6

Waiting for the sun to come up. But the sky remained dark and cloudy, no sign of the sun.

'Of course,' she thought bitterly, sighing softly and shaking her head as she turned around and continued to walk, wiping the remaining tears off her face before they could smear across her skin.

~0~0~0~

The next day, shortly after sunrise, was when the young woman finally decided that it was time to do something to make up for her mistake, and as it was the weekend, the knights usually left their armour here during the days, meaning that there were no guards to be found patrolling the castle grounds as usual. She quickly sneaked outside of the castle walls as quietly as she could and quickly made her way to the forest where she hid her belongings. Then she began walking in the direction of the river, wanting to try her luck by going out in the open. When she saw the bridge, however, she quickly stepped back and crouched behind a huge bush. She slowly inched towards it and peeked her head out. Nobody. That was good. Still holding on tightly to the bag in her hand, she darted forward through the woods and eventually came up to the bridge and started to cross it, keeping her head low.

The minute she crossed the bridge, however, she instantly froze. A small part of her was worried, afraid that the knight would appear any second, but the other part of her knew that that was unlikely and that she would have been able to notice him if he had been hiding in the bushes around the river. She looked up. The sun was shining, but it still wasn't as bright and strong as it used to be, and so it seemed to hang above the horizon in a murky orange colour, as if everything was covered in an invisible layer of mist. It was raining lightly, so the water on the ground appeared to shimmer rather than shine and reflected a soft white glow in the air. The wind blew gently, making a light rustling sound that made her frown. Was this wind supposed to blow through the trees or the leaves? Or was it simply just natural wind blowing through the branches? Suddenly she heard footsteps approaching her. She quickly pushed herself into the thick foliage and peered cautiously through the leaves and branches in search of whoever it was, cursing herself quietly for not paying closer attention to what had been passing around while she had been looking for food the previous evening. But even as she listened intently for signs of movement, nothing was there aside from the constant rustling sound, causing her to feel a slight sense of relief. If they were really there then they must be nearby. Hopefully she wasn't being spied on by somebody that she didn't even know; the last thing she wanted right now was to end up in trouble again for having stolen the knight's armour.

It took her a while for the figure to actually show themselves. She sat there in silence, listening carefully to see whether any movement would result in them being discovered, but none of those movements did. The person eventually arrived, stepping up onto the edge of the bridge just slightly. She could faintly hear the faint sound of running water behind her and she flinched slightly, wondering who the person could possibly be in order to be able to cross without any problems. Even still she held her breath as the person got closer to the center of the bridge and turned around to take in the view of the land spread out around the bank. It was difficult to see exactly what they were seeing, since their back was facing her and the sunlight blocked most of their vision, but the person's features were easy enough to recognise. She recognized the tall and lean frame immediately, although her memory was hazy from the amount of times she had seen him, the familiar black hood covering most of his head giving him away. He walked along the top of the bridge slowly, turning every now and again to glance at the landscape, seemingly fascinated.

"Hello?"

Her voice rang out into the silence surrounding her, although she kept her head low, hiding behind the branch. There was silence for a moment before a faint voice replied back to her, "What is your name?"

She didn't dare speak for a few moments, instead choosing to remain silent. She wondered if he had even heard her words, or if he just pretended not to. After a few more seconds, the person spoke again:

"Why are you alone here, child? Where did you come from? Where are your parents?"

His voice echoed through the air and sounded surprisingly warm and gentle. Almost like a father trying to make sure that his daughter isn't lonely after coming out of her room after midnight.

'That can't be right. Why should I trust a stranger so much when I haven't met them before?'

But as soon as she realized what those questions meant.