Everlasting Dream

Chapter 90: Just a wish

[Nivalis Silverfrost]@@@@

Heavy breathing filled Nivalis' ears as she sprinted through the dense pine forest with her children clutched tightly against her chest. Their petite bodies jumped up and down with each of her heavy steps, their legs dangling around her hips. The sun shone through the leaves, blinding her occasionally, but that was probably the last thing on her mind now. 'Faster... just a little bit faster,' she repeated countless times, but no matter how hard she pushed herself forward, it felt like one of those dreams where you can't run away from something.

She could hear them shouting and cursing behind them, getting closer with each passing second. Her heart thumped wildly against her ribcage, her eyes darting around like a cornered rabbit's in search of a safe space to hide as the sound of those humans' voices rang out louder than before. "There! Over there, she turned left!" a deep male voice yelled, making Nivalis' legs move faster all on their own.

The pain on her face slowly but surely faded away as the pain of exhaustion took its place. But she couldn't slow down, not even for a moment. Not when her children's lives were in danger. They were still too close.

Her thoughts were a mess, and she could not comprehend how things had gone so wrong so quickly. They had barely survived goblins, endured harsh winter with little to eat, and nearly met their end in that dark forest where only gods knew what monsters lurked within its depths... but now? Humans hunted them like mere animals, and she had no idea for what reason. Why couldn't everyone just leave them alone? Was that too much to ask?

All Nivalis wanted was a quiet place for them to call home, somewhere deep in the woods where no one would ever find them. She would give everything for a little cave like the one they had before goblins, no mansions or fancy rooms... just a damn cave to forget about all the bad this world had to offer, somewhere she could raise her babies in peace and safety, far away from anyone who might harm or take them away...

Her blue eyes glanced at her son, feeling his little buttocks in her right palm as she kept pressing him against her chest, noticing that fiery golden gaze locked on the woods behind her. He looked exhausted and sick... as if he could faint at any moment. His pale skin was drenched with sweat, strands of messy silver hair sticking to his forehead. The heat radiated from his chest was so strong that she could feel it through her tunic. 'Stay strong, my little brave boy,' Nivalis merely moved her lips, too exhausted to even whisper the words out.

Then, her gaze shifted to the left, and she saw the girl clinging to her desperately. Silvia looked terrified; her golden eyes darted around, wide open and full of fear, as they scanned the woods for any sign of danger or some safe place they could hide in.

Every yell from behind made her flinch and whimper quietly against Nivalis' shoulder. Shivering heavily, her tiny arms were wrapped tightly around her mother's neck, skin cold to the touch. Goosebumps covered every little corner of her pale body as she struggled to keep up with that intense chill filling her small frame.

Adjusting them in her arms every few seconds, Nivalis kept running, her breaths growing more labored the more she did. Sweat dripped down her forehead and neck, stinging her eyes and making it even harder to see anything around her. She pushed herself beyond her limits; adrenaline pumped through her veins like never before. 'Please... please, someone, protect us... We need a shelter. A place to hide... anything!' Nivalis silently begged the gods as her legs carried them through bushes and over tree roots. Every time she blinked, the world grew blurrier from tears that streamed down her bruised face as desperation began to overwhelm her.

Fatigue quickly began taking hold; every step became a struggle as Nivalis pushed herself beyond her limits. Her legs ached with each movement, muscles burning under the strain she put them through. Yet, even as exhaustion threatened to make her collapse, she refused to give up. 'Just a bit longer,' she told herself desperately while trying to lose those humans in the forest by weaving between trees and bushes, hoping they wouldn't find their tracks on the muddy ground below.

But it was useless, she knew. With every passing second, they were gaining on them, and soon enough, they would catch up. "Look for where... we can... hide," Nivalis choked out between heavy breaths, hoping her prayers were heard and they would find where to hide before those humans caught up to them.

