Three years ago...

Ralph was gritting his teeth as he kicked his horse to run faster.

He could still hear the sound of their mocking laughter ringing in his ears.

Those bloody bandits could merely escape once.

Next time he would be there to catch them!

*****

It was merely meant to be a jolly good time to rob.

The plan was simple, really.

They stop the carriage, take whatever they could and disappear—a truly simple plan that they utilized on a daily basis as a matter of fact.

But her bloody cousins had to choose the wrong carriage, did they? They just had to get themselves into trouble again.

It would have been well if the carriage was harmless.

No, of course it was not! It was filled with three men, all of whom with weapons!

And it would have been well still if the men were not bloody Town Guards! But they were and they all bounded down the carriage, unhitched the horses and went after them, growling about catching bandits to be hanged.

Alex's cousins, Ned and Barto, ought to have survived. They ought to be somewhere in the Dark Forest, saving their own arse because there could be no way she could be of help to them now.

Not when she was carrying a lifeless body of a woman while atop her horse, escaping a possible damnation.

"Bleedin' hell indeed!" Alex gritted out as she kicked her mare to run faster. "Almost got caught and caught me self a dead woman 'nstead! Famous!"

Siege made a nasal sound of agreement.

Alex looked over her shoulder as her dark and tattered coat flew in the air behind her. The part of the forest where she found the woman was getting distant.

But the men chasing her were not.

Town Guards.

"Hurry, Siege!" she shouted at the mare. "We dinna want them to catch us now. Not when we have a dead woman with us!"

The mare galloped faster, racing against Alex's own heart. She would die tonight if she did not escape. They would think she killed the woman.

Which she did not.

Alex found her dying in the Dark Forest while hiding from the Guards she and her cousins tried to rob.

Help 'em... the other woman... and my baby... please...

The woman's dying plea whirled around Alex's mind as she bent down to clutch the lifeless body in front of her. She was not able to secure it as tight as she would have earlier for another group of men had emerged and this time they saw her.

The Guards must have returned and discovered her hiding place.

But they could not catch her now. To be thrown to prison for thieving was acceptable considering she was indeed guilty. But to be dragged in front of the Men of Courts for a murder she did not commit would be disastrous.

And why did she bring the body with her again? Why could she not have just left it there in the Dark Forest?

She could not. It was the only reason.

She could not leave behind a dead woman and live the rest of her life not thinking about her. Somewhere in the Town, someone was looking for this woman. And that someone deserved to mourn her death.

She heard the men shout behind her and her mind snapped back to her current dilemma.

"Oi!" she cried out as she pulled at Siege's reigns. She would not survive a chase on the road. She must find somewhere to hide. She looked to her right. She had reached the end of the Dark Forest.

Trying to ignore the approaching men, Alex made an easy decision.

She kicked Siege to a full gallop once again, pulling the reigns to direct the mare to the right, into a narrow path that led back into the Dark Forest.

"Go, Siege," she urged the mare which began to slow down. Alex could swear Siege was shaking with fear for who would not? It was the bloody Dark Forest! No sane man—or woman—would dare risk getting lost inside. There was not a thread of light, none but the sound of the animals hiding in stark darkness.

Alex had never ventured into this part of the forest before.

She knew a good portion of it. She knew there was a giant hole on the other side, but one ought to cross acres of darkness if they wanted to reach it. She had been to that brighter side but they had always taken the same path and they had lamps!

This one she had never stepped into.

As she heard the Guards' horses stop beside the road, just at the edge of the forest, the sounds of hooves hesitant, Alex held her breath.

Their voices were audible, arguing whether or not they ought to follow her. She urged Siege five steps deeper into the darkness, carrying with them their heavy, lifeless burden.

She jumped off the mare and guided it behind a large tree trunk. "Hush," she whispered to her horse. It stomped its hooves but made no sound.

Alex leaned against the trunk and closed her eyes.

She must take her chances here.

The village of Dartridge was another option, but she doubted the people would be welcoming to a bandit carrying a dead woman.

But it seemed she would have to stay for quite some time for her dreaded fear was realized.

"Bleedin' hell!" she cursed under her breath, pulling the unwilling Siege deeper into the forest as the Guards entered, holding their bloody lamps.

*****

The Guards did their best, they truly did. But their lamps brought them more trouble. The animals hiding in the dark began to come out of hiding, attracted by the yellow lights floating in midair. The Guards' horses did not like being surrounded by animals they could barely see and before the Guards knew it, the lamps became much of a hindrance as they all struggled to stay atop their horses while the animals jumped in distress, trying to escape the animals circling them.

One Guard nearly fell from his own horse and he was the first to shout, "Let's go, they could not survive this bloody place." He turned his horse around. "Off to Dartridge. It's the nearest village."

Alex finally allowed herself to breathe when the sound of hooves became distant and the shouts of the men rang from the road, heading toward the village of Dartridge.

Alex removed her coat and placed it over the dead woman. She stayed beside Siege, caressing the mare's hair to calm it down. The sounds of the animals began to dissipate as they returned to their hiding places.

Alex waited a few more minutes. Or perhaps she ought to stay here for another hour to be certain.

And then she would take the woman to Meriwether.

It shall not be an easy task, but it was the proper thing to do.

*****

Meriwether was located near the village of Blucksley.

At the entrance of the village were red rock formations. Across said rock formations was the rock forest the villagers did not enter because beyond it was the secret village of Meriwether. Scattered around the rock forest were stone pillars or rock trees that extended above, most were a part of the ground of the world above the Town itself. The rock trees were too high up that they also held secrets of their own.

