Chapter four:

                         The Stranger. 

    I felt as the cold silver knife was cutting into my skin a little, as panic and alarm shot through me. 

    I tried to flail and struggle out of whoever was holding me but they were too strong. 

    They had pressed the knife onto my throat with so much force that I felt a little blood leaking out. I froze in place, hoping that I wouldn’t get cut anymore. 

    “Who are you?” came a whisper in my ear. It was cold and rugged. “Tell me! Who are you! Are you one of his guards?” 

    “W-who?” I asked in a choking and shaking voice. 

    “Kenric’s. Are you one of Kenric’s guards! Do you work for him?” came the reply, also came more pressing of the knife. 

    “No, I don’t. I don’t work for him, let me go!” I said, trying to get out of their grip. 

 “Then why were you dressed like one of them?” 

    “I was doing it so I could escape!” I yelled. I suddenly felt the grip loosen as they let me go. When they loosened their clutch, I took a gasp for air. I rubbed my neck. 

    I turned around to see who it was. I could not see their face as it was concealed by a mask, and a hood of a cloak above the mask. 

    “If you are telling the truth, then you are no use to me.” The stranger said, putting their knife inside their cloak. I just stared in bewilderment at the figure. 

    The cloaked person whipped around, and simply just walked away. 

    "Wait! C-come back!" I said, coming back to reality and realizing that they were walking away. 

The person did not answer, but instead continued walking. 

    "Who are you?" I questioned curiously. "Where are you going? Why are you wearing all that stuff?"

    I started asking many questions…until they suddenly turned around to face me. 

    “Go away!” Snapped the stranger angrily, then turned away to stalk away. But I kept following and kept asking questions. 

    Growing tired of listening, the cloaked person whipped around so fast, hit me with something and I fell unconscious. 

*    *    *

    I groaned as my head throbbed with pain. Wincing, I opened my eyes. 

    I had opened my eyes to see myself wrapped in ropes in the forest. It was now sundown as I saw the sky had turned into an orange color, with a hint of purple and blue. 

    I’m trapped again! I thought as I tried to struggle out of my restraints. By what I saw, I was strapped to a tree. 

    I looked around my surroundings seconds later, to see a small campfire, but it was almost out. I also saw a…horse?

    It was a big war horse, its hair was a pretty color of white with black

dots all over it. It reminded me of snow.

    I looked around but I could not find the person who knocked me unconscious. 

    Oh great. He left me here didn’t he? He left me here with a random horse who’s going to eat me! I thought. 

    I stared at the horse for a while, waiting until it got hungry, or decided to leave. I noticed that it had a saddle on it, and noticed that it was freaked out about something. It had started whinnying. 

    Had it gotten lost from its owner…? 

    That’s when I heard some bushes rustling. I froze, wondering what it was. 

    The stranger who knocked me out earlier came walking through, wood logs in the crook of his arm, his cape following from behind. He still had his hood on, same with his mask. 

    They had simply just ignored me, went to the fire, sat on their knees and started tending to the fire. 

    They got up after, then went up to the horse and stroked its mane until

it calmed a little.

    “See that you're finally awake.” they said suddenly, not facing me. 

    “Yes, I am. Who are you, and why did you tie me up?” I demanded. The stranger stayed where he was, and still not looking at me, he did not answer the first question but the second. 

    “I did not want you to run away and tell the others. And you were annoying me.” 

    “What do you mean ‘the others’?” 

    “Kenric’s guards. Kenric himself. I don’t want you running off and telling your boss or your little friends.” 

    “But, I’ve told you! I’m not part of that! I don’t work for Kenric!” I said desperately. 

    “Well, for all I know, you might be lying.” The stranger said calmly, finally turning their head to me so I could see their mask. 

    “I’m not lying though!” They stayed quiet, then said,

    “In case you are, I can’t let you go. I can’t risk it.” They then turned back to their horse, who was nickering. 

    “What if I can……what if I could prove it to you?” I asked. 

    “How would you do that?”

    “Look. I can understand why you don’t want to let me go. I might turn you over to the others. But I promise that I won’t, I was captured and put there. I just escaped.” I said. “So, you can trust me.” 

    The person turned onto me fully. “Wow, you are stupid aren’t you? You wouldn’t actually believe me to buy that? Do you? Nice try.” 

    I groaned. 

    “Isn’t there anyway?” 

    “You are annoying too. Perhaps I should just knock you out again…” he said, sitting next to the fire. 

    “So. . . this is your plan?” I asked, ignoring his threat. “Keep me here?” 

    “Yep.” he grunted, tending to the fire again. 

