Forgotten

-25-

Esmond and Sansa walked in silence through the forest. Sansa found this part of the land to be beautiful. In-between during her travels, there had been nothing but flat, and dry earth. But now the ground was rich and vibrant. The trees seemed to be bigger- fuller than she had ever seen. They were not as tall as the ones she knew when growing up, but their short stature made up for it in sure sturdiness as she took in the huge trunks.

"It's beautiful," she whispered.

Slowly Sansa touched one of the trees, feeling how smooth the bark was.

Esmond smiled at her reaction.

"I'm guessing you are more...south?"

"Southeast you could say? Maybe west..." Sansa paused to think before shrugging, "I don't know anymore. This is the furthest North I have been."

Slowly Esmond moved to stand next to her, taking it in also.

"I've never been outside of the pack much," he admitted.

"You should travel," Sansa said, "It will show you more of the world and the way life can be lived."

Esmond sighed, "Many packs will accept others into their borders but they are wary when it comes to another...alpha..."

Sansa and Esmond stood in silence before he broke it saying, "I'm sorry about Lunch. I knew it would be like that but didn't know how to warn you."

"Like what?"

Esmond cleared his throat.

"Uh...well just from how the other pack members saw it...to them, it looked as if their future alpha brought a female back to his room in the middle of the night and didn't come out until..." Esmond stopped and slowly raised an eyebrow, waiting several seconds before a slow realization came over Sansa.

"That's..." Sansa suddenly burst out laughing. Her reaction caught Esmond off guard, until he joined her, both of them unable to stop themselves.

"Oh no and I cried! What will they think of you now?"

Esmond's laughter suddenly doubled as he sat down, his own tears coming now.

Sansa found herself sinking to sit next to him, both of them using the tree as support.

"That is not how I thought you were going to react," Esmond was barely able to wheeze the sentence out.

"I'm sorry," Sansa still had fits of giggles hitting her.

"Okay," Esmond cleared his throat, another burst of laughter leaving him before he shook his head and stood.

"Okay, sorry, that took me by surprise. Uh...right we were in the middle of finding Epione."

Sansa felt weak after laughing so hard, but the grin stayed on her face as they restarted their walk through the woods.

Halfway through, Esmond stopped and turned to Sansa. 

"I don't think I can go any further."

"What?"

Esmond looked forward, his nose rising slightly to take in the air, "She's just up ahead. But you need to go alone. Don't worry, she won't hurt you, and I'll be right here when she's done talking to you."

Sansa looked at Esmond for a few seconds more, before nodding and moving further.

Esmond had to smile at how there was no hesitation in her steps.