Excerpt: Sky Bound

"She held still. The forest was not silent, with the clicking of insects and the chimes of the birds, but nothing there could mask her breathing from him, and the leaves around her were tiny cymbals who would cry out in distress if she moved one muscle.
The breath ached in her lungs.
Her fingers shook obstinately against the rough branches, and her knees ached to be extended from their unnatural squat.
She peered anxiously downward. She could see him, shifting back and forth, trying to get a scent or sight of her movement. This was good. He did not know where she was, only that she was near. She heard him draw long breaths through his nose, then several tiny breaths, like a snuffling dog. It was eery, the way he slunk around under her feet now, his eyes probably closed, trying to detect the scent of the fresh rabbit on her teeth from this morning, or the not-as-fresh salt beneath her arms that she had tried unsuccessfully to mask with mud. Thankfully, her clothes were rubbed in the same dirt from this very forest, and enough leaves remained in her hair from springing through the treetops that its natural fragrance was completely gone. "