Crossroads of Two Fates

*WARNING: Gore. Violence.*

A terrible roar echoed through the forest, making the ginger haired dwarf with her hands clasped in prayer shudder. She quickly broke from her trance and hid against the bark of the ancient tree, her eyes wondering the darkness for movement that never came. She tried to silence her breathing, standing motionless under the cover of the shadows.

Growl!

Once she strained her ears to hear, she could make out the sound of growling in the distance, the patter of paws scampering against the snow. They were close enough to worry about, but too far away to see.

Her fingers latched onto the copper brooch at her chest, her eyes drifting up to the many tiny strips of cloth wrapped about the old tree's branches. She mentally prayed that her ancestors here would keep her safe right now.

Her body trembling, she slowly turned to place her back against the tree, slipping down to the snow between two large roots.

"Haaah." Gretta caught her subconscious exhale to a quick end, listening for the sounds of snarling wolves who still seemed preoccupied a little distance away. Were they getting closer, or was it just her imagination?

Going out alone was a really stupid decision, on her end. Tears dropped down her cheeks that she kept having to wipe away. She was scared. She'd never come this far into the woods alone, before. Every now and then, she could hear a particularly terrifying growl, and she kept her hands clasped over her mouth as an added layer of protection for when the occasional squeak would escape her consciousness.

The growling in the distance was mixed with the audible crunching of snow. There was something going on beyond the darkness of the trees, but the sound was just far enough away she might be able to quickly slip away. Her chocolate brown eyes peeked over the roots of the tree.

Snarl!! Roar, roar!

It was far enough away she would be okay. Her body was frozen in fear, but she willed it back up to her feet, shoulders trembling, gripping the basket in her hands tightly. Her body was still only inches away from the tree, hidden safely within its shadow. If she moved and there was a gap in the foliage, they would be able to see.

Crunch...crunch...

The dwarf's heart pounded in her chest as she stepped as silently as she could. Could they hear the sound of her footsteps from there? They sounded like the loudest things in the world, from here. But maybe they were moving too much, themselves, for the noise to reach their ears.

Gretta looked around, trembling. If she stepped slowly as she was, she'd probably catch their attention. Her best bet was to match their hurried scraping, to match the sound of her snow crunching to theirs, without hitting a branch or something that would distinguish the location of her noise apart from theirs. But her body felt like it was made of ice. She needed to go, but she was too terrified to move.

Her messy ginger hair flounced from beneath her veil as she looked back and forth between the path ahead and the tree. She could just retreat back into the roots and wait it out. She could, but the longer she remained here the more likely it was that she'd be found out. She could feel her small heart thumping quickly in terror, within her chest, searching for the right answer, feeling the terror of the worst consequences before she even took the wrong action.

'Scream!'

Pat, her basket slipped from her fingers and toppled onto the ground.

Gretta's head snapped towards the trees, eyes searching just beyond the shadows, where the wolves were. Her body rocked slightly, forced to take a step back to keep balance. She'd heard a person's voice from among the wolves, but it couldn't be. It must have been a mistake.

"SCream!"

Then she heard it again. There was no mistaking it, a high pitched voice hollering in pain just beyond the darkness, among the growling and the snapping of wolves' maws, in the territory of fairies. Her back went cold with shivers. Her hands clasped over her ears. She didn't want to hear it! Her mind tried to wonder into the correlation between the snarls and the screaming, but the blocked it away. It could just be a mistake. It could just be her mind playing tricks on her. She could ignore it. She could ignore it, and even if something turned up the next day, she couldn't be sure if she head it. It could be under the intent of fairies, and just crossing paths with one of them could mark the end of a very mortal dwarf. It wasn't like she it was a reasonable thing to expect her to go after what could possibly be the doing of one of the forest's rulers. She could very much end up dead.

Her head was subconsciously falling to face the snow. Her eyes flickered downwards to the shawl wrapped around her waist as they moved downwards, that bright section of red, and stopped there. Her eyes widened, held there as though by some immediate force, anger building up as her small fists as her pupils contracted.

The ginger's head snapped up. Her body suddenly sprinted into motion, running towards the trees, racing towards whatever stood on the other side.

She couldn't really process that she was doing it. She was acting off her chaotic emotions, and any sane part of her mind would have told her to run away. But her boots kept coming down upon the snow one after the other, her fists buckled into balls as she raced towards the source of the scream. But someone was also there. Someone was on the other side of those trees, surrounded by wolves.

Would she be able to fall asleep in her empty family's house, to the darkness and the sound of wind hollering outside, with the knowledge she'd clasped her hands over her ears to let someone else die?

