Painted Roses

Stammer Woods

They were behind her!

Rosalia could hear them somewhere behind her in the depths of the forests, somewhere in the shadows. Not close enough to know exactly where she was at that moment but they would find her at this rate.

Why were they after her?! What could they possibly want from her? And who were they?!

And she had no idea where she was.

Nothing in this forest was familiar. She hadn't spent enough time riding through it, she should have gone for more rides with Beldon.

She should have done a lot of things and but that was probably the way it was when you were being chanced by an unknown pursuer with unknown intentions.

Where was she?

Where was she?!

These forests!

They were whispering.

It wasn't the night wind blowing through the leaves, it was whispering, she knew it was whispering. She had never heard it before but Luka had mentioned that the forests were alive; she thought he had been trying to scare her! Were they really alive in some way?

They could at least have the decency to help her rather then just whisper behind their leaves as she staggered over a tree root, colliding with a trunk to steady herself, looking over her shoulder before pushing away from the tree and running on.

She had to find a road.

Running blindly in the dark through the woods would result in a broken ankle or a broken neck. She had to find a road.

Or a suitable hiding spot. Something to throw her pursuers off her trail.

Movement out of the corner of her eyes sent her reeling to one side, looking around but there was nothing there.

The whispering around her grew louder suddenly, so suddenly she skidded to a stop, staring above her, almost certain there were people hidden in the trees, but that was impossible.

A snap of twig before her and she recoiled backwards, colliding back into a tree, her arms throwing out to catch herself and she sank to the ground, eyes wide, mouth open, breath stopped, body starting to tremble.

There was a wolf in front of her.

She knew there were wolves in this forest; Beldon had told them about her, he had described them as something more than mere animals, more like some type of monster but she only hadn't realised quite what he had meant until that moment.

It was a monster.

It was huge, bigger than any natural wolf, with golden fur and scar across one eye – bright green clever eyes, like they could understand exactly what type of situation she was in. a collar was locked around the beast's neck, thin chains hanging from the collar to the ears.

It looked at her for a moment and she stared back.

Was she going to be attacked? Killed and eaten by these creatures?

This was hat had attacked her brother years before wasn't it?

She blinked and then slammed back against the tree, the heels of her shoes scraping against the ground as she tried to go further back then the tree would allow.

Two more wolves had appeared, both with black fur, looking at her.

The golden wolf looked between her and the darkness behind her and the voices of the woods suddenly stopped and she could hear them again, those chasing her. They were closer then she had realised.