Winter's Tale *DISCONTINUED*

Chapter Ten

Night had begun to fall. The low rays from the setting sun filtered through the leaves on the trees. Dust swirled in the light. Summer had changed into fall, and the nights had become colder and colder. Winter looked to her left. Lucia was blowing on her hands to keep warm.

"Are you cold?" Winter asked her.

"Huh?" Lucia blinked and jumped back a step. She let out a sight of relief when she saw it was just Winter. "Thank God," said Lucia. "You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Oh, sorry." Winter looked down at her boots. They were dusty from crunching through the leaves that littered the ground of the forest.

"No, no, it's fine," Lucia reassured her. "You haven't spoken since we left, and I honestly forgot you were here."

Lucia words did not help Winter's mood. They awkwardly walked on.

"So," Lucia said. "Guess an ice witch like you doesn't have to worry about the cold, do you?"

"I'm not a witch," Winter muttered, her eyes still fixed on the ground.

Lucia let out a small, hesitant laugh. "No, sorry. That came out a bit weird." She rubbed the back of her neck. "But you don't, do you?"

"About the cold?" asked Winter.

"Yeah," Lucia replied carefully, her gaze trailing in the other direction.

Winter glanced over at her. "Well, I still feel it, but it doesn't make me uncomfortable. Like, I recognize that it is cold out, and that I feel cold, but I'm not bothered by it."

"I guess that makes sense," Lucia said. Winter could tell from Lucia's voice that she still did not understand.

"I wasn't expecting you to get it," Winter murmured. She turned her head back down to the ground. A pebble was in her path, so she kicked it. Winter watched it bounce and tumble back into the bushes.

Lucia looked at her in sympathy. "Sorry."

"It's okay."

Suddenly Lucia stopped in her tracks. "Did you hear that?" she whispered. Her eyes were wide with fright.

"Hear what-"

"Shhhhhhh!" Lucia clamped a hand over Winter's mouth. "Hear that."

The bushes to their right were rustling loudly. The movement was much to loud to be caused a squirrel or a rabbit. And deers did not normally spend their time hiding.

Winter slipped the knife out of her boot as slow as she could. Lucia had also brought out a knife. Winter did not know where she got it from, but at a time like this, she did not care. Lucia stepped out into the bushes, knife at the ready. Winter, not knowing what to do, gripped her knife and crept behind Lucia.

Lucia had taken no more than two stepped before a figured popped up only ten feet away. It started a mad dash away from us. Lucia sprang after it, leaping over bushes, stones, logs; anything that got in her way.

Winter ran after her. Anxiety gripped her chest as she ran. The knowledge that the figure had been watching without them knowing filled her with fear, making her want to stop chasing it. But, the fear of being left behind in a forest she had never seen before overpowered it, and she kept running. She did not know who the figure was, but it was unmistakably human.

But the figure was to fast, and eventually was lost in the thick throngs of trees.

"Damn it," Lucia cursed, throwing her knife to the ground. The blade stuck in the ground, making only the handle visible.