The next day, when he had finally risen after sleeping off the honey mead, Judd ventured into the forest beyond the village. The path was easily enough to follow which would take him to a stream.

“I follow the stream until the forest turns evil and I’ll know I’m in Dragoslava’s territory.” Judd licked his lips, clutching at his sword. “Right…so I guess I’ll just keep walking for now.”

Even though Caste was surly and pedantic, Judd wished he had chosen to come with him. But the cleric had emphatically stated there was no point the two of them dying in the forest.

“What about your advice?” Judd had asked.

“My advice is for you to leave this village, go back to Astaril, give up on this ridiculous quest and follow in your family’s trade.”

Oddly enough, Caste’s words had snapped the hesitation from Judd’s heart.

He couldn’t go back, not until he had the proof of his conquests and could be named a knight.

He wouldn’t be a fisherman.

He was going to succeed.

But as the forest began to darken and the only sound around him was the pad of his poorly booted feet on the leaf carpet of the forest floor, the doubts he had found their second wind.

He’d only just completed two weeks of training.

He still bore bruises from being pummelled with padded swords.

His childhood fantasies of brilliant sword fights and dramatic battles dimmed as the light around him began to fade, the trees huddling closer and closer together, as though they were afraid of the witch as well.

Judd’s triumphant stride had become a hesitant walk and he peered into the shadows beyond the broken rays of sunlight. When he came upon the stream, he paused and breathed in and out, calming himself.

“You promised the villagers you would rid them of Dragoslava.” He reminded himself. “She can’t be as bad as they say she is…”

His words lacked conviction. Frightened of what else he might hear, Judd almost began to run alongside the stream, jogging quickly to escape his fears, throwing himself towards the danger.

He had to skirt around some trees but returned immediately to the water’s edge when he skidded to a halt, a young woman kneeling by the stream. She was dipping water sacks into the flow, allowing the current to fill them up before standing, grasping their ties tightly in her hand.

Judd yanked on his sword so hard it flung out of his hand and he madly scrambled to pick it up.

“What are you doing here?” He heard the young woman say as he scraped his weapon from the dirt. “Do you not know there is a witch in this forest?”

He stood up and held his sword out, hoping the weight of it would stop his hands from shaking. The young woman gazed at him with lavender eyes, her hair covered with a hood from her cape that did its best to cover the bedraggled state of her clothing, a dress with tattered hems, stained from mud and damp where she had knelt on the bank of the stream.

“I…” Judd gaped at her. “I have come…to kill the witch?” He kicked himself for phrasing his statement like a question. He made a mental note to sound more assertive in the future.

The young woman shook her head. “No, no, no…you should not have come. She will kill you!” She looked over her shoulder then stepped towards him. “You have to leave at once! Please…”

Her lavender eyes begged him to listen and Judd found himself hopelessly distracted for a moment, the immediate danger of his current situation forgotten in the company of a pretty face.

“Are you one of the stolen children?” She blinked, staring at him. “Klin told me that Dragoslava liked to take children from the village…from the way he said it I thought she must eat them…”

“No,” she shook her head, “Dragoslava is old…she needed me to serve her…”

“Old?” Judd swallowed. “How old? Like…barely able to walk…or defend herself, old?”

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The young woman’s eyes were grave. “What she lacks in physical strength, she makes up for with dark and terrible knowledge for she drank of the tainted waters from the south.” She leaned forward, her voice becoming a terrified whisper. “She can kill with a thought…” Judd’s spine quivered in terror. “You must leave before she becomes aware of you.”

“I…I cannot.” He cleared his throat and straightened his shoulders. “I have vowed to rid the village of the witch, Dragoslava.” The young woman shook her head. He tilted his head to catch her eye. “Will you help me?”

She rubbed her arms against the ominous chill in the air. “She will kill me. The only reason I am alive is because I do not defy her…”

“Help me end her life…and you will be free.” Judd held out his hand. She looked at it nervously. “Please…”

“Promise me,” she whispered, “promise me that you will take me away from here…”

Though Judd didn’t have the first idea what it would mean in order to do so, he said with full sincerity, “I promise.”

She licked her lips and nodded. “Follow me.”

Judd hastened to keep up with her as she darted into the forest, still following the stream yet, as the trees grew even larger and closer, the stream disappeared more often than not. The air became close and the leaves underfoot never seemed to dry out, becoming squelchy and soft. There was a smell in the air, like sickly overripe fruit and any happy rustlings of friendly forest creatures became silent.

