The Boy in the Woods

II

"Who...who are you and what are you doing here?" Evelyn eyed the boy. He turned to her, and smiled. He had blue eyes like the sea, and shaggy black hair that covered his sharp eyebrows. "I found the tunnel, and followed it here, then walked to the beautiful voice I kept hearing. Was it you?" He looked at all the birds, then Evelyn herself, waiting for a reply. "U-uh...yes! Yes, it was," she answered proudly, yet blushed all the same. Those who knew Evelyn knew she rarely blushed, and when she did, it was because she liked someone. "What's your name, anyways? I'm Evelyn, meaning servant." She playfully bowed to the boy, grinning. Though her face was facing the ground, her eyes looked up at him. "You may rise, servant dearest," the boy replied. He stood up, and began walking towards her. "Name's Shaw, meaning dweller in the woods," he said as he stood a foot away from her, his eyes stormy like a hurricane upon the ocean. Evelyn's brown eyes stared into Shaw's blue oceans, and suddenly, she felt like they were the only two people in the world, his eyes capturing her.

However, the moment was broken when he turned and sat in the chair. Her face radiated disappointment and she sat in front of him, unsure of what just happened. "Places like these are rare now, Evelyn," Shaw said quietly. He looked as if he was a prince, sitting regally in a wood chair staring at the nature around the two. Evelyn looked at him in awe for two seconds before looking at the grass she was picking at. "Something wrong Evelyn?" Shaw looked at her, concerned. Evelyn held her breath for a second, before letting it all out. "Today I'm supposed to be meeting a prince who I'll be marrying in a year. The only issue is, I don't want to marry a stranger who I know nothing about." She begins to cry, and looks up at Shaw. "I'm only 16, and going to be married to some old man who's probably a pedophile and doesn't care about love," she says, sobbing. Evelyn sat with her knees to her chest, hugging her legs and crying into her kneecaps. Shaw stands up and goes over to her, sitting down in front of her and hugging her body, letting her cry into his shoulder. He softly shushed her, speaking into her ear.

"Calm down, calm down. Shh, shh. You might as well face it, and do your best to adapt to the situation. This...this man may not be a pedophile, or even old. Besides, they may know all about you and do their best for you. If not, then run away one day and you can live with me, and we'll have our own happy ending." He said these words softly into Evelyn's ear, frowning. Evelyn sniffs, wipes her eyes, then stands up. "You're right, I really don't have a choice. To m-m-marriage I go," she said to Shaw, but in reality she was encouraging herself to move on. "I'll see you later?" Shaw asked, standing up to go. She nodded, and ran back to the tunnel, and crawled through it.