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I sat in the chair, feeling my weight cause the wood to whine underneath me. She scurried to her kitchen, pulled out a small shoebox, and walked over to me. The plants she pulled out made me cringe.
I should have brought bandages with me. Though being blindsided with a potential reunion with Deidamia had consumed me. My thoughts weren’t what they usually were.
She tore a piece of shaved bark with her teeth and began to clean my wound. She kept herself busy, her gaze glued to my wrist while she began to put raw honey on the teeth marks. “He got you good,” she whispered to herself. “I probably need to warn the others. We’ve had our share of attacks over the years, but it’s been a while.”
“This one’s pride is hurt. I doubt he’ll come back anytime soon.”
“What brings you here?” she asked, sticking the bark to my skin.
“I’m looking for someone. I’m a bounty hunter.”
She lifted a brow at me. “That’s nasty work. Who are you looking for?”
“Someone’s daughter, Josephine.”
She nodded. “There you go.”
I stood slowly in an attempt not to frighten her. “I’ll be on my way. Thank you.” I walked toward the door, stopping with my palm on the doorframe, and I looked over my shoulder. “I do have one question for you, ma’am.”
“What’s that?”
“Do you happen to know where I can find Deidamia?”
She stalled in the kitchen, her face grew pale, and her eyes shifted toward the creaky wooden floor. “Why—why do you need her?” she whispered as if to hide the conversation. “I don’t suggest looking for her.”
“If only,” I mumbled. “She took my bounty.”
Turning toward the kitchen, she began to straighten random things on the table. “Then you should just go home, sir. You won’t be getting Josephine back.”
I furrowed my brow. “I didn’t ask that. I asked where I could find her. Do you know?”
She shook her head and closed her eyes. “Please leave, and do not speak her name again in this town. It’ll bring bad omens to us, and we’re hardly surviving as is.”
When she left the room, I knew I wasn’t getting any more out of her. I turned and stepped out onto the porch. The little girl sat on a rocking chair in the corner, humming while she played with a small makeshift doll on her lap.
She looked over. “Deidamia is a witch. She’s not nice.”
“You know where she lives?”
“Hannah!” the woman inside the cabin yelled. “Go on home now, girl.”
Hannah looked at me as if she wanted to say something.
“I’ll get your, Daddy! Now!”
Hannah did as she was told and hurried off the porch toward her house. Sighing, I swiped my palm down my face, wiping away the sweat, and found my way out of the village.
With the village behind me, I glanced at my wrist which looked better than it had from the honey. The nearest village appeared to be miles away from the road that connected them.
I needed a shower and a bed. Perhaps I would run across a hostel and find somewhere I could rest my head.
A deep forest lined both sides of the curved gravel road, and it didn’t look inviting.
There was a darkness that settled in the depths of it. It was as if the sun didn’t dare shine on such a place. The feeling of being watched loomed over me.
Not that I could see well enough to know if someone watched me or if it was the thought of Deidamia nearby that had me on edge.
I swallowed the pain throbbing in my throat and tightened my good hand into a fist.
