Alone

Part 3 here [link]
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Though she’d known before entering that the forest spanned borders of countries, there was a difference between the measured distance on a map and the millimeters-turned-miles on foot. She was awful at spatial math, despite all her teacher’s hardship. If her body couldn’t do it for her, what was the point, anyway?
There were cicadas out in the forest. That was a little strange, cicadas… she’d only heard them in warm places in Summer. Though, the forest was warm… but, the season…. They should go by the season… shouldn’t they?
Perhaps there was also a witch in these woods.
That made her curious. Promising. She wondered if they were a witch of the weather….

crackle, snap

Ah. Bad. That sound was bad. Hm… she wasn’t supposed to make sounds out here. It could catch attention. Though, she had felt very much alone… she was alone, right? She had to be alone.
A few more meters were passed over the crackly-crunchy forest floor. It fought against her silence, shredded her veil as a ghost. Made her living and there, she didn’t like it, didn’t want it. Then she might not be so alone, after all.
Looking back, she saw that the lights from the foxes were gone. That made sense, huh… foxes were preyed on by wolves. She looked up and found the stars and moon still glimmered above the highest tree’s reach. So pretty and so cold… Ah. That was no good. Pain exploded like the stars, burst in her vision. The world spun and blurred, and she hit the earth like a train had hit her.
Against her own will, she screamed, and just as quickly the torrent ended, and she was left in the grass, staring up at the treetops back on top of a hill behind her in confusion, while her ankle throbbed. What…
She’d tripped over a root and ended up tumbling down the side. Well…. She supposed that was what she got for travelling at night and staring at the sky.
Oops. Well… Lessons for next time. Her ankle throbbed again. She sat up to prod at it. Yes… she wouldn’t be walking on that soon. She pulled out her pack and hummed. That was no good. She hadn’t really planned on getting hurt, badly. Should have packed more potions… it wasn’t like mom hadn’t tried to send her off with dozens. But she had the ones she had to deliver, and two vials for herself. She… didn’t know if one would cut it, as much as she was loathe to cut into her second supply.
She popped the cork off and drank it. Really, she’d known better. This was terrible.
Potions were an odd thing. Her mother brewed them, and she’d often watched to try and glean how, exactly, magic went in and out. Even if the brewer lacked magic, they could prepare a potent potion. It had to have been nature magic, but she wasn’t sure how. The ingredients weren’t inherently magical. Unless… it was the color. Maybe the pretty red had some property. Mom had never told her. She kind of thought it was to watch her face screw up in an angry pout.
The potion tasted like berries and metal, a very pleasant thing, though some days she could do without the berries, and after some time spent staring up at the stars and the hill she’d hurt herself tumbling down, she began to feel a tingle in her bones, that stretched out to the ligaments, tendons, muscle, fascia… all of the ugly-bruised-violet tissue further warped itself while she glanced. It looked like the time she’d jumped off the roof and landed wrong. It hurt like that, too.
Maybe injuries should have bothered her more than that. Mom worked on people with injuries. She made them better.
She wished mom was there right then. She didn’t feel so okay anymore. The forest was… different now.
Her flesh began to grow paler.

Have you ever had that feeling, wriggling in your gut? The sense that something was… wrong? She felt… followed. The empty woods were no longer so… she wasn’t ‘alone’ anymore. Perhaps she had never been and could only feel it now, away from the sweetly chiming bells and their comforting light…
Though she heard no footsteps and saw nothing when she turned back on her tracks, she couldn’t shake it. The sense that something was… watching.
Something was watching. Yes. It was unsettling.
She wanted to hide from the eyes. Alas, despite its nature for its native life, the forest offered her nowhere to run. And children were not known for their skill in biding time.
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Part 4 of Gilded Star
Part 5 is here [link]


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