Raindrops fell on The Forgotten Forest, falling between the tightly packed branches and gathering on the many new leaves that had still to reach their full form, collecting until the leaf became overburdened and gratefully dropped their burdens. One such leaf gathered its water and then proceeded to let the fresh rain water fall directly onto Marcie's upturned sleeping face.

She woke with a start and a splutter, huddling under her furs for a few more precious moments before leaping to her feet and hurriedly shoving her bed roll and furs into her pack before they got soaked by the heavy drops of rain that fell through the canopy, she wriggled into her leathers, hastily tying her hair back in a messy braid and pulled up her hood. She let the rain dampen the few smouldering coals that was all that remained of her fire and sent her mind out for Dara, as was her habit. Then she remembered sending him away and felt him in the distance, too far away to talk too properly but hopefully near or in the cave to recuperate.

Her heart heavy she made her way to the camp and hung back again as everyone hurried around trying to keep their own things out of the rain.

Breen shouted orders and hoods were raised, bows at the ready and packs shouldered.

Farsighted Damnion scouted ahead, while Breen and Six fingered freddie took the front, and each pair spread out from them, with Marcie at the rear, alone. Each pair walked within sight of each other and within ear shot of the rest of the group. It allowed more ground to be covered, however, the rain made everyone huddle together more tightly as the sound of the rain drops masked their light footsteps.

Marcie was able to hear very well and she heard all their footsteps and their quiet breathing, her eyes picked out their forms through the early morning gloom and the rain seemed to heighten the smells of the forest before everything became so sodden that all smells were masked.

Her stomach growled and she was reminded that she had not eaten since the previous morning. In years past she ate and slept with the men in their camp and so had not thought to provide her own food.

She sighed and hung further back from the group to hunt. She found a couple of fat juicy rabbits hiding in a burrow and lucked upon a lean and tough wild cat who hissed at her before she put an arrow through its throat. She hung her kills on her pack and drank deeply from her water skin to stave off her hunger following the tracks of the men at a steady run until she had caught back up with them.

Finally evening came, Breen pushed them as far as they could go in the dwindling light until Far Sighted Damnion told him even he could no longer see well enough to continue. So they made camp and Marcie gratefully found shelter under the large branches of a old sagging oak, she draped a large sheet of cloth over one of the lowest branches and pegged it to the ground to create a nice dry place to sleep and dug a small pit for a fire. She quickly skinned a rabbit and spitted it over the flames to roast then went off to make water while she waited.

As she was pulling her leggings back up she heard a twig snap and turned to see, not Freddie, who she had almost expected because of his rude gestures from the day before but no, instead it was Noal. She wondered how long he had been watching and her face heated.

He stood there, leaning against a tree, munching on a spitted rodent of some sort, watching her.

She did not have many dealings with Noal, he was friendly to everyone except her but not much more than that, he had a good arm and was known to smuggle some ale along on hunting trips in a water skin. By the looks of him, he may have been at his secret ale already, his cheeks, under his fuzzy beard, which showed a hint of red that the hair on his head did not share, was flushed and his eyes were beady, he continued to munch on the rodent, juices dripping into his beard.

He was huge, he towered over her and his arms and shoulders were so heavily packed with muscle that he had to walk with them held away from his body, his father was the blacksmith and he helped him in the forge when he was not hunting. You would think with arms like that he would not be able to draw a bow or move light footed through the forest, and yet he could do both, he easily drew his huge bow as tall as he was where others were unable to even tweak the string, and he could sneak up on any animal foolish enough to be seen by him. He had never frightened her until now.

Marie finished belting her leggings and let her hand drift to the knife strapped to her thigh.

Noal continued to watch her, and she him as he ate the rest of his meal before he tossed the carcass onto the ground in front of her and belched loudly, he wiped his mouth with his arm brace and then walked towards her.

When he reached her he carried on, she moved to one side, knife now firmly in hand and he continued past her, always staring at her until he disappeared into the trees.

Well.

Consider her rattled.

Marcie released the breath she had been holding and unclenched the knife. If he had wanted to intimidate her, it had worked.

