Dark Forest (Watty's 2017)

Part 5

Dusk came quickly and Zara found herself impatiently awaiting Amalia and Ronan in the shadows at the edge of the forest. She was hesitant, refusing to set foot inside until she actually had to. So instead she waited, just out of reach. Close enough to sense the power that hummed and thrived inside, by just far enough to avoid it. A feeling of dread was curling in the pit of her stomach, though somewhere alongside it she found whatever small trace of hope she had left. Even if they failed, perhaps her death within the forest would be enough to match what Gray's family had felt when she had been given the bleak, daunting task of informing them of his death. His death which had occurred due to her own ignorance and no one else's.

She heard Ronan before she saw him and gritted her teeth. For a huntsman, he was certainly loud and obnoxious. How he managed to sneak up on any of his prey she hadn't a clue. Unless he just wasn't a very good huntsman in the first place.

"Ronan," she greeted him, straightening up and moving into the moonlight.

He must have expected her to be there because he didn't react to her sudden appearance. "Has our escort arrived yet?"

Zara shook her head. "Not yet. Hopefully she hasn't changed her mind." Not that Zara would have blamed her for doing so. There was much at risk, more for Amalia than either her or Ronan.

She watched as the man dropped the bag he had been carrying to the ground, rolling his shoulders back. She had to admit, he looked slightly more concerned than he had earlier. Perhaps he was finally realizing just what they were intending to do. There was a very real chance that neither of them would return. He was willing to throw away his entire life in order to rescue a princess he seemed to have no real relationship with. Unless, of course, there was something he wasn't telling her. Which was very possible. Zara shifted her weight from one foot to the other and adjusted the strap of her own canvas bag.

"This debt you're trying to repay...how exactly did this king save your life?" she asked, making her tone more curious than suspicious.

Ronan turned his eyes on her, before averting them towards the starry sky above them. It took him a long moment to answer and she almost believed he wouldn't until he finally was breaking the silence. "My father was killed in the beginning of the war. Our village was quickly overrun by the wolves. King Kiernan and his men rescued us and he gave us a home, allowing me to stay on as a stable boy and my sister as a handmaiden. Once I was old enough, I began to train as a huntsman."

"So a life for a life then. He saved you from death, and now you must save his daughter. If she's not already dead," Zara muttered thoughtfully.

"I have faith," he said. "Though I know your feelings on such matters. Good thing I have enough for the both of us, eh?"

Zara shook her head, an amused smile pulling at her thin lips. "Faith will not get us through this journey alive. That's on us." She turned to face him full on, crossing her arms over her chest. "There may be times when the forest tries to pull us apart. There may be creatures in there keen on worming their way into our minds until we are no longer our own. Faith or no faith, I don't know what's going to happen once we cross that boundary. I hope you're ready." She perked a dark eyebrow, trying to assess his expression.

While Zara believed that underneath all his bravado, Ronan knew the danger she spoke of was real, there was no way he could truly understand. No one could understand the darkness that lived within that awful place. No one, not unless they'd spent as much time in and around the forest as she had. As a Red Cape, she'd entered the forest many times and almost always left with the desire to never return. Yet it had been her duty. One she'd been glad to fulfill if it meant sparing others from the gruesome fate that had befallen so many before. Already, the forest had claimed more than its fair share.