"How big are these woods?"
["Eternal!"] They exclaimed together, ominously. ["Cursed and eternal, lethal and dangerous, endless."]
"Yes, I've heard about the cursed part!"
["Princess!"] A gorgeous peacock came out of no-freaking-where, joining the talking-animals gang. ["We've been waiting for your arrival!"]
"How is there a peacock in the woods?" She gasped dumbfounded. "Did they drug me or something? Is this because I'm losing too much blood? I must be hallucinating. Oh, fuck, I gotta be hallucinating. Did they poison the whip when they wounded me? Or is it my blood loss? I feel faint."
["I'm Alma, Princess!"] The peacock opened it's feathers widely. ["It's dangerous here, Princess. You cannot die."]
"At least we're on the same page on that," she said anxiously. "I have to stay alive, that much is obvious," she sighed. "You keep saying it's dangerous and I can't die, but do you have a solution? Because I would rather face this unkillable monster than go back and be killed by the Coven again. I've beaten my grandma, countless guarding witches, and killed three witches to be able to escape, I can't do it anymore. Okay, I can but I won't."
["Princessssss,"] a lime snake hanging from a tree stared at her, ["Your sssssmell of blood, are you hurt?"]
Sera jumped with a squeak, "Bloody fuck. Are you poisonous?"
["Yessssssss, but not to you, Princessssss. The woodsssss are dangeroussssss to you. To anybody who try to wander inssssside here. Sssssssmell of blood attractsssss danger for yourssssself."] As it high dropped from the tree, she noticed how long the animal was, which only made her more scared. ["I mean no harm, do not fear me, Princessssss. For I am alsssssso here to help you on your way."]
Gulping, she pressed her lips together, "Your name is?"
["Kato, Princesssss Ssssera. You ssshould bath in the waterfall three dayssssss from here on a ssssstraight line. It isssss the only place to bath that will not pressssent any harm for you,"] Kato said while sliding in front of her. ["I will take you there."]
Alma, the peacock, nodded positively to her, ["Kato may be scary sometimes, Princess, but he's trustworthy. He's not like the other snakes. And he doesn't eat humans, he prefers wild boars, which is good because there's quite a bit in the woods."]
"Do you all know each other?" She frowned, as such possibility sounded weird enough just by saying it.
["Yes. History together,"] Asko, the raccoon smiled at her, but though it was supposed to be a friendly smile, it came as mischievous.
"Oh? Um, alright. Is there anybody else in your… group?"
["Me!"] Two small monkeys and a black cat exclaimed together, jumping and walking towards me.
["I'm Emma, Princess,"] said the monkey of yellow eyes, black fur.
["I'm Julian, Princess,"] exclaimed the other monkey of black eyes, light brown fur. Both with a friendly warm smile.
["Princess,"] the cat came closer to her, with a graceful demeanor, looking more noble than the others, ["My name is Vincent, and it's good to finally meet you, Princess."]
She blinked confused, "What? You've truly been waiting for me?"
["Yes!"] All of the gracious talking animals exclaimed, while Kato added the familiar amount of S' at the end.
"How is that possible?"
["I've seen you coming before you came, Princess,"] a red fox came and joined them. ["Thus, we've waited for you around the borders of the woods."] With the same grace as Vincent, the fox seemed to bow to her. ["I'm Noralinna, Princess Seraphina. But you can call me Nora."]
"It's good to meet you all, but," she looked at them, as they followed her while walking, "how did you see me coming before I came, Nora?"
["I have foresight. I can see the present, past, and future. And when you turned 18, I saw a vision of you coming to us little before you've turned 21, Princess,"] it gave her a sly smile. ["It came true, didn't it?"]
Sera gasped, "You have... foresight? How is that possible? I had no idea animals could have magical abilities."
To that, they all seemed uncomfortable, and Hannes, the squirrel, clicked his tongue, ["Valg Woods cursed, Princess."]
"Yes, I've read something about it."
["Read? You managed to read about it? How much?"] Alma, the peacock, asked. ["What do you know, Princess?"]
"Not much, as I had to translate the ancient book by myself, and I'm not sure if I did it right, but I heard that the Valg Woods was one day the biggest Kingdom in the world, which beared the Fae, a magical race that was believed to be the strongest out of all the others. Until a dark witch called Rosa, the Ruthless, had a fight with the Royal family. Something about them not wanting to wed the Heir to Rosa's daughter, which made her furious, and caused her to curse not only the Royal family, but all of the servants, citizens, and the entire Kingdom."
"It is said that they never forgave the cursed future bestowed to them, and they all became monsters. Lurking in the Woods, in the brink of insanity, murdering every outsider that tried to set their foot in here. No one who came, left. The Woods swallowed their dead bodies and their bones made more trees to grow. Cursed to be like this for eternity, in a never-ending misery, knowing how it was to be free, but unable to ever be like that again. All because of the dark witch from the West, who originated the Ritschel Coven of Dark Witches and Wizards in the neighboring Kingdom."
"In the book, it was written that the curse is unbreakable, and that it all happened around seventy hundred years ago. 7 thousands, if you may. Just as it said that, before cursing them so ruthlessly, Rosa, the witch of the west, killed many of them for trying to send her away from their Castle," sigh. "But I may have translated some parts wrong, like I said, I'm not fully fluent on the ancient language of the witches from millennials ago. I tried my best, though. I did pretty good, if you ask me, as I had to teach myself on it all. So that could make me an unreliable narrator."
["Not wrong, nor right,"] Aiko, the raccoon, pointed.
"That weird dangerous and horrifying curse aside, is there really a unkillable monster in the heart of the woods?"
["You could say that. It's like a monster now, and it is unkillable,"] Nora, the red fox, tilted her head softly. ["But it is not the big real danger in here. The Blüchers are."]
She arched her eyebrows, "The… what?"