Into the Realm

Chapter Twelve: Red and Silver

Tessa bit back a scream as she took a shaky step away from the tree. She stared at the arrow only inches from her face with a sort of frozen shock. If the arrow was an inch closer it would have pierced her nose, and not with the small diamond stud she's always secretly wanted.

    "Who's there?!" Brown said. He grabbed Tessa's arm and tried to pull her back a little. He ever-so-slightly put himself in front of the two girls, like he was going to protect them from harm, even though Tessa knew he would never be able to save them from whatever was going to kill them, and he bent down to pick up a stick that had a sharp point and held it point-side out. Ignoring him, Tessa stupidly reached for the feathers again, wanting to examine them, but another arrow thwacked against the tree right where her hand would have been if she hadn't moved it right in time. Tessa gasped. Heather-Jane screamed in fright.

    "I said not to touch that," the voice growled again. Tessa detected a snide tone in the voice as it said, "Those are the feathers from the Farraline Blue-Jay, the most venomous bird to exist in the Realm. With one touch you'd be dead in three seconds. Is that a fate you want, stranger?"

    A venomous bird? The Realm? Unwarranted death? Tessa took a step back from the arrow. Her heart was beating so hard it felt like it would burst out of her chest. Fear dripped from her pores. This was the first person they had run into since coming here and they chose to fire an arrow at them—were they here to kill them? And the voice... it was roughly accented, sounding harsh and agitated. It reminded Tessa of a mix between a Slavic and a Russian accent— guttural, raspy, and gravelly. The voice was so deep and jarring that she had no idea if the person speaking was a man or a woman. Not that it would matter, of course, but... there was something about the voice that made Tessa vaguely uneasy.

    "Who... who are you?" Tessa asked. Almost as an answer, a hooded figure came from the shadows of the trees in front of them. The figure's boots crunched in the dead pine needles that covered the forest floor. The bow that shot the arrow was in their hand with another arrow knocked for attack. She could only stare at the arrow that could potentially end her life— noticing how the thin fingers curled loosely around the drawn weapon: either the person didn't actually mean to kill them, or they were weary of the bright blue (and supposedly venomous) feathers. Nevertheless, it was a sight that sent chills to Tessa's body; she supposed that incoming death did that to a person. The hood, which was blood red and remained upright, gave the impression that they wanted to keep their identity a secret.

    That, or they wanted to scare the living shit out of Tessa and the others. If that was the case... it was working.

    Tessa held onto Brown's arm when she saw a black wolf appear from the trees as well. Large dogs terrified her ever since a German Shepard jumped on her when she was a little girl. Dogs bigger than the size of a beagle scared her. The wolf was no exception, especially since it stood almost taller than the figure next to it, and it made Tessa give an involuntary shiver.

    The hooded figure watched them from beneath the hood, with two reflective pinpricks that were their eyes. They walked forward with precision and Tessa cowered back, afraid that the person was going to strike her, but then realized that they had gone to pull the arrow from the tree, careful not to touch the feathers. Tessa glanced to see the face of the person under the hood but all she could see was a pair of smooth lips and a narrow chin. The person stood, half in the shadows, and kept their face away from the trio. Heather-Jane popped her head up out of the bush in curiosity. The wolf growled slightly at her and she shrank back into the leaves.

    "The correct question is, who are you? Where did you come from?" The hooded figure said. A thin hand pulled the hood down and revealed a girl with ghostly gray eyes and a narrow chin. She was so interesting that it made her beautiful: a long and narrow nose sat between those spectral eyes, with sharp cheekbones and arched eyebrows. There was a haunting look that beheld her face, like she had seen things that not many people have seen. She was fascinating to look at... like a work of art that was hidden away for years and years, only to be unearthed when everyone had forgotten her. "Are you who they say they are?" her voice was strong and clear.