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But what about the forest witch?
The men had said it themselves; she was powerful enough to break the curse. And though the men felt a duty to protect the village from the dark force and didn’t want to curse any others to become wolves, I truly believed that something could be done. There had to be another way to fight off the dark force. If the forest witch was so powerful, then why couldn’t she destroy the dark force herself?
Knowing I would surely suffer the consequences when the men woke from their slumber to find me gone again, I decided it was a sacrifice I was willing to make.
Tiptoeing out of the cave, I took off at a sprint the minute I was a few yards away. If the men did wake up, I wanted to be far gone. I was fairly certain I knew where the waterfalls the men spoke of were, and finding a glen would be easy enough once there. If I ran quick enough, I would surely be there before dawn. And hopefully, my fast running would keep the dark force at bay. But even if I were to perish by the dark force, at least I would have died trying to protect the men I had grown to…love.
It was harder to navigate through the forest without the full morning light to guide the way. I stopped occasionally to listen for any sound of immense running water. I felt that the waterfalls would be easy to find on sound alone.
After running for awhile, feeling uncertain I was even running in the right direction, I paused to catch my breath. I remained as still as I could, straining to hear if there was any sign of a waterfall nearby. The sound of movement in the distance had me turning to see what had caused it. The dark force. The dark force had found me and would finish off what it had intended to do to begin with. Only this time, it wouldn’t be weak from recently losing a battle with the wolves. I closed my eyes and waited for the stench and the hissing sound to commence, but was surprised when I heard something entirely different.
“She’s over here,” a voice called out. “I see her over here.” Rood emerged from the forest with fury in his eyes.
The rest of the men quickly joined him with just as much anger sizzling around them. For a moment, I actually wished for the dark force. At least then, my pain would be quick. By the looks of these men, mercy was not in my future.
“What part of do not leave the den do you not understand?” Grimm hissed between clenched teeth.
Each man walked slowly toward me, and for a split second, I considered running. The fact that I knew they would catch me if I even tried, and that it would only make my situation worse, kept my feet rooted in place.
“I’m sorry,” I said as they all finally reached me and glared at me with such venom in their expressions. I hated seeing them all this mad. No, they were beyond mad. They were furious.
“You better have a good answer as to why you would leave us again, because I am doing everything I can to not whip off my belt and give you a real whipping you will never forget,” Canis said, his voice deepening with every syllable he spoke.
I opened my mouth to speak, but fear paralyzed my vocal chords.
“Speak!” Helm demanded, moving forward and taking hold of my arm and shaking me slightly. “What reason do you have for running off again into the woods while we slept? Why would you do such a thing?”
“Had I not taught you a lesson the first time?” Beo asked. “I obviously was not harsh enough to get my point across.”
“I…” Swallowing hard, and trying to not focus on any of their eyes, I stuttered out an excuse the best I could. “I…I left to find the…forest witch. I know you all said no, but you all have to understand that though you may have accepted your fates, I have not! I don’t want to give up. I don’t want you all to forever be cursed. Maybe you all can accept defeat, but I can’t!”
“It’s not admitting defeat,” Grimm shot back.
“But it is! You all claim to be mighty warriors, and you are when fighting the dark force. But you all have lost the battle with fate. Why can’t you fight with the same level of ferocity when it comes to you as you do when it comes to others?”
“We don’t expect you to understand,” Beo said. “But we do expect obedience when we issue an order. A direct order.”
“But you can’t expect me to—”
“What we expect is to be obeyed,” Rood nearly growled out. “We expect submission. Especially when your life is at stake.”
