Serpentine

ONE

The soil unravels beneath my searching toes as I rush along the darkening path, my anxiety climbing with each vanishing ray of light.

"In the dark, so many souls reside, so many suffer..."

I push away my dark thoughts, and try to ignore my paranoia in favor of thinking about the list of things I couldn't acquire at the market today.

The seamstress wasn't available today so I will have to wear this dress for another day. Game has been scarce as well, so I will have to have that meat pie another day. What else, the horses haven't come in yet, the hounds aren't finished being nursed... God's, I feel like I have gotten nothing done...

I slow down as I begin up the incline that always gets my heart racing. Because it's such a steep incline, I can't see what's at the top, and the mere thought of something or someone waiting up there for me freaks me out every time.

There is nothing there you i***t, calm yourself!

I push my anxiety down again before I freak myself out more, and make it to the top of the incline-

And trip on a root.

I hit the ground quite hard, my nose making an audible protest as it greats a hard patch of dirt.

"Goddamn it! You stupid root!"

I stand up and swing my foot out to kick it, but the tree lets out a small groan of protest and shifted it's roots out of the way, which in turn makes me lose my balance again.

"Why? All the squirrels and deer and snakes for you to mess with, and you choose me? Wee little me, who just wants to go home and take a nap?"

The tree lets out another soft groan and the mess of it's branches unfurls to reach out to me, and I expect the help grudgingly.

The tree continues to groan, and I lean in to press my ear to it's bark, and release a tendril of majic into my ear so I can hear the trees words.

"A king of old, without you spirit of gold, withers in the cold, his heart only for you to hold. West of hear he lies, go forth before he dies..."

My eyes widen, and I shake my head, "I am no hero, no savior of the night, my spirit is no longer gold, and my heart filled with fright. Find another maiden who's bold, for this king is not in my hands, and will otherwise wither in the cold, and be one with these lands."

I pull away from the tree and turn to my left to scurry up the path to my shelter before the trees can get to me. But even as I run away, the lingering majic in my ear picks up on the whispered words.

"For years you hide, the poison of you heritage inside, but soon the search will end, and hopefully you are prepared for what they send..."

I try to ignore the trees as the whisper to me, trying to get me to see reason, but I won't.

I can't.

I'm not going back, I won't risk what I have, what I have made for myself for some lost king.

Not today.

~•~

"Damn it!"

How can there be no game? We live in a forest, for God's sake! Yet there is nothing, no deer, no mountain lions, no rabbits?

And then that bullshit about the horses.

"Sorry, the shipment got lost at sea..."

Lost at sea? The horses were from the town over, not the country over! Lost at sea my ass!

I shake my head as I make it up the incline, and just as I turn left, I see something further down the path. My nose catches the smell of blood, and a grin splits across my face.

A mountain lion...

I drop my empty basket and decide to investigate. I slip over there by way of root hopping, and when I get close enough, I see it's coat soaked in it's own blood.

Meat pie, hear I come...

I let a little bit of majic snake into my ear, and hear shallow, inconsistent breaths.

It must be my lucky day, because it's not dead, buts its unconscious.

Fresh meat!

I scuttle up to the pour thing, squat near it's head and since my senses are dulled, I allow my eyes some majic as well to see it's face-

"s**t!"

I jump back as the face of a man is revealed to me.

"This is him isn't it? The old king?"

"He survives from sheer will, but take him now, before he becomes deathly ill..."

"I'm not taking him anywhere! Men aren't allowed at the sanctuary anyways."

"If he dies on your hand, your sure to be found, and then your release will not be given, not next time round..."

"Black mail, that's what I call this!"

I give the trees around me a hard glare, before looking down at the man.

I barely saw his face, but I know I hate him already...

"He's freaking huge, what is he, a Giant?"

The trees say nothing this time, and I sigh and reach for him. The thing I had mistaken as a coat was actually a stolen pelt from some pour mountain lion, and by the bloody state of it, the animal didn't go down without a fight.

I squat down and hook my arms under what I could see of his pits, and lifted with my legs.

If only I could take my true form, it's been to long, and I have grown weak...

I ignore my thoughts, and begin dragging him down the path towards the sanctuary. Groans from the trees tickle my ears as the shift their roots out of my way.

"Thanks guys, y'all are so helpful."

They ignore my sarcasm, and I ignore them in favor of dragging the dead weight on my shoulders. I have his arms over my shoulders, and since he is taller than me by two too three feet, his knees are almost touching the ground.

I struggle a little more until the sanctuary comes into sight, and decide its better if people don't find out. I go off the direct path and into the trees, round the main house, and avoid some of the connecting cottages.

My part of the neat work is at the back, making it the farthest and the biggest. But my house is also the kitchen, the dinning room, and the stables for the horses. All the kitchen stuff is in the front, cut off by a sound proof wall, and the stables are on the left, looking almost like a garage. Connecting my house to the rest is a hallway adorned with almost floor to ceiling windows, and can only be accessed when in one of the houses. All the women of the sanctuary go through the main house in order to get to there own, me being the only exception.

My home, because of all the things I'm in charge of, was gifted with a back door so I can leave early in the morning without disturbing anyone.

That's the door I slip through now, and struggle to pull the man through. The door leads into my living room, which is vast and has high ceilings. I drag the man over to my couch, this huge blood red monstrosity that I have grown to love. The couch can hold up to ten people, yet the man takes up all but on cushion.

I leave him and go to my connecting kitchen, we're I have a closet full of snacks and blankets. I take out three of them and toss them on top of the man, then set a glass of water and a pack of Cheez-Its down next to him, and pause to stare at him.

His hair, a long main of white silk, is flopped over his face. I reach down to remove it, but then pull back.

"This can wait, you can wait, until tomorrow."

I leave him there and go upstairs to take a nap, I need some z's before I have to cook breakfast for everyone in the morning.