The woodland piano.

Chapter 6

The next morning, birds were singing in the warm sunlight. Damien had woken up and done his usual morning routine before deciding to investigate further the piano he had found.

The piano had no lid over its keys, and a good few of the keys were missing. He felt like there may be some importance to those missing keys so he tried to work out which they were. He pressed the first key next to an empty slot, but no sound came out. Could it be broken? Made sense as there was still the tree growing out from it.

He then started to look around for the missing keys. They shouldn't be far... unless they've been taken by other creatures but why would they be interested in them? It wasn't long before the melody began to play again. Damien looked over to the piano, and to his surprise, the keys were playing on their own. Could it have become haunted when the tree grew through it?

"You're not going to want to stay there for long," said a voice behind him. It was quiet but just audible. It was a person in a long cloak that covered their entire body. They had a bow at hand and a set of arrows in a small bag around their back. A hood covered their face so that all he could see was their mouth. "Take your time debating with yourself if you should trust me or not, but it won't be my problem if you end up dead."

This person knows about the forest then. "Alright," Damien replied, "But don't try anything funny, or I might slit a throat."

"Whatever," they said, turning to run, while Damien followed after.

~~~

The person had led him to a small camp with 2 tents. It was quite a beautiful area: there were 2 huts in the centre, surrounded by healthy trees producing various ripe fruits. Between the huts was a fire ring of stones surrounding some twigs, ideal for a small campfire to cook meals on and keep warm.

The person he had followed had finally revealed their face. A young lady, probably in her mid-20s, with blond hair and grey eyes. Never seen that combination before he thought to himself. She had quite a stern look, as if she would much rather leave him to the woodlands' hybrids and other creatures. He tried to lighten the mood, "H-hey-" but the lady turned towards one of the huts and called out "We've got company Adina,"

Wait what-? Adina?

"If it's another one of those creatures then just shoot it," came the answer.

"Not a creature, hun," the lady said, chuckling, "a person."

The lady named 'Adina' came out from her tent, obviously tired and annoyed for being woken up. She faced her friend and said, "You woke me up because you made a friend?" Then looked at him, and her face softened, "D-Damien?"

No. Way. It couldn't be. The house had been destroyed. And though he never looked for his family's remains, he knew no one could escape the bombs that were used during the war.

And yet here she was. Though covered in quite a bit of dirt all over, she was still his Adina. The same brown hair and fair skin, the same blue eyes that glistened like the sea.

"Adina?" the other woman asked, "you know him?"

"Oh Abby, he's my fiancé I told you about," Adina replied, running up to Damien who couldn't contain his tears and smiled with his arms stretched out. They embraced each other; it had been too long. And out of the corner of his eye, he noticed 'Abby' smiling a little at them. Maybe she isn't as moody as I thought. Maybe she'd be a good ally since she's obviously been with Adina for a while when I couldn't.

After Adina introduced her friend as 'Abigail', she made sure Damien would stay with them for the night, and both the ladies helped to build a shelter for him. They had finished by nightfall, ate and went to sleep.