A small girl striding through town with a grim expression was a comical sight to the adults. But Saga felt like a volcano on the verge of eruption as she wove through the crowd. Her hands clenched into fists, swinging at her sides as she marched, her eyes red and her teeth pressed tightly shut. Her face burned, and she could feel a vein pulsing in her forehead. The gray skies and cool air did nothing to soothe her. Hunting was the one thing that brought her peace, the one thing that gave her a sense of belonging. And now Siren was threatening to take that away from her.
Aunty Yrsa's cottage came into view, perched solidly at the center of the west side of town. Saga stormed through the doors, livid. With Aunty Yrsa at her healer's office, Uncle Vor in the mayor's office, and her she's-dead-to-me sister off at her stupid dance school, the house was as empty as Siren's head.
Saga flung her bag into a corner of her room, quickly slipped into her hunting boots, slung a quiver of arrows over her back, and grabbed her bow. After adding a sheathed hunting knife to her belt, she dashed out of the house.
She ran out of town, scrambling up the slope before disappearing into the dense shade of the Ergrov Forest. She didn't slow down until she was deep among the towering trees. Here, the tall trunks loomed over her, somber and shadowed in the overcast light. Bugs trilled softly all around, and birds called from the high canopy, where the leaves wove a ceiling of green and gray. As she walked along the familiar path, she realized something, she knew this forest. She knew it the way one knows an old tunic, its every crease and tear, or a beloved book, with a history behind each smudge and mark. To her, this forest was alive, sometimes gloomy, sometimes cheerful, sometimes angry. But it was never an evil place.
"Sir Boris's scouts know nothing," she muttered. "How dare they say such foul things about you?"
She respected Sir Boris, but she wasn't one to cower easily. She'd survived the attack of a lynx, as well as an arachnid monster, and had never once whined about it. In fact, no one even knew. She wouldn't be scared off by silly rumors conjured by a bunch of scaredy-cats. Sir Boris could tell her to stay away, and Siren could poison Aunty's ears against her all she liked, but these woods were Saga's home.
Then she heard it. The absence of sound. She'd never heard this in the forest before: a silence as dense as fog. Something felt off. The Ergrov Forest was acting strangely, as though it had fallen ill. She sensed it in a way that defied words, the sense of something sick at the forest's very core, a rot on its soul.
She stumbled upon her big trap.
She paused, observing it thoughtfully. Resetting it would take ages, and she wasn't sure she'd bother. Not after the arachnid. Though she'd designed the trap for big animals, apparently monsters could trigger it, too. Yesterday's close call had almost ended in disaster. She'd only survived because of the elf.
The elf.
Saga closed her eyes and listened. Somewhere high in the sprawling web of branches, a small bird took flight, rattling a fine limb. But that was all. No rabbits scurrying into the underbrush. No hyena's laughter echoing in the emptiness. The silence thickened, congealing into something grim. There used to be at least one catch every day. Now, all the traps lay empty, day after day. How could time have changed things so much? Where had all the animals gone?
She gazed eastward. A narrow path twisted through the dimness beneath towering spruces. The elf had disappeared that way yesterday. Drawn by some force, Saga found herself beneath the trees, following the faint trail. She moved as she did in dreams, like a phantom gliding through the creeping trees of the elven forests.
She wanted to ask the elf what business she had in these woods, though deep down, she knew she only wanted to see her one more time, to confirm that the elf was real.
After twenty minutes of winding through the trees, the silence grew heavy, like an invisible hand slowly tightening around her throat. Even Saga knew better than to venture this deep into Ergrov. Yet, even as her hands trembled and the back of her neck prickled as though something was breathing over her shoulder, her legs carried her eastward, as if answering a silent summons.
Saga stumbled into a small clearing. The sun peeked out from behind gray clouds. At the edge of the sunlit grass, the elf sat with her eyes closed, her posture serene in profound meditation. Saga stopped, awestruck. Motionless, the elf looked like a statue, no rise or fall of her chest, no soft quiver of breath. She simply sat there in perfect stillness.
Saga had never seen any creature so perfectly still. It almost felt like a crime to disturb this peace. So she stood as quietly as she could, and waited.
