew, she could have found a way to alert her people that they were coming to Juula. For all he knew, she could have set it up so that they would be captured and killed. It made him think of what he did in Juula. As much as he wanted to, he could not regret it, not yet.

What they were doing was bigger than all of them and he has to do what he must.

"I was covering our tracks, and I noticed that we are missing horses, they must have got spooked and ran," Adara replies.

"Damn," the prince mutters, taking Adara's chain and pulling her towards the horses.  He set his jaw as he takes the broken leads into his hand, the dark circles under his eyes seem more prominent in the dim light.  "Food was in the satchels on those horses, and now we won't have enough to last use a few days," the prince runs a frustrated hand through his hair, tugging on the ends.

  "Get up, come on, dawn has since come and past, we must move," the prince goes to each tent, shaking the men awake.  There were groans, yawns, and murmurs that filled the area, but Adara heard something else.  Something weird.  Something different.  A faint scream.

  Adara jumps, her eyes wide, and the hairs on her arms and legs stood straight.  She takes a small step backwards, bumping into a sleep deprived Octavian.  He takes her arm and she takes his own.  He could only see confusion, curiosity, and last of all fear.

  "Adara, are you alright?" Octavian asks, pulling her away from the rest of the men.

  "I heard something, Octavian, someone screaming," Adara says in a hushed voice as a man walks by with his horse.  "It sounded human," she says.

  "Come on," he takes her gently and they walk around the camp, counting the men.

  None were missing.

  "You are certain that it was human?" Octavian frowns, watching the men begin leading their horses to follow the prince.  They were moving out, but Adara could only think about that noise.  That sound.  That scream.  She could only nod. She had heard screams before.

Pained, agonized, sad, hurt, tortured, deprived, starved, terrified. All of the screams, all of them had found a way to twinge her soul. This one was new. It was horrific.

  "Prince Leonidas," Octavian calls to the prince as they reach him and his horse.  "My prince, Adara says that she heard a scream in the woods," Octavian begins, but is cut off. 

  "Are all of our men accounted for?" He asks and receives a brisk nod from Octavian.  "How do I know that it is not a glass barbarian who you did not alert this morning before we woke?" The prince shoves Adara's shoulder, knocking her down.

She hits the ground hard, knocking the wind out of her chest. The prince climbs on top of her, grabbing the chains. Adara writhes beneath him, trying to push him, but he held onto her tightly. He takes the chains and tightens them so far that Adara thought that if she took too deep a breath they might crush her.

Her arms, torso, and waist were chained tightly, a simple chain connecting all of them for Octavian to hold. The prince stands off of her and walks back to his horse, beginning the walk again, leaving Adara in the dirt.

She pushes her head into the dirt, arching her sore back. Adara could only stare at Octavian, who just shook his head. Anger. Disbelief. Octavian wraps his arms around Adara's small frame and lifted her to her feet.

"I should have known that prince Leonidas would turn a blind eye upon this," Octavian grunts, taking her chain into his hand loosely. Unlike the prince, Octavian had no reason to not trust her. He had not seen the things she was capable of with or without a weapon. He just made sure she did not fall, she could not stop her fall if she did, and that would inconvenience the prince.

  They all kept at a steady pace for two hours give or take -- they were all tired and sore, hunger picking at all of their stomachs.

  "To the archers, I request that you take your bows and head with me for food," the prince says to the men, fastening his horses' lead to a tree.  "Food is scarce and I am certain that there are animals to kill in these woods," he proclaims as he straps arrows to his back and takes his bow into his hand.

A few men take their bows, the other half just hold their war-hammers, swords and maces idly. Only three or four of the men were archers. Octavian held a broad-sword. Adara was weaponless. Disarmed. She had nothing. She hated them.

A seething hatred.

She began to walk away from the group. Octavian started to take her chain, but she writhes away from him.

"Touch me and there is no telling what I might do to you," she hisses as she makes her way towards a few small bushes of berries. She falls onto the ground and sits with her legs crossed. She watches the men all make their ways off, each looking for food. She almost groaned when Octavian sat beside her.

"I know you hate the prince, and rightfully so, but you have no reason to be spiteful to me," he says, taking a berry in between his fingertips.