"O-okay," Silvia softly whispered into her ear while Aster merely hummed in response, clearly feeling sick from all the bouncing against her chest. They began to shift in Nivalis' tight embrace, their golden eyes scanning their surroundings for anything to help them. Their high-pitched voices threw out ideas like "What about those bushes?" or "Maybe we can climb that tree?" but Nivalis swiftly dismissed each suggestion. Any of those places would be their end, without a single doubt. Whoever those humans were, they are good when it comes to tracking.

Nivalis didn't even want to imagine what would happen if they caught them... Whatever those humans had planned... she had to keep her children from it at all costs. The thought of what could happen made bile rise in the back of her throat.

As the minutes dragged on without a sign of a hiding spot or a way to escape, Nivalis felt a growing sense of dread. Her legs grew weaker and weaker; she knew there was no way she could outrun them while carrying her children. Panic started to creep in like a snake slithering around her heart, making it race faster to the point she thought it might burst out of her chest at any moment.

A terrible thought suddenly visited Nivalis' mind just then... what if she left them somewhere? Hide Aster and Silvia in the bushes and run the other way to lead those humans away from her babies. It was a choice no mother should ever have to consider, nor did she want to; her heart broke at just thinking about letting go of her little ones like this, especially knowing that there was a high chance she would never see them again... They were all she had left in this cruel world.

She couldn't do that to them, not now, not ever. But as more time passed without finding any way out of this mess, Nivalis felt she had no choice. 'At least they would survive,' her mind whispered, making her gulp hard. Tears streamed down her face even more at just the thought alone.

Just as she was about to do the unthinkable—hide her children somewhere and lead those humans away from them, both Aster and Silvia suddenly turned their heads toward the left in perfect unison, noticing something she could not. "What... is it?" she breathed out tiredly, a frown creasing Nivalis' brows as she tried to see whatever caught their attention. Her first thought was humans, so she immediately turned slightly right, just in case.

But the siblings were not scared... if anything, they looked confused. They exchanged a look between themselves before Aster spoke up, his golden eyes looking back at Nivalis. "I-I... don't know. It's just a strange feeling from over there..." He pointed in one direction with his wrapped hand, where nothing but more forest waited ahead of them. "Like..." he tried to find words for that feeling, but it seemed he didn't understand it himself.

Silvia nodded, seemingly understanding what her brother meant. "I feel it too... " she muttered softly, shivering visibly as she looked in that same direction. At those words, Nivalis stopped in her tracks, her blue eyes glancing toward wherever their strange feelings came from. 'Could it be a sign?' she thought desperately, hope shining brightly within those sky-blue eyes. She didn't have the luxury of thinking longer about this, for they quickly lost ground to their pursuers. Her grip around the children tightened as she sprinted in that direction, praying it wasn't just their imagination.

Taking a deep breath, Nivalis forced a small smile onto her face despite pain radiating everywhere. "I'll be fine, my sweet boy," she cooed softly before gently kissing his forehead. Her lower lip stung like hell when she touched his skin with it, but the sight of him calming down was worth the trouble.

Silence fell between them for a moment until Aster spoke again, this time quieter than ever, barely audible. "Why did they attack us?" he asked, burying his face back into the side of her boob, inhaling that sweet scent that was uniquely hers. His hands absentmindedly fiddled with the hem of her tunic while he waited for an answer.

— "I don't know," Nivalis sighed heavily, running her fingers through his disheveled hair, trying to soothe him as much as possible. "I was fishing when they jumped on me from behind. One of them used light magic to blind me. I still see spots in my vision..." She touched her bruised cheek tenderly before adding, "Then, they tied my hands and feet with ropes. I-I barely escaped..." Her voice trembled at the end. Without a single word, both of them tightened their embrace around her waist.

Silvia remained quiet momentarily before speaking up so quietly that Nivalis could barely hear it. "Could it be because we are elves?" she asked without looking up, her finger tracing invisible patterns on her mother's skin. "Maybe a war broke out somewhere with elves, and now they hate us?"

Pressing her palm against her forehead, Nivalis sighed heavily before whispering back. "It could be... I don't know..." If that was true, she had no idea where to go next. They wouldn't make it very far if every human would attack them on sight. "Let's just be quiet for now and listen," she said, her breathing calming down, finally.

