"Just, where are they? They should be here by now, or did something happen?" asked Elihu as he paced up and down, his face covered in a black cloth as well as the rest of them were covered as well.
"Oh no, what if something did happen to them? What if they were captured?" asked Nora as she paced around as well, she could not bear the loss of both Liam and Wura.
"I told you that we should have gone along with Liam, how could we have left him alone to go and rescue her? It was too dangerous" said Elihu.
"Oh no, Elihu is right, we should never have let him go alone, it was a bad idea" said Nora.
"Elihu shut up" said Mero as he looked at Elihu, he was doing nothing but making everyone else panic.
"And Nora, calm down, you will only draw attention to us" said Mero as he looked at Nora and she looked at him.
"But Mero, what if Liam does not come back? Then what do we do?" asked Dothan as he looked at Mero and Mero sighed.
"Well then we just have to hope that what Darla told us about the giants is true, or else, whatever happens to Liam or Lily would be due to her fabrications that led to Liam and Lily being captured" said Mero as he looked at Darla and she held her breath.
Everyone still did not trust her, and they all looked at her like a traitor, even though she had made an attempt to make amends, she helped to make sure that Liam would rescue Wura, she got the wagon, she bought potions from the market, and still yet, they did not trust her at all.
"If he did as we planned, then they would have escaped by now, they must be in the forest" said Darla as she replied.
"You better hope that for your sake they truly are in the forest" said Mero as he replied and Darla did not say anything at all, if she knew that selling Lily off would cause these much problems, she would have bore her until they reached the first city and parted ways, but now, she was an enemy to everyone, even her own brothers, it hurt her, did not want this at all.
"Malcom, can I speak to you?" asked Darla as she looked at Malcom and Malcom ignored her as he preferred to speak to Dothan and Zuph, which made Darla sigh, even her own brothers were upset with her, and nothing she could do or say could make them forgive her.
"Mero, I do worry on what if the giants were able to go into the forest, would that not cause us any trouble?" asked Zuph.
"Darla, you are the one in the right place to answer that question" said Mero as he looked at Darla.
"Well no, Giants never go into the forest no matter what, not only can they easily get hurt in there, but they have a deal with the other creatures never to go into the forest, so going there would break the deal and cause a war, which is not something that they would want at this point in time" said Darla as she explained.
"That is true" said Dothan.
"In a more reasonable way, they would go around the forest if they were to chase after Liam and Lily" said Malcom as in that same moment the ground started to shake as mighty thuds of footsteps could be heard not too far away.
"What is that?" asked Nora.
"It is a giant, they are coming" said Darla as everyone else kept quiet.
"We need to get out of here now, if they find us, we will not be able to escape" said Darla as she knew that the giants were wise beings, they would sense that something was wrong if they saw them, and they would all end up being captured.
"What no? we cannot go, what about Liam?" asked Elihu as he looked at Darla and Darla stopped to think, Elihu was right, how would Liam find them if they were not where they were supposed to all meet up?
"Liam will find us, we agreed on where we would meet in case this was to happen, and he has a map with him, we have to get out of here and ensure your own safety" said Mero as he thought quickly, the giant was getting closer and closer to them.
"But how can we be so sure about that? What If he gets lost and we are unable to find him and he us?" asked Darla.
"Do not contradict me Darla, the best thing for us all to do right now is to split up" said Mero in a tone with no room for disapproval.
"Zuph, go with Malcom and Dothan, make sure to keep them safe, Nora, you are coming with me, Elihu you go with Darla" said Mero quickly.
"Aww what? Why do I have to be stuck with her? I would rather be with Nora" said Elihu as there was no way that he was going to be stuck with protecting Darla, she was such a horrible person and he hated her so much.
"There is no time for argument here Elihu" said Mero as Elihu muttered under his breath, he was very sure that Mero had purposely made sure that he was stuck with Darla just to torture him.
"We will all meet at the designated place, everyone go now" said Mero seriously as Zuph, Malcom and Dothan nodded as they got on their horses, Zuph on one and Malcom and Dothan on another as they rode straight ahead.
"Elihu go now, I am not going to take any nonsense from you" said Mero as Elihu scoffed and he got on his horse.
"Go on then woman" said Elihu to Darla as she got on her own horse and he rode ahead without even waiting for her as they rode in the left direction.
"Come on Nora" said Mero as he looked at Nora and she sighed as he helped her up and she sat in front of the horse as he got on his horse and they rode in the right direction as the giant kept on walking.