    “Will you at least tell me your name?” 

    “What part of no do you not get?” he asked. I rolled my eyes.

     “When did you even say no?” I muttered.

I need to get out of here somehow. But how…? That is the question

indeed. 

    The person got up to their feet, and started walking away. 

    “I will earn your trust somehow!” I called after them. They did not give a reply, but just walked away. 

                          Chapter five:

                         Earning trust. 

    “So, stranger, will you tell me now?” 

    “No.” Their reply was. I waited for a few minutes, then asked, 

    “Now?” 

    “No!” he snapped. I stared up at the sky, bored. Okay. Great. You got yourself trapped with this crazy guy…who won’t even talk to you! How to get out? How to gain his trust?

    I looked at the person who was sitting down on a log. 

    “I feel your gaze. The answer is still no.” he said before I could say anything.

     He had barely looked at me since I met him yesterday. Just went ahead and ignored me. But I kept calm otherwise, but on the other hand, this guy had a lot of tolerance. I was not breaking him with the more I talked, if so, I was just pushing him more away.

    “I wasn’t going to ask that. What are you doing?” 

They finally looked at me for the first time today, but only for a second, then looked down again. 

    “I’m fixing this saddle.” His answer and tone was cold. 

    “What happened?” I asked. 

    “Broken.” 

    “What do you mean?” 

    “I mean,” he said, sounding very irritated, “it broke.” 

    “How did it break?” 

    They had not said anything in an answer. I sighed. At least this is the most human contact I’ve had in the past year…I thought. 

    I opened my mouth to say something, but before I could say anything, they said, 

    “I promise, if you say anything again, I have no problem knocking you out right now,” he threatened. I just stayed silent. 

    “So……do you live alone?” I asked. I saw the strangers grip tighten around the saddle, they stayed quiet, but I could tell that they were angry. 

    “Do you have any family?” I asked. “If so, what are they like? Are they nice?” 

    The person shot up from where he was sitting, marched up to me, and stared at me. I returned their gaze. 

    They took out a big pinecone and stuffed it in my mouth, waited for a few seconds then said, 

    “That is much better.” Then walked away and started to fix his saddle again. 

    I spat out the pinecone, but this time, I didn’t speak. 

    “When will you let me out?” I asked. The stranger gave an exasperated sigh then he answered,

    “I have to wait until Emine returns, then I’ll untie you.” 

    “Who’s Emine?” 

    “Wow, everyone must have loved you from wherever you came from.” he said sharply and sarcastically. 

    “Who’s Emine, though?” I persisted. 

    “Em–” they started but then got interrupted by rustling. I looked to the

side, and saw an animal come out, and by the looks of it, it looked like a giant wolf. 

    “That’s Emine.” Answered the stranger, as the wolf padded over and the person scratched their ears with their gloved hands.

    “But–t-thats a wolf!” I exclaimed. 

    “Yeah? So?” They asked, still petting the wolf who was panting, and Emine turned their head to me with their amber eyes glowing.

    “Got a problem with that?” 

    “N-no. Just–uh…surprised me a little…” I said with a nervous laugh. The person got up, walked up to me, took out their dagger and cut the rope that was holding me. 

    “Okay. As promised, I’ll let you go. But I’ll have you know that if you are lying and even try to run away, then I will hunt you down and kill you. And Emine has your scent already.” They said coldly. 

    They had untied me and immediately took a cautious step back, knife still in hand. I got to my feet and stayed where I was. Emine gave a protective growl.

    “See, not running away.” I said. 

    “That doesn’t prove anything to me.” They scoffed, then went back to sit down. I gave a sigh of relief. 

    Don’t run away. Don’t run away…or else you will get killed, I said, gulping. Okay, now….again, how to earn his trust?

    I started to walk towards the forest, and seconds later, I heard Emines footsteps following behind me. 

    Okay. Time to find some food, I thought. I wandered the forest–not too far away from the campfire–and I eventually found berries around noon-ish.

     I grinned at my findings. I took about as much as I could carry, then started to head back to camp. 

    When I got back, the stranger lifted their head to look at me. “Where did you go?” 

    “I went to find food. And don’t worry. Your wolf here kept an eye on me,” I said, grinning, hoping that he would believe me. “I’ve got berries.” 

    “Really? I’ve searched the area. There was no food around like berries

in a fifty foot radius.” They pointed out as I was putting them down on the ground. 

    “I guess I got lucky.” I said. I picked one up and looked at it, but before I could put it in my mouth, the stranger took it. 

    “Hey! That was mine!” I fumed. 

    “Quite,” he ordered. “These are poisonous, you idiot.” 

