The Girl, The Knight, and The Sleeping Princess

The Knight

Troya continued running with a severe pain on her right foot.  When she finally arrived at the second T-junction they had encountered before, she decided to take the left path because the right path would only return to the house again. 

The path was wider, but a few meters ahead, a tree had fallen and blocked the road. There was a small gap under the tree. She would fit his body underneath. Whereas if she tried to pass through the top, she wasn't sure she would be able to do it. 

The bear roared again. This time it sounded closer than the previous one. Troya's heart was pumping blood very fast, pounding, almost holding it's breath. She couldn't give up now. Troya slipped through the lower trunk as she planned. But damn, her move just kept slowing down. Suddenly the bear's claws almost grabbed her legs. Troya shrieked in horror, she crawled more fast. The tree trunk trembled, as if it had just been hit by the animal. Troya screamed again but she continued to crawl under the tree trunk. The bear tried to grab her leg again. But she already made it through the other side of the tree.

Troya stood back up and immediately ran as hard as she could. She tried to steal a glance over her left shoulder. She saw the bear trying to get rid of the tree trunk by pushing it. Troya's relieved, at least for a moment she had time to run away. 

At last, she made it out of the forest. Instead, the grasslands and rocks laid before her now. But that was not end, after running a few meters, she realised that a few more meters ahead of her was the end of her escape. There was no way other than a hight cliff and an open sea. 

Troya stopped running right at the edge of the cliff. She saw the blue sea. She looked left and right, the other path way was only the road going back into the forest. She's cornered and didn't know which way to run. 

Then there was a roar behind her, and the gravel being trampled by the enormous creature as it walked slowly toward the girl. Troya turned around. Now the two of them stood facing each other, looking into each other's eyes. The bear growled, baring it's sharp teeth. Now that it had finally cornered its prey, it walked slowly and calm but felt so threatening. The bear groaned to show his power. 

Troya had given up. She had thought about jumping into the sea, and swimming as best as she could to the shore. But unfortunately, she knew that she isn't very good at swimming. She could swim, just not very good. She did not know whether she was able to swim to the shore, or if she reached the end of her life. Imagining many creatures in the sea, Troya knew that she would not dare to take the risk. What if there were sharks, whales? Or even a vortex that sucked her deeper and deeper into the bottom of the ocean. Or maybe her body would never be able to emerge again to the surface? It was a long, lonely and terrible road to death.

Troya shuddered, she finally chose to remain still in her current position. Maybe some other luck would help her. After all, she's always lucky. No matter how careless she was when she rode her bicycle, she always reached her destination safely. 

The bear stopped his movement as their position being only two meters away, so close, too close. The bear apparently had brown fur and brown eyes. Moreover, around it's neck there seemed to be something hanging down that resembled like a pendant. 

Troya shook her head. Pendant? Maybe she saw it wrong. And sure enough, now she saw nothing on the bear's neck other than it's thick furs. The bear stood on its two hind legs and roared back very loudly. 

Troya eyes shut and closed his ears to prevent fear from getting over her. But it's useless, yet she still felt very scared. The bear's right hand hold high, as if it was about to tear her apart. Finally Troya decided she's not too brave to face her own death. She closed her eyes and waited. 

SUUUIIT. 

Then a whistle sounded in the distance. The bear's hand stopped midair. The whistle was heard again. The bear growled in annoyance, but it did not continue it's action and instead sat down on the gravel. 

Troya did not understand what was really going on, but she opened her eyes again. She saw the bear sat quietly, even l*****g its hand. Troya was amazed, but at the same time relieved. She thought that was her chance. Therefore, she walked a little sideways to pass the bear's body. And she got through it with ease. In fact, it seemed like the bear did let her go.

Troya was both relieve and happy, although she's still very scared. But it's not time to relax. She intended to run back into the forest, to the last place she had left Mayang. But her steps stopped immediately when she saw a dark shadow in the forest moving towards her. 

The sun was already leaning to the west so the light was not too bright. She couldn't see clearly what's ahead of her. Her heart was struck by fear again. 

Is that another bear? But the figure she saw was smaller, more human-like. 

Maybe a bad guy? 

Her brain continued to wonder. She couldn't possibly step back, but to move forward she hesitated too. There's nothing she could use as a weapon, besides the small wooden tree trunk next to her left foot.

Troya ducked down to take the wood and got ready to defend herself. She knew, luck wouldn't come twice, so this time she had to defend her life as hard as she could. 

There's a tense silence, the shadow drew closer. Until finally the shadow was right under the light that came in through the gaps of the leaves. And Troya could see that face, Mayang. 

"Troya, are you okay?" cried the girl, and immediately hugged her. 

Behind Mayang was Liam's face. He looked lousy with bandaged legs and a limping walk, but he's all right. Liam also looked very happy when he saw his friend's face. It just didn't feel real. To be precise, what he had just experienced seemed utterly surreal. Maybe it's like a nightmare being chased by monsters and you running around in circles, until you gasped for breath but you never got to the final destination or managed to save yourself. They weren't real, but they were tiring and choking.

And perhaps that was how Troya felt right now, when she finally saw the figure that appeared next after Liam. This was all ... not real. But, the figure in front of her whose wearing the armor of a knight just like in the movie King Arthur, or a knight's tale, or other western films that featured the story of ancient warfare, looked so real. It's not real at the same time. Because it was impossible. There couldn't be. 

"K-Kai?" she said, after She finally managed to get the word out. 

"Kai?" asked Mayang and Liam. 

Then they both turned around, looked back at the face of the person who had helped them earlier. Troya released from the embrace of her two friends. She stepped closer to the knight. Her brain couldn't possibly remember wrongly. Her eyes couldn't have seen the wrong way. 

His eyes were deep and dark brown. He had sharp nose and thin lips. His jaw was firm. Even though Kai didn't have much facial hair in the past, this's Kai's jaw, the line was firm and masculine. But ....

 “Kai, why did you dye your hair brown? I prefer your hair black. " Troya said after a moment of silent not knowing what to say. 

Of course the knight standing in front of her was astonished. He brushed him hair which was quite long, shoulder length. "This is ... real hair," he smiled slightly embarrassed. 

For a moment, there's an awkward silence. "Oh ...."[]