The Girl in the Woods

Chapter 14

The morning breeze awakened everyone in the realm, the sun rose and gave brightness to the entire world full of strange things that happened recently, the birds are chirping, sending melodious music to everyone. Helga and the knights are sitting at their wooden tables outside of their hut. Silence engulfs them but hugging their bodies as the cold morning breeze touches their skin. Gwyndolyn is dozing off while sitting with her crossed legs on top of the table, the chin is resting on her palms. The knights are sitting motionless like a statue. They didn't have enough sleep because of the happenings from last night. They thought they were ready to face the truth, but they were the ones who got shocked when they witnessed the girl they raised shift into a different creature.

When the dusk started to spread its hue a day before, they were aware of things that might happen to Suranne. They keep an eye on her and even try to help when she complains of being uncomfortable and thinks of having a high fever. And when the moon rises and dominates the darkness of the night, the shifting happens and they witness it with their naked eyes. They were shocked though they expected it to come to pass.

Gwyndolyn's snore made them back to their senses. Frio stretched his arms but covered his mouth when he started yawning. Orlando just move his ass and turned to look at Kitler. Helga just sat next to Gwyndolyn, still speechless. Regardless, they cannot just sit and wait for her. They have to make their actions to know the consequences and to know if they will have problems in the future after what happened to Suranne.

“Kitler, go and gather some information outside. I am sure that people are discussing what happened last night,” Frio said. He wanted to know if it sent a disturbance to everyone outside of the woods. Suranne created an extraordinary loudness of howling and growls when she shifted to her wolf form for the first time. He wanted to know the impact of her changes on the people. He knows what happened in the past and knowing the reaction of the people might be a big help for them to protect her.

“I will, Frio,” Kitler replied.

“Mother fairy, are you going to remove the barrier now?” Gwyndolyn suddenly asked.

“No! Not yet!” Helga responds, directly.

“We need to protect her, twice as much as before. Werewolves are considered a beast by humans and when they know that Suranne is one of them, she will be in danger. They will take her life like what people did to some of her ancestors from a long time ago,” Frio explained. Gwyndolyn fluttered her eyes, not able to absorb quickly what the knight had said.

However, they aren't sure yet if she's coming back, now that she knows her identity, and may choose to stay in her pack. Frio had decided and promised to King Hodus that he will protect her daughter up to the last breath of his life. Whatever Suranne will decide, he will respect it but he will make sure that Suranne will fulfill the wishes of her father. Frio and the other knight with Helga promised to guide her to restore the Kingdom that lost its power that was once known to the entire realm.

“I wish she will come back,” Gwyndolyn murmured. “I miss her.”

“Let's just wait. She will come back. She won't forget that easily,” Helga said, who heard her murmurs. Gwyndolyn heaves a sigh.

They waited for Suranne to come back that day, but she didn't. They don't know that she is suffering from her first shift. Kitler went out of the woods as per Frio's command to observe the villagers and to do his usual tasks.

A day passed and turned to dusk, darkness slowly dominating the entire realm. People are going back to their homes and family from the event of earning a living.

Kitler is on his steed galloping back to the woods bringing the news he gathered from his surveillance outside. A mix of worries and inclination to increase his concern and protection to Suranne is running in his mind while he is heading back to the woods.

When he crossed the barrier, he immediately jumped off his horse, and at his fast pace, he headed to their hut where everyone was waiting for him.

“Frio, a nark told me that the Queen appointed Moki to find the King's daughter,” Kitler said after he arrived at their hut.

“Do they have an idea where to find her? I mean us?” Frio asked. His brows knitted. The Queen won't appoint Moki if they don't have an idea about their whereabouts.

Kitler heaves a sigh. “According to the nark, there is a mysterious girl who shows her power at Lakeside village, but they are not sure if it's just a trick or inborn skills. She is with the guy and there is a rumor that they collaborated to entertain the residents in that village and they often see the girl with that guy. Some say the guy is the Prince of Assimont,” Kitler narrated the information that he got from the nark.

Frio was taken aback and held his chest because he was attacked with nervousness when Kitler talked about a girl and out of a sudden, Suranne came into his mind. He shakes his head.

“That's impossible!” He said suddenly and hit the wooden table simultaneously that made Kitler and Orlando slightly jolted.

“What is it?” Orlando asked out of curiosity.

“How often did you notice that Her Highness is not with us?” Frio asked them as he remembered how Suranne is often missing.

Orlando and Kitler fell into silence thinking about those incidents that they can't find Suranne around nor helping them in their small farm.

“If I'm not mistaken, she has been missing recently. Maybe after that, I always saw her in a daze,” Orlando said after a few minutes of silence.

“We're quite busy on the farm and thinking about the full moon and her identity on how she will be able to handle everything that made us ignore the idea that she was missing,” Kitler added.

Frio heaves a sigh. If he is right in his thinking about Suranne going out of the woods, she will be in trouble or all of them will be in turmoil.

“I just wish that I am wrong with my perceptions,” Frio said and stood up from his seat and sauntered around them.

“Why?” Hitler and Orlando asked in unison still, didn't get to understand what Frio was talking about.

“That girl is probably Her Highness,” he asserted to them.

Again, they fell into a deep thought not aware that someone is peeping them from behind the bush.

“Suranne, come back I'm in trouble,” Gwyndolyn is lurking from behind the bush. She is about to go to their hut when she hears the knight's discussion accidentally. She surely knows that Helga will investigate her if ever the knights will tell her.

“I will face the consequences of my actions if mother fairy will know,” Gwyndolyn mumbled and waited for the knights to get inside their hut before she decided to come out from hiding.

The knights continued discussing inside their hut. Kitler told everything the nark had told him, not even single news he missed to convey the information that he gathered. Even the information about the Prince of Assimont's journey to find the reason for the previous night's disturbance didn't escape from him.

“As for me, I think we need to talk about it to Helga tomorrow. We have to think and discuss our plans with her, and might need us to communicate with Her Highness and her pack if we need to,” Orlando said. After they heard all the news and discussed it, he came out with the idea of better communication with the parties.

“I doubt it, Orlando. What I mean is about her pack. Do you think they will trust us?” Frio said doubtedly. The events from the past are the reasons why he apparently cannot decide due to the trust issues from the side of the pack. They raised Suranne evidently, but no one from the pack visited her or communicated with them either. That is indeed a big reason that the pack doesn't want to be attached to pure humans like them, but he cannot blame them. The destruction that humans did against their pack from the previous times and cost the lives of some members of their race will be a big reason for not to coordinate with them.

“We can try. Let's show them and make them feel that we are different from those who are trying to destroy their lives. Raising Her Highness will make them believe us,” Orlando expressed his opinion.

Frio and Kitler agree. Orlando is right, they are different because they sacrifice their lives and struggles to raise the sole descendant of the King, and maybe their only hope for possible unity in the future.