(Not) Lost

The silence was getting even more and more deafening as we walked further from the Ravens' base. Unlike earlier, Rasvien was highly alert. As though his entire body was buzzing with wariness. We followed him quietly, his broad back steady and graceful while he maneuvered past foliage and over thick roots.

There was not a sound, and clearly Lira and I were forced to do our best not to make any noise of our own. We tried, but we couldn't achieve what the captain was doing.

It felt so wrong, there was no wind, no chirping of birds. Even the leaves were too still, like time had come to a pause in this part of the forest.

Rasvien was supposed to lead us to the town where I would hide from my family for the meantime. By taking this shortcut through Evernight Forest, what was meant to be a few days' travel would be reduced to only one. However, I felt like we were going nowhere.

And then, Rasvien's back relaxed. Before you might ask, I definitely wasn't staring at it for the whole time.

"All right, we're headed in the right direction," he said, carefree as he put his hands behind his head, whistling an unfamiliar tune. The muscles on his arms flexed, and I could admit to myself that it wouldn't do any harm for me to appreciate them.

I raised a brow. "Are you sure?"

He stopped on his tracks all of a sudden, and I almost bumped into his back had Lira not gripped me by the collar. Too bad.

Rasvien turned, a subtle quirk at the edge of his lips. Underneath the faint sunlight that managed to enter through the dense branches, his complexion resembled that of polished bronze. Beautiful.

"Darling Rosie, I am the watcher of this forest," he said. "No one knows this forest more than I do."

Lira clicked her tongue. "A while ago, you looked like you weren't so sure of yourself. Don't deny it, I saw how you seemed lost and pretended like you weren't."

Indeed, I did not miss the slight narrowing of his eyes minutes ago whenever he was put off by something—like seeing that this one path was entirely new to him and that never in his life had he seen it in this forest. He would pretend as though it was nothing, confidently charging forward like it was nothing out of the ordinary.

Rasvien chuckled, throwing his shoulders in the air. "Guilty as charged."

My eyes widened. "You got us lost?"

Lira sighed loudly, slapping her forehead in pure disappointment.

He smiled. "Not anymore."

Even so, I wasn't certain if I could hear the truth in his words. It sounded like he didn't believe himself, either. But what choice did we have? We had to believe him.

I pinched the bridge of my nose in disbelief. "You did not just tell us that you didn't know what you were doing minutes ago."

Rasvien leaned in a tad bit. "What's the matter? The important thing is that I managed to find the right path."

I suppressed a smile. "You're painfully optimistic."

He seemed amused. "I should be, or else all three of us would be panicking."

My jaw nearly dropped. "Seriously?"

"This man is ridiculous," Lira mumbled.

The captain chuckled, face bright. "I'm kidding, you two girlies are too uptight."

Now he'd followed Ashton's footsteps and had begun to call us "girlies", too.

"That's normal, isn't it?" I told him. "We're literally running from a battalion of guards and a pack of monsters. The last thing we'd want is to accidentally bump into either one of them along the way."

The captain's grin faded, and he stared at me quizzically. It was like he wanted to ask badly why I was running from the guards, and why they were on to me. But he was obviously stopping himself. This, knowing that he would not forget himself and cross the line, caused my respect for him to double.

Rasvien cleared his throat. "Ah right, my bad. But that would be most unlikely though. And about almost getting lost, it is merely that I do not come to these parts of Evernight often."

I looked away. "Fine, if you say so."

I could practically imagine his smirk as he asked. "Why, were you scared, Rosie?"

"I told you, Captain," I crossed my arms, "I am not so delicate—"

There's a rustle from my side, and the next thing I knew, I was floating midair, my vision looming over ground that Lira and Rasvien were like the size of ants from up here. No, I wasn't floating. My feet were on something solid—a branch. I was on a goddess-damned tree! How the hell?

Lira's scream cut through the air, filling my ears as panic began to consume me. I could not move and my blood began to go cold as I realized that an arm was wrapped around my waist, locking me in.

I turned my head, seeing a humanlike figure beside me. It was like coming face to face with the light. It had no other distinguishable features other than that it was translucent all over, its edges hazy as it seemed to drift beside me.

I choked, not even a scream would escape my lips. I trembled as the creature that held me started to open its mouth, its voice like an echo of a very high-pitched shrill as it kept on shouting and shouting in my ears.

Tears welled up at the corners of my eyes. "H-help—"

"Rosie, duck!"

With no idea how, I did, and I shut my eyes. The thing next to me screamed again, a sound far more disturbing than the last. Its hold loosened and another arm, not glowing this time, pulled me to the other side.

When I opened my eyes, the creature's shoulder was pinned onto the bark of the tree by Rasvien's sword. It wriggled in pain, its body flickering in and out like a dying candle. It had no visible eyes, but I could feel its sorrow as it slowly breathed its last.

I released a breath, surprised why Rasvien hadn't let me go yet. "What is—?"

I couldn't continue.

"Not yet," Rasvien said. And I knew why.

Drifting inches above the branches of the trees were the same creatures of light, illuminating the forest like a giant chandelier. Only one thought entered my mind:

There were so many of them.