“So, what was the point of the blindfold?”
Two guardsmen walked along an empty street in the morning light, their blue surcoats flashing under the sun.
Alayna skipped forward ahead of Hanley, stopping abruptly in front of him and forcing him to come to a stop as well.
“I don’t know. Dramatic effect I guess?”
“She’ll probably freeze to death out there- if she doesn’t get eaten first.”
Hanley made a face and shrugged nonchalantly.
“Probably, but it’s not our problem. She’s not a citizen or anything. Just a random human.”
He stretched his arms and yawned loudly. Before turning back to her.
“Still- Captain Aiken is a genius. If we just simply kicked her out, we’d be abandoning her- a person in need. The humans would be furious for kicking another human out, especially if she dies. But because she didn't pay the entrance fee, we can move her outside the walls and say she never entered. It’s not so much us abandoning her. It’s more like she couldn’t even get in. It's so simple. Us following the laws of the city cannot be gainsaid.”
Alayna bit her lip. That made sense. But it felt wrong leaving her out there. Especially in the middle of winter.
A human girl with no memories.
Practically a death sentence.
---
Amora walked forward, looking out at the woodlands, icy wind chilling her to the bone. She wandered toward a nearby tree. Its bark was reddish brown and looked smooth to the touch, but as she got closer, she saw long thick strips of vertical cracks- veins stretching across the entire trunk. She put a hand to it and furrowed bark trembled against her like a living, breathing thing. She glanced behind her. Hopeful. Wishing someone would be there.
Even Hanley would do.
“No. They aren’t coming back. They left me here.”
She shook her head and walked further into the forest. And darkness swallowed her whole.
Or at least she thought it would.
“Huh. Weird.”
Frowning, she looked back the way she came. She’d walked for over 20 minutes now and as she sank deeper, the level of sunlight didn’t seem to change at all. She kept expecting to walk into the wall of shadow she saw from outside the forest.
She saw it still, a great shadow obscuring vision a few meters away. Amora walked toward it. And it seemed to walk with her. Sometimes it would be close, and other times further. She stopped, frowning deeper and the wall of black moved away from her. She looked behind and saw another wall of shadow- this one much closer. Strange. The light around her seemed to flicker and-
She stared up.
These trees were tall. Well, tall was an understatement. And at the top? Large branches stretched outward, like an umbrella, leaves interlocking and joining with the other trees.
An enormous canopy.
Not some natural static lattice of leaf and branch. No. This was different. This canopy moved. Gigantic holes seemed to open and close at intervals and light seeped through like a spotlight.
A giant spotlight. That moved. Waxing and waning, shrinking and expanding, sometimes even splitting. The leaves shook, flowing, dancing in the wind, each movement bending and beckoning the light. Dance with me. A ballad of light and leaf.
Breath-taking.
And she moved under it all.
She ran under the sunlight. Following the orchestration of this network of trees. Deeper. Past countless evergreen, surrendering herself to the giant natural labyrinth.
---
Amora wheezed, panting heavily as she rested against a tree.
“I’m not in good shape am I?”
She rubbed at her sore legs, back pressed against bark. Amora felt it shift and move under her weight, an odd sensation, but paid it no mind. She watched as the light moved on, and black behind her grew closer. It seemed the trees would not wait for her.
“oop-”
She sucked in the cold air and pushed off the tree, breaking into a jog. Determined not to be left behind. Amora stumbled as she hurried forward. The sound of snapping twigs- gunshots in the eerie silence of the forest.
“There’s no way I’m losing a race against these stupid trees.”
She wheezed, dumping air with each word.
This however, was not a race she could win.
Amora slowed and clutched her sides, a stitch on either side, vice clamping her in place as darkness finally claimed her. She watched helplessly as light left her eyes, only clear source moving further and further away. Left behind.
Again.
Amora stilled and closed her eyes. Resigning to darkness.
---
Her eyes were still shut tight. What did it matter anyway? Opened or closed, it was all black under shadow.
Amora trembled. Was it always this cold?
She clasped her hands together, rubbing at her numbed fingers. A blind beggar. Only she didn't know who she was begging to. Or what she was begging for. She remembered her situation and laughed bitterly, through cracked lips. No memory. No friends. And left in a forest to die. Who could hear her now? Who could help her?
All she had was her name.
“Amora.”
“I really am gonna die out here, aren’t I?”
She opened her eyes and let out a slow shaky breath, casting her gaze upward. The fog of her breath hung in front of her, folding over her like a veil. She squinted past. And saw it. Rays of sunlight, seeping through the canopy. Tiny benevolent candles of hope, casting a soft glow against her shadowed surroundings. Perhaps her prayers had been answered. No great cosmic deity had come to whisk her away. It was just light. Faint light.
