Breath.

Shamir chokes back a cough, her lungs convulsing from overexertion, dashing lightly on top of the brown leaves, acutely aware of the sticks and forest floor, knowing one slip up can throw all of Buldo’s hard work away. Tears still streaming down her eyes, through her blurred vision she spots a faint rustling from a bush on her right. Her cat-like tail stiffens alarmingly, and she pivots in an attempt to shift her momentum to the side. She pushes off the ground as hard as she can, praying to escape the ambush.

Not enough.

Out of the corner of her eye she spots the silhouette springing out of the bush, and with a small yelp from Shamir, the body collides into her, causing them to tumble down a small slope to the side of the path. Despite her dexterity, Shamir was almost immediately overtaken and pinned to the ground by the assailant. She opens her mouth to scream, but a rough, calloused hand is quickly cupped over her mouth, muffling the yelling.

“Hush up will ya?! Do you want to be killed you idiot??” The figure whispers agitatedly. He takes his other hand off of her wrist to flick off his hood, revealing what appears to be some kind of canine ears on his head. “I’m not here to capture you, quite the opposite in fact! Now please, just follow me, quickly!” He stands up, gesturing for Shamir to follow him farther off the path.

Shamir took a second to process the situation, then quietly got back to her feet, following behind him. As they proceed farther into the dense woods, the trees seem to thicken, light slowly fading away, and all sounds seem to echo across the forest floor. After about two more minutes of running, the man tucks behind a tree, and wriggles himself underneath a particularly large tree, some of the roots protruding from the ground, opening up into the earth below. Despite the warnings from her guardians about the forest, Shamir crouched down, prying herself in between the roots.

She began to fall, the inky blackness of the hole seemingly consuming her vision. She could see nothing, and feel nothing other than the cold wind whipping around her. Covering her mouth to stop herself from screaming, tears streaming out of her eyes from shock and the cold wind, she listened hard for the inevitable sound of the other man meeting some kind of cold, hard, stone floor.

15 seconds pass, still nothing. She closes her eyes, trying to calm herself to no avail. But somehow, her momentum seemed to be slowing, and light began to seep through her shut eyelids. Looking down sheepishly, she spots a hole down below her, torches lighting the decent down. The stone walls around her seem immaculately cut, no faults at all that she could see. As the hole grows closer her momentum slowed ever more, until she inevitably falls through. Her stomach twists as her momentum seems to shift 180°, and she lurches forwards, landing hard on some kind of soft floor.

She groggily pushes herself off of the grass she seemed to land in, looking around in awe at the brightly lit forest clearing around her. A strong set of hands lift her up and turn her around, and she’s met face to face with the dog-eared man.

“I’ll explain everything in time, but please, you’re hyperventilating. Breath.”