Even if that person was being hunted by the fae. Anger overflowed in hot tears from within her chest, not despite, but alongside the fear. Especially if that person was being hunted by the fae.

***

(Authors note: This scene is a direct continuation of the last chapter. It happens at the same time as Gretta's POV above.)

"AAAAA!!"

Sonata screamed at the pain that followed trying to wrench her arm back. It was too far buried into the beasts's mouth. She wasn't even sure how badly its fangs had cut into it, but she kicked the leg stationed at it's collarbone again, prying her arm away with all her power, letting out another scream of pain.

She couldn't, she really couldn't. Her arm was surely broken, she couldn't her her claws burying into the inside of the beast's mouth anymore. Her body shook against the snow, clusters that weren't sobs but came out in the same reflex as laughter shook her every breath. She was stuck.

Mamà—Help...Mamà.

Papà. Help! Sophia...Someone. It hurts.

Help. Me.

TEAR— She flinched into the snow as the wolf jerked her body up a few inches off the snow. It felt like her arm was being ripped off. But it was the only thing holding the head of the beast away from her body, and she couldn't just tune it out. Her finger hooked into a small root just within her field of sight as her body moved to flail, fighting off the force, doubling down on the power she was putting into her leg to hold the main wolf away, so it couldn't get any closer to her.

"AAAaAA!" She screamed. But no one was coming. She was truly and completely abandoned to this empty forest.

Her breath croaked back sobs as she stared up at the base of the tree that was so close. She didn't dare look back towards the wolves she blindly kicked and turned her body away from them, mentally edging the line of spikes that went down her dragon form's back to protect her. Still, they were relentless. She could feel the scratches of their heavy paws, trying to turn her over, the one that tried to bite her hip when it couldn't get her arms or legs, which she quickly elbowed away with a force that would have driven any normal animal away, willing a spike to emerge from her arm to land harsher blows on her assailants. But it hurt. It all hurt in addition to her arm, that could have been buried in hellfire itself. It was a constant onslaught of teeth and claws that felt like they would never end. This was Hell. This was all just a relentless Hell, and there was no way for her to get out.

Help...I don't want to die.

Someone help, please, I don't want to die here alone. I just don't want to die alone.

Sonata could vaguely make out the sensations of her body deflecting hits to keep the wolves to keep them away, her free leg kicking angrily. Her mind was a blur of on and off sensations, there were chunks of time where she hadn't realized her eyes were closed.

The wolf with her arm bit down hard and lurched her backwards, lifting her body slightly off the snow. She couldn't prepare herself for the blow. Why was it so strong, there was no way it could be this strong.

Snap—She screamed, burying her head into the snow in pain. She was sure she'd lost her arm. The pressure of the wolf's maw against her arm was gone, but the pain was worse than before. She dragon's body shuddered like a seizure, unable to cope with the torment, her head dragging itself self back and forth against the disheveled ground, her fingers digging into the dirt to tear at it. Her voice came out as silence, she screamed.

She scratched a deep line against the dirt, her fingers burying into her chest, raking spasmicly as her body shook, her wide eyes staring through the ground, unable to tune out the pain.

Sonata gnashed her teeth together, backing her head harshly against the snow. She could feel it scrape against a small wooden root, a dull throb in her torment, but she barely had control over it anymore. Make it stop. Something, make it stop.

She could feel herself holding the wolf at bay with her leg, she could feel it quiver, the strength she had in her limb quickly spilling away. She pulled her free arm up to cover her face.

Help. Help. Help. Help. Help.

I'm going to die. At this rate, I'm going to die. Sonata considered returning to her dragon form, since hope of climbing was so far gone, but with that she had limited mobility, and a bigger body just meant bigger places to get bitten. It was hard to think straight. It hurt too much. Her fingernail traced the corner of her ear, inches away from her neck, expanding and contracting to accommodate her labored breaths. Maybe it would just be better to die quickly, a dark thought crossed her mind.

SHHHHHHHHHWICK TST

SHHHHWICK TST

The ground trembled slightly, and she heard sounds like swords cutting through the air.

The dragon forced her eyes open, straining her trembling body to see. The wolves on the ground were whimpering, backing away, they turned to run. The one that had taken her arm, that had been so close to reaching the rest of her body, was elevated a dozen feet above the ground, chest impaled by a giant spike of silvery ore. The dragon's eyes widened, her breath caught in her throat as the sight dawned on her. Two of her assailants were bleeding, flung several feet off the ground and impaled by metal thorns, one of them just inches from where her toes were. They struggled for a few moments but they couldn't get free, and she watched them die. Their skin withered off and disappeared like the black ashes she'd seen before, and this time for whatever reason they didn't come back.