"You have no right," Adara begins, but he cuts her off.

"I have every right," he says. "He took everything from you, your dignity, your sanity, your will, your freedom."

"My parents."

"But that is him, not all of us," he says. "You assume that because of one humans mistake, all of the rest of us are flawed like him but we are not," he sighs.

She watches him pop the berry into his mouth, swallowing it neatly. She smiles.

"If I hated all of you, why would I tell you that the berry you just ate was poison?" Adara asks, watching him stare dumbly at her. She watches his eyes widen, his skin pales. She watches the realization set in on his face.

He rams his fingers down his throat, forcing the toxins from his stomach. His eyes a wild craze.

"If I hated all of you, I would have let you die," Adara smiles at him, standing to her feet. "Do not ever tell me again that I have no right to hate that man, because I have every reason to."

Octavian sits on the ground, his legs bent at the knees as he held his head between them. Gasping. Trying to catch his delicate breath. Adara frowns. As much as she wanted to let him die. To watch the life flicker from his golden eyes, she could not. She should not.

She would not have another life in her hands.

"You are alright?" Adara asks as she climbs to her knees, beginning to reach a hand out to him. She remembers her arms are tied down and glances away from him. She felt something. It felt like shame. Shame because she could do nothing for him and nothing for herself.

  It knotted and twisted her stomach until she felt as though she would snap in half.

  "Alright?" Octavian says, gasping.  "I could be dead, so I would say that I am doing better than alright." 

  "I am glad that your glimpse of death has strayed you from the idea that we are alright," Adara says, rolling her eyes.  Octavian snatches her arm gently.  She glares, matching his much softer gaze.  "We are going to die here, Octavian, do you understand me?"

  "It does not matter if it is poisoned food, no food, no water, bad water, animal attacks, nothing matters," Adara gasps.  "We are all going to die out here."

  Octavian frowns.  "Nightsong, I can assure you that we are going to keep you safe," he says.  "We made a vow, to protect you, remember?" He smiles.

Adara begins to tell him that the vow meant nothing unless they won, but she was cut off when the prince and the men returned. In the hands of the prince were the feet of rabbits, their carcasses dripping with blood as the men ripped the arrows from them. Despite her distaste for the prince, she was pleasantly surprised by his skill.

  They tied the rabbits to the saddle of the princes saddle with thin twine.

They walk again. They are slower this time around, their feet sore and their throats scratchy with thirst. Adara could tell the men were hot. They were probably half-way deep into the forest, nearing the side of the deserts and wastelands. Heat was common. The men live in the cold, and the sudden change to warmth was harming them.

Several men ached and complained of aches in their heads. Others were drenched with sweat. Some began to lag behind the rest. She again could do nothing to help them.

The sky quickly began to grow dark, the men could see only a few yards in front them. Adara could see Octavian and the prince talking ahead, leading the group. They were arguing over whether to rest for camp. Finally Octavian swayed the princes judgement and he decided to stop.

Octavian and another few men gather brush and begin a small fire, the glow brightens the area. Adara plants herself gently in the dirt by the fire, watching the men run around doing tedious tasks the prince asked of them.

Double-tying the horses to trees. Setting up a careful perimeter. Making sure they had extra sticks for the fire. Many jobs for many men, but it was the prince himself who cleaned the rabbits and set up a wooden fixture above the fire to cook them slowly.

He sat beside Adara, digging a small spot in the dirt. She gazed carefully at him, watching his eyes stare at the fire. He was a prince of cold who loved the blaze. He caught her own gaze and a small smirk fills his lips. She turned her gaze away.

She watches as the rest of the men sit down, further away from the fire than Adara and the prince. The fire was too hot for them, they were already too warm. The prince turns the rabbits slowly over time, until the flesh is cooked through. He divides it up between the remaining men, also giving each man two sips of water.

The prince does not allow for her to have her arms free, so he feeds her the meat. He is careful to rip it into thin pieces, feeding her slowly. She felt weak. She was being fed as though she were a small child, and she despised it. Dehumanized.