"We meet again, the Navian girl," the elf said softly. She opened her eyes and smiled, her sharp features softened by warmth. "I knew you would come here, even this deep into the forest."
Saga's heart fluttered with bewilderment. She breathed, "How?"
"Instinct. You and I are cut from the same cloth, girl. We have the spirit of the deep wild. Our instincts are awakened. We feel the world. Nature is our true home."
A thrill rose under Saga's skin. After a moment, she scratched her head and said, "Um, Miss Sill, if you don't mind, may I ask you something?"
"Yes. Just 'Sill' will do."
"Sill, are you the… suspicious culprit in this forest?"
Sill frowned slightly. "Elaborate."
As Saga explained what she'd heard from Sir Boris, Sill stared thoughtfully at a blade of grass in front of her.
At last, she lifted her head and said, "I am not responsible for the disturbances you accuse me of. However, I've noticed signs of disruption myself, and I may have an idea of who could be causing it. I may even consider offering my cooperation to this Mancrest Knight you speak of."
"I'm sure the town would be very grateful for your assistance," Saga said, then paused to gather her thoughts. "May I ask something else?"
"You may."
"What exactly are you doing in this forest? I mean, did you really come to see Lady Genevieve? And how did you know I would be coming this way? How did you even find me?"
"I am here on personal business. As for finding you," Sill tapped the pointed tip of her ear, "some elves have better hearing than navians."
"Wow! You can really hear that far away? That's incredible!"
A darkness settled over Sill's eyes. "You're braver than any child I know. But this forest has grown hostile. You should stay away, unless you wish to find yourself in the grasp of something far worse than an arachnid."
Saga suppressed a shiver. "Has it really become that bad?"
"For you? Yes. Do not set foot here again until this forest is absolved of its affliction. Now leave. I have business to attend to."
Saga bade Sill farewell, but on her way home, she felt a shadow trailing her, harboring a distinctive sense of malice. She kept telling herself it was just her imagination, but fear prickled at her every step. She dared not look over her shoulder, afraid that if she turned around, her worst fears would become real. What if something truly was following her?
Even under the chilly, overcast sky, she was drenched in sweat by the time she reached the safety of her home.
Once inside, she bolted to her room and locked the door. She tossed her hunting gear into a corner, flung her overtunic onto a chair, and collapsed onto her bed, curling into herself. Trembling, her breathing ragged, she lay there, trying to steady herself. She could not remember ever feeling so frightened.
Her room was dark, with all the windows shut tight. Soon, sleep overtook her, and she drifted into a disturbed dream. Her memories of Ergrov twisted into a nightmare. She saw herself, frantically firing an arrow at a wild lynx. The arrow grazed the beast, drawing blood. The lynx halted, startled, staring at her, then spoke: "You're a monster!" It turned and fled. She looked down and saw a blue-skinned elf crawling out of the earth, warning her: "Run! This forest has grown hostile!" She saw herself shooting down three turkeys, their corpses shrieking, "Why? How could you smile as you took our lives?"
Saga woke with a scream, her chest heaving. Her thoughts felt muddled and chaotic. She had a creeping sense that she'd been deceived, as if she'd awoken to find her home was actually a den of centipedes, crawling all around her. She couldn't understand why she felt this way. None of it made any sense, it was like trying to bring a hurricane under control.
But there was one thing she knew beyond a shadow of doubt: she would never go back to that forest. If she hadn't imagined it all, then something foul had tried to claim her as she made her way home. She could still feel its eldritch presence, a wickedness so deep it had injected pure fear into her soul. She didn't want to imagine what might have happened if she'd actually looked over her shoulder…
Saga had never felt heartbroken before. Living with someone like Siren had toughened her up. But the thought of never entering that forest again weighed on her. A great dullness washed over her, a consuming coldness, a gnawing emptiness. When her twin hearts beat, it was with a steady, aching grief.
She whispered, her voice cracking, "Goodbye, Mom. I can't go hunting with you anymore. Something bad will get your little girl if she goes back there. I'm so sorry…"
Clutching herself tightly, Saga drifted off into sleep once more. This time, without nightmares.