The sound of an approaching horse abruptly woke Aliana, who had been dozing fitfully while sitting upright in bed. Her eyes flew open and she bolted upright. Next to her on the bed was the dagger. Ever since she had seen the hoofprints in the snow hours ago, she had refused to let it out of her sight.
The frightened princess got slowly to her feet. Creeping over to the doorway, she hoped that, when she looked outside, she wouldn't see an unwelcome face staring back at her. She slowly pulled aside the blanket and sighed in relief when she saw that it was Iora atop the approaching horse.
She rushed outside, for once not being bothered by the cold. "Iora!" she cried with glee.
"Why are you so happy to see me?" the guard asked, genuinely puzzled. Despite being confused, she looked happy to see Aliana so overjoyed at her return. "I was only gone for a few hours."
"We have trouble," was all Aliana could say. She was overwhelmed with various emotions.
Iora was instantly serious, her playful smile quickly vanishing. She slid off the horse and instantly grabbed Aliana. "Are you hurt? What happened? Are you in danger?"
She pointed into the woods, over the small hill. "I was gathering berries and I saw horse tracks. I'm scared."
"Are you serious?" Iora glanced at the hill, worry written in her brow. Under her breath, she mumbled, "There shouldn't be anyone else out here." She looked back at Aliana. "Show me them."
The princess nodded, at a loss for words. After Iora had hurriedly tied the horse's reins to the shack and unloaded the supplies she had bought while in town, she allowed Aliana to lead her over the hill.
"I came out here just after you left," she explained. "I took the horse with me so he could get some fresh air and help carry wood. When I was done picking berries, I was going to gather nuts and then head back to the cabin. But I saw these." She pointed at the tracks. Since it had thankfully not snowed at all that day, the tracks still appeared fresh. They stood out glaringly among the pristine white snow around them that had not been disturbed.
"I don't want to overreact," Iora mused, "but this seems very worrisome to me. There shouldn't be anyone else out here and I didn't pass anyone while I was in the woods."
Aliana, suddenly distracted, looked at Iora. "How did it go?"
She shrugged. "Setting traps went well enough. I made a few. Some are placed within walking distance of the cabin, but others are far away. I tried to find the best spots where there would be lots of hares. Finding water was the hard part. Most of the streams in the mountain are shallow, which means they freeze easily. I had to find one that was deeper and wider and still had running water. After a lot of wandering, I finally found one a couple miles from here. Our canteens are now filled."
"That's good!" Aliana exclaimed, cheerfully jumping. "It's so awesome that you know how to survive out here. Without you, I'd be dead."
Iora just shook her head. She was tempted to point out the fact that, without her, the princess would have never even been able to escape the castle, but she decided to let it go. Instead, she turned her attention back to the tracks.
"Should I start worrying about the tracks?" Aliana asked. She was wringing her hands and had a slight frown on her face.
"Start worrying? Haven't you been worried this whole time?" Iora teased. "Yes, we need to worry about them. There are dangerous people out here and we don't want to meet them. Now that traps are set and we know where water is, our next priority is making a sturdy door, I'll work on that tomorrow, but it'll most likely take a day or two to make one that I'm satisfied with under these circumstances. Also, I'm not leaving you alone any longer. Where I go, you'll have to go. We can't risk you being alone when our visitor returns. We're very lucky whoever it is didn't check out the cabin or happen to see you, these tracks are barely out of the cabin's sight."
"Who knew I had so much luck?"
"Who knew, indeed. I just hope it doesn't run out any time soon and leave us dead."
Iora made to go back toward the cabin, but Aliana spoke up, causing her to pause. "Can we pick nuts while we're here?"
The guard shook her head in exasperation. "Don't you ever stop thinking about food?" When she saw Aliana's crestfallen face, she smiled gently. "Of course. We need a good stockpile of food at the cabin. We'd better hurry about it, though, I don't want to be close to these tracks for too long, in case our visitor returns."
"Thank you!"Aliana nodded eagerly. She turned her back on the tracks and went to the nut tree. With glee, she began stuffing nuts into her satchel.
Iora joined her, also putting the food in her bag. "I'm mad at you," she said after a while.
"What?" Aliana looked at her, confused. "That's random."
"The only way for you to have found the tracks was to go out of sight of the cabin."
She raised an eyebrow. "Are you serious?"
"Yes! I told you not to go out of sight of the cabin. You deliberately disobeyed my orders."
"You have got to be kidding me!" Aliana shook her head and put her hands on her hips. "The cabin is literally just over the hill. I understand you not wanting me to go for a jolly stroll through the woods, but all I did was walk down a hill because I saw food. And besides, I found the tracks, which I think is pretty important."
Iora obviously saw Aliana's logic, but she beligerantly stood her ground. "I told you to stay near the cabin! It's easy to get lost in the woods. Or what if the person had come by when you were down here? Can you imagine what would have happen if you were all by yourself and a stranger came by?"
"And I would be safer if I was in the cabin? With a blanket for a door?"
"Just gather food," Iora huffed.
Aliana, knowing she had won the argument, felt a smile creeping onto her face. Resisting the urge to smirk, she turned back to the tree and continued gathering nuts.
