I sat cross-legged as the cold underneath me reached up to me, pulling me out of my thoughts. Thoughts that were disbelieving my current predicament. I’d first thought it was just a dream, an imagination of mine but not anymore. As I watched the sun move, reach out, and climb its way down, my heart grew cold along with it. Its rays were not as hot as I expected, most of them being shadowed by the wild leaves hanging on the branches. And the little that got to me was nowhere enough to warm me up.

The wind was gently blowing from my sides, causing the slow rustle of the leaves. That and the calm chirping of the birds left me in a daze. I would have found it relaxing if not for the current situation.

How did I get here? A question to which I had no answer. Despite my memories being vague and all over the place, I knew for a fact that I was not camping in the woods. So how? Remembering the moments prior was a difficult task for me now but they slowly started to untangle themselves. Enough to realize that the last thing that had happened was me going back to my room and falling asleep. Was I kidnapped? But by whom even? That thought made no sense why would they kidnap someone only to keep them in the woods and not ask for ransom?

I then stopped my wild thoughts and pushed them toward finding a way back. It was daytime and that would mean I had been here for the entire night or at least that's what it felt to me.

The trees towering around me were the only thing that let me feel the presence of life in this place, other than that there was no sight of any human. I knew that sitting down here, waiting for someone was nothing but stupidity so I pushed myself to my legs, dusted my garments, and inspected my surroundings. I would climb up a tree for better vision, but I could not find anything but trees. There was nothing but the unending sight of green. It seemed to stretch out toward no end. Sometimes I would catch a bird peeking through the leaves but they would soon fly off somewhere.

My heart raced at the thought of being lost in a forest, all but alone. But I calmed myself down. Panic was the last thing I needed now. I reached deep into my tangled memories to find a reason for being here but the only thing that was I had not been into a forest for years. The last time was six years ago. The remembrance of that memory turned my mood sour.

Climbing down the tree I started walking, intending to find a way out of this god-forsaken forest. As I continued walking through the wood, trotting over the twigs and the broken branch I kept my mind blank. Not thinking of anything but finding a way out. Soon the minutes turned into an hour. It didn’t take me long for the thirst to settle down in my throat. I would occasionally wet my lips with my tongue. But that did barely anything whatsoever.

When I turned another branch of leaves in front of my face covering my sight, my eyes made out the difference in the place. The trees were now a lot lesser than before and each spread out farther than the other. All of them seemed to lead somewhere and I followed their path, trailing my way toward an abandoned house.

The close I got to it the further I made out its appearance. Moss had grown out of its wall and veins of some wild grasses had evolved in into a hug. The upper portion of the door was none existent, only the down part remaining. The roof had a big trunk that penetrated inside, a bigger part of it hanging outside which seemed to have deteriorated enough to fall to the ground, all black and dead.

This ancient house stood alone amounts the giant tress like a relic of the past; down to its last leg.

I was close enough to it to see its insides from the outside, I could feel its age. I made my way inside over the broken door as a part of it fell, some pieces of it stuck in my clothes. There was an old-rotten smell inside that wavered inside at my arrival. A little amount of light came in from the broken bits of the roof. Enough for me to look around the place.

As I made my way into a room that looked like a bedroom as there was a broken bed placed in the middle of the room. Other than that there was a closet and a bedside table. When I was about to go near the table, a large crater in front of the bed came into my view. From the corner of it, I made my way toward the table

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I didn’t expect to find anything in there, after all, it must have been a long time since someone was here. I opened the first compartment and covered by a nest of spider nets was a pocket watch. Its simple silver color seemed nothing special to me. Taking it in my hand I snapped its lid open, its hands moving still moving. But the symbols engraved in them were something that I did not know of.

I looked up at the roof, finding a gap to see the sun. It was just above my head. I judged that the watch was working still. Tucking it into my pocket, I opened the last compartment, but there was nothing inside it.

Then I looked around the other rooms and found nothing special. When I was about to leave the place, I halted my feet and turned back. I walked toward a room and picked up the sword. I had noticed this earlier when looking through this place but thinking again I should take it with me.

The sword In my hand wasn’t a decoration but a real sword. Its sharp blade that drew my red blood was clear proof of that. I hung the leather sheath on my waist and made it comfortable. Finding nothing else in this place, I made my way out making sure to place my feet in the right place to hold and not injure my legs.

Coming outside I looked back at the house for the last time before I was about to continue, somehow this place was so deep inside the forest and even then it stood out amongst nature, struggling and rebelling. I didn’t let stray thoughts interrupt me and was about to continue when a subtle rustling of leaves from beside me reached my ears. Instantly I hold on to the halberd, ready to take the sword out any moment. Was it a wild animal? I wondered to myself.

I monitored the slightly shifting bush with a concerned gaze as a shadow fell upon it and a man came out from there. Wearing a white piece of linen cloth that depicted extravagant designs, he removed a piece of leaf from his messy hair. His clothes were wrinkled and dirted out enough to make it feel that he had come out after having a wrestling match with someone. On his waist hung a similar-looking sheath that accompanied a stuck-out carved halberd. Carved with a structure of a round ball with a cross beneath it.

I didn’t dare let my guard down despite it being a human, my nerve too tight for that. In the dark silence of the empty forest, he looked up his eyes meeting mine. He raised his brows slightly, a silent question asked. He revealed his impatience “Did my father send you?” I didn’t understand his words but my quietness didn’t serve his temper.

He scowled, “I have asked a question, stray!” His words exploded and my eyes widened when his body disappeared, and then appeared in front of me. His movement was so fast that my eyes barely followed them and when his hand was upon my neck, my back crushed against the cold ground with a clear sign of a drag. His thin finger dug deep into my flesh and it started to feel hot at the touch as I struggled to breathe.

He looked down from above me, “I have asked once. And I will ask again, who send you?” As he breathed a foul smell of alcohol penetrated my nose. I didn’t know what he meant or why he was doing this. Why?

I felt my face become redder with each passing second and my sight started to darken. I struggled my words out, “I…don’t know what..you are talking about!” But it seemed that my words fell on deaf ears as he shouted, “Don’t lie to me! I know you are sent by him. Are you here because I have taken his house’s name ?!”

What house name? What is he talking about? My mind question but with no answer.

As he continued to shout leaving me no way to respond, I found myself with only one solution to leave his clutch. I swiped my leg at his stomach, making him fall from me. I rubbed my neck and coughed as new breath went inside my lungs. Never in my life did breathing feel so good.

“Hahahaha!” He erupted in a fit of laughter, lying down in front of me. He stood up and gently dusted his garments and then said “Nowadays even a stray can touch a noble. How funny is that!” I could finally make out his eyes, they didn’t have the same temper from back then now they had anger in them. Anger for defending myself.

“Do you got a deaf ear? Want me to scratch it for ya?” He said his words out, mocking me.

“I-” My remaining words didn’t leave my mouth when he dashed toward me and kicked me in my stomach with enough force that my body flew across the place and hit a tree. The impact knocked my breath out of me, and I struggled to hold onto my breath. I coughed out blood with the salty taste of it tickling at my tongue. I could feel my ribs crack at each of my minute movements and my lung fished out for air.

I didn’t know why this was happening and what I had done to him but he was going to kill me. At least that was something I was sure of. My sight continued to shake and darken out, and then…the earth around me lit up in an otherworldly glow. Threads of silk that danced among themselves, present in every place.

They glowed and floated around and tugged at my body as if wanting me to give it some attention. And when I did they flew around me and wrapped my body in their warm presence.

Then I heard his voice, still the same; bored and curious.

“Zareth, what are you doing?”