A Hero's Bedtime Story.

CHAPTER 8:FOREST FELLOW

Nat had thanked the kind monsters, who had given her food and water to take with her, before leaving. She always felt for monsters. Before Nikki's rule, the laws hadn't been in their favour. They couldn't own businesses, couldn't own land, couldn't receive public education. It was practically the same everywhere in the world. That's how it was ever since she was a kid. If you were more human than monster, it was a bit easier, but were usually kept separate from pure humans, unless you were well off.

Nat grew up in the slums, surrounded by monsters and half breeds, in fact, she was adopted by a Monster and her half breed husband. Monsters had been kind and never had ill intent, but still, humans feared them. There had been once when her mother had taken her to town, she was a tall pitch black monster, with pure white eyes. Her name was Cylo. Humans had accused her of kidnapping Nat from a human, and ripped her away from her. It took a day of convincing to prove that Cylo was indeed, legally, her mother. It had been terrifying, and she had come to resent her own kind.

She was making quite the progress, only around 2 days from the castle. She just had to keep moving. She wondered what Lucas was thinking, what he was feeling. Of course Nat felt bad for leaving without a word, Lucas was her closest friend after all...but this was for the best. It was too late to have regrets, too late to turn back. She just continued following the trail in front of her. She had found herself in a thick forest, filled with the sound of birds chirping and leaves rustling in the wind. She would stop in her tracks when an arrow flies across her face. Her eyes would dart up to the tree from where it came, spotting a person in a red coat with gold trim

. "What do you want from me?" Nat asked, quite confused by the cloaked figure. "For you to leave! Get out of my forest!" Nat stifled a laugh, the voice coming from the figure was quite high pitched and raspy. "Are you laughing at me!?" "No, no! I just-,, Show yourself, coward!" The person would leap from the tree, onto the ground in front of nat, and remove their hood. It was a boy who was quite short, with pure white skin and hair, and fiery red eyes. He also had pointed ears adorned with gold earrings, sharp teeth, and scars covering his face. "Im Rhett, keeper of the forest, and you're trespassing! Leave this land or face the consequences." spoke the boy, who had a stone cold glare. "Listen kid, I just want safe passage to the castle, I have no business with you." "Heck yeah you do. Like I said, this is my forest, and humans don't belong in it! All your kind does is steal, kill, and destroy. So, scram!"

What? That wasn't true. This kid is seriously becoming a serious pain in the- Nats thoughts are interrupted by an arrow flying by her face, grazing her skin. "L-listen kid-! Not all humans are like that, I just want to help!" The stone cold face of the boy became enraged. "Help!? Help!? Don't lie to my face, human! You're people killed my family! All of you are rotten to the core, absolutely despicable. Children of death himself!" Nat suddenly felt heated. "Yours killed mine too! The feeling is mutual! Now, if you don't let me through, you might as well kiss this forest bye. Lucas is on his way, and someone needs to warn the Queen!" Rhett suddenly lowered his bow and arrow. "What you say, is it true? Do you swear on it?" Nat nods her head. Rhett looks around nervously, then steps to the side, unblocking the path. (653 words)