Earlier when the two horses fled from the giant bear, they did so in the opposite direction that led outside the forest, as in towards the mountains. So when William chose to flee as well, he did not do as the guard has instructed him, but rather he did so in the direction of the mountains as well.
William was quite terrified at the moment; every fiber of his being, every instinct told him that he was crazy. But with whatever left of his reason still functioning inside his head, William knew that running on foot was plain stupid.
Not to mention the giant bear, that had pounced on the horses in a few moments and crossing the twenty meters distance in no time, even a regular bear can always catch up to a human with absolute ease.
Therefore, William concluded that his only chance to survive was to catch up to the horses and ride one of them out. That hopefully with the last stand of his guards, they would be able to buy him enough time to make it.
William ran after the horses, never turning back, his heart was in overdrive mode, the same as his legs. Soon he heard a scream of pain behind him that was cut short right after it had started.
The scream was human, of that he was sure, which only drove him to run even faster. It did not take long for the forest to return to its previous state, calm, quiet, without any disturbance.
William knew that this was all the head start he will ever get, the bear could probably smell him from very far away, so he couldn't exactly hide and hope for the best, he had to get out of here and fast.
William tried to follow the horses' hooves as best he could, soon though he lost them. This was not the rainy season, there was no mud or snow to leave a trace o; the earth was solid not to mention that he was no tracker.
"Shit, shit, shit. Damn it, I am not dying here, think William, THINK. Survival, you need to survive." William spoke to himself trying to think of a way to get himself out of here.
As he calmed down he started to hear the faint sound of flowing water.
"A river? Here? …. maybe a stream." William thought to himself when an idea hit him, it was a bit crazy but he was desperate.
He ran towards the flowing water sound as fast as he could; as soon as he reached it he discovered that it was indeed a stream rather than a river.
He quickly searched for an area that was muddy and got to digging.
William had remembered from a movie, that a human's body heat can be somewhat blocked by coating oneself with mud, so he thought that maybe it could do the same for his scent.
William made sure to put mud all over his body and cloths so as to cover every nook and cranny, he even stuck leaves and tree branches to the wet mud hoping it could help as well in masking his scent.
By the time he was done he knew that he had probably already exhausted his lead, he decided to follow the stream's current hoping that it may lead him to a settlement eventually.
Finally, before he left he had a final brilliant idea, which was to leave a few marks on the trees using the knife that the guard has given him to draw an arrow, indicating the direction he was heading to as well as the initials of his name just in case his father came looking for him.
He soon left the place, with nothing but his dagger, his rations and the will to survive.
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Back at the hunting camp.
It was already around 3 pm, William and his escorts had yet to make it back to camp and lord Ulric was starting to get quite worried for his son's safety.
"What could have possibly taken them so long?" the marquess questioned as he furrowed his eyebrows.
A few moments later Neal who had been sent that morning to go fetch the hunters had come back and entered the lord's tent.
"My lord, the hunters that you had asked for have been brought to the camp, do you wish to meet with them?" Neil saluted before informing the marquess.
Lord Ulric furrowed his brows even more as he made up his mind, he could not sit idly by as his son's whereabouts are unknown.
"Neil!!! gathered the guards and the hunters; leave five of them behind to guard the camp and the servants, tell the others to mount their horse." Lord Ulric gave his command as he informed Neil of William's situation.
As soon as Neil understood that their young lord was potentially missing, he immediately went ahead to ready the men.
It took them but a few minutes to depart, the lord's personal guards were well trained and well-disciplined after all.
"We will spread out in pairs and start the search, hopefully, we will find them soon, but if the worst were to happen and we don't, we will meet again right here at sunset, now move out." Commanded lord Ulric, as he made his way into the forest.
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Somewhere in the forest.
William had been walking for quite a while now; he had seen no trace of the bear or any signs of human settlements either.
He had also calmed down substantially since the incident, though he had no doubt that if he survived this whole thing, he would probably have to deal with quite the nasty trauma.
He would have to survive first before he could have the luxury of being woken up in the middle of the night from bear-induced nightmares.
"I can't keep going like this forever, even though I started training my body, it's still early for me to develop any sort of stamina and I may be covert with dirt, but I am no Rambo and my knife is no machete." William thought to himself.
"I need to decide, keep going or find shelter for the night? I am already starting to get tired and the sun would probably set soon. Do I really have to spend the night in the god-forsaken place?" William weighed in his options and after a while, he decided on the shelter.
"They've probably started looking for me by now and that bear Is probably long gone as well, maybe I should just sit tight and wait for rescue, I have left clues all along the river so they should have a relatively easy time finding me." William reasoned.
Frankly, he could probably find his way back if he tried very hard, but that would require that retrace his steps and he feared that maybe the reason they were attacked was that they had trespassed on the bear's territory and he certainly did not want to do it again.
"Well, time to find a tree, climb it and call it a day, as well as wait for rescue." William soon started his search for a 'comfortable' tree to spend the night on top off.
As he did so, he thought about those guards he had left behind, he know he could have done nothing to save them, he knew that he was no hero. Yet still, he felt guilty, guilty of running away as they gave their lives to defend him, guilty of being a coward who did not even attempt to fight back.
As he found his "bed" on a thick and high tree branch after trying and failing many times to climb it, he laid there thinking.
"Am I a coward?"