And it was enough.
She edged forward, willing her eyes to adjust.
---
“I have to keep moving.”
The quiet answered Amora.
In the darkness, the forest was a hundred times more eerie, silence only adding to her unease. But she had vision now. She could make out the trees and the ground with the dim illumination. Amora walked slowly, scanning everything around her meticulously, as she stepped softly. Careful not to make any noises.
Her foot slipped, thumping loudly. Her stomach lurched as the sound seemed to reverberate through the forest. She cursed quietly, whipping her head around, paranoia taking a hold of her. Amora didn’t think a stomp could even make that much noise. She paused, slowly raising her leg forward, and took another step. Thump. Only- Amora hadn’t put her foot down yet.
It was getting louder now. And faster.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Amora felt each impact reverberate through her body. A thundering in her chest, overpowering the pounding of her racing heart. She clutched her throat, every instinct in her body screamed for her to leave. Yet She walked toward the sound. She had to see.
And she did.
The first thing she saw was a leg. Even in the darkness, Amora could still see it clearly. It was long and slender, with reddish-brown fur and a small patch of darkened hair above a hoof. She guessed it belonged to a deer of some kind. Just an ordinary leg.
Only- it wasn’t attached to anything. It lay there, in a pool of dark blood, red flowing over brown fur. White-faced, she held her breath, trying to ignore the nauseating, metallic odour that hung in the air. She slowly let her eyes wander further. And saw it.
A giant bear-like creature on all fours tearing into what seemed like the rest of the deer. Amora couldn’t exactly tell by the mass of blood and flesh. The entire sight was beyond hellish. She stepped back, clawing at her throat in absolute terror. She saw one of its rear legs stretch out, muscles rippling visibly under its tight brown fur.
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Amora edged backward, trying to get out of its line of sight. Its back was turned against her. It hadn't noticed her yet. Without warning, it lifted its long snout, and she heard the sickening sound of bones breaking as it chewed. She had no choice but to still and watch, as it sniffed at the air, praying it wouldn’t notice her.
The thumping grew louder as dread locked her in place. Its enormous bushy tail slammed the ground over and over again, leaving strands of its wiry hair impaled in the dirt.
After what felt like hours, it moved forward, poking at the carcass with its front paws, before lowering its snout to take another bite.
Amora grabbed her throat tighter, desperately willing herself to move as shock and fear petrified her.
And she ran.
---
She raced out back the way she came, not looking behind her, as far as her legs would take her. Further still. Head still ringing from the encounter. She felt nauseous and could taste bile in her mouth. Still, Amora ran.
Until the panic that electrified her could no longer power her body, and exhaustion collapsed her onto the support of a nearby tree.
She threw up.
Amora wiped her mouth with a shaky hand, still full of adrenalin. How long had she been running for? An hour? Two? She couldn’t hear the thumping anymore.
“That’s a good sign, right?”
She leant her head back, leaning against the tree, muttering- barely audible even to herself.
“What the fuck was that.”
Amora shuddered, imagining being chased by it.
She continued forward- albeit much slower than before. Determined to put as much distance as she could between herself and whatever that thing was.
She paused. A giant, fallen tree blocked her path. Moss had covered it completely. Amora stepped onto it experimentally and felt the wood bend against her weight. Without another thought, she hopped off the log, landing on the other side with an unpleasant squelching noise. Grimacing, she looked down and saw what she had stepped on.
A small group of flattened purple mushrooms.
She looked across the log and saw more growing along the underside. Squatting, she picked a mushroom from the ground, inspecting it closely. It had a thick, white stem, which would look strangely edible if it weren’t for the bright red spots on its purple cap.
Still- she was tempted to eat it. Her stomach grumbled in accordance, as she lifted the mushroom to her nose.
No smell.
Poisonous or not poisonous? That’s a 50-50 chance, right? Besides, what could one bite really do?
“Lots. That’s what.”
She sighed, throwing the mushroom over her shoulder.
“I can believe I was going to gamble my life over a mushroom.”
Was she really that desperate?
She regretted not eating more of that weird fruit.
---
It was grassy here. Not the kind of patchy handful of grass poking out of dirt or mud. No. It was grass, a field of grass. And above it all, the sunlight blazed downward, shining magnanimously out onto the grass. A glowing viridescent paradise.
She stepped forward, almost hesitantly, as if scared to find out it was all fiction- A desperate fabrication in her mind. She felt her foot sink into the grass and took another step in disbelief. And another.
