@Cressidaofficial: More description, please
@anwenodstar: He’s freakishly tall. He has golden-brownish hair, shoulder length. Everyone seems to have longer hair around here.
@Cressidaofficial: Pretty eyes?
@anwenodstar: Grey, though sometimes they are green, like the sea when it’s agitated. And before you ask for a full description, here it is: he has soft features, the curve of his chin is delicate, really muscly and he has a very straight nose, like a Greek sculpture, since you are there, you should know best. He is pretty hot, I’d have to be honest.
@Cressidaofficial: Giiiiiirl, get me some of that! How big?
@anwenodstar: I don’t know, he’s over six feet for sure
@Cressidaofficial: I am talking about his D! :)
@anwenodstar: Urgh… I don’t know Cressi, I honestly don’t care...
@Cressidaofficial: I’m sorry. You know I love you, right? I just want you to start being yourself again and forgive my silly horny way of trying to get you back.
@anwenodstar: I know, love you too. But the last thing I need right now is sex. It won’t fix anything. And Jonathan is still roaming around like I’ll change my mind any second or something. It’s all too stressful and I really don’t need to think about some new guy. Who is trespassing, by the way!
@Cressidaofficial: I know… How are you? Is that place helping?
@anwenodstar: I’m ok, getting used to it. I cried the first few days, then I debated going home. I really like the forest.It's nice and hot around here and keeping silent for days helps. I don’t have to think about what I am saying, how I say things.
@Cressidaofficial: I’m sorry I’ve been so busy lately, I`m going back home in two weeks and we can chat more
@anwenodstar: Don’t worry about me, if I need anything I'll message, I promise.
We chatted for about an hour until my friend had to get ready for the show and I walked into the kitchen to make dinner. This place helped, saying it to Cressida made it true. I had slept through the night for the first time in what seemed forever; I took the time to linger in bed; I didn’t stress about going to meetings or appointments, learning speeches by heart or forcing smiles when all I wanted to do was cringe and bark at people.
And I felt closer to Erik, even though I still had no clue of whatever I was supposed to find, this place, my presence here, gave me peace. Whatever the queen felt when she was here, I started to experience it as well. Like I reached some kind of milestone, bringing me closer to a purpose. All around the forest lay a cape of stillness, the only sounds penetrating through were birdsong and rustling leaves. It offered a calming environment that gave my heart exactly what it needed: stillness and harmony.
I could not find it in me to relax and forget today’s events. Everything happened so fast that I did not have a chance to even think properly. I had seen a man naked, unwillingly that is. Even so, he had been naked in front of me and my traitorous eyes had lingered, my disloyal stomach dropped at the sight of him, fully exposed. My thoughts flew to his sculpted form, that abdomen that would have made any model jealous, the triangle of muscles of his pelvis…No, Anwen, no, stop!I forced my imagination back and tried to remove the image that remained tattooed into my mind.
He may have been the most beautiful man I’d ever seen, more beautiful than I ever thought it possible, but the twisting in my gut and that surge of excitement at the sight of him suggested trouble. I did not come here to chase men, and meeting him was a mere coincidence. We each had a reason to be in the woods, and that had to be the end of it. With that thought forced into my head, I went to bed.
I need to investigate. The man’s image became my wakeup call after spending the night twisting and turning in bed, barely sleeping for a few interrupted hours. He had entered the forest undetected, which meant there had to be a way. And maybe Erik had followed the same route, maybe they even met through a mere accident or coincidence, just like the two of us had. Maybe he knew what my brother wanted from this place.
Deciding that it would be impossible to rest, I hopped out of bed as soon as dawn broke and had a quick shower, barely taking enough time to dry and apply sunscreen. I pulled my wet hair into a messy bun, changed into a new set of leggings with a matching top, and ran into the kitchen to prepare some food.
I formed a plan to take one of the old maps discarded in a drawer in the study desk and follow it, until I found the man’s home. Peanut butter and banana sandwiches ready, two bottles of water and the dagger, which became a habitual addition to my list of necessities when leaving the house. Not that I had any intention of using it, but it raised the scale of my bravado. After a hurried breakfast and a few emails I had to reply to, one of them was Dad's daily check in, I went on a mission to find and isolate the stranger.
I followed the various pathways I knew with no success, so I decided to go towards the river and follow the stream, walking along the bank until hopefully, I would find him or at least some tracks to follow.
An unknown urge pushed towards this, towards finding him again; as inexplicable as it was appalling, I had absolutely no reason to show even the most remote interest towards a man who had entered a protected place illegally. Yet I could not help myself, I felt excited to be in his proximity again, but this time I would gain better control of my senses and force out whatever information he had to offer. In order to do that, I had to find him first, and the task seemed to render itself problematic.
Two sandwich breaks proved my lack of success. I walked miles along every side of the forest, but found no tracks, no equipment left to check plants or heard any zooming drones or beeping cameras. If the man was still here, he was as quiet as the forest itself, which seemed to be less noisy than usual. No animals ran around, no branches fizzled, no birdsong. The woods covered him in their ghostly silence.
The sun would set soon enough, it was already making its way towards the warm embrace of the mountain. It shone bright, joyous to go back home after a long day of brilliance and floating away in the sky.
I decided to head back home after the disappointing venture that made my ankles swell and my feet ache. As I turned back, my attention pointed to a colossal cliff, hanging over the ledge, preventing the river from advancing. It posed beautiful and beetling, nesting an agonizingly high steep far into its heart.
It called to me, forming an alluring halo at the top from the setting sun, so I started walking towards it, pulled by curiosity. When I arrived near enough to see the top, I spotted the man casually hiking over the sharp peaks as though the extremely dangerous fall was nothing to be afraid of.
Chapter Ten
The woman searched for me all day and I enjoyed making a sport out of leading her through the most difficult paths and leaving tiny trails in all the wrong directions. Every time she wanted to stop, I would keep her interested with a noise, making her believe she was just a few steps away from finding me. It kept me amused for a while until she was on the verge of giving up, her legs probably cramping with the effort of the day. I surrendered and climbed the cliff by the river, ensuring to make myself blatantly visible in the setting sun.
When I reached the top, I glanced downward and saw her following the trail I had left and coming closer to the cliff. She did so while trying to be as quiet as she could, not obvious that she had bitten the bait I had laid out for her. By the time the human reached the cliff, the sun was setting and her ragged breathing, which I and all the animals around could hear, got more and more accelerated. She tried to follow the exact route I had taken to reach the top of the cliff, even though she was evidently unequipped for such an effort, her upper body already giving out. I debated my two options. I could amuse myself further and watch the stubborn human try to hike the impossible route, or help her find the easier option, dismissed by her impatience.