She walked in the opposite direction to her camp, then doubled around and set about obscuring her tracks as much as she could before she made it back to her camp. Once satisfied no one would be able to track her to her sleeping place she wolfed down the rabbit and put the other one of the fire to have in the morning, then, ears and eyes peeled for any sound or movement she wriggled fully clothed into her furs and clutched her knife to her chest.

Then she closed her eyes and slept fitfully, waking to every sound, until morning came and she awoke safe, whole and unravished.

The rain continued through the next day and the next, on the fourth day it began to turn to a light mist that struggled through the great canopy but managed to keep everything from drying out and kept the men miserable and Breen snappish.

Marcie was tired, she had not had a good night sleep since this trip started and she was overcautious about staying out of the men's way. She was wariest of Noal, Six Fingered Freddie and, surprisingly, Ketsa.

She had seen them conversing quietly when they thought no one was looking, casting furtive glances at the rear of their troop where she stalked, well, she saw Noal and Freddie conversing, Ketsa simply hung near, nodding and keeping his mouth shut. What was it Breen had said about Ketsa being afraid? Maybe it was fear leading him to plot with the men who undoubtedly meant her harm. Either way, the three of them were a threat and she was too tired to be upset any more, now she was just angry.

When Breen made camp that night, he seemed to want to talk to the men, so Marcie climbed a large tree and watched and listened from the shadows as the men gathered around the fire.

"Damnion cannot see hide nor hair of them" Breen was saying, his golden curls were damp with the moisture in the air and with sweat, he swept them off his face,

"Where are they?" Marshel asked, from where he sat by the fire, eating a handful of berries, he refused to eat meat for some reason,

"We should have come across them by now surely" Six Fingered Freddie grumbled, his thin arms wrapped around himself,

"We've been making good time" Far Sighted Damnion commented, "They know to follow the signs, and yet...there is no sign"

"Could it have been the wolves?" Nervous Gerard asked, tapping his foot distractedly,

"Over thirty traders, plus apprentices and servants? Thats a lot for all the packs in the forest to take on, let alone one"

"Maybe it was all the packs, banded together like, the outsiders whole party was killed off, the story teller one told us, he said, it was wolves and strange magic's an unseen beasts. Never used ta be this way back in my day. This forest of getting more an more deadly, you mark me words" Old Willis said, his eyes shifting among the group,

Breen held up his hands as the men began shifting and muttering under their breath,

"Even if it is the wolves" he said loudly to be heard, "Or any other strange beasts, we will continue on, even if we are to find their bodies, we may be able to scavenge supplies enough to take back to the village"

The grumbling grew louder, Breen waited until their was quiet before saying, "We are all seasoned hunters. No others can survive as long as us in this forest we call home, we can live out here indefinitely"- Freddie laughed scornfully -"We can survive as long as we have our wits and each other, each man has their skills and these are what will make the difference out here. Now, we will continue on until we find them, dead or alive, what say you?"

There was silence.

Then Ketsa stepped forward, glancing around nervously, he addressed the space just to the left of Breen's shoulder,

"What...ah...what if they are...not, ya know...following the marks?...what if they....have strayed from.....the....path" he finished stuttering and slunk back to his place in the shadow,

"Then" Breen said seriously, addressing Ketsa directly, "We keep going"

He looked around tiredly, "Everyone get some sleep, we will well need it morrow"

Marcie crept down from her tree and slipped back to her own camp and slept deeply.

There was still no sign of the traders the next day or the next.

Breen had them pick up the pace until all efforts to be soft footed were abandoned and they ran through the forest, only to collapse in the evening and wake up stiff and weak kneed the next day.

Marcie wished Dara had been well enough to be here with her. Not only as company, she was terrible lonely, but also to scout ahead on the wing and seek out the traders from the air, he would be able to cover much more ground and could see much farther without the trees to obscure his vision.

Breen put a halt to the breakneck pace on the third day as most of the men were unable to continue. Far Sighted Damnion had taken a fever, his age finally showing and as a prized scout Breen commanded all the men, him included to rest the whole day and they would set off, presumably better rested the following morning.

Breen himself went off and found several large squirrels and a young buck and the men gathered berries and fruits and herbs and made a hearty meal, Noal passed around his secret water skin and one everyone was full of belly and light of head they all fell into varying degrees of sleep.