Giggling madly, Amora raced out onto the field, diving onto the grass. She felt it flatten against her weight as her body sank gently. She stretched herself out fully, smiling widely as she flipped over onto her back.
It was bright. She looked up, through filmy eyes, and saw the sun. The blue of the sky. The fluffy white clouds. All through the gap in the canopy above. A window to the world outside.
If it was anything like the ones she’d seen before, she knew it would move, but she didn’t want to think about that now. For now? She just closed her eyes and felt the warmth of sunlight's embrace wash away her worry.
“I didn’t think I would see the sun again.”
She got up after a while, still under the natural spotlight, and began walking forward. Until the sunlight turned from a celestial yellow to a meek orange. Amora put a hand to her face, peeling hair from her sightline, cheeks warm to the touch.
How long has it been? She was surprised the canopy above hadn’t closed up. As much as she loved lying down, it was probably better to keep moving.
She looked around and took a deep breath. The air smelled of spring. Sweet and earthly. This field was a stark contrast to the cold wet dirt she had to trek through in the dark. She didn’t know how a place like this could exist in the woodlands.
Amora felt energized now. She looked up, as orange light warmed her face, and her traumatic morning seemed... distant. She smiled. And ran.
She ran across the field, cold wind whipping strands of hair against her face. The smell of earth, the light of sunset, the bounce of foot against grass. It all felt so amazing. Until-
It wasn’t.
She slowed down, reaching the edge of the light.
But that wasn’t why she stopped.
She peered into the darkness ahead of her, scanning shadowy shapes, each one spookily nefarious. Until she found something.
Two glowing golden eyes.
Well- it looked like two small orbs of light. And could very well be a simple pair of fireflies floating in the dark. But no. Something in her knew they were eyes.
Amora stepped forward, past the edge of light, plunging herself into blackness. Slowly, as her eyes adjusted to the new illumination- or lack thereof- she followed the pair of glowing eyes and realized what it was.
A white owl. It stood, perfectly still, perched on a low hanging branch of a tree ahead.
“Just a pretty owl.”
Amora exhaled anxiousness away and approached it. She stepped slowly, trying not to scare it away. A beautiful white owl, feathers almost ethereal, glinting under small beams of light. It moved its head to the side, fixing its golden eye on her. And Amora paused.
It was bigger than she thought.
“A lot bigger. And did owls always have teeth?”
She gulped audibly as it opened its’ large curved beak. Flaunting rows of asymmetric shark-like teeth. She could see its entirety now, it stood tall, almost the same size as her, flattened feathers revealing the muscular frame that hid below. She looked down and noticed its large grey talons, curled crudely around the thick branch of the tree. Sharp and deadly. Perfect for paring flesh from bone.
Amora held her breath and shuffled backward slowly, careful not to make any sounds. Still, under its glowing eye she did not go unnoticed. It watched her move away and lifted one of its legs, talons flashing as it leaned forward.
There was a sound of cracking wood and then… nothing. She flinched, watching it leap off the branch, taking flight, wings flapping soundlessly as it flew upward, past the trees until it was out of vision.
Amora leant on the trunk of a nearby tree, panting, in a cold sweat. She imagined herself getting carried off by one of those owls and shuddered.
She moved out of the dark, back onto the field. Daylight had faded almost completely now, orange light growing dimmer. She walked across the grass, picking up her pace, toward the opposite end of the field. Away from the scary owl.
She nodded to herself.
“Smart choice”
After walking for a bit, Amora slowed, finding something poking out of the grass ahead of her.
A flower.
White and beautiful. Stem a pale pink, enchanting against green. How hadn't she noticed it before? Bending over, she watched it tremble in the soft wind. She didn’t dare touch, though she wanted to. As smooth petals flowed outward delicately, with a kind of subdued grace.
Snow white, untainted and pure. She thought of the bear- thing and the owl. They were beautiful in their own way. Beautiful and terrible. But this? A single flower in a field of grass? This was just simply beautiful. Such a fragile beauty living in this forest of death and danger. She wondered how it could survive.
Amora sat by it. Until orange turned to black, and the night grew colder.
She yawned and stared out back across the field she came.
“It’s probably not smart to sleep in the open right?”
She whispered, hoisting herself up.
She walked to the edge of the field and climbed onto a nearby tree, brushing off a thin layer of snow from the branch, before balancing herself precariously onto the relatively low hanging bough.
“This is good enough right?”
Amora smiled at herself triumphantly, lying on her stomach somewhat comfortably. She ignored her hunger, mumbling something about finding food in the morning.