Sonata pulled her feet back, scuffling backwards, gasping as she hugged her bleeding arm to her body. She tried to hold back her sobs enough to dry the tears from her eyes. She couldn't make out what was going on more than a few feet away from her, but she could hear crunches in the snow. Whatever else has taken down the wolves, she was too scared to find out.

Crunch...Crunch... They stopped.

Sonata pressed her body against the bark of the tree, her teary eyes wide as she craned her injured body away pulling her legs up to her further away. She rasped to keep her crying inside, her long, semi translucent white hair sitting like a cloth that had been pulled from the place towards the noise where she'd been standing, as though to shield her. Beneath it, the whites of her eyes were red from crying, her face flushed from tears.

Crunch.

"M—"

Sonata jolted, scampering to pull her legs even closer in, shielding her injured arm she could hear bleeding profusely out, she could feel horribly severed at the elbow.

Crunch, another hesitant step. The dragon flickered her head in its direction and hissed, her back arching slightly like that of a cat, but she couldn't even see what was approaching her, let alone make out if her warning had made any effect. She was crying too much. The wolves were gone now. But the pain didn't subdue, and the knowledge of how badly she was injured didn't settle the fear running of death that was loose.

So why did she faintly hear the sound of sniffling?

***

Gretta stared wide eyed at the scene before her, a small girl, probably a little taller than her, but with a childishness about the structure of her jaw and the thickness about her wrists and ankles that told her she was still a bit younger than the dwarf. And she was thirteen, so the girl before her really would have been just a child.

She had long, messy minty-white hair, if you were talking about actual mint, and her skin was pinkish with weird blotches here and there that were greenish and held the same multicolored metallic quality as beetle wings and the insides of muscle shells.

Her brightly colored eyes bore into her own, too green to be a human's, though her ears held none of the point about them that fairies and dwarves did, and she was too solid to be a spirit. More importantly, her body was dirty as though she'd been rolling about the forest ground and hadn't bathed in weeks. Her clothes consisted of just a simple green gown, flayed by the arms and torso where the wolves had attacked, and long stained past the point of saving before being dampened with blood. Blood. There was a lot of blood.

It wasn't too hard to see from the slump of her sleeve that she'd lost a good portion of her thin arm.

"You're hurt," her voice broke. The dwarf stated the obvious, breaking her eyes away from the child to search for a basked that was no longer in her hands. "...ah-" she unpinned her veil, unwrapping the thin placeholder cloth beneath it that she'd wrapped around her head. She needed something to put pressure on the wound, and this should do well enough for now.

Crunch, her feet moved forwards towards the girl.

"Hshhhhhhh!" Sonata hissed like a dying cat, which made the stranger stumble back a little, eyes wide. When she realized Sonata wasn't going to fight back any more than that, though, she slowly inched forwards again, her gut as bronzen as her fiery hair, apparently.

"Hisss!" It came out weaker, but it's owner didn't look particularly intimidating. She was trembling like Gretta was one of the wolves, tears teeming liberally out of her wide eyes.

"It's okay," the dwarf tried to soothe her fears, "I'm trying to help you."

The dragon remained where she was with her bleeding arm buried in the snow. That seemed reason enough for the dwarf to press forwards again, fearlessly reaching out and grabbing a hold of her lower shoulder, pulling the arm towards her.

The dragoness whimpered, minimally trying to pull it back, weakly thumping the dwarf's arm with her fist to make her let go.

"Stop being stubborn, you're hurt!"

Sonata's lungs heaved quickly in and out. The dwarf held the remaining stub of her arm in both her hands, a little tightly, still bleeding profusely. She met eye contact with the scared dragoness, her brows scrunched seriously, waiting until she calmed down again and her breaths steadied, which Sonata's did, though they were replaced by another onslaught of tears and whimpers and trembling. Her eyes didn't leave the dwarf.

The dwarf's hand moved upwards to hold her arm more securely, then hesitated. Sonata did nothing. She lifted her other arm to float just above the remnants of Sonata's torn sleeve. She didn't do anything, staring at the dwarf like a scared child, but giving her just a certain level of trust, maybe because she didn't really have a choice.

Gretta's eyes returned to the injury, and she let out a huff. She needed to concentrate on the wound and stop worrying; it was quickly losing blood, so much blood it was a wonder the small girl in front of her could produce so much.