For years, the bandits residing in Meriwether had built their own secret watchtowers atop the rock trees, making entrance into Meriwether difficult, if not impossible.

But the struggle to enter Meriwether was not over after passing through the rock forest. A clearing would greet whoever was lucky to survive shots of arrows or bullets or even knives or rocks. And if the clearing would not provide the bandits hidden above the watchtowers the clearance they needed to shoot more arrows, bullets, knives or rocks, then perhaps the trespasser might survive—if he could find the secret pathway well-hidden between two giant walls of rocks. And if, perchance he survived crossing the clearing and found the pathway, then he would have to risk having bandits run after him and he ought to hope that he was lean enough to pass through the narrow path for it could only permit a single file of humans to pass through.

Perhaps a trespasser could survive everything, but it might be because the bandits themselves likely allowed it. And if he would ever come through the narrow pathway between the two giant rock walls, he would probably discover one of the most astounding places in the Town.

He would immediately be drawn into the village as he walked down the dirt path. To both sides would be the stone cottages and far ahead were the play of vibrant colors of different crops the bandits tended themselves. Surrounding the entire village were wooden areas that held secrets of their own with trees that grew high above, their trunks wide and strong.

But such wonder would never be possible to behold if not for the giant hole above, providing the people of Meriwether their own natural light from the world aboveground.

The very same bright life greeted Alex when she finally emerged from the narrow pathway between the stone walls. Yet as the village folks paused to see who arrived, one of them jumped to his feet and called for their leader, Gustav Griggs, Alex's father.

"Yer dead, cousin, yer dead," Ned hissed beside her.

"Dead as the woman on yer horse's back," Barto added.

She threw both her cousins a darting look. She had not endured two days on the road without food and Siege's whining to meet such warm welcome from the two bastards. She had spent her journey wondering where they had been and the moment she walked into the rock forest, the two young men jumped out of nowhere, bombarding her with questions, screaming at her wake how worried they had been that she had been captured by the Guards. They had no news of a woman bandit captured and prisoned and they were starting to fear she had met an unfortunate demise.

Not a soul inquired how she survived or how she was. And when they discovered that she was carrying with her another load that was not worth a townsend, her cousins screamed, demanding how she had become a murderer in a span of two days.

Alex had to give the pair a good amount of boxing and well-deserved kicks with the little energy she had left before they both escorted her across the clearing and into Meriwether.

And when they finally arrived, the first thing they could talk about was how she would lose her life in the hands of her own father.

Alex waited until a large bearded man with the same bushy hair as hers emerged from the largest stone house by the dirt path like a bouncing boulder, his dark brown eyes searching and utterly angry.

"Yer dead," Ned repeated beside her, nodding his head.

"Dinna worry, cousins," she growled under her breath as she watched her very furious father approach, "I'll take ye with me te afterlife. Ye and Barto both, ye bleedin' bastards. And then ye can carry me dead friend here and deliver us to heaven before ye go down te hell."

"Alexandria Griggs!" her father boomed before her cousins could counter her words. "I'mma kill ye, lass! I'mma kill ye!"

"Yer dead," Ned and Barto hissed before they ran off to go back to the stone forest.

Alex squared her shoulders and held Siege's reigns tighter as the unfaithful mare started to back off as well.

"Where the bleedin' hell have ye been!" Gustav demanded, towering over Alex.

Alex swallowed and allowed the sweetest smile she could muster. "How 'bout I explain over a sumptuous meal, eh?"

*****

"I ought to be tyin' ye down, lass," Gustav Griggs said beside Alex.

"'Tis not the time to be scoldin' me, 'Pa," she said under her breath.

"Ye and yer cousins ought to be tied down."

But he was no longer looking at her with furious brown eyes. He was looking at the beautiful woman in the center of the pyre they would soon burn.

Alex sighed, looking at the woman she carried all the way from the Dark Forest. She had had one of the worst two days of her life but it was worth it for she could now provide the lovely woman her well-deserved burning ritual.

Alex helped clean her corpse and like the other village women who were present during the process, Alex was surprised to discover that her hair was red. Her skin, although covered with horrible infected wounds and bruises had once been fair and smooth.

"Wherever did ye find her?" her father asked beside her. He had asked the same question countless of times and Alex had ceased to provide the answer. She was in as much disbelief as he.

Whoever did this to her, whoever she was running from, it was evil. No one could ever sleep tight at night after having caused this much suffering upon a human being, more so when it was inflicted for a long period of time. Alex knew the woman suffered longer for her wounds spoke the truth.

"Get Nick..."

"Who?"

"Nick... Nicholas... Ever... Everar—"

"Everard?"

"Help 'em... my baby... please..."

Alex's jaw tightened as the woman's last words echoed in her ears. She had not been able to sleep in peace since she arrived in Meriwether.

"She was runnin' from someone," she said aloud.

Her father remained silent. He had heard the same words from her countless of times as well.

Suddenly tears filled her eyes as she looked at the woman who ought to be at peace. But that was far from the truth for her bruised beautiful face and her wounds spoke of a soul that was crying for help.

"I must help her," she said, sniffing.

Gustav turned his head to stare at his daughter. He did not say a word for he knew he could not stop her even if he would indeed decide to tie her down for Alex had always found a way to have her way.

"She said so 'erself. There are others sufferin' out there," she said, wiping her tears with the back of her hand. "A baby, 'Pa, a babe!"

Gustav merely nodded. "Ye will come te yer friends' brother. Ye will come to one of 'em Everards." It was not a question. It was a statement that gave permission.

Alex nodded. "Aye. I'll come te Nicholas Everard."