A Princess and A Huntsman (OUAT)

Getting Him Back

I walked back to the bakery, quickly. I wanted to find out what happened here that would make Mary and William hate Graham, then I would decide what to do to get him back. Graham had made me feel things that no other man had been able to do, he made me feel love. I wasn't going to let go of him that easily and I saw in the way his eyes were filled with sorrow that he didn't actually want to leave me either.

Getting to the bakery, I threw the door open and went in. Inside, Mary and William were sitting in chairs off in a corner talking. When I came in Mary jumped up and ran over to me.

"Rosemarie, are you okay? Did he do anything to you?"

She tried giving me a hug, but I pushed her arms away. She looked at me in shock. "I want to know what happened."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean, why do you hate Graham? What did he do to deserve that?"

"Um, well," she started, but William cut her off.

"I'll tell her. Come and sit down Rosemarie," he said and I complied. I went over to the seats that were in the corner and sat in one that put me across from both of them, Mary followed sitting in her own seat.

"So? What happened?" I questioned, growing impatient. Graham could already be moving on to his next stop.

"A year ago a huntsman came to this village with a pet wolf, the same huntsman who came in here with you, and he asked a lot of questions about what the fur skins we had laying outside of a shop to dry. At that time we had hunted some wolves and we told him that, wanting to brag of course. He grew quiet after that and left with his wolf. The next morning he was completely gone and so was all of our skins. We chased him, wanting them back. We couldn't find him, but we found a large fire pit out a ways in the woods. Digging around we managed to find a few pieces of the skins we had. He had taken them and burned them all. There was nothing left," William breathed a heavy sigh, "That's why he shouldn't have come back to this town."

"You hunted wolves?" I asked, shocked. When William nodded I covered my hand with my mouth. "That's terrible."

"Didn't you hear the rest?" Mary said, "He destroyed what the men here had worked for."

"And he had every right to. Why would you hunt wolves? They are innocent creatures, the only reason they attack people is because people attack them first. Why not hunt bears? They are viscous."

"Excuse me? You agree with what he did? I think you've been traveling with him too long. He's corrupted your thoughts."

I stood up and moved to stand by the door. "No, he didn't. I've always loved wolves, ever since I was a little kid. He didn't corrupt me, he helped me."

"Where are you going?" William asked, standing up himself. Mary followed.

"I'm going back to Graham. You guys have done a lot for me, that's true, but it's not like I was going to stay here for long anyway. I want to continue traveling."

"You can't go with him though! He's insane," Mary exclaimed, walking up and trying to grab my arm. I moved my arm.

"He is not crazy!" I yelled, "Just because you don't know someone doesn't mean you can judge them. Thank you for what you done for me these past years, but goodbye."

"Rosemarie, you can't go. Not with him. Please," William said.

"I can go with him. Why don't you just go back to hunting your wolves?" I said before I opened the door and ran out. I ran until I got into the woods at the part Graham had entered earlier. It was dark outside now and I didn't know if I'd be able to find him, but I had to try.

I continued walking, looking around me carefully for any sign of the wolf or Graham. After a little while, I saw an orange glow off into the distance. Hoping it was him, I ran up to it, stopping several feet away from where the fire was situated. What if it wasn't him? What if it was someone else's camp?

More careful this time, I walked quietly up to it and then hid behind a tree. I peeked around and my heart fluttered a little. Graham leaned back against a tree, a knife in his hand and a stick in the other. He scraped at the wood with the knife, little pieces flew off. The wolf lay curled up, near him. Grahams face was in a frown and he scraped at the wood as if he was really mad.

Taking a step around the tree, a twig snapped beneath my foot. I froze as the wolf and Graham both jumped up. Graham pointed the knife in my direction.

"Who's there?" he called.

"It's just me," I said stepping closer so he could see me.

"Rose? What are you doing here? I thought you were going to stay with the other people."

I breathed in deeply. "I don't want to stay with them, I want to stay with you."

"Why?" he asked.

I closed my eyes for a moment, if I truly wanted to be with Graham and stay with him forever, I would have to tell him the one thing that I've been scared to say in case he didn't feel the same way. I reopened my eyes and gave him a small smile. "Because I love you."

The knife fell from his hand.