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Tallin moved up beside me. “Ready when you are, Princess.”
I looked down at him. “Amara,” I said.
He frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“I don’t want you to call me Princess anymore. I’m just Amara… okay?”
The look on his face was one of someone who felt like they had just been scolded. “I’m sorry. I’ll endeavor to do that.”
“No, no. Tallin… you aren’t my subject, or my keeper, or my babysitter. You’re my friend, and I want you to leave thePrincessstuff behind. That’s all.”
“Oh…” he said, nodding. “Alright…Amara.”
I smiled at him. “You have said my name hundreds of times. Don’t make it weird now.”
“Right. Yes.” He started hopping toward the trail leading to the Moon Children’s village. “Shall we?”
I walked up to him, gave him a grin, and then started to run along the trail. Tallin, startled, lagged behind for just a moment, but he caught up quick enough. Together we ran, following the trail that led away from the castle and into the Winter Kingdom’s frozen country.
With the moon high in the sky, and only the stars for company, we made our way up and over the first couple of hills. We left Windhelm behind after only a short while of running, but the city’s halo remained for a while longer, illuminating the night sky around it.
When Windhelm was finally out of sight, I knew, we were in the wilds.
I had never been out this far by myself before. Though I followed the road, there was still something incredibly exciting about this. The rush of enjoyment I got out of running through the night, my paws touching stone, and snow, and soil they had never touched before was a thrill like no other.
It wasn’t until I saw the edge of the forest up in the distance that I felt the first pang of guilt stab me in the stomach. I had fled my home, my comfort, my family. My mother would be furious, my father would be silently annoyed, but neither of them would be worried about me. Not really.
Though I had only come into my heritage recently, they both knew I could handle myself. They knew as well as I did that I was born to be out here, amidst the trees, and the frozen flowers, and the wildlife. All my life I’d had the explorer’s spirit. All I wanted to do was discover, and experience, and push the boundaries of what I knew.
I wanted to grow.
To thrive.
I knew I couldn’t do that from Windhelm.
Maybe now that I had done this, now that I had taken a solid step in the direction that I wanted to go… my parents would take me seriously. It was a flimsy hope, sure, but this was the first time I had fled the city itself and made my way into the wilds. If this didn’t make them re-think their priorities, then nothing would.
Hours had passed since the moment we left Windhelm, to the moment we entered the Forest of the Moon. Here, the trail narrowed, the ambient light darkened, and the trees encroached all around us. They were tall, thick, and dark trees, their tops capped with snow and frost. Between them,thingsmoved, lurked, stalked.
Tallin had been right.
This was a dangerous place. There were creatures out here, indigenous creatures like the Vrren—dog-like animals that ran on four long, gangly legs. They were all cartilage, muscle, and bone, they had no fur on their bodies, and each was likely as big as I was. I had never come across one before, but I knew they were thesecondmost dangerous predator in these woods, and I would be an idiot not to respect that.
Our pace slowed as we moved deeper into the woods. The edge of the forest had marked the halfway point between Windhelm and the Moon Children’s village, but that wasn’t because the forest was horrifically long. It was because you couldn’t help but slow down as you progressed through it. This forest wasn’t meant to be rushed through. You had to be careful, deliberate, and attentive, or you’d become food for the Vrren.
Another couple of hours had passed since we left the frozen hills and mountains behind and had replaced them with thick, dark trees, and our pace had slowed from a run, to a prowl.
“Shouldn’t we pick things up a bit?” Tallin asked, a little fear in his voice.
“Not yet,” I whispered. “There’s a point up ahead where we’ll have to get off the road. That’s where we start to sprint.”
“Sprint?”
“You’re not tired, are you, Tallin?”
“I could do with a paw rub, and maybe something to eat.”
“We’re almost there.”