Teeeeaaar!

Sonata shook and ground her teeth, small screams escaping her lips as her sleeve was torn apart, the inflamed area around her severed lower arm suddenly faced with friction. The dwarf mentally blocked her pain out from her field of attention. It wasn't like leaving her wound alone like this would help her in any way. She needed to go on. The girl was badly injured, and treating the wound was going to hurt.

"I'm sorry," the dwarf murmured.

She looked around for the cleanest sprinkle of snow she could and tried to use it to wipe the dead grass and dirt that had somehow found its way to the wounded area among all of the blood. Sonata was shaking again, weakly pulling and tugging away.

"Stop wiggling so much, you're hurting it-!" The dwarf's voice cut off.

She dragon's face was buried the side of her face against the snow, covering it in shame with her free arm as sobs and muffled screams shook through her lips. Her knees were spasming in pain. Even though she was holding it in, there was only so much she psychologically restrain.

The ginger's chest tightened, but her hands didn't hesitate for one moment to start wrapping the wound with her cloth. Sonata writhed, digging her fingers into the snow, her body twitching and spasming, but she didn't resist as the wound was tightly wrapped and bound.

"It's over now." She informed her.

Gretta wiped her face as she gave the girl a break, watching her muffledly scream into her arm for moments, before she realized her crying wasn't something that could reasonably end. Not anytime soon, with a wound so terrible.

The dwarf hesitantly stood up, staring down at the relatively small being struggling to even cope with the pain she was experiencing. She could go find help...? But it was horribly cold, and going to find help meant she was leaving the girl alone again, and if the wolves came back, it would be the end.

The dwarf wiped her bloodied hands off on the snow and her dark blue dress, taking the shawl off her waist and wrapping it around her head, alongside her veil.

Gretta carefully walked over to her head, reaching her arm out.

"Give me your hand."

The girl didn't respond, her sobs lowering so she could hear.

"You need to get up. If you fall asleep in the snow, you'll die." She crouched down, tugging at the sleeve of the girl's intact arm.

Tears were dripping out from her chocolate brown eyes again, as Sonata peeked from between her arm, but the dwarf's brows were scrunched in seriousness.

"Come up."

Sonata's arm lowered from her face, an ugly crying mess, slowly lifting towards the dwarf's.

"I'll take you to the village. It's not very far."

Sonata immediately withdrew her hand.

'Don't let anyone see you.'

Sonata's body shuddered backwards, glaring. "No," her hoarse voice warned.

The dwarf froze, worry and confusion riddling her face. "I can get help. "

Sonata retreated backwards into the snow, shielding her arm from the dwarf, her eyes wide and defensive. "N-no. No one else." Her voice shook, barely holding back cries, but she held her injured arm tightly against herself and glared at the dwarf with her remaining strength. She had a little bit of an accent when she spoke, not enough for the dwarf to pinpoint from where, though. She was being pretty stubborn, but even the dwarf could see she was terrified for a reason.

"But... you need help." Her voice softly murmured.

The child shook her head profusely, glaring at the dwarf once again like some angry, injured wild animal.

Gretta's eyes flickered from the wound to the girl's face. "You're...hurt very badly... You need help." She took a cautious step forwards.

The eleven year old squealed, backing away further, stumbling against the ground without the strength to stand up.

The dwarf continued pursuing her. The girl shook her head and cried as she was helped to her feet, crying in pain because it hurt less to just lie in the snow and not move.

"Stand up, you can't pass out in the snow." She rested Sonata's good arm over her shoulders. The girl was still crying, her head turned downwards and away from the dwarf's view. It wasn't that she was playing along, anymore, so much as she just didn't have the strength to fight back.

Gretta looked around. Was she being pursued? But no matter how much she looked, there was no hint of anyone in the nearby area. Her eyes returned to the injured girl, her head still ducked, crying.

"I can take you to my house. I'm the only one there, right now." She was partially startled by her own willingness to expose her vulnerability to a total stranger, but it was true. Even just getting out of this storm was better than nothing, and at least at home she could properly clean and bandage the wound that was quickly bleeding through the bindings she'd only recently secured.

But the girl shook her head. "I-I can't." She choked. "I n-need to go back..."

"You can't stay here. You're badly injured." The dwarf frowned.

The dragon shook her head. "She needs me," she spoke through her tears. "I need to go back...my sister..."

"Where are we going?" The dwarf asked.

Sonata's head snapped up, but it was a serious question.

"You can't walk on your own, can you? So where are we going?"

