Читать книгу Werecat Choice - Enrike Fluence - Страница 6

Marianne unlocked the door and looked out. The familiar gloomy landscape has not changed. No one is visible, and silence reigns. Marianne looked at the snow. There were footprints around the house. Someone approached the window. From the shape of the prints, one could say that this man had snowshoes on his feet. The snow was trampled down more under the window. Viator walked around the house and watched Marianne through the window before knocking on the door.

Marianne hurried away from the house with the dead man. The forest was left behind on the mountain, the snowy steppe stretched behind the house, conifers darkened on the horizon. This means that the forest was waiting for the traveler again.

Marianne stepped into the snow, glad to have the snowshoes on his feet, which he had taken from home. It became much easier to walk. He walked for several minutes on flat snow when he sensed that something was wrong. The shapes appeared on the left. There were about a dozen of them.

People were previously invisible in the shade of the trees on the slope. A little deeper in the forest, the red glow of the fire gleamed.

Marianne looked around at the people and continued walking forward. Short roll call, cautious exclamations. These people must have been on the alert. When Marianne appeared, they immediately got to their feet and surrounded him. In fur coats, massive build. They looked like robbers. They wore the same clothes as Viator.

The largest of the hunters blocked Marianne’s path and shouted:

– Are you in a hurry somewhere, boy?

The stranger’s voice was hoarse as if asleep, but it was harsh and harsh. The man glanced around Marianne defiantly.

Marianne went to the right.

– But we don’t think so. – Big guy got over to the right and got even closer. He stared into the youth’s face. Marianne stopped.

– Hey, Ulysses! Check how Cassius is doing. Something you can’t see. Had he escaped with our little gold, eh? You look, and his trace is gone again? He is a weak coward. And everyone knows about it. I should have sent you, Ulysses, on reconnaissance.

The robbers looked at each other excitedly. The thought of stealing some gold seemed to seriously disturb them. The thinnest and the smallest ran quickly to the house.

“Ulysses?”

Marianne had a guess: most likely, this is still a very young guy. Perhaps his age.

– Well, so what’s wrong with you? – the chief turned again to Marianne. – Let’s take off your clothes! We’ll turn out the pockets later and see if you are hiding anything of value there.

Undress? Had he heard wrong? It seemed these people didn’t care what happened to Marianne. Or rather, on the contrary: they wanted him to freeze to death. Marianne did not move. The leader of the gang did not like it. He shouted angrily:

– Something I look, you are in no hurry. We’ll have to spur you on.

And he threw the weighty gun off his shoulder. Several approving laughter rang out from his associates. Meanwhile, the circle of hunters was narrowing. The two bosses behind Marianne came very close. There were now less than ten steps between them. The young man took out Viator’s knife. It was stained with blood.

Noticing Marianne’s gesture, the leader added:

– I, frankly, do not care who you are and what your name is. I have nothing personal to you. But we have to live on something. And maybe we won’t kill you. I don’t want to get dirty with your blood.

The tone of voice with which this was said was still harsh. And even gloated. Marianne will definitely be killed. The leader is just fooling him.

“I won’t undress,” said Marianne. – Let me pass.

These words caused a friendly laughter Marianne saw nothing funny here. So they were laughing at the gesture of the leader, who threw up his hands, as if saying “try” or “can’t you see how many of us are here?”

A streak of pearly light fell on the snow and on Marianne’s face. He raised his eyes to the sky. The moon illuminated the world sleeping in the snow with mystical radiance.

Suddenly Marianne felt a powerful surge of strength and energy. He blissfully inhaled the frosty air, delighted in the sparks of countless small pieces of ice. Serenity and freedom burst into his lungs. How strange it was to feel like that now. It seemed like a forgotten, huge and warm feeling from his childhood. This feeling attracted and pushed Marianne into her unknown world. The world that was waiting for him right now. The doors were open…

“It’s the moon!” – suddenly thought Marianne. She is the source of his inspiration and inspiration for life!

“She’s so close and warm now, almost like the sun. She touches the very heart with her love scent. Its soft light transforms the forest and hills into a crystal paradise.”

Muscles throughout Marianne’s body tensed and then groaned in languor, wanting to release boundless energy. The young man even grew above the ground, became taller. At least he felt like the tallest and strongest being on Earth.

