The Blood Witch (The Blood Reign Chronicles Book 1) Read Free Page B

from his lungs. There was something heavy lying across his chest which was not making catching his breath any easier. Whatever it was across his chest seemed to be a branch or root or something of the sort. Where it had come from he didn’t know, but ironically thought it would have come in handy a few moments ago when they had been looking for one.
    Clearing the debris and struggling to his feet, Jak was amazed that he wasn’t hurt very badly, with only a few scrapes and bruises but nothing too serious. Thankfully, the ground shaking had finally stopped and he realized all was calm again.
    He called out to Brigette, but there was no answer and his heart sank in despair. Fearing the worst, he frantically clawed through the debris, tossing aside rocks and dirt calling for her, but there was still no answer, only an eerie silence broken only by a lone pebble bouncing down the slope.
    Precious moments ticked by, and Jak’s heart began to race against it, when a faint noise off to his left caught his attention. The faint scraping noise that he could hear, made it clear that there was something under the rocks and dirt that had fallen from the cliff face, and was now buried in rubble. He scrambled to the place where the noise was loudest and began to hastily clear away the rubble.
    After frantic moments, he struggled to lift the last large rock, but nearly jumped out of his skin and stumbled backwards when he saw what lie beneath. To his horror, it was the ridge cat, still breathing and struggling to get free of the rocks and debris to reach him. Desperately he grabbed a nearby stone and began to smash it wildly against the skull of the trapped cat in an attempt to stop it.
    For all Jak knew, Brigette was dead now, and it was this stupid cats fault. But then again, if the cat hadn’t chased them up the cliff, they would have been right there at the base of the ledge, possibly asleep when the earth shaking came and they both would have been buried under all the rocks and dirt. The thought provided no solace to Jak.
    Moments passed and Jak realized his face was wet and sticky. In his panic and anger, he had thoroughly crushed the cat’s skull to a bloody unrecognizable pulp. Now blood was running down his face and into his eyes, but not all the wetness on his face was the cat’s blood. Some of it was his own tears mixing with the blood from the cat, making pink trails down his cheeks.
    Jak dropped the bloody stone and sat there motionless, letting the smell of the blood permeate his senses. It was an awful putrid smell to him. He had never gotten used to that pungent smell of fresh blood. Growing up in the small village of Elsdon, they had to grow most of their own food. Some of the food they ate came from the livestock they raised and butchered. Jak had helped his father and brothers clean and butcher many animals, including cows, chickens, deer, and elk, but he could never get used to the smell. The odor of the blood always turned his stomach and made him want to gag.
    “Are you going to help me, or just sit there?” It was Brigette’s voice that spoke the words, but was Jak just imagining it? He raised his head slowly in disbelief, glancing around hopefully, when he spotted Brigette laying several paces off, half covered in a heap of rubble and debris.
    “Well?” she said indignantly. “Are you going to help me or not?”
    “S-Sorry, I didn’t know where you were…...I thought you might be…….are you okay?” Jak responded in a flood of relief and confusion.
    “Yes, I think I’m okay,” she said with a slight grimace of pain, “but I think my leg might be broken. If you would get off your behind and come and help me get this rock off of it, then I might be able to stand up and see.”
    Jak leapt to his feet and rushed to her side, a feeling of elation surging through him at finding her alive after all of this. He gently cleared the debris and lifted the rock that had her leg pinned. Her leg was scratched and