Princess of Victory - Guardians of Forewood [1]

Chapter 5: The Nighweald Village

Day 12of the Fourth Month, Year 1016, afternoon

Nighweald Village, Goldburg Province

THE FIRST village that they found wasn't very far from the woods. To reach it, they only had to walk a few hundred steps from the spot Windrunner threw them off at.

"This is Nighweald village," he explained, while she was observing the trade of meats that were going on. The snow was still falling lightly, but no one seemed to be bothered by that. "It's a hunter's village. I rarely went here, usually, because I always went straight to the east, to the villages near Grizzle." Now they couldn't do that because the horse was mysteriously injured.

"Maybe we can buy a horse," she suggested.

"Perhaps. I'll see if anyone is selling. Do you have any money?"

Victoria was about to nod when she realized she was robbed bare by her kidnappers last night. "No," she sighed while shaking her head. "My kidnappers took it all."

"Ah, yes." He looked over her once. "I almost forgot about that. We probably need to find you some new clothes. You look quite... awful."

Ah, right. Victoria looked down at her dirtied clothes. Night of running around in the woods did not agree with her, and also, she started to feel just a tiny bit chilly. "I suppose that's for the best," she said. "Do you have any money that I can borrow? I promise I'll return it."

In later days, when he figured out who she was, he found this particular memory quite funny. The Crown Princess of the kingdom, borrowing his money and assured him that it would be returned?

But now, he only thought of her as a pitiful girl who got kidnapped. "Don't worry about that," he reached for his pocket. "Here. Go find yourself some clean clothes, I'll take care of the horse." A few silver coins were put to her hands.

Victoria looked at the coins and was about to say thank you, but Dev already went off.

Oh well. She walked the other way, tried to find some sort of a tailor's shop, but the village was quite small that it was mostly consisted of houses and farms. Victoria was fascinated. She spent most of her life in the capital, where it was bustling with business, and occasionally to the capital of other provinces when duties called. Maybe also snuck out once or twice to the towns around Naveland with her friends, but never as far as the villages in the countryside. Well, perhaps she had been brought around the kingdom by her father when she was a child, but she could barely remember that.

As far as she could see, there were only people selling some daily necessities. There were no one selling clothes, and after some thought, she understood. Here in the village, most people make their own clothes. Who would buy them?

She finally walked far enough to arrive at the center of the village, consisted of a huge open gazebo with some sort of garden around it – it wasn't really that far, considering it was just a small village. The lack of people there made her frown.

There were only a few old women sitting in the middle of the gazebo. They all looked towards her when she came near. The flash of hostility in their eyes startled her.

"An outsider," one of the old women, the one with some kind of burn on the side of her face, said to the others. "Not good."

The others frowned. "It's right," another said. "What do you want, outsider?"

"Uh, I wanted to ask if you had any sort of clothing I can buy," she said, awkwardly. Their rejection was so apparent as they didn't bother to cover it.

They all looked at her from top to bottom, and she saw one of the women shook her head. The others looked hesitant for a moment. "No," the old woman with a burn on her face said. "Now go." The woman shook her head in distaste. Apparently, Victoria looked that bad.