Main has decided to become an author as well as an inventor, as part of her mission to live surrounded by books. Main has rewritten Snow White in a realistic and practical way- with someone who is a lot like herself in the leading role.
Obviously Ma...
The princess ran down the uneven path as fast as she could. She was careful not to lose her footing, but eventually she stumbled over a root jutting out of the ground and fell. Snow got up and brushed the twigs and soil off her skirt.
"I need to move at a steady pace, so that I don't get injured," she thought. "but I also need to get away as quickly as possible." Snow White knew how ruthless her mother could be, and she wasn't going to wait to be killed.
The Marchen kingdom is close by and to the north. If I continue moving in this direction with the sun behind me I should get there eventually, thought Snow White. The track wound side to side, meandering like a slow river. You couldn't see far ahead because of all the trees and the pitch of the ground. The track was littered with autumn leaves, twigs, pebbles and sharp stones jutting out dangerously. Every now and then the path would widen a bit and everything would brighten. Snow ran as fast as she could but after a while she had to stop to catch her breath.
After a while of successively jogging and speed walking her stomach began cramping up painfully and she decided to take a short break. As she was gasping for breath she looked around, trying to orient herself and evaluate her progress. Snow realised that she had no idea where they were; how far they had gone, or weather they were truly heading in a northerly direction. She looked around to distract herself from the stitch in her side. They were on a slightly wider stretch of the path and the autumn sun was able to reach all the way down along the path. However the trees on either side were tall and thick, with layers of leaves that hadn't yet begun to dry and go brown. Under the trees, the ground was covered with smatterings of plants and flowers of all different colours. Snow White's eyes were drawn to a carpet of white faintly glowing flowers to the right of the footpath. They stretched out as far as the eye could see, illuminating the dark underside of the canopy and highlighting the craggly texture of bark with their etherial light. Snow White had a strange feeling that if she touched one of them, it'd transform and turn out to be a carnivorous feyplant. She collected herself and began moving forward, through the woods again.
The mana radiating around her was immense. Snow White had strong mana (as you'd expect of a princess or any high nobility) so it was hard for her to sense small amounts of magic, but she could clearly sense that these woods were rich with mana. It was terrifying. Even the flowers were completely different from anything she had seen in her garden at home. This thick, wild, unkept, forest was nothing like the wide open parks and hunting grounds the Princess was used to. All she could do was follow the knights advice, and continue moving along the path.
Whenever she stopped for a break she'd peer into the dark depths of the woods and see animals skittering through the half shrouded undergrowth. There were ferns, fallen trees, mossy rocks and unfamiliar plants everywhere. The damp corners of the thick tree roots were strewn with different coloured mushrooms, slimy fungi and little burrows. The soil had layers and layers of twigs and decomposed leaves from the year before, it smelled thick and damp and full of life. Snow continued down the path slightly tempted to leave it and cut through the forest and go straight north, up the mountain. But she knew that was a bad idea. Who knew what creatures were lurking in the woods? Snow White knew that there must be a reason why the path everyone took wound the way it did, even if that reason was unknown to her.
The sun's position in the sky was slowly changing. It was getting darker and Snow White was becoming aware that dusk was approaching. She had found a walking rhythm, so she didn't feel like she'd been walking for hours; but she was getting thirsty. She was becoming increasingly tired and aware that she needed to find shelter soon. She was completely defenceless against feybeasts without her mana ring. Snow White picked up the pace hoping to find a river soon.
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