Phoenix: The nuruk beast.

Chapter Twelve: The Girl in the Carriage

 It had been two weeks since Aldrich's eighteenth birthday, Archer sat by the fireplace with a book in his hand. His mind however, was somewhere far from the pages within it. He looked at the chair where Aldrich once sat on often and whispered to himself;

"It's gotten awfully boring since you left."

Meanwhile, Aldrich seemed to be running again, but this time without terror in his eyes. He ran steadily through the forest chasing after a hare. He pulled out his sword and hit whatever tree he passed trying to scare his prey. With nowhere else to pass, the hare entered a narrow path covered with bushes. Seeing this, a triumphant grin spread across Aldrich's face as he came to a halt. And just then;

SNAP.
Aldrich's trap had been set off, he took another route and found the hare dangling inches from the ground by its foot. He took out Lydia's dagger and slit its throat as swiftly as possible. It took him a while to get used to gutting the wildlife he had caught but he could now do it without batting an eye. It took him less than an hour to prepare what he was going to call breakfast from the hare.

Just like the last few days Aldrich could only eat half of the food he prepared; this was because he lost all his appetite due to the ailment he had been suffering from. Even a common cold proved to be a fatal thing to him in a place where herbs were very rare. He sometimes found warmth by a fire or makeshift sleeves he made from rags he found but these weren't permanent solutions. By each passing day, his headaches got even worse leaving him in a very bad mood.

He pulled out his damaged sandals to refasten the small vines he used to mend them. He knew he would need to change his footwear eventually, but where? No matter how hard he thought he couldn't think of anywhere he would spend the few golden coins he had. He laid his head against a tree thinking of how good it would be if he found other people. Just as he was about to drift off into slumber, he heard something that made him hoist himself to his feet in excitement. Just beyond a few trees, Aldrich could hear the sound of horses and their hooves hitting the forest ground.

Lillian stared at the clouds from the windows of her wooden horse drawn carriage. Her half-closed eyes and posture suggested that she was bored out of her mind, she tucked her curled brown hair behind her ear to stop it from being blown by the wind coming from outside. Although she couldn't ignore the constant bicker of her two younger brothers right beside her, the day had become so uneventful to her that the world had seem to become silent.

"How are doing now?" A woman with raven hair in the carriage asked her, she had the same golden-brown eyes as Lillian as well as similar facial features like their straight noses and slightly widened lips.

"I'm doing well mother." she replied still gazing at the sky with an apathetic expression. Her mother showed worry in her gaze at Lillian when hearing that response. They had gone through a lot in the summer past and Lillian seemed to be the only one who hadn't moved on. Her mother often found her staring at nothing with no more the expression than that of a corpse and by the looks of things, the latest news of them moving away only made things worse.

"You know Dameran is known to have magnificent singers, I'm sure you'll hear all kinds of melodies there."

"I guess so."

By now Lillian's mother couldn't keep up with the small talk. She said;

"Lillian, you know this is for the best right?"

"Father wouldn't have approved of this."

"Harold isn't here any more!!" she snapped,

With tears in her eyelids, she took a deep breath and said in a calmer voice. "What other choice do I have Lillian, the duke...." she was cut mid-sentence by a loud noise outside, the horses seemed to be in panic judging by how they neighed agitatedly.