The dragon's lips partially parted, but quickly closed. She was right. She was in no state to make it back on her own, and she'd already long-since broken her promises to stay close to the cave and to not be seen. Her eyes blinked away tears. She searched the surroundings for some sort of clue as to where she was, the direction she'd come from.

"There.." she murmured. She could make out the shape of two familiar, small mountains she used to find her way back, though she usually saw them from a different angle. "It's that way."

They began to walk. Sonata willed her body to become lighter, so she wouldn't crush the dwarf.

Her eyes wondered the dwarf's features as they walked. She had pale dark skin, a little darker than the workers she'd seen that just had really intense tans from working outside their whole lives, though hers was pale instead of reddish, unlike theirs. She had pale freckles that were only noticeable because it was still relatively light, and her ears were pointed, she was definitely short. Her messy ginger hair was frizzy and bouncy, like she didn't know how to tame it, and her eyes were a normal brown. With her cottagy clothes, she held a strange resemblance to a cookie.

Occasionally, Sonata's feet would slow down and the dwarf would have to wait for her. The girl over her shoulder was slipping in and out of consciousness, but her resolve was steady. She always woke back up on her own, and pushed herself to walk quickly again, though Gretta could have waited for her to take a break to rest. Wether she actually had someone waiting for her or it was a bluff, she was determined to get back, even with her body still trembling uncontrollably from the pain.

Gretta wasn't sure how long she'd walked for. She would ask, and the white haired girl would lead her in the right direction, every so often. The cold nipped at her cheeks and stung the inside of her nose. She wasn't sure how the barefooted, underdressed girl leaning on her was doing alright, but her body was somehow very warm, almost feverishly hot, though she didn't look particularly sick: Just worn out from blood loss.

Her occasional directions got more and more specific as they walked onwards. Neither of them spoke a word; they walked in silence, the eleven year old too exhausted to speak, and the dwarf too scared to make her change her mind about being helped to start a conversation. She was sure they were getting closer, though. The girl's green eyes were paying more attention to their snowy surroundings, and she was leaning on her for support less and less.

Until she finally stopped.

"I can go alone from now."

The dwarf stared at her with wide eyes. Her brows scrunched up. "You're still hurt. I can lead you the rest of the way."

Still, the girl pulled her arm away from Gretta, taking a few small steps away. She pressed her lips into one another, shaking her head. She rested her palm against a nearby tree for support.

This was too close as it was. She couldn't bring the dwarf right up to the cave. Even if she'd saved her now, she couldn't be sure she'd be on their side later on.

"It's going to be night soon."

Sonata met the dwarf's eyes.

"Will you be able to find your way back in the dark?"

They'd come a long way on an unfamiliar path. The dwarf looked back the way they'd come. Sure, she could vaguely feel the paths of ore deep beneath the ground, but she wasn't confident in her ability to maneuver the forest above it without the light. She turned back to the green eyed girl.

"Are you sure you'll be alright..?"

The dragon briskly nodded, her body stiff as though telling Gretta to just go.

The dwarf took a few steps back, hesitant to leave the dragon. But she needed to find her way back, she was right. With a final, hesitant glance, she turned and left.

//AUTHOR'S NOTE

4,547 words, that's my longest chapter to date and it's still cut a little bit short from where it was supposed to end. That's alright. Next two or three chapters will probably both have flashbacks with some backstory in them, so please look forwards to that!

Yesterday I just passed out. I don't know why, I was just so mentally drained after schoolwork and writing the first half of this chapter that I slept the day away. I just ate a porridge and a smoothie, and it's past lunch the next day. So hungry...so hungry. Well, it makes sense I guess. I was pretty stressed about my story pitch after two all-nighters, and my professor... my scary professor who can spend half an hour repeating to you that if he watched your movie in a theatre he's want his money back? I'm sorry, I thought this assignment was about shape language and panel composition?? It's okay, it somehow all ended up okay. My precious, precious "A." Now let me recuperate through napping.

Also, have you ever had one of those vivid dreams that was like a movie? I had one of those last night. Oh boy, it was so fluid. The concept art I could do—Screee!!! I love me a good fantasy story. Thank you so much, brain! It was like a little present to unwrap hehhehe. Cute witches! I want to draw cute witches! My Clandopia has her plot!!

Back on topic, congratulations on making it this far into my story. 30 full chapters, oof! The comments section of my webnovel updates are sadly empty compared to my royalroad updates, but I'm holding out till the end of the first arc. We'll see. >~< I'm sure I have the occasional valid reader on here, for sure.