Broken: Day 5

Word Count: 30,011

Summary of Events:

Emil got as far as the stables in his efforts to help Arina when he fell asleep; Samuil found him there and sent him back to bed. The next morning Samuil pressed Emil for an explanation of why he'd been sleeping in the stables, to which Emil refused to respond. They set out on another hunt and Emil got a swan, although it wasn't the one which attacked him, as he headed steadily onward toward the lake to check on Arina . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

It took them some time heading northward before they finally found a softer slope — as evidenced by the fact that trees actually grew on it — and Emil started Yarina up the hill.

They then headed southward for a ways, with Emil looking for the mud pit so that he could determine when they should start heading east again to be on something of the right track.

Wings flapping overhead turned Emil's gaze skyward and he saw the swan, it was the swan which had attacked him yesterday; without a doubt he knew it was the same swan, and it was the speed at which it flew which gave it away.

Emil immediately sent Yarina after it while readying his bow, determined to get a better shot in on his first opportunity. He made Yarina go as fast as he dared on the terrain and did his best to manoeuvre her in such a way as allowed him the most good opportunities based on where he guessed the swan was going.

Even though he was going faster and keeping the swan better in his sights, it still took him forever to get something he considered to be a shot opportunity, but when he did, he fired, only to have his arrow go whizzing over the swan.

Immediately Emil reined Yarina in and braced as the swan turned around and surged at them.

Yarina screamed and bolted. Emil kept his seat and worked to rein Yarina in as the swan pursued them.

Emil cried out when suddenly and unexpectedly he felt a sharp and foreign pain in the back corner of his neck. Yarina fought to get her head as the swan nipped at Emil, also flapping and thrusting its webbed feet at him.

It bit at Emil's face and actually got a couple of good strikes in while continuing to flap at him. Yarina screamed and bucked, giving Emil a frightful challenge trying to defend himself and keep himself in his saddle.

Finally he hauled Yarina around in a circle with one hand and drew out his sword with the other, prompting the swan to depart immediately.

Cursing under his breath, Emil sheathed his sword and then worked on settling Yarina down, which took a lot longer than it had when he'd killed the other swan.

He rubbed gingerly at the back of his neck and found no blood came away on his fingers, so that was good, except that the bite hurt ferociously.

His cheek, on the other hand, had two places where it was bleeding, one just under his cheekbone, the other down by his chin. All in all his face smarted terribly. He really wanted to bring that swan down to stop the attacks if nothing else.