[u][b][center]The Greatwood[/center][/b][/u]

Everywhere Æðelflæd looked, she swore she saw something staring back at her. Behind bushes, in between the trunks of trees, high up in their branches... Tiny feet pitter-pattered across the forest floor, too, occasionally accompanied by the startling [i]crunch[/i] of dry leaves beneath her ragged calfskin shoes or the rustling of leaves. High above, she could narrowly sight the glowing moon high above, its pockmarked surface turned such that she could swore its vile countenance was staring down upon her, drinking in the sight of her terrified shaking with sordid glee.

Or perhaps, she thought, that was simply her paranoia. “The Greatwood is dangerous, Æðelflæd! Only a complete loggerhead would bother exploring the place!” Her parents told her. “Are you [i]stupid[/i]? Haven’t you heard the howling that comes from there? Something’ll eat you!” Her friends echoed. Hearing so many tales was certain to stretch her nerves thin, and many were the tales of fools who’d wandered into the woods for one reason or another and were found days later with their guts strewn across the fields... And yet, she couldn’t help but think she must’ve at least been lucky. Even with the watchful eyes of crows glaring down at her, the sound of bestial predators howling nearby, she’d been assailed by... Nothing.

Suddenly, a twig snapped, the sound closer to her than ever before! She tensed up, clutching the bloodsoaked basket in her armstrong her chest and forcing her eyes shut, hoping that whatever was about to happen would be over quickly...

[i]Crunch.[/i] Louder. [i]Snap[/i]. Practically deafening.
[i]Sniff. Sniff. Snort[/i]

Daring to open her eyes a miniscule distance, the girl looked down - and there was a huge, powerfully muscled canine, its thickly matted fur covered in splotched of greys and browns. It stared into her eyes, curious, but the strike she expected never came, nor did the growling, or even a warning bark. Here she was, staring down a canine so tall that it easily came up to her belly on all fours, and it seemed just as harmless and curious as any big, friendly dog. For several more seconds it did nothing but stare, before suddenly turning to trod its way down the very same path Æðelflæd was travelling.

[i]”...Is it trying to lead me somewhere?”[/i] She wondered, staring absentmindedly into the distance.  Perhaps that was why she felt as if the place was watching her, she reasoned. Perhaps it was.

With scarcely little to lose, aside from the risk of returning to her family empty-handed, she scampered off into the forest after the beast -- her guide.
[hr]

How long had she been running for, Æðelflæd wondered? The moon had moved in the sky, after all, listing gently away toward the horizon, and although she was no scholar, she was at least able to make the connection between the movement of celestial bodies hanging in the firmament and the passage of time. Hours, perhaps, she thought - or had it only been minutes? It must’ve been, surely. After all, her shoes had long since been worn down to the point where the mere act of walking should’ve been painful, yet the soft detritus beneath seemed to cushion her feet so perfectly she wondered if she’d been running at all.

Or perhaps, she struggled to reason, it was simply her rising humours and the fear of angering whatever she might anger should she dawdle too long that allowed her to ignore the pain. Perhaps, once she stopped, it’d all come crashing down on her, she’d collapse, and some scavenging animal would take her corpse for food.

The thought sent a brief pang of fear coursing down her spine, though mental hesitation did little too slow her. She’d spent so much time getting here, after all, and the journey back would be just as risky, if not more so - the very least she could do was see it through; to continue chasing the dire wolf loping along ahead of her. Eventually, however, the lightly trodden path it moved along slowly became more and more so. The underbrush grew thicker, impeding her motion, the path ahead occasionally blocked by fallen logs covered in clusters of strange mushrooms of shapes and colours the girl had never seen before and which she struggled to throw herself over.  The first few were a struggle to climb over, but the deeper she went, the easier it became to mount obstacles, and the less the unfamiliar thickness of the underbrush slowed her. Her hand gripped a log, brushing past a faintly glowing toadstool as she leapt bodily over one obstacle only to push aside a cluster of branches in her way mere moments after. To a peasant girl, one expected to have found a husband years ago, it was an unfamiliar challenge - but she’d long since decided to see this matter through. 

It was strangely pleasant, in a way, she thought - rigorous to be sure, but here, so deep in the Greatwood, Æðelflæd could almost forget the troubles of her home; how the streets stank of shit every hour of the day, the exorbitant taxes her family had to pay on everything she produced, the guards who seemed to care far more for the chance to abuse their power or violently beat criminals than they did for enacting justice...

Best of all, of course, was the absence of the nobles that ruled Marleon from high atop their mottes and squirreled away in their stuffy castles... Or perhaps it was the haunting, primal beauty of the place, the way it seemed so free of the ravages of civilization? Maybe, in the end, it wasn't something she needed to worry herself over; most importantly, she felt far less afraid of the things watching her than before. Excited, even. Exhilarated.

Catching sight of a break in the treeline through which shown a faint greenish glow, she charged ahead, only to stumble to a halt as her animal guide faded into the aether, discorporteating in front of her very eyes. Only then did Æðelflæd notice the source of the green glow, sitting in bright, crystalline water at the center of an absolutely pristine pond. Fo describe it precisely was impossible, perhaps, as if her vision struggled to resolve the image of the thing, its and everything around it fainty blurred -- but with an grunt of effort and an involuntary twitch her vision began to clear, revealing the brightly glowing shape of a tall, well-built elven maiden smiling warmly at her.

Once again, she felt afraid. This was the 'thing' she'd heard so much about, no doubt - but she was so unlike anything Æðelflæd had ever seen. She wore no clothing just as the animals of the forest did, so alien yet so familiar even though Æðelflæd had never laid eyes upon her before. Fear quickly gave way to relief, then comfort as the distance between them closed - and finally an outpouring of emotions as the terrifying creature pulled her into a reassuring hug, leaving Æðelflæd to bawl into her shoulder.

"There, there..." The woman reassured her, patting her back with a warm hand. "It has been a long journey for you, child. Take all the time you need."

And she did, feeling strangely comfortable and safe in the elf's presence, much as she did as a young child whenever her parents consoled her. It was almost easy to forget that she was embracing a hauntingly beautiful woman that had slain dozens upon dozens upon dozens of armed men like this; but not enough for her to forget why she came here, wiping tears from her cheeks with the back of her palm as she tipped her head back to meet the elf's eyes.

"My p-parents, my family, we are... We are peasants. Cuh-common folk!" She sputtered, feverishly shaking her head. We struggle to get by, to feed ourselves, to make the coin we need, but... It seems as if his tax collectors come to shake us down more often than not. They steal from us, from our friends, they abuse us, the men-at-arms and the guard enforce the law however they please, I... Nobody will do anything about him. I-" She pleaded, only to find herself silenced utterly by a shake of the kind woman's head.

"You do not want me to simply see justice done. You would not have come here if you did. Try again. Search deep within yourself." She admonished her, and Æðelflæd felt terribly ashamed, closing her eyes in meditation as she did as bidden. No stone was left unturned - every memory was examined once, then twice. Every time she'd seen a pretty peasant girl dragged away, every time she'd seen tax collectors shake a family down and wished she could've sent the fat fools spiraling to the ground... Every single time she say the guards brutally beat a poor man to death through the windows of jail cells for some unfathomable reason too, and especially every time she wished she could have [b][i]torn the disgusting wretch responsible limb from limb for all to see[/u][/b].

The motherly maiden smiled down at her and Æðelflæd smiled back, her vision bathed in a whole new spectrum of beautiful colours.

"We will do it together, I think." She nodded.