Special Delivery

~ 14 ~

Scott opened the door of the post office, nodding to the local manager. She was an old woman, though not as old as Robin, not nearly. She had weary eyes, and a scar that went from her forehead upwards along her scalp. Story went that she'd been hit by a stray friendly arrow that ran its path along the top of her head. She always joked that she knew where to part her hair now, but today Scott didn't laugh at those memories. Everywhere he looked, he saw the war.

He thumbed through some letters in the outward-going box and put them in his bag. When he was first starting the job, he loved looking at them. So many different stamps, letters, addresses, seals... every one was its own little packaged mystery. Love notes, death threats, marriage invitations, pregnancy announcements, legal declarations, even happy letters between friends. So many life events had passed through his hands, and he had no idea what they were.

But now, they didn't seem so intriguing or unique. The world was full of mysteries.

He walked through the village, running the addresses through his head. One was in this village, two in the neighboring one, and four others that he'd have to pass through the forest to deliver. He knew he could never avoid the forest, but... Vincent and Azra made the idea of a return difficult to swallow.

It was Vincent in particular, though. With Azra, all he felt was fear. But with Vincent, his mind was a strange jumble of feelings he had no hope of understanding. Part of it was fear, but not of Vincent, simply if the unknown. And another part was anger. Vincent was keeping secrets from him, things he wanted to know, things he needed to know. But then again, a much larger part was pure sadness.

What secrets could be so bad that Vincent felt he needed to hide them?

Scott pulled out his first letter, approaching the door and knocking. A mother came to the mail slot and took the letter from his hand with a smile, tailed closely by three small children. Scott's mind fell on the dead girl. She was possibly most peculiar of all.

He proceeded into the forest, passing through to deliver the bulk of his letters. He wasn't so scared anymore. Not of the atmosphere, anyway. The earthy smell felt homey to him, and the leaves crunching beneath his feet provided a soft soundtrack to his journey. A bird fluttered past him, chased by giggling pixies. Snow slowly started to float down, and he caught it in his hands. The first snow of the season.

A chill radiated through him, the nice kind of cold feeling associated with early winter snow. He brushed it away and shoved his hands in his pockets, expecting numb warmth. But it never came.

It was all so abrupt. Cold spread through his bones and choked him. It pressed on him from all sides, quicker than his body or his mind could comprehend. This wasn't just snow. It wasn't even a winter storm. This had to be magic.

Azra.

No sooner had the chilling thought come into his mind than he fell to the ground, unconscious.