The young woman led him further and further into the forest, looking about herself, wringing her hands.

“What is your name?” She looked at him. “I’m Judd LaMogre.”

She paused and smiled, a little light blush appearing on her cheeks. “Aalis.”

“Aalis,” Judd nodded, “pretty name.”

“Thank you.” Aalis tugged on the edge of her hood. “So, Sir LaMogre…”

“Oh, I’m not a knight…” Judd wished he hadn’t spoken those words when she turned to him, her eyes wide with shock. “Not yet, anyway.”

“You are not a knight?”

He gulped for a moment. “I am a knight in training…”

Aalis trembled. “You should not be here…”

“I am not going to leave a damsel in distress in the hands of a witch.” Judd said strongly.

“But…you could die.” She said softly.

“I could live.” He tried to lighten his tone. “I’d like to have the chance to try.”

She nodded and continued to walk. Judd saw two dead trees on either side of the vague path they were on, their branches tangled together overhead.

“This is where her territory begins.” Aalis explained. “From here there is no turning back.”

Judd took several deep breaths and unsheathed his sword, relieved he didn’t drop it again in the presence of the pretty young woman.

“I am ready.” He vowed and followed Aalis as she stepped past the trees.

“When you strike the witch, you must cut off her head for she has no heart,” Aalis explained, “and do not be fooled should she turn into a monster for it is but an illusion.”

“Right.” Judd nodded.

“And whatever you do, do not…” Aalis suddenly stopped, her words gurgling in her throat. Foam began to bubble out of her mouth and she wheezed and gasped as though she could not catch her breath. “No…please…I am sorry! I will never disobey you again!”

“Aalis!” Judd cried as she staggered backwards, scratching at her throat, streaking blood across her skin. Her eyes were wide with fright and she tried to speak when her body convulsed violently and she slumped into silence…dead.

Judd gazed down at her, unable to fully comprehend what he’d just seen. He trembled so strongly he nearly dropped his sword.

“Dragoslava…” He shuddered. “You monster…” He held his sword out in front of him. “Come out and face me! Don’t kill like a coward!” Though his words were bold, there was a tremor to his voice that he could not quite hide and though he wanted to charge forward, he found his knees threatening to give way and his steps could be measured in inches.

The two dead trees were just the beginning of the death of the forest. There were fallen, leafless trees everywhere and though that should have meant there was more sunlight, the sun seemed to have hidden itself behind clouds, frightened of the witch as if she were a threat against its enormous being. Tattered fabric hung from branches and as Judd advanced in the only direction he could, he began to see the skulls of animals bound to the bracken and strange symbols were marked on the corpses of trees. His heart was pounding and his nerves were already stretched thin when an eerie moaning echoed through the air. Judd spun around, trying to find the source of the sound but it howled over and over and he stumbled backwards, his feet squelching into water and mud. He yanked his feet out of it, swiping at his boots, his fingers coming away slick and red.

“Judd…Judd…LaMogre…” A rasping voice called and his head came up sharply, looking around in horror. “Judd…LaMogre…”

His already battered confidence snapped in half and he spun on his heel and bolted, fighting his way through cobwebs and skulls hanging from the branches of trees. He screamed as he heard his name called over and over again, sprinting back the way he had come, past the two dead trees and, using the stream as his guide, didn’t stop running until he burst from the forest’s edge, scampering into the village proper.

Caste called out his name but Judd didn’t stop to explain. He had to put as much distance as he could between himself and that cursed forest, his knighthood be damned.

His lungs were on fire and his legs felt like they’d been jammed into a blacksmith’s forge when he finally allowed himself the chance to pause, his hand on a tree trunk, wheezing like an old woman.

He couldn’t shake the sight of Aalis, dead on the ground and the smears of blood upon his boots.

Blood had always turned his stomach and made him want to heave…

Judd paused, a fragment of rational thought returning to him and he lifted his free hand, still smudged with red, to his nose and sniffed.

He closed his eyes and scrunched his forehead, an extraordinary theory beginning to form.

By the time Caste caught him up, puffing and panting with his pack on his back, Judd had turned on his heel and was striding towards the village.

“Wait…where are you going?” Caste demanded between breaths. “Judd? Judd!”