Marcie ate her own meagre meal and passed out for a long time, waking up to twilight, she felt better than she had in days. She stretched and bent until her limbs felt loose and she wandered off to catch some more food.

The area of forest they were now in was one where strange pourous rock outcrops pushed their way up out of the undergrowth, the trees that did grow here were huge and old, their grasping roots reaching deep, everything covered in thick moss. 

She found a large platform of rock that created a clearing where the sky was actually visible, she stood for a moment staring at the dark blue sky, a hint of light around its edges and two lonely stars twinkling.

After admiring the sky she hunted around and found the symbol for water carved into a tree on the edge of the clearing and searched until she found a crack in the rock where crystal clear water from deep underground bubbled up and formed little wells just under the surface. She lay down on her belly and reached into the crack, scooping the water to her mouth, it tasted as though she had copper coins in her mouth but the symbol had specified you could drink it so she sated her thirst on the cool water.

The squeak of a leather boot on the damp moss was the only sound to give him away.

Marcie rolled to the side, just as Six Fingered Freddie brought a fist sized rock down on the place where her head had been just a moment before.

She scrambled to her feet, only to stumble back as an arrow flew past her head.

The ground was littered with smaller rocks, undoubtedly where Freddie had got his that he intended to bash her brains in with. Fortunately as she fell she hand landed upon one of these and she hefted it, lept to her feet and threw it in the direction the arrow had come from. The rock flew truer and faster than she could have ever hoped and shattered Ketsa's bow, the arrow he had notched and probably a couple of his fingers, he yelped in pain and and surprise and fell back, the trees obscuring him from view.

Marcie did not get to celebrate this victory before huge powerful arms wrapped around her middle, jerking her off her feet and proceeded to squeeze her chest and the arms pinned to her sides. She barely managed to get a choking gasp of air in her lungs before it began to be choked out of her,

"Fuckin bitch" a horse voice breathed in her ear, smelling strongly of ale, she began to panic.

She flailed her legs widely, jamming her heels into Noal's knees, he grunted in pain and squeezed all the tighter, causing something to crack in Marcie's chest. She would have screamed in pain if she could get any air in, she could not.

"Don't kill her, we want her alive for this" Freddie said, stalking over, his hideous grin stretched across his bony face. He evaded her flailing legs and back handed her across the face, which caused her to stop her flailing as she momentarily lost consciousness.

She regained it when Noal dropped her. Whether it was the pain in her chest or that she could breath again that did it she did not know, all she did know was she sucked in breath after sweet breath before Noal's arm went around her neck choking her again, and his other grabbed both her wrists and twisted them painfully behind her back.

"Shame Ketsa pissed his pants and ran off, hes gonna miss all the fun" Freddie grunted as he gripped her ankles and yanked her legs apart,

"Probably wouldn't have been gall to get it up anyway" Noal remarked, giving her wrists another twist, she gasped in pain, the arm across her neck did not stop her breath completely but she was unable to recover the air she needed to scream.

Freddie let go of her ankle and grabbed the knife at her thigh with his six fingered hand. She took this opportunity to kick out at him, he was quick and leapt back but the toe of her boot clipped him under the chin and he howled in pain, striking out at her blindly his fist connected with the rib that Noal had cracked earlier and Marcie went limp with pain. Noal tightened his grip on her throat so she could not breath again.

Freddie hopped around holding his chin in one hand and cursing,

"Fuck the fucking Goddess! fuck that hurts!" he shouted, then he rounded on her, pointing with her knife, "Yer gonna get it now bitch! ya think I don't know what yer are! I know you leadin us in circles, ya gonna, what? Kill us? No no no no NO! I ain't gonna let ya, imma teach you what we do ta cursed magic bitches, yeah im gonna, im fuckin gonna!"

"An me" Noal rasped in her ear, his panting breath condensing on her skin,

"Grab er fuckin legs" Freddie instructed,

Noal let go of her wrists and she immediately grabbed his arm to try and pull it away from her neck, clawing at it with her short nails. He just grunted and held on tighter, pulling her off the ground by the neck he grabbed her ankles and lifted them behind her so she was on her knees, legs twisted awkwardly. He pulled off her boots as he did so.

