94 Injured 1

White-Fire took off, running between the trees and away from the onslaught of arrows and their pursuers.

As it ran, it saw a fallen tree blocking its path and jumped over it. This shook everyone, causing Jareth to almost fell off. Astrid quickly grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him closer to her. "Jareth, please hold on."

She turned her head to look at him and saw his eyes dropping close, her gaze went down to his injured arm and saw some dark lines on his arm where the arrow stuck into his skin.

Panic stricken, Astrid yelled in her mind, "White-Fire, please hurry!! He is poisoned.

"White-Fire could hear the urgency in her voice and increased its speed. It was well aware that Astrid was scared, she hadn't seen Jareth in such a state before and it caused her to panic.

Not long after, they arrived at where they camped before, Astrid got down from White-Fire leaving the little beast. Little White-Fire held tight to its mother as it waited.

Jareth reached into his bag and took out a potion. He used his mouth to cork open the lid and drank its content, then threw the bottle into the trees. Astrid wore her cloak which was now dried to some extent, her bag and rushed for Jareth's bow and arrows. She quickly wore his quilt at her back and hurried back on White-Fire.

This time around she sat at Jareth's back while he used his uninjured arm to hold the little white tiger-pheonix beast.

"Let's go before they catch up," Astrid said to White-Fire. White-Fire took off into the sky and flew away.

They had barely flown away from the trees when Astrid felt something pierce through the air and right at them. Without wasting time, she raised her right hand into the air, controlled it and quickly used the air to form a shield round them.

The moment she finished, the next second several arrows flew in their direction, but rather than hit their target they all stopped in mid air. She closed her eyes used her hand to push back.

The arrows caught in her air shield all turned and dived back at its senders with an extra force as to how it came.

Down below in the trees, a girl saw the arrows backfire at them and yelled, "Jump!!"

She took a leap from the tree and was in the air for some seconds, her eyes and Astrid's met shortly before she fell back down and landed on a different tree branch.

Luckily for some of the soldiers, they jumped in time and evaded the arrows, unfortunately three soldiers didn't react in time and got pierced by some of the arrows and fell straight back to the ground.

The girl gritted her teeth as she watched them fly out of sight.

"Princess!" A soldier called to her from below. She looked down and saw the injured soldiers sprawled on the ground, groaning in agony.

"Lieutenant, give them the antidote, as for the others, I need twenty men staking out till they get better. We are deeper in the forest, the wild beasts from earlier might be on to us about an hour from now. So everyone be on your guard," she ordered.

They all took positions guarded the area. Ten men formed a circle round the injured soldiers and guarded them.

"Princess Avery!" Lieutenant Flynn called to her.

She turned in his direction and walked into the circle where he crouched close to the injured soldiers.

"Yes?"

"Your Highness, even after taking the potion, they wouldn't be fit for the journey."

"I know, we would encounter more beast and they would not make it if we were to fight. When the potion take full effect and stop the spread of the poison, I would have ten soldiers escort them out of the forest and send them to the infirmary for to extract the poison."

"Okay, but how long before they get better? They need to leave before the beasts arrives."

"Thirty minutes, they have another thirty minutes to leave the vicinity, then we would continue our chase. They can't go far, the man is hurt, they would need to treat the poison, so we can catch up."

"Very well Your Highness."

"Okay, watch them."

She left the circle and wondered a bit to scout their surrounding.

*********

Jareth was not getting worst since he took the potion, but he wasn't looking good as well. After about two hours of flying, Astrid used her enhanced vision to scout for a place to land with no form of beast in sight.

"You can land just after that tree by the right. There aren't any beasts in the vicinity," she said to White-Fire.

White-Fire heeded her words and landed, they came down with Astrid assisting Jareth off of White-Fire.