Dame de la Lune

~Chatptet 1~

Slowly, I open my eyes. Above me are evergreen trees. Why am I outside? I turn my head to see black flowers, blossoming in the sun. My breathing is shaky and my limbs ache, the reason for this pain is unknown to me, but I cannot be in despair, I must find a way out. As I attempt to stand up, I feel a sharp pain in my leg. I lift my dress to see a knife lodged into my thigh. I can't help but grimace at the sight. I've never been good with blood, I always seem to feel cold when I see it, like I'm feeling an unwanted presence behind me. I ripped the ends of my dress off, in hopes of making some sort of tourniquet. As I remove the knife, a piercing pain runs up my leg to my chest and I can't help but release a muffled scream into my shoulder. I tie the dress around my thigh, stopping the blood for a period of time.

As I stand up, I hear something fall beside me. I look down to see a locket, only to find it cracked in half. Must have cracked when I had fallen, but why was I running? Inside the locket is a picture of a young boy, he looks to be about my age, yet I cannot say I am acquainted with him. I turn the locket around to find the initials: JN. JN? Thinking of names that I know, I realize that I do not know my own. How could I forget my own name? Must I have fallen that hard? Confused, I started to walk into the forest, hoping to find a way out. I couldn't have run that far from my home, I thought, and in the middle of the night I can't imagine running into a forest without being able to see the path that lies ahead. In spite of my confusion, I started to walk forward. I couldn't help but notice a raven circling above me, and as I continued my path through the forest, the raven stayed by my side. I've always loved ravens, even if they bring bad omens, I can't help but find comfort in them.
Once I noticed the sun was now ahead of me, I realized it's nearly dawn, and I am still in the middle of this forest. How could that be? How could I have run that far, with impaired sight, and a knife lodged in my leg? Was I being chased? Was someone here with me? Could I have possib-
My thoughts are interrupted by a figure standing in front of me. They're dressed in all black, and seem to have black dust around their eyes. They don't say anything. They merely watch me.
    "Who are you?" I ask, afraid of the answer.
They don't say anything, instead they start sprinting at me. In panic I start running the other way, trying to get to a safer place. Where that safer place might be, I haven't a clue. Feeling my leg start to ache, I know I cannot out run this person. I fall to the ground in excruciating pain, seeing that the tourniquet is soaked in a dark crimson. I look up to see the person is gone. Suddenly, the black figure appears in front of me. Just as I'm about to let out a scream, I felt the person's hand on my mouth. They brought their fingers up to their lips in a shushing motion, looking almost annoyed. Oh please forgive me for not being calm when I'm encountered by a mad man. I watch as their eyes look down at my leg to see the blood had seeped through the tourniquet and onto my dress. I feel their hand lift my dress up and stare at the blood.
"Please, I'm lost and I mean you no harm, please let me go," I beg.
They still refrain from speaking, and instead unties the poorly wrapped fabric to reveal a deep wound. I grimace as I stare at the cut. God's teeth that's going to leave a ghastly scar. As my breathing begins to quicken, I see the person pull out a bottle with clear liquid inside. I furrow my brows as I fear their next move. In one quick motion, the person grabs my legs and pulls me, now having my legs lay on their lap, all while holding the bottle in the other hand. Without any warning they pour the liquid onto my wound, and quickly grab my hands to prevent me from moving. Immediately I feel the liquid burn my skin, it feels as though my skin is melting from my bones. The pain travels throughout my body, and I start to tense up from the pain. I let out a cry of agony, asking the person for mercy. As I feel the pain slowly leave my body, I look down to my leg to see the wound fully healed. Hm, it did leave a ghastly scar. I look up to the person sitting before me, their brown irises capturing my attention.
    "What was that?" I ask, knowing that I might not get a word from them.
    "Peptin," they say.
Would you look at that, it speaks. Yet by that rugged voice, I think it's him.
"Peptin?"
"It's a local herb that grows in the forest. Too much and it will burn you alive, but just enough, it can heal any wound imaginable."
Oh.
I stare at him for a few seconds before speaking.
    "Why did you help me?"
    "You said it yourself, you're lost," he said as though it was obvious.
"Yes, I do recall that, but still, why help me?"
He sighs, almost sounding annoyed again.
What have I done to earn such an annoyed tone?
    "You don't look like a threat to me, and I saw that you were bleeding, so I assumed you needed aid."
    "Well..thank you for that, it was excruciatingly painful, but i'm grateful."
He rolls his eyes at me.
    "Well you would have bled out within the next hour with that poor excuse of a solution," he says as he points to the blood soaked fabric.
Pardon me?
    "In my defense, I didn't know how I got that wound let alone how to mend it properly."
He scoffs.
    "How does one not know how they got stabbed? Just looking at that wound I know it wasn't an ordinary dagger...probably one fashioned to look like a Roman Pugio dagger."
I'm sorry, a what?
    "You can tell what type of dagger stabbed me based on my wound?"
    "Of course I can, the way the skin has been pierced and how clean of a cutt it was tells me all I need to know." He exclaims, looking at me as if I should know what he's talking about.
