**Even though this is "part 2" of Awaken, this takes place before Chapter 1 and is the reason Wren ended up in the hospital. Minor bloody/violent content and crude language.**
*Pant Pant* She moved through the forests exhausted, breathing heavily, making use of her abilities to remain as quiet as possibly. She had been tracking him close and trying to avoid his attack for a while now. She moved effortlessly from one place to another, leaving nothing but a small wisp of smoke wherever she paused. When she no longer heard his thunderous footsteps coming from behind, she made her way to a large tree in front of her and decided to reach the top for a better vantage point. Once she did, she quickly focused her energy and reached out to try and locate him before he found her.
The only sounds that could be heard in the large forests were the occasional sounds of small birds chirping, the sound of the swaying leaves from the large trees, and the distant sounds of the waves hitting the shore. As she reached out, she could only see small blue tinted "flames" off in the grey colored distance, signifying small spirits of harmless creatures that dwell within the forest. She sighed and opened her eyes, adjusting them to the colors of the forest once more. "Hey, "13" did you catch wind of where Haruki went? Also, did you find "10" yet?" She asked over a small radio she had in her ear. "We located 10 and no sigh of Haruki. Where is you location "67"?"
Before she was able to respond to the question, she felt an enormous pressure near her and tried to dodge the attack she knew was coming, but with no luck. She saw a quick flash of Haruki's claws right before they dug into the flesh on her arm. *AAH!* She yelled out in pain as the force behind his paw caused her to fall from the treetop. She desperately grasped at branches trying to slow her fall to the forest floor, but before she hit the ground, he swung his paw again and changed the direction of her fall; smashing her body into another tree.
BAM! *COUGH COUGH!* She coughed up blood due to the impact and quickly staggered to her feet. "H-Haruki! Who released you!" She yelled hoping to reach him and find out the information she needed without dying. Instead of a reply, she only heard his thunderous footsteps moving towards her again. "Haruki stop this! You know I do not wish to harm you!" She yelled as she turned and ran in a different direction. However, she didn't make it very far before she saw the flash of his silver fur in her sights. She hoped she had enough of her spiritual and nature energy to survive.
He wasn't at his full strength so his size was about half that of his true form; but he was still almost twice the side of a full grown adult bear. His appearance could scare off even the most seasoned hunters. Wren ran her hardest as she focused her mind to try and reach out to him directly. *Grr...* She heard the low rumble of his growl as she changed her direction once more. *cough...cough* 'Dang, I need to slow down,' she thought to herself. "Har-" before fully uttering his name, he quickly made his strike and bit down on both her upper legs with his large and powerful jaws, leaving her no chance to escape.
She once again yelled out in pain, but this time she grabbed onto his face as he shook her body side to side as if she was nothing more than a rag doll. 'I know you can- Ow, Ow!- hear me Haruki! Tell me who it was that released your binding!' Wren focused the majority of her spiritual strength into her thoughts in hopes of an answer from Haruki. She closed her eyes to focus and soon she saw someone appearing in a faded, almost colorless form. She could tell it was someone with a small build and long hair, but not much else. 'Focus Haruki, who was the one-' before she could see more details, she felt Haruki's head rear backwards, 'Shit...' then she felt the speed and pressure of him swinging his head to the ground, slamming both his jaw and her body against a large fallen tree.
*CRASH* After the impact Haruki released his grip on her legs and made one more swipe of his paw across her torso. *Wheeze...* Feeling herself slipping unconscious, she wasn't even able to yell or mutter anything aloud. Her eyelids felt heavy as she tried to open them, slowly turning her head, to try and find a place to hide. Her vision was blurred and getting darker, but she could see the large silhouette of a fox walking away from her bloodied and mangled body. She looked down at her arm and saw a bone sticking out of the skin, and dark purple bruising all around. She tried to lift her head but could only manage to move it slightly to one side. Ah she did, she noticed an old, large, mostly hollowed out tree.
*Wheeze...cough cough...* She could taste the blood in her mouth as she struggled to breath, every effort and movement causing her immense pain. 'I...I have to get...Michael please find me quickly...' She thought to herself as she mustered up the last of her strength to move her body towards the tree. *cough cough...spit* She spat out more blood as she slowly crawled and pulled her self along the fallen leaves and twigs on the forest floor in efforts to reach the tree for some safety.
Once she made it to the tree, she tried to pull herself into a seated position, but couldn't due to the pain and the pressure on her torso. She looked down at her body and noticed her clothes and skin had deep tears and rips where Haruki had clawed and bitten her. She moved her non-broken arm to touch her torso, and when she did she could feel deep grooves which she assumed were the large gashes from his attack. *Wheeze...* She struggled more and more to take a proper breath as the minutes. 'My lung must be punctured,' she thought as she closed her eyes in efforts to save the last of her energy.
'I need, I need to focus,' she thought as she tried to put the pain she was feeling, in the back of her mind, as she gathered her remaining spiritual energy for call for someone when they were near. *Stomp stomp...crunch* "My Lady?! My Lady answer me!" After a few minutes she was woken up when she heard his voice in the distance and smiled softly. "H-Here *cough cough cough*..." unable to form full words, she hoped he could at least here her coughing; she spit out more blood then tried to wipe her mouth so she wouldn't look so pitiful. She heard heavy footsteps moving closer to her location, as a last ditch effort to help him find her, she called for one of the small spirits that resided in the forest.
Once the little spirit came near she reached out to it,, 'Bring him to me,' she said to the spirit as she lightly touched its head then removed her hand. Within a few moments the small spirit hopped off towards the footsteps, shortly after she felt the presence of his aura near, but she could no longer keep her eyes open, "My Lady there-Oh...Oh no, My Lady..." the tall rugged man carefully crouched down to her level to crawl forward to her mangled body. "Stay with me...Hang in there Wren, I will get you help soon." She heard the sadness in his voice, "I'm sor-" *cough...wheeze* "Shh, Don't speak," he said as he reached his hands out to her, cupping her face gently in his large hands.
"You are burning up...Your body is most likely going into shock and you've lost so much blood. Who-what did this to you?!" Wren was struggling to open her eyes once more only for a moment; she managed to lift her finger to touch his forehead 'Someone...Released bind...Sil-...F-fo-' before she could finish "speaking" to him through his mind, she fell unconscious. "Dang. I need a healer here, NOW! Madame Priestess has been attacked! We need to get her to the hospital!" He said into a small communication device, just before carefully lifting her bloody, limp body into his arms. "Hold on Wren, please hold on!"