"I did not have my day planned for me to be on the hit list of the palace guards for working with a Goddess and walking through this scary forest. Alexander owes me big time for this," Leon muttered as he made his way out of the forest.
"Help me," he heard in the distance.
Leon stopped right in his tracks as there wasn't supposed to be anyone else in the forest. Alexander and the woman had not informed him about there being anyone else in the forest. He became shaken up suddenly wondering if the forest was genuinely haunted.
"Help me," he heard the voice again.
"I am going to die today," he whimpered knowing he couldn't avoid his fate.
"You are wearing a palace guard uniform. Please help me," the voice cried out to Leon.
Leon looked in the direction the voice was coming from and saw a young woman crying as she walked closer to him. She did look like a normal villager and nothing that would be able to harm him. Still, this was no regular forest. "I am no longer a guard but maybe I can help you. Ah!" He exclaimed when a vine out of nowhere wrapped around his arm, tugging him in the other direction.
Leon took that as more than enough of a sign to get the hell out of there. The vine didn't have to warn him twice to avoid this strange woman. Leon turned away from the woman to run in the other direction but this resulted in the soul Leon stumbled upon being angered.
"Help me!" The woman screeched, chasing after Leon since he was a living person and she might be able to steal his body to get a second chance at life. This man did not belong to the forest or to Artemis so his body must be free for taking. "Just lend me your body for one day, I promise to give it back when I am done."
Leon was thankful for all the extra training Alexander put him through because it was certainly saving his life right now. He was also grateful to who or whatever had been clearing up the path into him so that he might not trip. Something here was on his side not wishing to see him be killed. At least not right now.
"Help me! Help me! Help me!"
"Almost there," he told himself as he could see the road on the outside of the forest.
Leon felt like his heart skipped a beat when he finally reached the edge of the forest and accidentally tripped onto the road. He scrambled to look behind him for the ghost but no one was there. "I can't believe I made it out alive."
"Have you?" A man not too far from where Leon was trying to catch his breath asked him.
Thinking it was another one of whatever was chasing him in the forest, Leon turned around ready to fight for his life. However, this voice did not come from a ghost. He was greeted by the sight of a guard on a horse followed by many other men.
"Don't you know that forest is forbidden? Do you have a death wish?" The man on the horse asked Leon. He was surprised to see that someone made it out of the forest alive when many reports started no one would ever live to tell the tale of what they have seen.
Leon thought his life was doomed because he had run into the palace guards, but a symbol was revealed on his clothing as the man spoke. "You are all men of George Mclane! I have urgent matters to speak to him about his son. Here," he handed the man what Alexander had given him.
"You shall wait," the man told Leon after he sent George a message that someone wanted to talk about Alexander. "If you have no reasonable explanation for having what belongs to Alexander, just know you will be killed."
Leon started to sweat more than he ever did in his entire life. He started to count down Georges's arrival to see him. He had been around Alexander's father many times but that didn't stop the man from being scary. Leon could not remember the last time he saw the man laugh or smile. There was always a scowl on his face. Maybe George saved that happy side of him behind closed doors as Alexander had many funny tales of his father and how loving the man is.
"Who claims they know where my son is? Leon? I should have known you of all people would be wherever my son has run off to. I heard rumors of him being kidnapped and some of him running away to be with a woman. Which is it?" George questioned in a demanding tone. No one had been able to tell him where his son was and his patience was long gone.
'Both the rumors are correct,' Leon thought to himself.
"Alexander sent me to tell you he wishes to speak with you but your men must stay on the outside of the forest. He wishes for you to guard this forest," said Leon.
George Mclane stared at the forest his wife told him many years to never visit. She told him this was where she once lived and one day, he would be able to enter by her side. Why had his son ventured into this place?