Knight to the Silver Throne

Chapter 2: Whispering Voices

If she would have only to flee from an arranged marriage, Feamir could maybe have born with that. Many aristocratic women needed to marry because of reasons related to the family, power and wealth more than love. However, Feamir never counted herself as a noble in the first place.

Her mother was not a noble, but the daughter of the major of the little elven village, while her father was just a filthy rich but "lowly" merchant. But now her father wanted to be an aristocrat at all cost.
And he did not even try to consider her wellbeing.
For the things she was sure about, her "fiancé" was a known pervert who liked to play around with woman. Her days definitely would not be happy if she really married that viscount.

On the other hand... well Feamir was very suspicious about the circumstances of her father's second marriage. The death of her mother and her father's remarriage was to fast in her opinion. She was to young then and there was no real evidence... but the young woman was suspicious ever since. What was clear to her: her father would throw away what he did not need anymore.

Before her father could use her and throw her away, she definitely needed to get away. Giving up now was not an option for her. Through the forest it was then.

...

The foliage was thick, and it was not easy to get through. However, that could also be to Feamir's advantage later because this would also encumber any person who tried to follow her. She was walking in the forest now for hours already. The sun was up, but it was still dark in the shadows the lush green trees. Hopefully, she was still on the right track, after following a pass through the wood that was probably created by some sort of animal, she was not able to really check the directions again.

A quick look on her prepared compass strangely was not helpful. The magnetic needle was circling. Without giving any clear direction. A strange thing that should not be happening, Feamir was sure that it worked just fine a few hours ago. Without any way to check directions it was near to impossible to navigate.

Begrudgingly she left the trail she was following. It was not too late in the day yet, but she was not sure how to progress without her directions. So, she thought it may not be a bad idea to find some place to rest for today and while doing that thinking about what to do tomorrow.

Preparing a very basic campfire that hopefully would deter any wild animals, she leant herself on a tree and tried to listen to the nature surrounding her with her eyes closed. There were rustling from some sort of animals, bird calls and the sound of the wind rushing through the trees. Everything seemed peaceful, not so scary as the stories about the Silver Forest would have suggested. On the contrary, the atmosphere seemed rather calming.

Suddenly Feamir thought she heard a quiet voice. The voice was nearly inaudible between the wind and rustling leaves.

"Who is there?", alarmed she sprung up, looking into the direction where she thought the voice had come from. She was not able to see anyone though. No one was appearing either, but Feamir was now able to hear more clearly. It seemed that there was even more than one person, talking to each other.

"I think she heard us!"

"No, you must have been mistaken! It's a mortal after all!"

"You are right! But maybe she is an interesting mortal! We should play with her a bit to find out!"

The voices seemed to even talk about Feamir.
"Hey! Show yourself! Talk to my face at least!", the black-haired girl stared to get angry. She was too accustomed to others talking behind her back, but these few high-pitched voices really got on her nerves.