    “They are?” 

    “Yes, of course, you can tell by the markings.” He sighed, “Just–don’t eat them.” 

    “But I’m hungry!” I complained. “I’ve not had any food since two days ago!” 

    “Don’t eat this, go find something else or starve.” The stranger said sharply, then he stepped on the berries, smashing them all, sending out the juice to ooze all over the ground and staining the grass.

    I stared in disbelief at the smashed berries on the ground, and at the stranger.

    “Fine,” I sighed. “I will find something else…” I walked away. 

    I walked the forest once again, searching for food. I was wondering how I would find food. Like they said, they didn't have any berries around here.  

    After a while of searching, I did find a river. I sat down, and drank some of its water. 

    I layed on the grass in the sun. I closed my eyes and relaxed a little while. 

    I looked at my hands which had a few scars on them. I looked over to see the sunlight bouncing off the surface of the water. I then saw a silhouette. I squinted my eyes and realized that it was a small doe.

    I stared at its pelt, and just looking at the animal reminded me of how hungry I actually was. Minutes later, I had an idea how to catch it. 

    I jumped to my feet, then carefully and stealthily sneaked over to a tree closest to the deer. Careful to not make any sound, I climbed the tree to the lowest branch. 

    I looked down from where I was standing, and saw the deer beneath me. 

I waited a few seconds, then made my move. 

    Gaining confidence, I jumped down from the tree, and once I felt myself upon the doe’s back, I wrapped my arms around its neck. 

    I felt as if the deer froze, then, realizing that I was on its back, it started to run away and into the forest. Almost flinging off, I gripped it tighter, refusing to let it go. 

    It ran, thrashed, tried to buck me off, and while doing so, I let out yelps. I had tried to choke it, but I couldn’t get the right angle on it. The doe gave a snort. 

    It was sundown when I returned to the campfire. 

    “I’m back,” I said tiredly, dragging the doe from behind me. Once I made it, I left the deer next to the campfire.

    “And I’ve got something edible.”

    “Where did you go?” asked the stranger, who got up from the log which he was sitting on. 

    “I caught a deer.” I said, feeling exhausted, my head spinning. 

    “You’ve caught a deer?” They asked. 

    “Yep.” I nodded, grinning. “And all by myself.” 

    They had come over and examined it. “Not bad. How did you manage to do it?” 

    “Strangled it,” I said. “Took all after-noon. But I caught it otherwise.”

    There was no reply as they went to sit back down. I didn’t care, I grinned feeling warm with happiness. I sat on the ground, looking at the prey that I'd caught. 

    I heard swishing as a knife cover landed next to me. I looked up at the person and they said, “You can cut it. You’ve hunted that thing, you deserve it.” 

    I had a wide smile upon my face as I took the knife. 

    “So. . .uh–what happened with the saddle, exactly?” I asked, thinking that it was a good idea to ask an easier question. 

    “Broke it a couple days ago…” They answered. 

    “What’s your horse's name?” 

    “Bylur.” They answered shortly, and after they did, the horse nickered in

response to his name. 

    By the time I cooked the tender meat of deer on the stick, the person had finally finished their saddle and they put it on Bylur, and by the time we both were done, it was already nightfall.

    I stared at the smoldering embers of the fire, watching as I was slowly finishing the meat, getting lost in my thoughts. 

    Once it was all the way done, I looked up and said, “hey. Want some food?” 

    “No. . . that’s fine.” They denied, shaking their head. 

    “Are you sure? I’ve got plenty here. So much, I’ve got much as a whole deer. And I haven’t seen you eat all day.”

I took the stick of meat, and handed it to them.

    “Eat.” I ordered in the same tone they had used on me earlier. 

    The stranger had taken it with hesitance and quickly, once they had, they muttered something which I thought was a thanks. 

    I took my own stick of meat, stared at it, smelled it, then sank my teeth into it.

    It tasted better than I could have imagined.

                                     Chapter six:

                    Magic unbound.

It had been a few days since I was taken captive by the person–of which I haven’t gotten the name of yet–and being captive I mean that they would not let me out of their sight or not let me go anywhere without their wolf following me wherever I went. 

    I felt like I was earning their trust…slowly. Very slowly, they were still cold and distant from me, but they would answer my questions from time to time. 

    I lay on the ground, hands behind my head, watching the twilight sky up above. 

    Every star up above shine so brightly that it amazes me. Emine layed next to me, keeping watch, resting his head on his paws. The wolf whimpered, looking at me with begging eyes. 

    “Fine. Here.” I said, tossing the stick to him which had leftover meat on , sounding exasperated.