Chapter 26

It was a fine morning. After the stresses last week, Lia felt like today was a good start of the week. She had a good night sleep and felt rested, to the point where she welcomed the sunlight intruding her room which usually brought nothing but annoyance in the morning.

There was spring on her steps, humming as she made her way to the clearing. She gathered quite a lot of materials for Tamara so she got time to waste before lunch and before her lessons with her mother.

She bugged her mother to teach her to create medicine and cosmetics. Her fascination about them grew as she watched Tamara create things that cure people or at least alleviate the pain. Tamara also worked her magic in helping her and the other female patron’s at Yolly’s shop to look good with her salve and face paints.

But those were to be dealt with in the afternoon, for today she could only lie down on the grass and soaked in the sunlight.

When she arrived at the clearing, she could tell right away there was something wrong. While she could not pinpoint exactly what was wrong, there was something in the atmosphere, something dark and sinister that hit her when she came in.

By this time, Lia knew the woods like the back of her hands. She knew where the dangerous areas were, the place where scary animals lurked. But this small clearing of hers was different. Not a lot of wild animals wandered around here as if there was a consensus between them and the humans not to touch each other’s turf.

Keeping an eye on her surroundings, she tentatively took a step towards the pond. It was quiet in the woods, eerily quiet aside from the hammering sound that came from Lia’s heartbeat.

After a few minutes of standing in the middle, listening in even the slightest sound, Lia allowed herself to relax a bit and splashed her face with cold water to wash off the beads of sweat that gathered on her forehead. Maybe that was her imagination. After being mobbed at the town, her body instinctively tensed up every time she sensed a palpable change in the air. She even began carrying a dagger hidden on her body, in case she needed it.

Then she saw the trails of blood.

Lia stopped dead, her senses strained for any movements around her as her hand slowly reached for her dagger. She followed the trail with her eyes that started from the clearing and led to the middle of the forest. She started following it but stopped short again.

What if there was still dangerous people inside? What if someone’s fighting? But that did not make sense because there was no other sound aside from Lia’s ragged breathing.

Her hand gripped the hilt tighter and continued walking. She was just going to check what was going on. If things turned out dangerous, she was leaving.

Comforted with her plan, she trudged ahead in the middle of the forest. She winced every time her foot made a slight noise as she stepped on grass or bark. If whoever was fighting in there found her, it would not end up in anything good. Her steps faltered when the trail ended in a pool of blood.

And in front of her was the man she just saw back at the festival who was now slumped on a tree, bleeding as if there was no tomorrow.