After a few hours Hildegard and Svetlana had reached the woods. They were back at the campsite from which they had departed earlier in the day. They decided to take a small break here before going into the forest. This was a good place and time to have lunch and figure out how they were going about searching for the chapel.

“To be perfectly honest,” Hildegard began, “I have no idea how to go about searching for it, I stumbled upon it by accident.”

“Well,” Svetlana said as she was thinking out loud, “Was there anything specific you can remember about the environment, anything that can help give us a clue?”

Hildegard took a moment to think, trying to picture the hunt, visualise everything that happened. The riding, the rabbit tracks, getting lost. The she knew what had seemed odd to her at the time.

“I think I know what to look for.” Hildegard said after some time.

“There were two things that seemed odd to me at the time. Firstly the area where I found the chapel was dark, as if it was night despite it being day. The second thing to look out for was the painful silence that hung around the area like a mist or fog, it was so deafening.”

Svetlana was having trouble placing the second part, she asked if Hildegard could explain what she meant.

“Listen around us.” Hildegard started.

They both listened to their environment, soaking it all in.

“You can hear everything around us. The brushing of the wind on the leaves and in the grass, the active buzz of insects dancing across the meadow, the birds chirping and tweeting while they fry from branch to branch. Further still I think I can hear the trotting over dead leaves and branches of a deer and its fawn.”

Svetlana could hear these things, too, though perhaps the deer in the distance was too far for her ears. She still wasn’t sure what Hildegard meant.

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“When I reached the unnatural area around the chapel none of these things were there at all. There was no life around me at all, and thinking back now, I cant even be sure anymore that the trees were even real at all, everything felt still and mute and once I started noticing the absence of all that noise, the remaining silence didn’t remain quiet for very long. It was like a whistle or a ringing in my skull.

“I can’t say I’ve experienced this before,” Svetlana replied honestly, “But it doesn’t sound like the kind of thing you can miss, so that’s enough to go by for now.”

Having established how to go about identifying the right track when they encounter it, Svetlana took over planning how to go about searching through the woods. Though Svetlana went about treating this like it was a straight forward affair, she knew that this could essentially be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

While they were finishing their meal Svetlana suggested they head towards the middle of the forest, or as close as they could, then try to cover as large an area as possible in the direction of where Hildegard had been.

Once they had finished their meal, in the moment they were both enjoying the last of the break before riding once more, Hildegard addressed Svetlana quite frankly after an awkward cough.

“Tell me,” She began, “Why did you join me instead of having Boris or Rickard accompany me?”

“What do you mean?” Svetlana said quickly and without thinking.

“Surely as the captain the king will want to hear from you directly.” Suggested Hildegard.

“Boris and Rickard are trusted and proven enough on their own, even without my endorsement,” Svetlana recited as if from memory, “As the captain of the prince’s personal guard my duty lies with him, wherever he is. Since we know he is not at the castle, it makes most sense that I accompany you while we search out in the field.”

Hildegard looked at Svetlana with suspicion written all over her face.

“What?” Svetlana said, immediately defensive.

“I think you like him.” Hildegard blurted out without a care for it’s inappropriate nature.

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Svetlana protested vigorously, “I am simply sworn to protect him.”

Svetlana was certain she sounded convincing, thought Hildegard knew better.

“We have wasted enough time already,” Svetlana said in frustration while getting on her horse, “We need to head out while we still have daylight.”

Svetlana rode off while Hildegard was still getting on her horse, meaning Svetlana never got to see the massive grin on Hildegard’s face. Quickly Hildegard rode off, too, in quick pursuit. The journey from here on out would really test their horses as they made their way into the forest through rough and inconsistent terrain.