TRYST // Philza X Reader

5

And so it went, with a steady pad of feet against the well worn ground. You followed the path until the needle of the compass pointed away from it, and then you were making your way through the forest proper, stepping through patches of moss and dappled sunlight from where it managed to get through the thick spruce leaves around you.

There was something kind of peaceful about it - just walking through the forest, occasionally checking the compass to make sure you were still on course. Before long, you couldn't see the walls of the capitol behind you, and it was like the whole world was just these trees, stretching out for miles with no sign of another human. After being in the city for so long, the quiet was strange - it left you alone to your thoughts, and soon enough you were drifting off in your own head as you walked, thinking about everything and nothing.

You were always acutely aware of the scroll in the pocket of your bag though.

You kept walking, stopping to pick some sweet berries from a patch of bushes on the ground. You watched a pair of foxes scurry away when they heard you coming, orange tails disappearing through the ferns. Eventually, you came across a spring, stopping to take a drink and top off your canteen with the fresh water. You could have walked for years like that, but unfortunately daylight didn't last forever.

The sunset was beautiful, but as you watched the sun fall between the trees, you couldn't help but get a little nervous. You had yet to find a clearing or somewhere relatively protected that you could camp, and you only had a knife with you - not the best weapon for when the skeletons would eventually pull themselves up from the earth.

Your leisurely meander turned into a fast paced walk, weaving through the trees with the compass in hand. The needle pointed towards the orange sky, and you found yourself chasing the sun as it dipped lower and lower, taking the light with it. The ferns whipped around your ankles and grabbed onto your messenger bag as you moved, soft touches that made the hair on your arms stand up.

You heard a groan echo through the trees, and your stomach sank like a stone.

You opened up your bag, sorting through the contents until you found the knife that you had packed, wrapping your hand around the handle and pulling it out of the bag. With your weapon in one hand and the compass in the other, you plunged after the sun again, using the slight glow from the compass to keep an eye on the needle. You just needed to find a clearing or a riverbank or somewhere where there was enough space to set up a fire-

A few meters away from you, the ferns rustled. You froze, trying to peer in between the plants, but the sun was almost completely gone now, and the shadows were too deep. It didn't matter though, because you heard it - a similar groan to the one that had echoed through the trees before, but higher. The ferns rustled again, this time in a wavelike pattern as the baby zombie rushed towards you, and you turned on your heel, running as fast as you could in the opposite direction.

You sprinted through the forest like a madman, pushing off of trees to keep your momentum. You could still hear the baby zombie behind you, and your fear only grew as you heard more groans join the first, along with the clatter of bones. You clutched the knife you were holding like a lifeline - because it was. If anything caught up to you, this was your only defense.

Your legs were beginning to ache - both from the long day of walking and now the running you were doing - but you couldn't stop. You pushed on, dodging trees and keeping a wary eye out for anything that moved, using the gentle blue light of the compass to keep you on track. If you could just find the path again-

An arrow whizzed past your head and you startled, missing a step. Your foot slipped on an exposed root and then you were tipping backwards, your hand hold the compass flying out to catch yourself. You hit the ground on your back, and felt the compass shatter in your hand, the soft blue light dying.

"No..." You said, frantically rolling onto your knees and bringing the compass closer. The needle still moved, but now it was pointing due north, whereas it had been pointing more west before. "No, no, no..."

An arrow hit the dirt next to you, and you could hear the clatter of bones as the skeleton worked to pull the bowstring back again. You tried to pull yourself up onto your feet only to wince and fall back down when you put weight on your ankle. Adrenaline rushed through your system as you tried to crawl through the ferns.

You could hear the undead things all around you, echoing groans bouncing off the trees as they searched for you through the undergrowth.

In your hand, the compass lay broken.

It hurt to move - both from fatigue and from the fact that you had probably bruised or broken your ankle in the fall.

Even as you desperately crawled through the ferns, knife still in hand, fighting for any chance that you made it out of this night alive, you knew that this was the end. You would die here, alone in the forest, miles from anyone that could have helped you, the royal scroll undelivered in your bag. The war would go on and the kingdom would lose because Etienne was waiting for a miracle that would never arrive, because you had died on the first night, unable to complete the task.

A groan sounded above you and you closed your eyes, waiting for the feeling of teeth in your skin or an arrow in your back. It never came though, because suddenly the world was filled with light.