Carefully lowering herself onto the cold, rocky ground, Nivalis pulled her babies down as well; there was not enough room for her legs to stretch, so she kept them bent, knees almost touching her chest. "Try to keep your mana ignited for a while longer, just to be safe," she whispered.

Humming quietly, Aster and Silvia did their best to make themselves comfortable in the small space. They curled against their mother's soft body, their heads resting on her shoulders, golden eyes staring into the darkness. The cold stones beneath dug uncomfortably into their backs, but none uttered a single complaint about it.

Minutes passed without any sound reaching their ears except for quiet breathing and the occasional rustle of their clothing as they kept shifting positions in search of comfort. Aster's eyes eventually stopped glowing once that spell ran out, leaving them in complete darkness. No one spoke; all three strained their hearing to catch even the faintest noise that could indicate those humans were nearby.

...

Indistinct voices started drifting in from outside, causing Nivalis' heart to pound against her ribcage as fear and panic crept into her chest again; the sound of blood rushing through her veins filled her long ears. Her hand instinctively tightened around the wooden handle of her bloody knife, careful not to poke anyone with it due to how cramped this space was. Their voices slowly became louder until she could make out words.

"Fuck! We are late... They got away," a deep male voice cursed in irritation, panting heavily from running, his heavy armor clanking loudly with each step.

"A-are you sure this is the place? Doesn't look like much to me," another male voice asked, followed by the sound of leaves and twigs crunching beneath their feet as they walked around the entrance to the cave. Nivalis recognized that voice; it belonged to that man in leather armor and with a sword, the one she managed to make run away back near the lake. She gulped loudly, her blue eyes staring into the darkness where the entrance was supposed to be.

"Shut your mouth, Wayne!" a man in armor yelled in annoyance, his voice much closer now to their dark hole in the rocks; it sounded like he kneeled at the entrance. "I don't want to hear a thing from you. It's all your fault! Linnea would be alive if you just did what I fucking told you—"

"Stop yelling, idiot," a female voice interrupted in a whisper. It wasn't familiar, but Nivalis remembered seeing the girl with a bow among the four who attacked, so it must be her. "Why do you think we couldn't catch on them? They heard us from hundreds of steps away. Better tell us what to do next, Valther. Are we going in after them into this... thing?"

"Dammit..." Valther grunted, going silent after a few moments. "Of course, we're not... Just give me a few minutes to prepare the spell, and let's just get out of here. This whole idea was such a mistake," he muttered, sighing loudly in frustration as his heavy armor scraped against the rocks when he sat down somewhere near the entrance.

Wayne's nervously soon asked, "Maybe try to smoke them out?" But after a moment of silence, he added, with a sigh of his own, "Alright, I'll be quiet. No need to look at me like that."

When Nivalis heard about the spell that man was preparing outside, she tensed up like never before. It didn't sound good, not one bit. "Let's move deeper into the tunnel..." she whispered into her children's ears, shifting in place while trying not to hit her head against the low ceiling. "We need to hurry," Nivalis added urgently, bending down to Aster and pushing him forward with a gentle slap on his butt. By coincidence, his golden eyes began glowing the moment she did so.

Then, Nivalis did the same for Silvia before squeezing herself into that narrow passage after them. Her breath echoed against those stone walls as she struggled to crawl forward, rough rock scraping her delicate skin with each movement. 'Please... don't be a dead end,' she mouthed in prayer, ignoring all pain and pushing onward desperately.

But what happened next terrified Nivalis to her very core. The tunnel shook violently around them, causing dirt and small pebbles to fall from the ceiling and walls. Nivalis tried her best to keep calm and not panic while her children's terrified cries filled her ears. Then, the stones began to groan as if something pushed them against each other. 'An earth mage!' she realized fearfully, pulling herself forward with all strength left in her arms just to get away from those awful sounds of rocks grinding against each other behind her, getting louder and closer way too fast.