As the both of them finish their meal, Adara hears something. The scream from before. How is this possible? She grimaces and clenches her fists at her sides. The noise was loud, so loud she felt as though her ear drums would rupture. The prince watches her eyes squeeze shut.

He watches the horses begin to move around, their heads bobbing, pulling against the rope. Their neighs and stomping was quickly evident to all of the men. A few men stood, everyone's eyes turned into the dark woods. The prince puts a gentle hand on the hilt of his sword, his own eyes scope around.

Another scream splits through the air, finally the men can hear the earsplitting howl.

The men who had first put the horses odd behavior off, now held their own swords and watched the shadows. Adara watches as one of the men towards the back, furthest from the fire, is ripped into the black depths of the woods. Gasps and curses escape the men who noticed, and the scream caught in Adara's throat is replaced with the soldiers agonizing screams.

Adara swore she could hear his bones crunching and the sound of his blood dripping on the forest floor.

The men begin firing their arrows at random, but Adara can see the glowing red eyes that lurk in the woods. There were more than one. She gasps as another man is lifted into the air, the hammer in his hands hits the earth. Long black claws dig into his shoulder and thigh, ripping him apart.

She could see the glistening of his insides as he dies.

The prince grabs her arm and pulls her to her feet. He runs ahead, ignoring the screams of his men. They could only see inches in front of them as they run. Adara could hear the stomping of the creatures behind them. She squints ahead and sees a large tree.

"There's a tree," Adara shouts over the men's cries. "Climb it."

She watches him run ahead, jumping and grabbing a limb, hoisting himself up.

Adara could practically feel the breath of the beast on her ankles. She ran ahead, running against the bark of the tree, feeling the rough edges. It was almost as though she went in slow motion as she kicked off, spinning to face the creature. She stared into those red eyes, those sharp and grizzly teeth, preparing to meet them.

A hard reaches down, grasping the chain around her waist area, stopping her fall. She gasps as the beast lunges at her face. She stares down at the wolf-like face, the beast-like body that reaches out at her. Adara writhes in the chain as a claw grazes her face, touching the soft skin beneath her eye and running it down, a small scream bursts from her lungs.

  The prince pulls her onto the limb, the creature grabs her dress, pulling and ripping the fabric.  He stands, leaning against the tree, dragging her to her feet.  The prince spots another limb, jumping up and pulling himself onto it.  He reaches down and grabs her gently by the upper-arms, hoisting her up further.

  At their height, the beasts try to climb to them, but they seem unable to clamber up the tree.  The prince sits down, helping Adara sit in front of him.

  "Are you alright?" He asks her, staring into the dark, only seeing the glisten of the blood on her face.  He could no longer help but feel concerned.  The beasts tore his people to pieces from what he could see, and there is no telling what could have happened to her.

  "I am alright, it is just a scratch," Adara says.  "I will be fine."

  "What are those things?" The prince gasps, catching his breath as he gazes down at the creature.

  "My village warned of the creatures here, Nighthowlers being one of them."

  "What are they?" He asks.

  Adara frowns as she stares at the one that drew her blood.  "Beasts of the night, ordinary like us on the average day, but when the time of the blood moon sets, they change into these monstrous forms," she says.  She could remember her father telling her the story in her room before bed.

  "They crave human flesh, but once the moon passes they will go about their ordinary days," Adara whispers as she pulls her gaze from those red slitted eyes.

  After what felt like hours, the beasts one-by-one left their tree, moving their attention to the horses.  Adara watches the prince close his eyes, leaning gently against the tree, sleep poking at his form.

She can not help but stare at his peaceful form. He was much more tolerable asleep. Adara slides in between his legs, leaning against his chest as to not fall off of the tree. She was surprised; however, when his arms wrap around her.

Adara stares up at the sky, watching the large looming moon drift across the sky, the two small moons drifting in sequence on either side of it. All in one row.

It was beautiful.

She lifted her head, staring at the princes hands that hooked together to hold her. Biting her cheek, she closes her eyes and lets the warmth of his own form envelope her wholly.

"Thank you for saving my life," she whispers, drifting further into his comforting grasp. The prince stares down at her, looking at the blood down her cheek. You are welcome. Her voice humming in his head as he drifts to sleep.