The Girl, The Knight, and The Sleeping Princess

The Bear

The house's made of grey stone, neither plastered nor painted. The roof was made of wood which was coated with oil paint so the rain did not seep into the house. There were two small windows, and one of them was broken. Many bushes grew around it. But the rest of the house still looked strong and liveable. 

Feeling happy, they immediately ran towards the house. It turned out to be the back of the house. Because they saw piles of firewood and tree stumps. There was axe on the pile. Near the woodpile, there was an open area with an old well in the middle. Unfortunately the door was blocked by a fallen tree trunk, so they had to turn around to find another door. The house was only eight and six meters big, so not long, they already found another door. 

Liam paused for a moment, as if he's thinking about something. The door was made of an oak, the paint was almost faded, and it was the same colour as the walls. The handle of the door was round made of an iron and a symbol was engraved on the surface. The same symbol that he saw on the doorknob from the previous house. 

"Open the door, Li! " said Troya impatiently. She's so tired that she wanted to quickly lay down.

Liam needed to make sure something. He looked over the shoulders of his two friends, far into the forest. And then he saw something that answered all his suspicions. The crumple of paper that Troya threw earlier was lying about ten meters from their current position. Troya and Mayang followed Liam's eyes. And of course they both saw the lump of paper. 

"That's ...," muttered Mayang walking over to him. 

"There may be someone else before us here," said Troya. "Li, what did you say about the house earlier?" askedTroya, getting impatient. 

"The house is not safe," answered Liam. 

"How so?" asked Troya curiously. 

Liam grinned desperately. Ah, it seems that Troya had found out if  it was just his trick so that he didn't need to feel ashamed of being too cowardly to enter the house. 

Her patience was running out, Troya pushed Liam's body to the side and immediately turned the knob and opened the door wide. There was silence for a few moments. She stepped into the house. The wooden floor creaked loudly through the silence. The kitchen table and fireplace were cluttered by the furniture above them. The spice shelves seemed to be filled with cobwebs. Some of the furniture inside were dusty, some even broken. On one side of the wall, there were two small bunk beds. But for the rest, this house was more than tolerable for the situation they faced. Even the bear statue in the corner of the room still looked very nice and well-groomed.

Wait, a bear statue?

 Suddenly the bear statue's hand moved with astonishing speed. Troya and Liam spontaneously screamed in shock, they almost fell down. And what happen next was that the bear statue - which at first was considered a statue by them - was alive and roaring very loudly. 

In that instant, Troya and Liam knew that they couldn't just stay still. Without anyone's command, the two of them immediately ran out of the house. 

Liam swore, even though he's embarrassed for not inspecting the house carefully, but he felt a little relieved that he didn't open the door earlier when he saw the bear's shadow from outside the window. He should have just told Troya what he had seen. But never mind, it's too late. Now the bear looked angry and intended to shred them all. 

"Troya, Liam, what happened, what was that noise?" Mayang asked in confusion since she was still outside the house.

"Run, Maaaay!" shouted Liam, grabbed one of Mayang's arms and dragged her. 

Mayang did not have time to ask, because in just a fraction of time, the bear ran out of the house, and roared back as soon as he got outside the house. Without thinking, the three teenagers immediately ran back and forth, no longer paid attention to the uneven ground surface, or the marshy ground they passed.

"Troyaaa, the bear is still chasing us!" yelled Mayang almost cried. 

"Climb the tree!" shouted Troya. 

"Don't!" but Liam immediately prevented. "Bears can climb trees!" 

"Oh, s**t!" cursed Troya and Mayang at the same time. 

The three of them continued to run as hard as they could. Liam's brain worked so hard how they could survive the bear chase. There's no way they could climb a tree because bears could do it so easily. It's called suicide. Maybe they should split up so the bear would be confused about which one to go for. 

"We split up!" shouted Liam when he finally saw the T-junction they had passed before. "I'll turn right, you two cross over the river. The bear will definitely choose the easier one. He will come after me. Save yourself first! " 

"But Liam ...," Mayang was about to protest. 

"No buts, you guys jump into the river and immediately cross, I'll keep running!" cut Liam.

The three of them arrived at the T-junction. As the plan, Liam would continue to turn right and they both crossed over the river. 

Liam didn't slow down, he kept running as fast as he could. Although his breathing was getting tired and his chest began to tighten, he just kept running. And suddenly, his leg hit a tree root, and he fell. Liam tried to get up, but sprained his leg. Oh s**t! This's the end of his life, died in the middle of the jungle in this foreign world. Pathetic but he had to accept it. 

Troya, Mayang, please live! And if you can come back, tell mom that I love her. 

Liam was waiting for the moment when the bear, barely three meters tall, grabbed his flesh and tore it into small pieces. But, until time passed, he didn't hear the bear's roar or feel anything that hurt his body other than the swelling in his legs which began to throb in pain. Liam tried to look back. But ... something behind him wasn't a bear. Not it ... but someone.

***

Troya and Mayang ran as fast as they could in cutting the river flow to the other side. The depth of the water was only as deep as their knee, but they still had difficulty getting through it. They couldn't rest at all because it turned out that the bear preferred to chase them rather than chase Liam. This was completely unexpected. 

"Troya!" shrieked Mayang with trembling lips and a very pale face. 

Troya hit a rock at the bottom of the river and almost fell if only Mayang didn't catch her hand in time. They moved as fast as they could, but unfortunately the bear seemed to easily walk across the river's current. While still holding hands, Troya and Mayang helped each other cross the river. 

They finally arrived on the other side, bodies already soaked. Troya was barely strong anymore because her right ankle was slightly sprained when she almost fell. She told Mayang to keep running. But the girl refused and instead, she grabbed Troya's arm and helped her run. 

The path still felt so difficult to walk on, their footsteps began to slow down due to fatigue. Meanwhile, the bear seemed not at all get tired. Therefore, when Troya saw a ravine that was not deep, perhaps only about five meters, she let go of Mayang's arm and pushed the girl into the abyss. 

Mayang's body rolled down for a while and landed on a pile of dry, soft leaves so that she didn't feel too much pain. Despite getting several bruises, she's still fine. She's still very strong running to avoid the bear. But alas, the bear didn't follow suit. Instead, the bear followed Troya who kept running while limping.

"Troya!" she shrieked frantically. 

She tried to climb back up, but the ground was too steep for her to get back up. She tried many times but fell back to the bottom. Mayang cursed repeatedly, calling out the bear so that it would turned to chase her. But it seemed useless. Mayang tried to climb again, her feet rested on the tree roots that appeared on the surface. Her hands were dirty and her fingers ached and bleed. She almost gave up. Until finally there was a rope stretched right in front of her face.[]