A Nymph of the Ossian Forest

The Dryad

"Aidan! Have you seen Aidan?"

After the long minutes I spent running up and down the moonlit Ossian streets, I abandoned the precautions and started asking everyone I met about Aidan. My search was fruitless by far: he was nowhere to be seen, and the villagers weren't of any help. They shook their heads and rushed whenever they were going: mostly on the square, where the men had gathered. I had to dive into the shadow of the house when Jesper, the head of the village guard decisively walked past me. I knew that just like my father, he wouldn't understand me, and would insist on my returning to the cellars. But despite that, he could still help me more than the others: without knowing it, he was going to lead me directly to Aidan!

Thinking that following him to the square was too dangerous, I chose a different way. Trying not to lose him out of sight I darted towards the watchtower and rushed upstairs, making sure I still saw his red cloak after each flight of stairs I passed. It took me several seconds to get to the upper platform of the watchtower, the highest point of the entire Ossian Village. From here, you could see everything that was going on several miles around.

It was easy to see where the head of the village guard was going.

Just as I had expected, Jesper headed to the Main Square, but it wasn't his final destination. As he mounted his horse and the Gates opened in front of him, I raised my eyes far above his head and saw a picture that was beautiful and horrifying at the same time.

In the distance across the field, Ossian soldiers stood in lines, facing the dark trees, like it was the entire Ossian Forest they were going to fight with. Although the real enemy was yet nowhere in sight, they looked painfully small from the highest point of Ossian Village. There were only several horsemen: even from the distance, I recognized my father in one of them. The second one was a small silhouette of Jesper galloping towards the troops across the meadow hills. The rest of men were on foot, fully armed.

How were they supposed to fight a Creon army?

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't tell Aidan apart from the others. My heart squeezed when I thought that he must have been already in the forest. I was too late.

But I was not going to give in yet.

Thinking of where I could possibly find a horse and whether I would be able to ride it, I turned to the stairs to descend but stopped right in my tracks when I saw I wasn't alone in the watchtower anymore.

"Hello, Arian."

Kyle was standing in front of me like he had never been gone at all.

I had never been afraid of heights, but my head spun and for a moment I thought I was going to fall off the platform's edge.

It was him. He was there, standing in the shadow of the roof beams, so strange and so familiar to me.

"They will kill you if they see you," I tried to sound calm, but he knew me so well he certainly recognized the tension in my voice.

"I hate taking sides, Arian," he said after a pause. He grinned unhappily and made several steps towards me, his hands behind his back.

"What are you doing here?"

"You are repeating yourself, Arian," he said in painfully familiar voice. He was dressed in alien clothes in which I immediately recognized Creones'.

"You look like them now," I sighed out.

Kyle seemed to ignore my words. He made a step forward, making me move back to the railing. "You asked me the same thing when you saw me in the forest after your hunters' stupid attempt to save me." There was bitter sarcasm in his voice. "And my answer will stay the same. I love you, Arian."