I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. The only sound in the world was the wet rattle of my lungs as blood spilled down my chest. My mouth filled with iron, and when I coughed, scarlet sprayed across the Alpha Deer's muzzle.
It roared, a sound so deep it rattled through the horn still impaled in me, vibrating every organ like a drum. Then its head jerked sideways. My body went with it. The world blurred...
CRACK!
The sound wasn't just bark splitting—it was something inside me, ribs giving way under pressure.
"GHHHHHAAAHH!"
The tree stopped me. The bark split against my back, pain screaming down my spine. Blood poured out of me in another mouthful, hot and thick, and my vision tunneled. The edges darkened, closing in.
If it kept this up, I was finished.
The thought wasn't dramatic; it was simple math. I could already feel the numbers dwindling—blood out, oxygen down, strength leaking out of me in thick streams
