[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/hUm8ue5l.png[/img][/center] [hr] [indent]The forests were one of the things Ava had [i]liked[/i] about Markovia. King Gregor had once made a joke that there were more trees in Markovia than anything else. It only took a gaze outward from the castle window to prove that he was only half-kidding. The trees uninterrupted in their totality stretching backwards to the old tribes. It was that aspect that Ava enjoyed the history that seemed to emanate outward from the bark itself. Those same trees now engulfed her, thrust outward from moss-ridden earth like darkened spear heads. Ava jerked her head as an owl hooted somewhere in the dark. In her panic, her foot slipped on slick moss and hardened root launching her forward. The pain crashing through her body adding to the persisting dull throbbing from her jump. Laying there she felt the unmistakable presence of tears running down her face. There in the forest under the distant gaze of the moon Ava felt very alone. The adrenaline that had gotten her this far having all but faded leaving only pain and the cold. Was this how she was going to die? Cold, alone, and crying in the woods somewhere? It was only a matter of time before the woman that had killed her mother would find her. "Why?" Her voice was small, quaking, swallowed by the silence. A lifeboat adrift in a tsunami It was the only thought that coursed through her head. Why. [i]Why[/i]. [b][i]Why[/i][/b]. She wasn't dumb she knew that her mom had worked for some bad people in the past, but did that mean she deserved to die? There were much worse people in the world than she was. People that weren't trying to get better. People that Ava didn't care about. Why did it have to be her? Her body shook as another sob rocked her body. She didn't know how long she stayed there. Grief was an unrelenting thing like the tides chipping away at the beach, it distorted all it touched - even time. Eternities lasted mere minutes and a singular hour could stretch on for decades. But as primordial and eternal as grief was there were other forces as well. Something wormed its way through Ava burrowing towards her heart. It thrashed and it contorted, twisted, and fumed. It burned as it made its way through her like molten metal. It was an old thing, not quite as old as the sun or the moon, but it older than fire and older than the spear. It had many names but most knew it by its simplest construction - Rage. "[b]Fuck[/b] it." Ava staggered to her feet as she wiped her tear-stained face with a sleeve. Her entire frame shook was each breath as collected herself. The pain was still there but it was muted, muffled underneath the building maelstrom. Her first step was a slow thing, unsure and unsteady, but it was movement all the same. The first step followed by another and another and another. As the red-orange glow of the rising sun filled the horizon, the trees finally began to thin around Ava. There right at the edge of the tree line was the half-collapsed frame of an abandoned farmhouse. Just Beyond the farmhouse was a barn whose roof hadn't given way yet. She managed to pull the door open enough to slip inside, the old hinges squeaking in protest. The ground covered in a thin level of dust and animal dung permeated with a strong oder. Ava didn't mind the smell exhaustion finally having taken hold of her. With heavy limbs she staggered into a corner where there was still a loss pile of discarded hay. There she curled up into a ball and let sleep take over. [hr] When Ava awoke the woman was there. She was looking at her, her green eyes dark as the pines around them, in some sort of contemplation. Ava was ensared, her entire body rooted to the ground out of fear and perhaps awe. It was like looking in a mirror but instead of a reflection, there instead idealized version of herself. The same red hair but where Ava's was short and boyish, the woman's was long falling past her shoulders. Even there, just leaning against one of the wooden walls of the barn there was a sureness and a control. "Are you gonna kill me now?" Ava asked trying to sound brave like the heroes in the action movies. "No Красная Шапочка" "That's not my name." "I know Avreya" The woman pointed out as she tossed Ava her journal. The small moleskin clattered to the ground in front of her. Ava scrambled to pick it up and clutched it towards her chest. The journal was a gift from her mother last year from her mother. Why did the woman take it? Did she read it? "Why aren't you going to kill me then?" "That's not my mission." “What's your mission then?” The woman cocked a brow "That's none of your concern." "Well obviously since your [i]hunting[/i] me or whatever, it seems a lot like my concern actually." The woman actually laughed at this. This caught Ava off guard who did not expect that such a figure was even capable of laughter. Even the woman herself seemed surprised at herself. "Oh I got you wrong," The woman admitted "You're not Красная Шапочка, you're a little почемучка aren't you?" It was Ava's turn to be caught off-guard, her face flushed red with embarrassment. "No! It's just... I just think I have a right to know what's going on!" "Nobody has a [i]right[/i] to anything in this world почемучка. You'll learn that soon enough." The woman explained with a snort. "Now if you are done here we have to get moving." "I'm coming with you?!" "Yes." Ava remained rooted in place amongst the hay. Who did this person think she was? To ruin her life and then command her around like this? "What if I say no?" The woman already making her way towards the barn door cocked her head over her shoulder. "Because," she explained "if you don't come willingly, I'll have to use violence. You don't want that." This was no threat Ava knew threats, this was a matter-of-fact statement. A proclamation that held the same amount of truth as two plus two equals four. Ava was following before she could process it. The woman up ahead already vanishing through the space between the ajar barn door. Parked in front of the barn was the unmistakable contours of a Volga. Once the brand of all movers and shakers east of the Iron Curtain, now the beater car of all the republics that came after, Markovia included. Ava first thought it was some kind of joke, the Volga wasn't the type of vehicle for whatever this woman was. Ava half-expected her to click a button and it would transform like something out of a James Bond film. "We are taking this?" "You have a problem with it? I'll gladly take whatever else you can find on hand." The woman answered gesturing towards the trees and flat countryside that surrounded them. "Fine," Ava answered admitting defeat "hey I just realized something! What's your name! I mean you already know mine it's only fair right? Or is that against the mother-murder and child-kidnappers code?" The woman regarded Ava for a brief moment. "Natalia" "Natalia? Huh that's weird my mom knew a Natalia once." "It's a common name." "Yeah," Ava admitted, "I guess you're right." "Can I ask one more question?" "No" "Come on I promise I'll shut up after this! Be a good little prisoner." Ava pleaded. "What." "Where are we going?" Natalia pointed off towards a distant horizon. "East."[/indent] [center][h3][color=DC143C]I - End[/color][/h3][/center]