THE ROSE BOOK // A NOVEL

CHAPTER 2.3

"And so, the game begins."

It was dusk before anyone in Astrakane realized that either Gwen or Aldwin was missing. However, once the sun dipped behind the horizon, Honey's stomach began to twist and churn with worry for her brother who had yet to return home. 

An untouched meal sat on the table, growing cold as Honey began to pace, throughout the small room, unable to sit still as worry built up in Honey's chest, her heart ricocheting through her chest. Honey felt trapped within the cramped walls of her home, like a wild animal backed into a corner, her breaths coming in ragged gasps.

Yet her brother had yet to show up, and she knew better than to hope that her father might remember his son's birthday. Honey's father had gone to fight in the war shortly after her mother's death after something in his mind snapped. 

He still fought on the front lines to this day and Honey hardly saw him. He was considered a war hero though, risking his life for his kingdom and leading his men to victory in almost every battle. Honey wished she could be just like him, protecting his comrades and leading them to victory no matter what. She wished to be a hero too.

However, that was impossible as women weren't allowed to fight in the army. And Honey had other problems on her hands. Aldwin's absence was not something Honey could turn away, so, in desperation to flee the cramped confines of her home, she went to check the last place she saw him at, staring at the sunrise, the shore. 

Even with only the moon as her only light, Honey clearly saw no one was there, which only added to her growing panic. As she made her way back into town, she asked anyone she passed if they had seen him, but nobody had in hours. He had apparently passed through that morning, yet that was the last time anyone had seen him.

After an hour of searching, Honey finally realized that something was terribly wrong. Something that Honey had expected from her younger brother, but had prayed to the Balance Goddess would never truly come to pass. 

Aldwin had always hated the idea of fighting in the war like their father, but now that he had grown older and in only two days he was supposed to report to the front lines he had become especially bitter towards the war, openly expressing how he didn't want to fight in it. Yet, there was only one way to escape from fighting. 

And that was to run.

Where he would run was what scared Honey most of all. The army made no effort to cover up what they had done to other boys who had tried to run before. They had always caught them in the end and had sent them into battle nonetheless. In fact, the army had openly bragged about doing this, perhaps as if to discourage boys from running. 

So Honey knew, deep in her heart, if Aldwin had run he would have been clever enough to realize the only place where he would truly ever be free. The Wild Woods, the place that he feared most of all, even before he realized what it truly was.

Honey wasn't sure how she had found herself in front of the looming wall of pine in front of her, but somehow, she never seemed to be able to escape it. From the very first time that Honey saw the Wild Woods as a child, she had heard its call in the darkest shadows of her soul, trying to pull her into its trees since she had first heard it all those years ago.

Only it was her mother who had warned Honey against ever going into the woods, for once they got a hold of the Lekki girl with honey-colored hair they would never let go.

So, as Honey stood before the trees, the wind whispered a dark melody to her, sung by a hidden voice, whose face would continue to go as a mystery to Honey, as a smile crept onto her face.

The melody was the same one her mother used to hum as they walked down the winding cobblestone paths on their way to watch the sun rise over the dark waters of the sea, on the sandy shore. It would make sense that she knew the melody since she was once a vagabond, whose soul had been tamed after she fell in love with Honey father and settled by the seaside.

But just like her mother's soul, who had never truly been satisfied staying in one place, Honey had always felt the pull of the Wild Woods, tempting her to come into its dark trees and find her next adventure. 

To become a hero just as her father was. 

Trying without luck to get her to enter its dark pines and travel the forgotten paths of the vagabonds. Yet Honey had always remained in her village for the sake of her younger brother. Now, however, he had gone into the one place that was the most dangerous for the both of them. The place that had wanted them all along.

Honey whispered a prayer to whatever gods may be listening before she pushed her way through the pines, not even flinching as the sharp green pines ripped at her face, with their jagged fingernails, leaving small red marks, on her sunkissed skin. 

Honey raced through the trees, her determination like a beacon, lighting her path, through even the darkest hour of the night, and helping to guide her through the dangerous woods safely, despite the numerous dangers that lay just off the path.

For Honey knew she was going to get to see her brother again if it was the last thing she ever did. The Wild Woods wasn't going to have her soul just yet.

Elsewhere in the dark trees, a figure burst into a fiery existence, causing a small portion of the Wild Woods to be filled with the bright light of truth for just a heartbeat, sending any wild creatures scampering away to the more secure portions of the woods. 

As the lights dimmed, however, someone stood there, breathing in the wood's sharp pine scent as he examined his surroundings. He had felt the change in the Wild Woods, even from the heavens above. The change he needed to end the war between the Lekki and the Mutare once in for all.

He smirked as he walked along, confident nothing would dare to attack him, and live to tell the tale. He was dressed completely in white, with smokey gray eyes and bleached dreadlocks. His skin was a dark brown that seemed to glow, making him seem like a shining star in the darkness of the Wild Woods. 

Fires started wherever he set his feet down but quickly disappeared as soon as he passed by, leaving the Wild Woods just as it had been before he appeared. If any Lekki had been around to witness such an event, they would have fallen to the ground and begin worshiping this person, calling him a god.

If any Mutare had seen him, however, they would have drawn their blade and began to attack him without a second thought. However, these two facts were just what he was counting on, for all the players of the game had finally arrived, and the stars had aligned the fate of three different souls who now roamed the Wild Wood's trees. Now all he had to do was find the Rose Book, and the war would practically be won.

Oh yes, all the pieces of the puzzle were coming together quite nicely.

A U T H O R ' S   N O T E

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