Freddie, tongue between him one remaining tooth, grabbed the hem of her skirt and used the knife to cut it off her, he lifted the material to his nose and took a deep breath, grinning at her he then threw the material away, discarded, then he sawed at her belt, being tougher leather it was trickier, no matter how sharp she kept her blade.

Noal's arm loosed slightly in his excitement at what was happening and Marcie was able to think clearly now she was not deprived of air to breath. She slipped the fingers of her right hand under her left arm brace and felt around until she found what she was looking for and pulled out the arrow head with a small piece of shaft attached. No longer than her hand span, being short on knives she had used what she could as a makeshift weapon. Never thinking she would need it.

She tucked it between two of her fingers at the knuckle and, when Freddie finally cut through her belt with a grunt of satisfaction she threw her arm up and next to her head, just above where Noal was breathing heavily into her ear.

She felt the arrow connect with something and before he had time to react she pulled her arm away and threw it back again and again. On the third hit, when Freddie had taken a hold of her leggings and yanked them down to the tops of her thighs, Noal reacted and screamed right into her ear. She felt something go pop inside her head and the screaming got very muffled. She buried the arrow head in flesh for the final time and left it there.

Noal removed both his arms violently and put them to his face before Freddie looked up from his prize and saw what had happened, before he could react, before his expression changed from one of pleasure soon to be had to shock at the injury of his partner by the person he wished to extract pleasure from, Marcie punched him in the chin.

She figured that place would be sensitive after the previous injury and she was right. Freddie near enough lost consciousness when the blow connected, if Marcie had struck at full strength who knows what would have happened, but he was too close and yet when his eyes went slack for just a moment it was enough for Marcie to push him and for him to topple backwards and land with an oof on the unforgiving moss covered rock. Marcie scrambled to her feet yanking her leggings back up then leapt on top of Freddie and grabbed the knife from his slack rip, in her haste she used too much strength and the knife went flying away from her, she swore, but, in her rage, wasted no time in retrieving the weapon and instead, just as Freddie snapped out of his pain induced minor blackout, she grabbed his neck in both her hands and began to throttle him.

Six Fingered Freddie, grabbed at the hands of Marcie's No One's Bride with his eleven fingers and tried to pull in breath as his wind pipe was crushed under hands of steel, while vengeful eyes glared at him with such fury and loathing he began to breathlessly scream in terror. The Hands around his neck started to grow hot and Freddie felt his neck begin to burn, he thrashed and clawed at those hands even more, but the strength behind them was incredible, A black mist began to descend over his fear wide eyes and he was almost grateful as it hid those terrible ones from him.

Marcie was content to continue to squeeze until Freddie's eyes popped out of his skull. But she felt someone grab her shoulders and attempt to pull her away from her victim, and she heard the muffled sound of someone calling her name. It was unimportant. The most important thing was the bag of flesh under her hands which she would destroy. She felt someone grab her around the middle, someone strong. But it was not Noal, it was not his overwhelming strength, and besides, she had put an end to him, this was strength she could fight and she fought. Fought to keep her hands around this throat.

Suddenly a weight slammed into her and she was ripped away from her victim, a cry of unadulterated rage leaving her throat, her hands grasping to return to their place.

Arms wrapped around her and she struggled, her eyes intent upon the thing that had been Six Fingered Freddie, the arms held her but they did not try to choke her or cut off her air and yet she still struggled until those arms settled on her own and just held her and she fought and fought until she could fight no longer and she collapsed to the mossy ground.

She gasped and panted. She could breath she was alive she could breath she was alive.

She felt the arms still around her and looked up, away from creature she wished to destroy and saw the familiar golden curls and strong chin that saved him from looking girlish, his strong bow wielding arms were around her and his face showed such concern, his eyes were wide as they looked at her and she also saw fear, but of her? She did not know. She buried her face in his shoulder and let dry sobs devoid of tears wrack her whole body for a long time.

Breen held her and rocked her and patted her hair, saying nothing until she eventually fell silent in his embrace.