Friday Snippet: Hunter and Hunted

Yet another piece written for my sci-fi writing class. I haven't developed much of the story behind it, but again, I like it. I hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think and leave a link!

Copyrighted, do not reproduce, material liable to change. Etc.

Through the deadly crush of the snow-blanketed forest and the heavy scent of pine sneaking between the branches, Lyte knew he was Hunted. He paused, snow grunting under his boots. He knelt. Tilting his head back to the cold winter sky, he narrowed his eyes, searching for a sign of what stalked his footsteps. He could taste it, like the flat tang of rust: blood on the wind.

Traces of it, like spider webs, drifted through the blackened trees, and he saw scents and memories and whispered words of travelers long dead swirling on the air. But no sign of the thing prowling through the snow. He frowned darkly. He’d been Hunted most of his life, walking from one Edge of the world to the other since the last battle at the Port o' Mourning. But this time his ash-black hair stood on end and his nerves crackled with near-panic. A strange alien threat soaked the air.

His stomach lurched and he leaned forward, pressing his bare hand deep into the snow. Voices assaulted him in a cacophony, calling his name in lullabies and battle cries. Above all others, her voice - Even’s voice - rose out of memory, as clear as if she crouched beside him under the slate grey sky, her slender arms looped around his neck.

“I’ll never marry a Hunter,” she said.

The first time she told him that, they were children lying in rain-wet grass on a cool spring night. The whole world gleamed like a freshly painted canvas. He would turn to her, his cheek pressed against the silvered jade blades of grass. Her jaw was touched in starlight and he never answered her. He never answered her because her voice lifted off into the night and it was enough that he heard her humming and speaking in rhyme just above the cricket-song. But when he was older and all of that was gone and he Hunted the world over for blood, it was never enough.

So say we all.
Bri