Isn't that strange?

The Forest of Ulnar is several distances away from the Capital. Taking almost four days, that's equal to several days of travelling. And she is unaware of how and who took her. That seems completely ridiculous! No matter how you see it, it's impossible to send someone so far without his/her knowledge! And assuming she was unconscious the whole time- that is almost a week. How is she even alive right now?

My head ached so much just thinking about it.

How's that possible?

"I have no idea myself. Since I woke up, I've asking myself this same question but I've got no clue. The only possible answer I can come up with is memory-loss. So, I tried to think of the last day I can remember of and that is of a few days ago." she continued. "The last thing is remember was that I took my dinner and immediately went to bed. That's all."

Memory-loss seemed the most possible situation. But then the question arises who brought her here? And why..

"Kidnapping. Yes, I think you were kidnapped. But even if you were kidnapped they would not have taken you here... What parts are we missing?.."

"Maybe it was the work of human traffickers."

"That can be a right answer but then why would they try to kidnap someone as rich as you, Why would they take such hassle only to sell you for few silver coins? Isn't it better to ask for ransom from your family?"

"We really can't say anything right now. With only this amount of information, we would get nowhere."

As she said, we really lacked in the information department. And we have no way of getting any more info until we get to her place. So, I advised her to continue on our way.

For the next few hours, as we travelled, my mind wandered around from one thought to the other thinking about the answers to my infinite number of questions. But no matter how much I thought, I never came to any proper answer.

But anyways, this continuous physical and mental work have led me to a point of exhaustion. My bag-pack which carried only a pair of clothes, some meat and a hand axe felt heavy as some giant horse. With every step, my feet cried like some infant, while my empty stomach growled for some tender meat. Yet I got a grip over my heart and mind, and told myself that only A few more steps are left, Francis! Keep going!

I glanced back a few times to see how she was doing. But to my surprise, she was diligently walking without a hint of fatigue over her face.

We realized that that the type of trees we saw, were changed. As we progressed, the trees which we came across had almost orange leaves.

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We were surprised at first. But immediately got used to it.

And again, the orange-leaved trees were changed by dark green leaved trees. This sudden change of colors of the forest was strange. But what would be a truly strange situation was yet to come...

As we progressed, we were tired and thirsty and hungry. But we had no choice but to walk to the village. I tried looking here and there for at least some water. But the only water source in this forest was the water stream where I found her.

So, finding water by some chance was near to impossible. Yet suddenly, I heard the same loud noises of the stream.

My mind went blank. How did this happened?

"Claire, As far as I know, I heard there was only a single water source in this forest." I asked.

"Certainly, There is only one water resource, no other beside it."

She looked equally surprised as me.

So, I ran toward the place from where I heard the sound of stream.

But-

It was definitely a stream. Or maybe the same one.

I don't want to believe that. How!?

As I was thinking about this situation. I thought to at least check on the situation clearly. So, I asked Claire to come with me to the other side and search for footprints if she finds any.

Unexpected happened.

We found some footprints, they went to the opposite direction of the stream. And to try our last bet, we matched the size of the footprints.

It was inevitably ours.

I silently glanced over her.

She was unusually calm while I had a slight discomfort over my face.

My breathing started to waver. Yet I tried to take long breaths to calm down my heart.

Let me summarize myself: So, I went to the south side of the forest, travelled for hours, but we are back here, from where we started. How!? How's that possible?

Is this the effect of the curse of this forest? Is this the demon people talked about?

We stood there, still, for a while.

Trying to calm ourself.

But… the silence was momentary.

Before we could understand this strange situation, we are met with another attack. I heard a rustling sound from the side bushes. I turned my head into that direction. But there was nothing.

lowly I tried moving my head from one direction to the other, to get a look of the predator.

From my prior experiences in the jungle, I knew how such predators worked and survived here.

I heard another rustle!

And it was from behind. It was such a faint sound that Claire was not able to notice it. But now I could see it- A giant boar with extremely spiky horns, rubbing it's leg on the ground preparing for a attack on it's hunters.

Immediately as it noticed my gaze upon him, charged toward Claire with it's full-speed in order to headbutt her, a attack he was known for and the only attack he knew, to defend itself.

Just he leaped from the ground, Claire turned around only to notice a giant beast flying toward her. She knew she can't dodge it.

It was about to hit her. But-

Before it's horns could touch her, I wrapped my arms around around her breasts and lightly tucked her leg making her fall along with me.

I did it before knowing the consequences of it. My body moved on my own.

We both fell to the ground. And the impact of it was massively felt by me and even the most pain-

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-"

Even if she had a soft landing, over me, she still felt the impact of the ground because she also let out a few groans.

While that giant beast flew past over us and without us noticing vanished along the bushes.

Claire immediately, stood up and washed her hands over her clothes from dirt.

While I only let out a few groans, trying to move my arm.

"Please take my hand, Francis. You must've- Ahhh!" As her eyes rolled over back, she let out a expression of regret and surprise. Her breath almost stopped for a moment.

She saw that axe into my skin that teared my bag pack and skin, while taking bath in my blood. And what I could do was to show a pained expression over my face.