When they had collected as much as they could carry, they made their way back to the cabin. Iora trudged the entire way, each step declaring her anger and annoyance at the princess. The sun was beginning to set as they walked through the cabin's curtain door.
"It's freezing in here," Aliana complained. She pulled her cloak tightly around herself and felt a shiver travel down her spine.
"Of course it is, the fire needs stoked. Why don't you attend to that while I take a closer look at this door. That way we can get off to an earlier start tomorrow, since I will already have in mind what it is we require. We'll most likely be needing to go into town, seeing as we need something sturdy and secure. We'll also need to do something about the windows. We'll want to be able to see out of them, but also bar them up quickly for safety. Not to mention, it would be nice to be able to block out the snow. It'll be tricky to find the right material."
Aliana hurriedly added plenty of wood to the fire, grateful for the immediate warmth flowing over her thanks to its proximity. She would have stood there enjoying it, if it were not for her rumbly belly reminding her how hungry she was. She took their pot, emptied some of their water into it, and began adding bits of jerky. The vegetables were gone and the fish Iora had caught had not been properly prepared as yet. How she wished more could be put in with the jerky! Their supper would most likely be unpleasant tasting, or at least extremely bland. At least they had a few nuts and berries to go on the side. Perhaps they could get more either at town tomorrow, or along their journey.
After the pot was on, she swept out what snow she could, then made a torch to melt away the rest. While she was waiting for their supper to heat up, she joined Iora outside. The guard was walking around the perimeter of the cabin, thoroughly inspecting the many holes and exposed windows.
"Supper is going to be ready soon," Aliana muttered. Her soft voice traveled loudly through the still twilight air and her breath fogged in front of her.
"I'll be inside soon. I'm just trying to think of what would be the best material for covering up all these holes. We're not going to find an ornate, elegantly-carved mahogany door just sitting out here in the middle of the woods just waiting for us to use. And we don't have the money, time, or materials to make a proper door. I just don't know what we're going to do." Iora's lips were turned down in a deep frown and she seemed extremely concerned. She seemed so focused on the dilapidated cabin that nothing except the assassin showing up or the cabin burning down would steal her from her thoughts.
"I hate to say it, but the windows just might have to wait. Our main priority should be the door. The blanket isn't nearly secure enough and the cold easily gets in."
"You're right," Iora mused, more to herself than to Aliana.
The princess looked at her friend with concern. "We can worry about it tomorrow. Please come in to eat. You look like you're freezing."
"I'm fine." She sighed. "But you're right. It's suppertime." Iora shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. She looked at Aliana and did her best to smile. "Let's go inside."
Aliana nodded and together they went into the cabin and sat down to what they were now classifying as a meal. The wind had been blowing gently for most of the afternoon, but now gusts began to play with the blanket over the doorway, flapping it about, making both of them all the more nervous and cold. The fire flickered and, as the wind kicked up even more, threatened to go out.
"We must do something about that quickly," voiced the princess. "I'm scared that a nasty storm may blow through soon. The only question is how? If we put the blankets too close, the wind could blow them into the fire."
Iora's face lit up and she jumped to her feet. "I've an idea. Help me!"
They swiftly pushed the bed as near the fire as possible then turned the table long-ways up and began moving the table from the back of the cabin to the front. They had to readjust the horses in order to get the table past them. Once it was in position against the open doorway, the wedged the table in place with the two rickety chairs. The table wasn't very tall, but it was tall enough to provide cover for the fire. Unfortunately, the top two feet of the door remained exposed, forcing them to simply leave the blanket covering it.
Aliana looked at their work. "It's certainly... interesting," was the most she could muster. "But how are we going to get out?"
"That," Iora said with a proud tone, "is an issue for another day." She set her empty bowl down next to the fire and then collapsed on the bed. "For now, I think I'm just going to go to sleep." The blocked doorway didn't seem to concern her in the slightest.
The princess gave one more dubious look at the doorway before sighing in defeat and sitting down on the bed next to Iora. Her gaze instantly drifted back to the table. Now that it was being used as a door, they wouldn't have anywhere to sit when they ate their meals. An idea suddenly struck her and she jabbed Iora, who was relaxing with her eyes closed, in the side with her elbow.
"Ow!" she exclaimed angrily, sitting up. "What was that for?"
"Well, we don't really need a table, do we? We can just eat on the bed."
"What has that to do with anything?"
"Can't we use the table's wood to make a door?
"It's not tall enough. Can't you see that?" Iora gave an exasperated mutter and laid back down. "Just get some sleep. We'll talk about it in the morning."
Aliana huffed. "I know it's not tall enough. But it's more than wide enough. Couldn't we cut some from the side to put up top?"
Iora opened one eye and examined the table with it. When she spoke, she sounded almost impressed. "Not a terrible idea. It would take more tools than we have, and we'd still need supplies for the hinges and such, but it's an idea worth exploring. We have little money left, and I'm not certain we have enough. But the more ideas the better. Now please go to sleep."
"But I'm not tired," she whined.
"Well," Iora grumbled, "I am. Now go to sleep." The guard rolled over so she was facing the wall, signaling that she wouldn't be up for any more argument.
Aliana, her one source of entertainment going to sleep, finally surrendered. She climbed under the scratchy blankets and did her best to get comfortable. With a sigh, she closed her eyes.