And closed her eyes, self-deception keeping her warm as winter night neared.
---
Pain.
Amora screamed as she woke. Right arm burning. She looked down in horror and saw-
Ants.
She raised her arm, covered in black bodies, each one large, with pincers twice the size of themselves. She waved it desperately as they bit into her, slipping off the branch and slamming into the snowed ground below. Amora screamed again, frantically swiping at her arm, but the ants only bit harder. Pain tinged her sight red, as she shoved her arm into the snow, tears blurring her vision. A final ditch effort.
Surprisingly, the onslaught of biting subsided under the cold of the snow.
Amora stood up, still shaking from before. She felt weak. Her arm heavy at her side. She walked forward; delirious from pain, tears streaming down her face.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Amora jerked forward, into an instant sprint, without bothering to look behind. She knew what that sound was and ran as fast as she could. As fast as her adrenaline would take her, before falling to her knees in exhaustion. She wheezed, clamouring at her neck, heart beating wildly as she threw up- from pain and fatigue.
Her knees sank deeper into the snow. She could barely feel the coldness now. Amora stared back the way she came, into the dark, and at the still silhouettes until she was certain nothing followed her. She could still hear the thumping. But it was softer. Further.
Amora closed her eyes and tried to calm herself, briefly catching her breath. She scampered back onto her feet, stomach lurching, determined to make more distance. She forced herself not to glance downwards as she walked, arm still throbbing violently from before.
Afraid to see its mangled form.
Amora continued forwards, trudging through snow for an hour or so, before finally working up the courage to look down at her arm.
“Oh thank- it's still there.”
She exhaled loudly, relieved it looked- well like an arm. Swollen. But still in one piece. She bent it experimentally and bit her lip as pain flared. But it was a dull, tolerable kind. No longer excruciating. Amora inspected the small bite marks on her arm, little red dots barely visible in the night.
She stopped at a small bushel, growing in between the bases of two close trees and bent close, inspecting what appeared to be- or what she hoped to be- fruit. Two different kinds.
Slowly plucking both types, she held one in each hand. They both fit firmly in her palm, and felt and looked the same. But Amora could tell they were different. She walked to the side, holding both up, and plunged them into the moonlight.
She smiled. She was right. They were identical in everything but colour. In her right, a deep red and her left, a pale blue.
Amora paused as her stomach groaned. Should she try eating one? She remembered the cut up fruit she ate before and debated with herself. She’d barely eaten all day. Her stomach thundered again, like a gavel against block. Decision made.
She held both up, carefully sniffing each one. Another decision. Which one should she take a bite of first? Red? blue?
“c’mon memory, don’t fail me again. Have I seen any red or blue fruit? Red is a more dangerous colour than blue right?”
Her voice came out hoarse and weak, almost unrecognizable through her cracked lips. She racked her brain for anything useful. Amora had the distinct notion she’d seen fruit before. Of various colours too! But she couldn’t quite place anything.
She imagined herself convulsing on the floor, having bitten into a poisonous fruit. She shivered at the thought of it. And then paused.
“Apples are red.”
Her mouth moved automatically. She frowned at herself. Apples? That was edible right? Amora had no idea what that had to do with this fruit in her hand but that was all she had to go on.
She raised the red fruit to her mouth-
“Wait, are there any blue fruits?”
She stopped, red fruit an inch from her mouth, waiting for her memory to reply.
“Nothing? Well then, I guess blue’s a no go.”
Amora bit in smoothly, tender flesh parting at the slightest pressure. Her eyes went wide at the taste. Sweet! She giggled in delight, voraciously biting deeper into the fruit. She took more bites, swallowing hungrily, barely bothering to chew. She practically inhaled the fruit in its entirety. In a minute it was completely gone. She turned to get more, tossing the blue fruit behind her. And stopped.
Amora stuck her tongue out urgently, breath caught in her throat as the fruit suddenly revealed itself to be- poison. The heat was overwhelming in her mouth, and it soon spread down her neck and to her stomach. She fell, clawing at her neck, tears pooling in her eyes, mouth open and fanning at her tongue.
Amora stopped.
So, this is how I die.
Death by red fruit.
She lay in the snow in anguish, struggling, succumbing to the heat as she stared up at the canopy above. Twin beams of moonlight shone down on her face as she closed her eyes and braced herself as-
She had another thought.
One final thought as memory taunts her.
“Oh.”
How comical. Amora smiled through tears before closing her eyes. Too weak to laugh as darkness consumed her.
“Blueberries are blue.”