Aria brushed aside the curtains of her tent and stepped into the sunlight. She yawned as she stretched her stiff limbs.

Most of the other tents in the camp had their curtains raised for better lighting and ventilation. Their owners were already up and going, gathering wood that would be used for cooking breakfast.

The travel horses were all tied up by the trees at the edge of the clearing.

“Good morning, beautiful,” someone whispered in Aria’s ear as they walked past.

She didn’t need to look to know it would be Gregor—a boy that was only a few months older than her. Gregor’s tent was right next to hers, and he was the only one in the caravan who got a kick from annoying her.

“Get lost, you animal,” Aria muttered under her breath.

Gregor turned around and offered her a smile that he obviously thought was charming.

Aria scowled before turning her back on him; she wasn’t about to entertain his antics so early in the day. She smoothed her dress and hair before walking towards her father’s tent. Like most of the others in the clearing, the tent had its curtain raised as well.

“Hey,” Aria said as she reached her destination.

Cromwell, Aria’s father, was sitting on a blanket, scribbling on a piece of parchment paper. He dropped his feather pen as soon as he heard Aria’s voice. “Good morning, daughter.”

“Um,” Aria began, “I just wanted to check if you were up already.”

Cromwell smiled. “I see,” he said slowly. “Don’t you worry, Aria. We’ll be on our way soon enough.”

Aria smiled back. Her father knew her well enough; she didn’t need to say too much for him to know that she wanted them to get back on the road as quickly as possible.

“Thanks, Father,” she said before leaving Cromwell to his writing. She walked back to her tent and sat under its cover.

From her space, she watched the others move about the clearing. There were twenty five people in their little caravan—everyone of them older than herself—and they were all travelling together, heading for the city of Baynir.

Aria smiled as thoughts of her home city filled her mind; she couldn’t wait to get back home. She missed her mother and her friends. It had been a good three weeks since she left home with her father.

Under normal circumstances, Aria stayed at home whenever Cromwell went on his trips. But on the present occasion, her father had asked her and her twin brother—Ryker—to go along with him. They’d all left home with Cromwell’s merchandise in tow, and joined the largest caravan leaving Baynir.

They’d travelled quite the distance, making stops at the five cities they passed, so that Cromwell could sell his jewelry. After her father had finished selling off everything he’d taken with him, he’d hooked up with their current caravan so they could begin their journey back to Baynir.

Aria knew that Cromwell preferred not to mingle with strangers, but he had to do so when travelling. Moving in groups was by far the best way to travel across long distances. The presence of other travelers provided company for the road, and it was also much safer than travelling alone.

At that moment, Aria and the rest of the caravan were camped in a clearing not too far from Eldon—the largest city in the Western Continent. Their caravan was surrounded entirely by the abundance of trees that littered the lands between Eldon and the next city.

The presence of trees wasn’t just peculiar to the lands surrounding Eldon; they covered all of the Western Continent. Whatever land that lay outside of a city’s boundaries was totally dominated by vegetation.

Aria suddenly stood up from where she sat. She decided to take a little stroll before the caravan got ready to move again. As she walked out of the camp, she noticed that only two tents in the entire caravan still had their curtains drawn.

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One of the two tents belonged to Devryn—a quiet boy around her own age. Over the eight days that Aria had spent amongst the caravan, she had spoken to everyone at least once. Everyone except Devryn. She hadn’t seen him talking to anyone else either. He was always seated in his tent, seemingly lost in his thoughts.

The other closed tent belonged to Maren—an old woman who claimed to be a psychic. She was also the only other female in the caravan.

Aria stopped in front of the old woman’s tent and cleared her throat. “Maren?” she called out. “Are you awake?”

There was no response.

“Maren?” she called out again. “It’s me, Aria.”

There was still no response.

Aria felt unsettled. “Where’d the old woman run off to?” she wondered aloud.

“Might as well check if she’s in,” she muttered as she parted the curtains of Maren’s tent and stepped inside.

Aria saw the old woman seated on the bare floor with her legs folded, and her hands placed on her laps. Her eyes were tightly shut and her lips were pursed.

“Maren?” Aria called quietly. “Are you alright?”

