The chirping birds and occasional calls of other animals made the forest seem alive. The trail was thin and they went one after another. Agota led the young prince on his horse, who called himself Ambrus, through three streams and thousands of trees before they made it to the first town.
People walked about, doing normal and menial tasks. His eyes, in that soft blue, wandered in such a way that she felt he truly was a child. His dimples made his skin look like two buns from the east and his skin was a healthy tan. This young man went out to play often, much like herself. She continued through the town, much smaller than Ambrus was used to, in a few minutes.
It was a peaceful travels until nightfall. Agota climbed her tree and slept up there again. The prince lit his fire and made himself food. He was a fairly good hunter, she saw. Her eyes followed his movements as he tried his best to skin the small deer he caught that night. She only watched him as he under seasoned the meat and almost dropped it in the fire.
She would lead the way and only help if necessary, Agota reminded herself as she fell asleep. The next morning she woke and got a drink from a nearby river. Morning dew dotted the flora of the forest. She watched a wolf pup get water stuck on his muzzle and shake his head in fear and confusion. She chuckled and went back to camp.
The prince was eating again, and Agota stared for a second before being handed a piece. She chewed on the tough meat, that was heated twice, and felt her stomach fill again. This was the most she had eaten consistently since she was a Duchess. She walked off her food before climbing into the young man's horse.
He spurred the horse on then, and she pointed directions. The pair of people, one a fairly small young man and the other a giant, made it to a large city in three days of travel. There was an inn offering rooms, which they paid for one of. Agota climbed to the ceiling beam and slept there. She became restless after a nightmare, the occasional reliving of her worst days.
This restlessness led to her going out to the forest edge and changing back to her duchess form, stark naked. She felt free and alive as she ran on two feet, feeling the breeze through her hair and brushing across her hairless body. She ran about until sunrise, playing in the water, making the splooshing sounds with childish delight.
She rested on a rock protruding from the waterfall pond, surrounded by fireflies and moonlight. She laughed and spoke to them, for the first time in so long she spoke the language of the forest. And it spoke back, urging her to stay. She apologised because she could not, she was still repaying the lasting kindness of that pitiful prince.
A masculine cry rose from the waters edge and she ran as fast as she could away from there. The man pursuing her lost his footing when is ankle hooked on a tangled root at the forest floor. The piercing snap of bone and scream of pain made her pale a bit in memory of breaking her own bones. She cast a quick healing spell that would take about an hour to fully repair his leg as she escaped.
In five minutes, she was back to her androgynous form and dressed in those clothes once more. In five more she was laying on the beam, having forgotten the event completely. Agota slept that night listening to the mice and rats scurry around her and all about the floor.
She woke the next morning and stared at the bustling people wandering through the city as she waited for the prince to wake. She stared at one particular person hobble into the inn. She recognised the way he walked was consistent with the injuries of the man who tripped following her the night before.
She stood from the windowsill and looked to the young man who stirred and awoke. She smiled patiently at him as she followed him down to the tavern for breakfast. Agota was excited for eggs and bacon. She really did miss the salt in foods from her home. Ambrus approached the crowd of people surrounding the person who chased her.
"A beautiful Faerie, with flaming red and black hair like that of a fox! Her eyes were the most lovely and gentle purple, like the flowers of winter in the north! She was graceful and elegant, and her skin was so clean and supple!"
The man seemed to be describing her down to a tee. She grimaced and ignored him. The men around him chuckled and egged the man on. He smiled brightly, looking at every single one of them in a gossipy manner, "She looked like the fox goddess of old religions. The hair matched what I saw..." He whispered as if it were something important.
Agota was pulled by Ambrus with vigor, "My friend has hair like a fox, too, but that doesn't mean he's a fox deity!"
The men's eyes all snapped to the young boy with hair that matched the story and became a bit curious. Agota was glad she changed her eye color to brown then, as it would've been a disaster if the other party recognised her. Their observations came to the conclusion that Agota looked a lot like a fox, almost uncannily so.
The young man was looking at her in such an unsure way. But she couldn't be the same person, her eyes were a different color and that was impossible where they were without magic. The man was observing her, and stepped down to introduce himself to the two, "Hullo, I am Xannon. Do tell me your names?"
He said it in such a blank way that one would think he didn't truly care. As usual, Agota didn't answer and Ambrus spoke for them both, "I am prince Ambrus, of Istvan kingdom, and I do not know this one's name, but I call him, "Arpad". It is nice to meet you."
