The Weeping Willow [Rise of the Guardians]

Chapter 15

What's this? What's this?

Is that magic in the air?

What's this?

Readers stop and stare.

Is this an update? Is that what they're called? Two in a day? What? Since when?

And by who??

Haha, surprise? This definitely surprised me, especially with how smoothly the words seemed to flow. I got the inspiration back! I'm so excited!

~~~

The cot was empty, the sheets gone and the cupboard bare. Every last piece of linen had been taken from Bess's quarters worrying Willow to no end. Closing the cupboard door, she tried her best to set the room right, but it still looked empty with its occupant and linens missing. She had to find Bess.

If her father found Bess before she could-

No, she couldn't stomach even the thought.

Dashing through the door into the late spring air, Willow's mind raced. Where would Bess go? This wasn't what they had planned. She wasn't supposed to leave until the next package from Uncle Travis arrived through the post.

It was the safest route they could figure, and even then, no route was fool-proof. There was still a high chance they could be caught, and then they could only hope it was by her father and none of the neighboring gentlemen.

Willow followed the path cut through trees that led North, praying that she could find Bess before something actually happened, and preferably before Father began to wonder where the two had disappeared to.

A branch caught in her hair as she passed a particularly prickly tree. Turning to release her hair from its grasp, she saw a small break in the thicket beneath the spindly branches of the tree which had grabbed her.

Crawling on her hands and knees, Willow slipped through the opening slowly, ignoring the thorns that snagged her clothing and skin. She found a small clearing on the other side, an alcove of three young willow trees clustered together, a trail of sloppy footprints in the red mud leading beneath their canopy.

Willow nearly cried in relief when she brushed the silver leaves aside to see young Bess curled up in the stolen linens among the cluster of trunks.

"You stupid girl," she muttered, stepping closer to the younger woman, trying her best to not startle her awake. She traced a small cut against Bess's dark cheek, watching as brown eyes blearily blinked open.

With a gasp, Bess threw her hands up in defense, smacking Willow's face aside before she recognized who was sat before her.

"Oh, Miss Willow, I'm sorry! I didn't known it's you, or I'd not have hit you!" she cried, reaching for the woman who had pulled away to touch her tender jaw.

"It's alright, Bess," Willow offered a short smile, before a new look took over her features. It was somewhere between disapproving and worried. "You can't go running off, Bessie, not yet. We have a plan, remember? When Uncle Travis's next package gets here-"

"-might be months 'fore then!" Bess spoke up. "I can't stay for more months, Miss Willow. I can't."

"But, Bess, we have a plan. And a good one at that! Please, just let me help you. If you go now, I won't be able to."

Bess looked Willow evenly in the eye. "The plan could not work."

"It's better than this. Where were you going to go from here? And how were you supposed to get there? On your own two feet?" Willow reasoned. "Please, Bess. The plan is the best option we have, Uncle Travis said so, and I trust him when he says that."

"Well, I don't," Bess countered, fear lingering in the edges of her mind.

Willow leaned forward, looking up into Bess's eyes. Her pale hand was extended before her, a soft smile meant to comfort the servant girl stretched across her lips. "Then trust me."

Still unsure about the plan, Bess looked at Willow's sincere gaze and her offered hand. She didn't trust Uncle Travis as far as she could throw the rounded man, but she had always trusted Willow, even as a girl when she was first bought by Willow's father.

Her dark hand clutched Willow's like a lifeline.

~

Freshly fallen snow hindered Willow from seeing Maggie's exact route to the tree, but ducking beneath the boughs she found small footprints stumbling towards the tree's center. The snow had been brushed off the root they'd shared when Willow first met Maggie, a warm spot remaining though the source of heat was no longer in sight.

On the other side of the root, the snow was disheveled like Maggie had fallen over and scrambled further away. Handprints showed where she turned to climb to her feet, the steps longer as she ran away from whatever had scared her away from the protection of the willow tree.

Willow followed the trail past the canopy, seeing no evidence of where Maggie had gone next. As the wind brushed past her, she caught a whiff of something burning.

The leaves that should have been silver with the winter's frost were charred black, the branches crumbling as Willow reached out to verify through touch that what her eyes were seeing was really there.

Her stomach twisted into knots as she began to fully understand what had occurred beneath one of her sacred trees.

~~~

Ooh. Cliffhanger!

I only love them when I'm the writer and not the reader. But I promise not to take another year to upload this book. I'm hoping to maybe even finish it before I turn 19!

This'll be a busy 3 weeks.

Ciao, lovelies!

xoXi