A Princess and A Huntsman (OUAT)

Arriving

We finally made it to the northern village. Last night Graham had told me that we would be there the next day, but I didn't think we'd get there so early. I was excited to get there, but that meant my traveling with Graham was over. I didn't know what would happen now and I was a little worried. Last night, he'd been pretty quiet, I didn't want us to go separate ways.

Both of us walked into town, together, as all the people walked around like they usually did when I came around. This time, though I went straight to the bakery.

"You made it," Graham said as we walked.

"Thanks to you," I responded, nudging him with my shoulder. He smiled.

"Well, you are amazing at traveling. You were just never given the chance to try it out."

"Thanks."

We got up to the door to the bakery and Graham opened the door for me, I walked through, causing Mary and William to notice my entrance right away. They walked up to me as Graham and the wolf entered.

"Rosemarie? I wasn't expecting to see you for a while. Soldiers from the castle have come through, I thought something was happening," Mary said, looking worried.

"Something did happen. I ran away from my fathers house almost two weeks ago and apparently he wants to find me."

"Two weeks ago? Why didn't you come here first," William questioned coming to stand next to Mary.

"Well, I ran away in the wrong direction. Thanks to Graham I made it here safely."

For the first time Mary and William looked at Graham. First they looked at him for a few moments, and then they looked at the wolf by his side. They stared at the wolf for a shorter time before there eyes shifted back to me. Full of fear or confusion; I couldn't tell.

"What are you doing here?" Mary asked, her eyes burning into Graham's eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Graham questioned, his eyes definitely showed confusion.

"We recognize you. The hunter who visited our town a year ago," William stated, anger seeping into his voice.

"Oh, right. That town," Graham answered, nodding his head.

"You have some nerve coming back here," William spat.

"Was I supposed to be afraid of coming back?" Graham said crossing his arms, next to him the wolf lowered his ears against his head.

"Yes, we don't appreciate what you did to our town," Mary answered. I was completely confused as they had there little argument. What had Graham done to make Mary and William so mad? Whatever he did couldn't have been that bad. Graham wasn't a bad person.

"What's going on," I asked. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Graham responded, grabbing my hand and stepping closer to me. He whispered in my ear, "Do you think you could walk me to the end of town?"

"Yeah, sure," I said and then he lead me out of the bakery, but Mary stopped me by grabbing my wrist.

"You're not actually going with him, are you?"

"I'm going for a walk with him, I'll be back."

"Fine," she said and then let go.

When she let go, I continued to leave the bakery with Graham and the wolf. When we were outside, Graham went straight towards the end of town where the forest was.

"Graham, what was that? Why were you all fighting?" I asked, hoping he'd answer me this time.

"It was nothing, just something that happened a year ago. The last time I was here. Anyway, there was something important I needed to talk to you about."

We had made it to our destination and Graham turned to face me, holding both my hands. "What is it?"

"The past week and a half has been a lot of fun traveling with you, but I think it's time we went separate ways."

"What?" I questioned, completely stunned.

"You want to become a traveler and I am a traveler, but I travel to survive. I don't want to interrupt any of your dreams or cause your dreams to get messed up."

"You want to go separate ways?"

"I think it's best. Maybe sometime in the future we'll run into each other."

I was shocked that Graham had suggested this and a little hurt as well. I thought he and I were getting close, but apparently I had been wrong.

"I'll see you around, Rose," he said and I gave one slight nod.

"Okay."

Graham turned around and went off into the woods. The wolf didn't follow him at first, but I gave him a small wave. Then he turned and trotted after Graham. After he was out of my sight, I turned and walked back to the bakery. I didn't want to be in this village anymore, I felt like Mary and William were the reason this had happened. A tear fell from my eye.

I was going to find out what happened between Graham and the village, then I'd decide what to do next after that.