The man stared at "Arpad" for a time with no expression. Then his face broke out in a smile that seemed very genuine. Agota noticed that it wasn't the case at all, his smile was faker than her own towards the prince when she followed him around. It was like that of a human chasing down victims illuminated by the fires set to chase the people out.
She frowned and went to pull the prince away, "Nice to meet you as well, safe journeys stranger," she said it in a rushed manner, hoping her indirect wall was noticed. Ambrus frowned and pulled his arm from Agota's grasp. He wanted to see if this person would join them, they seemed to be a good asset.
"Sir Xannon, do you perchance have something you're doing as of late?"
"No I don't, young prince. Are you seeking company?"
"The more the merrier, as long as you can hold your own."
Xannon's eyes darkened just a bit, but Agota blinked and that mirth was gone. She truly didn't like this young man. He seemed so sick and twisted that she couldn't tell his intentions. It would likely be a bad idea to invite him on their journey, but the damn prince had already invited him.
"Of course I can."
This young man had a magical feeling to him, as if he were some creature of powers. A demon, she could almost say. Her eyes flashed and she realised that if she were here, then what was preventing mystical creatures like that from being there. Her eyes cautiously met his, and for a second she could swear they were red, but he blinked and they were black.
Xannon had pale skin, it looked almost like illness or death. Agota felt that that was another thing that seemed strange about this person, who acted at everything. As if he were trying to pretend he were human, but was something else. It looked too, she couldn't put her finger on it.
Her eyes took in his black hair and sculpted body. He looked like the perfect male specimen. She felt like he was taking her figure in as well, it made her feel dirty. There was something wrong with the way he moved, too. It was as if it were learned and perfected, rather than being his natural movement.
After he officially became part of their party, Agota lost her appetite. She felt her stomach roil every time those red eyes flashed in her mind. That man was too familiar. She pretended he didn't exist and they continued on their trail in that manner for a very long time.
Agota slept on higher branches during the nights, and never rode the horse with Xannon. They slept at night at first, but then Ambrus became restless to see his sick father. Their travels leaked into the star streaked nights, and they only slept when they felt too tired to move.
"What is your real name, Arpad?"
"..."
"How boring..." He was acting.
"..."
"Oh, so you're just going to ignore me, yes?"
"..."
"I know what you are, Fox deity." He had a lot of spite in his tone when he said deity. She still responded with silence. He scoffed and seemed to lose interest. He was acting out a character.
Agota avoided him yet. He spoke to her still, trough her silence, he would always insist on conversations. Ambrus would just try to mediate them most of the time. As things happened, Xannon was speaking in front of the gates of the garden, Agota cast a spell to put the guards to sleep.
"Alright Ambrus, I need you to be as quiet as possible. When we enter, there will be a pear tree. In that tree there is the bird you're seeking. Just don't bite the pears because they, like the bird, have magical properties."
"What properties?"
"They will scream so loud and high pitched that the guards will wake up and take us into custody."
"... Oh, okay." Ambrus wasn't expecting something like that to be the reason not to bite a magic pear.
The bags under Ambrus' eyes were very apparent at that moment to Agota. She felt that something would definitely go wrong. Xannon was nowhere to be seen, and Agota could only frown and watch Ambrus in front of her. She pointed to the tree and watched him climb.
This pear tree wasn't a very good pear tree, because it had fruits up very high. It had grown very tall since she last saw it, and her heart felt stuffy and uncomfortable. Anxiety and fear weren't the easiest things to pat down, but she had done it before when she came face to face with many beasts that she feared.
Her eyes traveled up the branches in search of the prince, who had been climbing for much longer than she realised. He was far enough up the tree that she could hardly see him. She saw him pause and her brow wrinkled. He yawned and right at that moment, a pear dropped into his mouth.
The screeching sound was horrible. Agota's ears began to bleed and she would've passed out if not for her endurance. She couldn't hear the clanking of the guards feet as they were surrounded and she couldn't catch the prince as he fell from the tree, surely breaking a few bones.
They were both dragged into a dark and dingy prison cell. She heard a low and lazy voice humming as it sat outside of their cell. Ambrus was still passed out with his bones jutting at strange and painful angles. Agota carefully pulled them back into place and the prince whimpered in his unconscious state.
She felt a lot of pity for the young man, who was probably experiencing the most pain in his life. Agota sat in the cell in quiet tranquility. Her eyes closed as she rested, remembering her first broken bone. The name Bjorn passed through her mind and big, attentive hands, holding bandages and salve, came to mind.