    "Well aren't you a genius."
He rolls his eyes at me, before shoving my legs off his thighs so that I am now fully on the ground. He starts walking away from me, but not before I'm up myself and walking towards him.
    "Wait," I say as I catch up to him. He stops and stares down at me, running his tongue alongside his bottom lip.
"I'm sorry for my comment, I didn't mean to disrespect you, I'm just not from here."    "Everyone's from here."
    "Well...maybe I'm from here, but I can't remember. I can't remember where I'm from, what my name is, or how I got here. The last thing I remember is waking up in the middle of this damn forest with a dagger or a roamin puggo dagg-
    "Roman Pugio," he corrects me, rolling his eyes as he does.
    "That's besides the point," I let out a sigh of frustration before I continue, "the point is I don't know who I am, or where I'm from, so I am asking for your help."
    "Really?" He squints his eyes, analyzing me.
I nod to his question.
He slowly shakes his head, "what makes you think I care about any of that? Let alone you."
Rude.
    "You just helped me not even five minutes ago," I point out.
He stares at me for a period of time, contemplating his response.
    "You're fine now, so you can stop pestering me."
"Yet you were so quick to help me then wh-" he interrupts me yet again.
"You were wounded goddammit! So forgive me for not wanting some girl to bleed out in the middle of the forest being vulnerable to god knows what else!" He snaps at me. I flinch in response to his anger. He furrows his brows to my response, staring at me for a while, almost as if he's registering this weakness of mine.
    "I don't appreciate it when people take their frustration out on me, so please, refrain from raising your voice."
He stares at me as if I've spoken another language.
"And who gave you such entitlement that you think you can tell me how to speak to you?" He asks with such disgust in his tone.
"N-no one," I stuttered out in response, intimidated by his presence all of a sudden. I started internally criticizing myself for appearing fearful of him. He stares at me for a bit longer before huffing out a sigh and hangs his head to look down at his feet. I stare at his head that is wrapped in a black cloth. I take in the fact that he's covered from head to toe in this black fabric, the only feature visible are his brown eyes. Why is that?
As I'm studying him, I notice his eyes suddenly widen while looking at my hand.
"Where did you get that?" He asks with his mouth agape
I look to where his eyes pointed to. The locket? I look back up to meet his eyes. Why does he care?
    "It was here beside me when I woke u-"
He interrupts me and grabs the locket from my hand, and before I have a chance to retaliate, he grabs my throat and pins me against the tree nearest to us.
Bloody hell.
    "You're lying," he says sternly, "where did you get this?"
    "I told you," I breathed out, "I woke up an-"
He squeezes the sides of my neck to further cut off my air supply, making me choke, gasping for air.
    "This necklace belonged to the Queen of Ionia, and was buried with her. So I'm going to ask you again, where did you get this?"
Oh this day is going great! Waking up in the middle of this godforsaken forest only to remember absolute nothing is just brilliant! And to top it all off, I have to deal with this nit wit.
    "Why of all people, do you care about this absurd locket?" I ask him.
His eyes darted between mine, reading me. He opens his mouth to say something, yet I'm met with defeating silence. It looks as though the answer to my question pained him to say out loud. What are you hiding?
He removes his hand from my neck, leaving me to drop to the ground. I watch as he places the locket around his neck, tucking it into the fabric of his shirt. I grab my neck to soothe the area he once held so rigorously.
Great, that's gonna bruise
    "Look, I don't know how that locket got into my possession, nor do I know the boy in that picture, but you are my only hope of getting out of here and figuring out what happened to me last night." I say, staring into his eyes. Although he intimidates me, his eyes are comforting to see when they soften.
    "What is it that you need from me?" He breathes out in another annoyed sigh.
His eyes may hold my admiration but he is far too irritable.
    "I need your help in getting out of this forest."
    "And where exactly is your destination?" He asks as he rolls his eyes once again.
Careful, roll your eyes too much; they might just fall out.
    "The closest village." I answer.
He contemplates his answer, clenching his jaw as he thinks.
    "Merde," he mumbles. I furrow my brows at his language, noting that I understood him.
    "Fine, on one condition," he says, holding up his index finger.
    "Name it." I breathe out desperately.
He walks back over to me, and picks me up by the arm from the ground so that I'm standing relatively close to him. He looks down at me, almost condescendingly.
"Wherever you're going, I come with. That locket that you had means a great deal to-," he abruptly stops, "to this kingdom, and I need to find out the truth behind where you got it from." He says as he studies me.
"That's alright." I say almost too quickly. I'm desperate for his help but I can't let him see that. He's already seen me vulnerable today in many ways, yet I have not seen one flaw in his demeanor.
"Alright we best be on our way, we cant be out here after dawn." He starts walking forward as I follow, quietly, behind him. I need to find out the reason behind my mysterious awakening in the forest. Why would I have the queen's locket? None of this makes sense, not to mention my pleasant traveling partner. I'm just as curious about his story as he is of mine.