Then the silhouettes in fur robes came into view again. He did not hear them, but he felt them. For a moment, Marianne forgot about their existence. They dropped out of his field of vision, out of his thoughts, and now they again loomed around. The light of the moon clearly illuminated both the snow and people.

The leader of the gang fired a shot in the air, and then aimed the muzzle of the gun at Marianne. A loud bang, like thunder, scattered around the area.

– Take off your clothes! He shouted, choking on saliva and shouting curses at Marianne. – I will not repeat again!

Marianne, inspired by the moon, was not afraid of either the shot or the threats. His meeting with the robbers was no longer worried.

“I can easily run away from them!”

Marianne wanted not just to break out of the encirclement and run away, but to fight. Not to kill, no, but to punish the offenders. To teach a lesson. And he chose the main one as his goal. Maybe he really didn’t want anything bad and was trying to delay the death of the victim? Or perhaps his teeth spoke. Distracting attention while his buddies stab from behind.

The muzzle of the gun was staring at Marianne, and not one. You can’t hesitate any longer. Marianne lunged forward at the leader of the gang, crashed into his chest. The blow was very strong. The big man grunted loudly and flew head over heels into the snow. Marianne ran over it and dashed away. Shouts and abuse were heard from behind. And Marianne had already straightened up and ran as fast as he could. Then he glanced over his shoulder. Just in time: one of the men raised his gun and aimed at his back. Marianne darted to the left, ducking his head as he ran. A shot rang out. A bullet whizzed nearby. Marianne fell into the snow, then got up and ran again. Two more shots rang out. Marianne never looked back. He ran like a spirit across the snowy steppe. It is necessary as quickly as possible to reach the nearby trees and hide behind them. Now breathing was in his ears, the beats of his heart pressed into his throat, but Marianne did not slow down. Two more minutes, and he fell into the snow behind a saving tree.

Wiping the sweat from his face, he crawled and peered cautiously out of his hiding place. It turned out that he managed to overcome a fairly long distance. Much more than he thought. A group of people in black robes sprawled across the plain. Two or three people were far away. Harsh screams echoed into Marianne’s ears. Someone moaned, someone cursed. The leader among them could not be discerned. The pursuers slowed down. Some stopped completely, one of the robbers turned back. Or so it just seemed. It was difficult to make out from a distance. Only the two most enduring and strongest continued to walk towards Marianne, but they could no longer see him.

Marianne figured he had no more than a minute of head start if the two continued to chase.

“We must move on.”

He straightened his snowshoes and was glad that he did not lose them during the race. He looked at his pocket, afraid to touch it with his hand.

– Mignis, are you all right? Mignis?

The pocket stirred. Marianne even saw a pair of thin tendrils peeking out of the hole. Hoping that Mignis was okay too, Marianne walked quickly into the woods, figuring out how not to leave footprints in plain sight.

The gloom thickened. It became completely dark. Low clouds covered the moon. This lifted Marianne’s spirits: it will be more difficult for robbers to find him in the dark, and soon they will abandon this venture. A gust of wind showered the youth’s face with ice flakes. Marianne pulled on his hood tighter. He turned around, looking at the fresh line in the snow, trodden by him. How soon will the snow cover it with new flakes? Now we need to get away from the chase as far as possible. A sleepless night lay ahead.

Marianne walked and walked. The coniferous forest sometimes thinned and climbed an untouched snowy hill, then became a dense wall near a shallow clearing.

The walking pace became lower. Marianne felt tired in his legs. The moon gave him strength. When will he see her again? Tomorrow, in a month? Or maybe at all… But it’s better not to think about it. Tomorrow night he will be waiting for her. And it will definitely be as intoxicating as it is today. He looked up hopefully: maybe even tonight she will appear in the sky? The black furry tops of the fir trees swayed overhead, and the falling snow obstructed the view. In such weather it is hard to see anything even ten meters around you.

Soon something hard came under my feet. The snow here was not deep, it became easier to walk. Marianne looked around. There are no trees in sight.

Marianne went out onto a frozen pond or river. In such a blizzard, he could lose direction and go to the side or walk in circles, so he decided to walk along the left bank. In addition, Marianne was afraid to fall on fragile ice and fall into the water. But now the mood has improved. He left less noticeable traces, and the blizzard will quickly do its job. The chase must be deadlocked in the morning.