The Knights of Grimm - Act 3 - Shattered Memory

Chapter 20 - What Remains...

Cinder

Cinder keeps her fingers held onto her arrow that is locked onto her bow. The two of them have been walking for days now, following their trail on the Summer Maiden.

She must be close.

She walks ahead of her partner; he looks around the woodland of Mistral to make sure that no Creatures of Grimm are watching them. Birds flutter across the sky, tweeting in their nests as well. But the road that they follow comes to an end before them, with a river that churns across where the path once was. She holds her bow in her hand, and looks around to follow the path that they believe the Summer Maiden had taken on her travels. "Damn it, trail ends here." Cinder sighs when she struggles to see where else they could go. Hazel shakes his head, and his eyes focus on the waterway that passes before them.

"I didn't take you for someone to give up so easily." Hazel says as he stands at the foot of the water. Cinder scoffs, planting her hand on her hip as she looks at Hazel.

"Oh yeah, so what we just walk through a river? What if it leads into a rapid?" She asks him, understandable concerns as well. They did not come this far to die from drowning in a river to find the Summer Maiden. Hazel looks at her, then stretches out his arm and points at a docked fishing boat not very far from where they are. She sees it, and feels quite stupid when she realises that they can just take the boat.

"Come on, Cinder. We can take the boat and follow the river, she probably did the same." Hazel says as he follows the bank towards where that makeshift pier has been made. The water gently flows beside them, and Cinder looks at a tree as an adorable squirrel looks at her. Her personality has changed a great deal from five years ago. She would have never found any happiness when looking at a squirrel. But then the Knights of Grimm arrived and changed everything for her.

"Hazel..." Cinder begins as she walks beside him, dwarfed by his huge size difference to her.

"Mm?" He responds, looking down at where she walks beside him.

"Why do you think she is constantly on the run?" She asks him, and he ponders on this thought for a few moments.

"My best guess? The Knights of Grimm are hunting her for some reason, just like the Spring Maiden." He answers. Cinder looks up at him, worry in her eyes.

"Do you think that they might come for me?" She asks him, since she carries the gifts of the Fall Maiden still.

"We won't let it come to that." He assures.

"Well, what I don't understand is why they are hunting them...it's not like they can take their powers. They're spirits; it has to be passed down to a young woman, even a girl." Cinder says to him, a very good point as well. Even Loss would not be able to take the powers since she has existed for thousands of years, she could not possibly be able to do so. And the others are all male, so there must be another reason.

"I don't know...but Salem must be behind it." Hazel states.

"You still think that she's alive?" Cinder asks him.

"We never saw her die." He replies, as they approach the pier, walking across the wooden planks. They creek asunder their footwear, old ropes holding the structure together. He walks over to the boat that gently rocks as the little waves that swash against the bank pass against it. He looks at the ropes on the hooks that hold it in place. Cinder looks at the space parallel to where this boat is, and there is a rope there as well.

"Hazel, I think you're right. There was a second boat here." She tells him, and he looks at the rope she pulls up from the water. Drops of water fall from the rope and into the river.