The old woman twitched slightly before opening just one eye. “I’m alright, little girl,” she said. “Devryn is alright as well. You don’t need to check up on him.”

Aria was a bit surprised. “How did you know I was just thinking about Devryn?” She paused for a moment. “Your curtains are still drawn so how can you tell that he isn’t out of his tent yet?”

Maren smiled slightly. “I thought I introduced myself when we first met. I’m a full time psychic.”

Aria scoffed. “Right. I forgot about that.”

Maren shut her eye again. “You had better go take your walk now; your father will try to get the caravan moving in the next hour. Oh, I’d also suggest you go quickly before Gregor catches up with you again. The boy seems to really enjoy picking on you.”

“How did you know I was going for a walk?” Aria wanted to ask. “How did you know Gregor has already gotten on my nerves this morning?”

Instead, she turned around and walked out of the old woman’s space. She had a pretty good idea of what Maren would’ve said: “I’m a full time psychic, remember?”

Gregor caught up with Aria as soon as she stepped out of Maren’s tent. “Hey,” he said, “Why’d you go to see the witch? Don’t tell me you’re buying her psychic bullshit?”

“I hadn’t seen her all morning so I went to check up on her,” Aria answered. “She’s pretty much okay, though.”

Gregor laughed. “So you weren’t scared of going to see the witch alone? Huh, you’ve got guts.”

Aria gave him the side eye.

“Err, what are you up to now?” Gregor asked.

“Nothing really,” Aria answered. “I was about to take a little walk.”

Gregor smiled. “Would you mind if I tagged along?”

“Actually, I think I would,” Aria said. “I really need to take some time for myself. I’ve been around too many folks recently.”

A look of disappointment flashed across Gregor’s face. “Alright then,” he said. “I guess I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Aria said. She watched as Gregor turned around and walked back towards his tent. She sighed before turning around and walking out of the clearing and into the woods.

****

The clearing where the caravan camped wasn’t too far from the main travelling path. Aria walked out from amongst the trees and stepped onto the path. The cleared pathway wasn’t quite spacious; it was just wide enough to take two or three wagons travelling side by side.

Aria walked across the pathway, and into the trees opposite the ones she’d just stepped out from. She walked for a few minutes and finally stopped when she came to a small pond. Finding the place again hadn’t been difficult; she had been there with Ryker and a couple others the previous evening so they could get some water.

Aria sat by the pond and thought about the trip she was on. Although they were only seventeen years old, Cromwell had taken Aria and her brother along with him so they could begin learning the basics of the jewelry trade. He’d previously taught them how to shape the precious metals, and now he was showing them the commercial side of the job.

Aria sighed deeply. She wished that she could be like her brother. Unlike herself, Ryker seemed to be genuinely interested in everything their father had shown them so far. He’d watched and listened with rapt attention.

She on the other hand, struggled to maintain focus. It seemed she didn’t have the head for business or anything practical. The reason was because she didn’t want to sign up for a life that revolved around mundane things like coin and trade. She wanted a life of flavor and excitement. She wanted freedom. Freedom to do whatever and go wherever she wanted.

A sudden squealing sound dragged Aria out of her thoughts. Immediately, she stood up. The sound she’d heard seemed to have come from an animal.

Aria walked back into the trees slowly. She kept her eyes peeled for anything that was out of place. As she walked, she saw blood stains on the bases of some trees that she’d passed by a few minutes earlier. Her heart thumped as she realized that she was probably in danger.

She increased her pace and soon walked out onto the traveling path once more.

Just a few feet ahead of her, was a little deer. The animal lay unmoving on its side. Its flank bore injuries that could only have been inflicted by some clawed beast.

Aria’s heart beat even faster. She looked around for any signs of a predator, but she didn’t see any.

The woods of the Western Continent were known to be quite safe. The animal life was at a bare minimum. It was quite rare that one came across any sort of game (The Westerners mostly got their meat from shipments that came across the Western Ocean). There were certainly no reports of ravenous beasts lurking around.

Aria took a deep breath. “Calm down, calm down,” she repeated to herself. “Panic won’t do you any good.”

“Hey there,” someone suddenly said, startling her.