Arabella stood there, stunned by the sight of that man. His face contorted through a flurry of emotions before it settled into a grin. What others might have found pleasant, Arabella thought it was nothing sort of madness like that of a deranged, sick dog. Disgust flooded through her, enough to forget her suprise. She turned her back to him and ran from the site as he screamed her name. It echoed through the trees, disrupting the few birds who chose to stay. But she did not stop, how could she when she would rather let the crows have her heart than speak to an oath breaker? She kept running even as his steps faded and the only things she could hear was the blood in her ears.

The world that was turning and dying became white ash before her eyes. The air bit into her flesh and pierced her lungs. She did not stop. Frost turned her eyes glassy and her lips blue. She kept running.

Running. Running. Running until the oaks’ root caught her ankles. They held on as she struggled, their branches falling and tangling through her hair and grasping her shoulders.

“Stop young one, you must. How long do you plan to run? Until there is noting left of the flesh on your bones?” Their voices were low and their words slow. 

“Let me go!”

“Swear you will stop. You are in our forest and we do not allow screamlings here.”

“I am from the spring circle! I am a mage not a screamling!”

“You will become one if you continue, young one. Stop now and you will be able to stay, continue and you shall lose your stand here.”

“Fine.” She spat, anger flushed under her skin. Her teeth sank itself onto her tongue, blood dripping down her chin and unto the snow. The blood was warm and bright but the snow was as white as her skin Arabella realized. Her veins visible and blue as if they were filled with corn flower petals rather than the blood on the snow. Her senses came back slowly but steadily, filling her head like the sand of an hour glass. 

‘Half turned,’ she thought, the words ringing through her.

“Half turned.” They spoke to the air around her.