Erivale: The Lost Princess

Chapter 1

Running. I was running. The underbrush of the forest snagged at my already soiled and ripped clothes and left thin scratches on my exposed skin.

The trees here reminded me of the towering Douglas Firs from back home. Except instead of glistening with sunlight through fresh raindrops, they were chilled and grey. My footsteps hit hard on the ground where the frost had taken hold, and banks of snow created slippery obstacles.

A man's face haunted me, dark furs encircled the head and mouth so the eyes and the small patch of skin surrounding them were all I could see. The eyes were such a light blue they practically glowed, and the skin was pale as ice. Dark black kohl, or something similar to it, was smeared around the eyes and stretched out towards the ears like war paint. I could just barely see the glimmering hilt of a large sword over his shoulder. He was a hunter, and I was the hunted.

The farther and harder I ran, the more the cold air ripped at my lungs and throat until they burned. A stitch in my side had developed long ago, but with another baying howl, I pushed myself harder.

I had heard the wolves first. Earlier in the night, I sat in a small clearing, a measly attempt at a fire in front of me to keep me warm from the chill. Hours of wandering this frozen landscape had led me to try to find some way to warm myself up and stave off frostbite. My girl scout's campfire badge was finally useful other than being a pretty patch on my sash.

A howl in the distance made me shiver from fear, but it sounded far away, and I was just so cold. A few minutes passed, and another howl – in response to the first – came much closer. I hurriedly choked out the fire and kicked apart the embers. I wasn't about to be a wolf snack. I took one glance around the clearing, and that's when I saw him – the hunter. His eyes and complexion stood in stark contrast to the surrounding darkness. They were mesmerizing, and I would have been stupid enough to stand and stare for quite some time if I hadn't also noticed the reflective glow of yellow wolf eyes right next to him. With self-preservation the only thing on my mind I ran and ran and ran.

Ahead of me was an icy brook, and I crashed through it with a gasp. The stones were slippery, and the water was so cold that my feet immediately felt numb. I stumbled and fell. My hands broke the surface of the water first before my face hit, and the chill spilled into my mouth and lungs as I gasped underwater. Resurfacing, I choked and coughed up whatever water I could and scrambled out of the brook and onto the other side. A deep bone-wracking shiver began as my running turned sluggish, and I stumbled through the forest as if I was drunk. The trees started to thin ahead of me just as the howls sounded closer than ever, and I tried to pick up my speed.

Soon the trees were nearly gone, and I was staring directly at a cliff edge. The view was utterly foreign. I had been in this land many times, and I had always recognized that it was not entirely my own, but I had never seen it from this viewpoint before. Every inch of the land's overwhelming beauty was laid out before me I knew the image of the starry aurora sky illuminating rolling forests; grand, terrifying mountains; an undulating sea; and glorious cities would haunt me.

I was paused about ten feet from the edge when I heard yips and growls behind me. Three terrifyingly large wolves all midnight black crept from the tree line. It took me a moment to realize that they were flanking, almost protecting, the hunter. He held his sword loosely in his hand as he studied me. I studied him back. It was hard to make out the details of his figure with a coal colored cloak tangling around his body. The fabric snapped angrily in the bitter wind. About the only thing I knew for sure was that he was huge, and not in a beer belly kind of huge. Huge as in he must have been a foot taller than me, well-muscled, and frankly just took up a lot of space.

The thought of him trying to fit through a doorway amused me for only a moment before the gravity of the situation hit home once more. Either he or his wolves were going to kill me, and I had to escape fast.