the christmas where everything goes wrong

Part 1: The journey

It's one more week until Christmas, and Eleanor was here, stuck in a wood, on an useless mission.

She was walking through the haunted woods of Ethos. This place had an eerie, creepy atmosphere with its wild, thick and untouched nature, as it had been rumored to be. It was also said that at night, people saw lingering souls and moving trees, shaped like giant hands towering above, and only a few of the hunters had returned afterwards.

Eleanor was sent here alone, with only a shotgun, a bag of rations and essentials. June had said that one of top commanders in the Polis kingdom had been exiled to this deserted forest. And Eleanor was to bring them back to the Capital of Anemia for them to be put on trial, where the council will decide the commander's punishment. Which basically meant execution, there was no lighter option for the war criminal.

The thought sent chills down her spine. She did not want murder as her Christmas gift.

But, she reminded herself, if I completed this mission, June would become a general, and she would promote me to a commander, with my own troops and such! And that would be the gift I want when I return.

Eleanor was walking through the forest with an alertness of a well-trained soldier, but otherwise seemingly zoning out, unfocused. But this is such a waste of time. June should have waited until tomorrow to send a crew with me to optimize the chances of finding this commander. Clearly June is just sending me here just for the sake of it, out in this cold, winter, snowy nig-

Eleanor glanced down to the snow on the ground ahead of her. Footprints. A ruffled sound of leaves startled her. She carefully looked around with keen eyes, gun raised to her right eye in a ready stance. I guess this night won't be dull after all.

Another sizzling noise of dried leaves came from behind her. She sharply turned around, nothing but careful. For a second, she had noticed a swift shadow figure flashing by.

"Who's there?" Eleanor called firmly, her voice ringing in the dark.

Her only light source she had right now was the small flashlight she carried on her belt, which is uselessly pointing to the ground, and somewhat of the ill moonlight. The only reply to her question was the owl howls in the distance, who might have been alerted by her presence. She stood there holding her ground, rooting her feet to the wet snowed ground, slowly moving her body around to assess her surroundings for any possible threat, or the target she had come here for. The tension in the air felt familiar, she noticed. Like the calm and quiet moment before the storm. Like a stretched elastic string about to snap.

The hair behind her neck prickled.

Like someone staring at you.

She turned back.

In a sharp motion, she pulled the trigger.

A loud 'BANG' shook the whole forest. And the light came with her shot revealed a person staring back at her.

Bingo.

The tension snapped.

They took off running, with Eleanor closely following behind. The shadow figure was elusive, jumping and dodging and twisting through the forest. Her target was fast, but the on and off flashlight dangling on her hip and the blood trail they left would for sure give her an upperhand. They were luring her into the deeper part of the forest, with denser, more swirly trees and crowded branches as obstacles. Her target was using that to the best of their advantage, dodging behind big trees and thick hanging vines in hopes of cutting tails. Eleanor's breaths were getting ragged and tired and her legs were burning as she ran. Her target was getting harder to follow and Eleanor's body was slowly giving out.