Bound To; The Wish of the Witch

VI

The autumn afternoon air was frigid as it flowed through the blackened trees casting their lanky shadows across the road. Tori, with Scinthia riding Roth next to him, listened to the sounds of the dead forest as they slowly made their way down the road. There was very little sound to begin with, but every now and again, he would hear a small animal shuffling through the leaves in the distance. Settled comfortably in his saddle, he'd begun getting lost in thought before Scinthia spoke and broke his trance.

"It's getting pretty late, Tori. We should set up camp soon." She said.

Tori looked up and paid closer attention to where the sun was in the sky. He saw it approaching the peak far behind them in the west.

"Umm yes. We've been riding for a good while today. You see any clearings from here that might be any good?" He asked, also scanning the tree line himself.

"I noticed one a few minutes back if we wanted to backtrack a little." She proposed.

Tori thought about whether he wanted to keep looking for another or just settle for the one they passed. After a moment he decided.

"Yeah all right, let's head back then just to be safe." He said, turning Till around to head back.

At a slightly quicker pace, Scinthia lead him back down the road, toward the clearing she'd noticed. After a few minutes, they arrived at the clearing and began to set up camp. The fire pit was quickly set up and they began to roast the last of the game Tori had caught earlier that morning. He finished his meal and went to sleep while Scinthia kept first watch. Mid-way through the night, Tori awoke to Scinthia standing over him with an exhausted look on her face.

"Your turn to keep watch." She said drowsily, her eyes already half shut.

Tori got up, rolled up his bedroll, and walked over to where Scinthia was sitting before. He sat for a moment before deciding to climb a nearby tree to keep watch from instead. The night was silent with the exception of rustling leaves being blown by a gentle wintry breeze. The cold air didn't really bother him since he was, for the most part, under his cloak. However he noticed something while he was looking around. He noticed Scinthia, slightly curled up in her bedroll, shivering every now and again in her sleep. For some reason, something about seeing her like that sort of bothered him.

Tori began to think back over the last seven days of them traveling together and wondered how he hadn't noticed she wasn't wearing a cloak. Ordinarily, he would've at least notice a detail like that, but for some reason, this time, he didn't. He became a bit unsettled from the thought of himself becoming distracted by her presence. He looked away from her and continued scanning the surrounding area for the rest of the night.

***

The next morning, soon after a reddish-orange sun peeked over the eastern horizon, Tori climbed down from his perch and woke Scinthia so that they could pack up their camp and get moving for the day. As the two began packing up, Tori's stomach growled at him. He glanced over at Till's saddle and noticed that his game rack was empty.

"Hey Scinthia, I'm gonna go catch some food before we head out for the day. Do you mind packing the rest up while I do that?" He asked, looking back at her.

She looked up from the fire pit she was disassembling.

"Yeah, that's fine." She said before returning her attention to the fire pit.

Tori, with his bow in hand and quiver strapped to his belt, left the camp site to find some good game. He traveled a decent ways away before beginning to find critters worth hunting. He easily caught two good sized rabbits before seeing a third on a small hill off in the distance and nocking his arrow. He pulled back on his bow, slowed his breath and focused in on the rabbit. Before he released it, he suddenly caught himself thinking about last night and saw the image of Scinthia shaking playing out in his mind. His train of thought broke when he noticed the rabbit begin to move and he loosed his arrow. It flew swiftly toward its target like any other shot he'd make. However, it arched over the rabbit and struck a tree behind it instead with a loud "thunk." The rabbit darted away in fear and disappeared over the hill. Tori swore to himself and couldn't help feeling embarrassed that he'd missed such an easy shot because he became distracted again. He looked around to see if there were any other animals nearby he could catch from his position in the brush. Seeing nothing of the sort, he stood and walked over to retrieve his arrow from the blackened bark.