Rion, who was followed by Trish, spurred his dark horse very fast. His hazel eyes shone sharply at the direction ahead, as if he wanted to cut all the distance between him and Anwen quickly. "Why are you always so desperate? What if you get hurt?" he muttered to himself as he remembered Anwen's smiling face. From behind, Trish watched the king's back closely. Then, before long, he smiled and turned his attention back to the road. Dawn had turned to dusk and they had finally entered the forest. Rion, who saw the former bonfire on the river bank, immediately stopped his horse. "Looks like Princess Anwen and Miss Odette rested here last night," Trish said, looking at the burnt logs and food wrappers. Rion also noticed the same thing. But after five seconds, he pulled on the horse's reins again. Meanwhile, Anwen and Odette had exited the forest and arrived in a clear area. On the back of the horse that was still running, Odette was surprised to see bloodstains scattered in various p
"Mom, I want that," the little girl pointed to the row of skewered meat on the grill. "Oh, come here, child. If you eat this, you will become more beautiful," said the seller, making the innocent little girl even more enthusiastic about buying them, while the mother looked at the seller with a strange expression. Seeing that, Odette couldn't help but smile. Back when she was a child, she was also like that little girl, very easily trapped by the sweet talks of the hawkers and toy sellers. Odette often bothered her mother with it. "Do you want to eat that, Miss Ody?" Anwen asked after seeing Odette staring at the roast beef vendor stall. "No." Odette said, still smiling. "I was just watching that little girl over there." Hearing that, Anwen also paid attention to the little girl that Odette noticed. "What's with her?" "That girl reminds me of me when I was little and the girl's mother reminds me of my mother," said Odette with sad eyes, while Anwen looked surprised for a moment.
Rion wiped Anwen's tears and said, "No. You are my sister and I will always love you. So stop crying." "Is that true?" Anwen looked at Rion with her wet eyes. "Of course," Rion smiled. Anwen hugged Rion again. "I love you very much, Brother," she said. "Me too." "Brother, don't hate me, okay." "No. Never." *** Little Anwen, who was thrown from the horse, was now eleven years old. From behind the pillars of a dark room lit only by two torches in the corner, Anwen peeked out. CRACK! CRACK! Anwen was shocked and shuddered every time the whip struck the body of a woman with golden hair and purple eyes, whose wrists and legs were bound by chains. CRACK! "Cough." The woman vomited a lot of blood. The blood covered almost all of her chin and seeped down to her neck. "Why did you have to do all this …? Sob …" Anwen wept as she watched her mother received a hundred lashes. Time passed. After the room was quiet, Anwen came out of her hiding and walked over to her mother, who wa
The morning had come. Anwen and Odette were preparing everything they needed for their trip to Randle Forest. Food, water, some change of clothes, and weapons were all ready. Anwen spent five silver coins to pay for the inn and bought all the provisions. Honestly, Odette felt very bad because Anwen paid for everything, but she really had no money with her to offer to pay some of the expenses. There might be money tucked away in her shirt pocket that was left at Green Castle, but that money was useless because it didn't apply here. "Well, it's done!" said Anwen as soon as they finished arranging the things in a brown duffel bag. Odette carried the bag on her back because she would be sitting in the back of the horse. "Okay, are you ready for an amazing adventure?" "Yes!" Anwen and Odette did a high five then started climbing Dan. This morning, Anwen and Odette looked more intimate, as they were now friends. Perhaps, it would be very difficult for them to part later on. Dan gall
The Randle was a forest that was often dubbed the forbidden forest because it was a den of wild monsters and mythical creatures. Despite the fact, many people were still desperate to enter the forest. Odette walked while stroking the upper arm of her left hand. She felt goosebumps when she saw the trees that were growing so big. She estimated that the trees were as high as one hundred to two hundred meters with tens of meters of trunk thickness. Many of the roots of these trees were sticking out, restraining other trees in the vicinity. Some of them even wrapped around and strangled their own trunks. After looking around for a while, Odette looked up at the leaves above. The leaves were spread wide and overlapped each other tightly, that they blocked the path of sunlight, and because of that the atmosphere in the forest became dark, damp, cold, and foggy. Odette's blue eyes now turned to see the fruits hanging from the branch. The shape of the fruit looked strange and Odette had n
"Don't worry about me and go! I'll catch up with you soon, if you stay here, I can't protect you while fighting them off," Anwen said. Odette was silent for a moment then said, "Okay." After that, she stepped back slowly, turned around, and immediately ran, but the Chimera who was standing next to them immediately jumped to pounce on her. Fortunately, Anwen was no less fast and immediately jumped up while doing a vertical slash that split the two goat heads on the creature's back and aroused the creature's anger. ROARR! The chimera roared very loudly and charged straight at Anwen. The fight was unavoidable. ROARR! Not long after, the other Chimera roared loudly and joined the fight. Slash! Anwen managed to injure the head of the Chimera in front of her and immediately slammed its body to the side when she noticed another attack coming from behind. Anwen's movement made the attack hit the chimera whose head had been injured. ROARR! The chimera roared loudly again when its fri
The chimera jumped to pounce on Anwen but she managed to dodge by sliding out of reach of the creature's claws and stabbing into the creature's chest. However, it didn't do any fatal damage and only provoked the creature to rampage and attack brutally. After seven minutes of fighting and moving continuously, Anwen started to get tired, her speed dropped drastically. Plus the injuries she received, made her even more unable to move fast. Gradually, Anwen's defenses began to be exposed, making it easier for the chimera to inflict damage on her. "Ah!" Anwen was hit by a claw on the shoulder. Blood immediately flowed and covered the ground. Anwen was still on the move, he was desperately fighting to win the fight. In the midst of the battle, as she continued to dodge and counter attack, Anwen was reminded of her older brother teaching her to use the sword. At that time her brother said "True warriors will not back down from the fight. It is better to lose than surrender. When they h
While running, Odette was slightly surprised when she saw a gray-haired man standing in front of her. Her eyes could clearly see the man's face. He was a jerk, but, for some reason, she felt very relieved to see the man in that place. "Aagh! Help me!" she shouted while running, and immediately hid behind Rion, while the chimera immediately jumped to pounce. But Rion also jumped quickly and kicked the creature, so that it was thrown away and hit a tree. Rion landed and planted his feet on the ground smoothly. Seeing this, Odette was flabbergasted as she looked at Rion's back. 'He's so strong! No wonder Anwen said that he is scarier than a monster when he's angry,' Odette thought. The chimera got up again and looked angrily at Rion. "Get out of here and find a safe place," Rion said without turning around as he raised his sword and mounted a stance. "Um." Odette immediately nodded and ran to one of the trees. From behind the tree, she watched Rion fight against the chimera. Rion