…
"Wait Liam… I can hear the footsteps of a giant" said Wura as she whispered and she looked at Liam as he stopped the horse and he waited as he could truly hear the sound of footsteps of a giant nearby.
"I can hear It as well" said Liam.
"Are you sure that they will not find us in the forest?" asked Wura as she whispered and she held on tightly to Liam, she did not want to be taken again, that would be an absolute nightmare.
"They will not find us here, calm down" said Liam as he could sense that Wura was scared, she was holding on to him tightly, as if she could squeeze the life out of him.
"How can I calm down? I cannot, I am scared, I do not want to be captured again" said Wura as she whispered back, the she did not know if she would be able to handle it if she got captured again.
"Calm down Wura, I am here with you, I will not allow them to take you, not again" said Liam as he replied.
"Really?" asked Wura as she looked at him with her brown eyes.
"Yes" said Liam as he hugged her and Wura sighed in relief as she heard the footsteps move in the opposite direction, she felt like her heart was failing her when she heard those footsteps.
"Relax" said Liam as Wura took deep breaths as she felt safe when Liam hugged her, she had missed him so much, even though she had not seen him in only one day, he meant so much to her, and even though he did not remember her, it could not stop her from loving him so much.
"Thank you" said Wura as she whispered and Liam just looked at her as he smiled.
"I think that we can continue on now, the giant must be long gone by now" said Wura as she let go of Liam as he nodded his head and he agreed as they moved on.
"Where are they?" asked Wura as Liam stopped the horse and he got down as they had finally reached the end of the forest as they were all alone there and they could see nothing or no one at all.
"I do not know, they are supposed to be here, we agreed to all meet here" said Liam as he was just as confused at Liam.
"Well they are not here" said Wura as she removed the shiny, tinkling ornaments from her hair as she threw them on the ground and she quickly braided her hair into a ponytail messily, she had learnt her lesson from last time, if a giant dare try to pull her hair again, she would cut her hair off along with their hand that dared touch her again.
"I am worried, what if something bad happened to them? What if the giants captured them as well?" asked Wura in worry.
"Do not think like that Lily, I doubt that would happen" said Liam.
"I believe that maybe they were scared that they would get captured by the giants, so they must have left" said Liam.
"Left to where? How exactly are we supposed to find them then?" asked Wura.
"You do not have to worry about that Wura, I think I know where Mero went" said Liam as he seemed to be thinking.
"Where?" asked Wura in confusion.
"A town not far from here, Mero has a map with him, I know that he will go there, and I have a map with me as well, we should meet there" said Liam as Wura nodded.
"Okay… but do you really think that it Is a good idea for us to leave the forest? I mean the giants are still moving around and looking for us" said Wura.
"We will be fine, we just need to lay low" said Liam as he smiled and he put on Wura's cloak for her, it was getting cold, and he did not want to risk her getting sick.
"Thank you" said Wura as she smiled at him and Liam smiled at her as she got on the horse and Liam followed after her.
"I am sorry" said Liam as she looked at him.
"Sorry for what?" asked Wura as she was confused.
"For letting you get captured, and not coming to safe you quickly" said Liam.
"Oh Liam, you do not have to be sorry about anything, it was not your fault at all" said Wura as she smiled.
"You did what you could do, and you also came to save me just in time, because if you did not come when you did, I would have been married off to that disgusting pig sorry excuse for a creature who treats women like objects, when they certainly are not" said Wura as she spoke in anger.
"If I could, I would want to kill that giant named Magog with my own hands, claiming he loves me, lives me my foot, he is such a horrible creature, ugly and wretched" said Wura as Liam smiled at her.
"I hate him as well" said Liam.
"No, you do not know just how much I hate him Liam, he is the one being that I truly think deserves to die" said Wura.
"Lily" said Liam.
"Yes" said Wura as she looked at him.
"I am also sorry about Darla, I should have never let her…" said Liam as he was cut off by Wura.
"Liam, please do not say anything about that woman, I beg you, I do not want to hear anything about her at all" said Wura as she sighed deeply, she was still angry at Darla, she did not want to see her, or hear anything about her at all.
"Alright Lily, fine" said Liam as he understood why she was acting like that, Darla did sell her to the giants, and betrayed her trust.
"Thank you Liam, can we go now?" asked Wura as she looked ahead.
"Alright" said Liam as they started to move away from the forest and Wura sighed internally, she was going to kill Darla once she finally saw her.