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Lessons from a distant—and I thought forgotten—gym class suddenly became the most important lesson I had ever learned.
How to run efficiently.
I pulled my arms back, encouraging my legs to stretch as far as they could.
I held my head high, my neck long, and breathed in through the nose and out through the mouth in a circular pattern.
The sand turned blurry beneath my feet as I passed over it.
I never lost my feet, not even once.
A real wonder for me.
Before long, my breaths rasped in my throat and my body ached.
I didn’t stop.
I wouldn’t stop.
Already I could feel the pleasant effects of making love to Egara wearing off.
Soon, I wouldn’t have enough oxygen to power my lungs never mind my muscles.
I wished I could reach the prison and the safety of its impenetrable walls.
Funny how obstruction could suddenly become protection.
I checked over my shoulder, just once, and noticed the roaring fires were now nothing more than tiny islands in a vast and endless ocean of darkness.
I had run so far, so fast, I hadn’t taken notice of where I was heading.
Surely the tendrils couldn’t reach this far?
I slowed, my lungs already aching.
I placed my hands on my head to expand my lungs the way Egara had taught me.
The breaths rasped loudly, already hoarse.
I had no idea how long I’d been running.
I didn’t know if having my hands on my head like this was helping or hindering.
Black spots danced before my eyes, a sure sign of an impending headache, but I would take it over the fate of the prison guards any day.
Right now, they were being dragged across the sand toward a creature that would swallow them whole… and then slowly digested for countless years.
The thought alone made my skin crawl.
Then I heard it.
A shout for help.
It came from my left, invisible in the darkness.
Still, the moons weaved between the charcoal grey clouds like they were traversing a slalom course, illuminating only tiny patches of wind-swept sand dunes.
Had I imagined it?
