Bianca didn't get any sleep that night...

By the time the sun rose up, she felt weakened, her thighs sore, her grip unwavering made her hand feel hardened,

The dirt road rejoined the main route to the "hunting village." At some point the woods receded into the entrance of a fertile valley, though majorly covered by red tinged trees and pines.

The bird's songs distant but secure and ever present, she forgot which song was which, but she heard crows and bluejays and cardinals off and away. The thin mist, the smell of morning dew, it was like nothing she had ever sensed before. She could recall wood's essence, wildflowers, brooks, and wet earth all around, overstimulating yet peaceful and rich.

Autum's blanket spread through the trees of the valley, it looked like one of those old pictures in the galleries of ancient palaces, an idyllic pocket of pristine forest for plenty to run through. She remembered those wild stories, reading that once long ago a wolf-thing had terrorized "Old Gevaudan" in the times before the great reckoning. And that in recent history so was "New Gevaudan."

There was a mutant half man half beast unlike none before or after. She remembered the illustrations of said thing, she remembered teeth, claws, fur, maws elongated and lethal, eyes flaring red, an expression of violent hunger spread in its face, the name of said thing "La Bête."

She had long ago dreamt running into the woods away from that thing, hiding in the trees along with a girl dressed in red, she remembered climbing a tree as the monster clawed its way up while Bianca and her friend kept climbing  until they came to the last branch, were they sat hugging until she realized the girl had begun to turn into the beast driving her teeth into her neck.

A sound tear through her thoughts, a vibrating "Vrooom" spread as she turned back just to quickly motion her horse towards the tree line out of the woods.

Outside the protective embrace of the red forest a car-like vehicle reached her vision quickly loosing itself out into the village she was still yet to meet. This meant two things, either the car belonged to her brother's council, or the nobility had been informed of her disappearance from the palace, which also meant Raeb must have spoken up to them and set a prize on her head without them knowing.

Her heart sank.

She covered her mouth muffling her crying.

"Raeb... I loved you."

Tears washed off.

She tied her mount to a tree and came down from him.

The Horse may have saved her life at night by keeping her on the right track, but now she had to take on the journey herself.

Bianca took as much as she took into her backpack, the extra provisions her ring got her, the blanket, the water bottle, she took off her shoes, she felt a numbness on the base of her foot, she might have needed to rest, but right now that was a commodity she could not afford until she got to a safe place.

The runaway princess caressed the horse's brow and mane as to bid goodbye, hoping he would make his way back to its owner safely. She then ventured into the red forest letting go of her temporal companion.

:::

:::

She stepped and walked for what felt like hours, far behind was the road, along with her sense of direction. However she heard the motion of water, whatever she would find following the river-bend there surely would be a settlement nearby.

Directing her way to what she thought would be a water source seemed a solid idea, a right idea, but the sound kept itself away, and away, and away every little step, till at last a quaint river still covered by trees appeared, by then the sun was high up, probably noon by the warmth surrounding her, no clouds above no smell of rain but the pleasant winds of the forest, she thought or reaching out to any local nymphs, perhaps assistance would be needed to take her on the right direction.

Then the birds stopped singing.

She stood on her place, quietly reaching down to the ground grabbing stones... what was she doing? What was she even meant to do? Her mind reassured her, she was being impractical, she was not an attacker. If it was the beast she was to end up as another victim an easy meal for any monster. She was losing her sanity, yet she felt good. She knew she was no match, but something in her gut reassured her:

"You got this. You can do it."

She flung her arm up in a swift notion, letting go with all her strength towards the bush.

The rustling halted as a racoon came out running, scared of the stones.

Bianca felt guilty, she never meant to harm the local fauna.

She let go an anguished sigh, laugh, then cried, then calmed down.

The forager maiden went her merry way, lending her ear to the songs of the woods, no bird was yet singing, she thought back of the birds at the palace, the thought back at the ravens, she thought of her brother... and soon stopped thinking.

:::

:::

She kept pushing through it.

Though her calves were sore.

Though her feet tinged her every step.

Though her mind kept telling her she was being watched.

Sunlight had barely gone past, twilight about to end, bugs singing in the drenches of the forest, twigs, branches, and grass breaking at her step as she found a path marked by a tiny carved sign: at her right hand, the path of needles and a path of nails to her left.

There was no way to know which was right, yet a gut feeling told her to go left, then a rustling, again.

This time no crickets, no bugs, no birds, instead a deep growl met her eardrums.

Distance warped the imminent danger, but whatever was out there baring their teeth howled once more, the voice of a nightmare come to life for the young maiden.

Bianca's legs shook then ran amok the trees, leaving behind her breath.

The Growl soon had footsteps behind it.

The princess ran, ran, and ran, she had no desire to look back, she thought if she did and the beast saw her, she would trip and fall.

One step.

A growl.

Two steps.

A thud on the ground.

Giving up, was not an option, less so, if the thing behind you had their maws salivating just to get a bite out of you. The ground shook at every step of the monster.

Then against her best instincts, the best she knew about prey-predator behavior she looked back.

A massive black blob of a creature stared at her with yellow eyes, fur patched all throughout its body, ears up, curiously... dressed? He wore something like a plaid shirt, at least it looked like it.

She stomped to the ground and fell against a stone.

She was not comatose, but she did lose consciousness from horror, she had read something like that could happen, though then again, the writer of said events was a man.

Her senses faded to black. A deep well of pitch-black emptiness in her head, and at the core of it, Raeb. Majestic looking, regal in posture, sitting at the edge of her thoughts.

She could feel him staring back at her in disappointment.

"Do you have any idea what you've done."

He spoke in a voice that wasn't his.

Then her dream shifted.

She was running through a ruined place; the columns were covered in ivy while cracks and moss overrun a marble floor. There she was, clear as the light of day. The little helper that ate her in her dreams, the little girl, her hair impossibly shed in a cloud of locks and threads, some red, some dark as a raven's feather, her skin the darkest acorn the princess had ever seen. She seemed as alive as autumn itself, a living remnant of her true state in the depts of the dark and sterile subconscious woods where she thought eternity awaited her.

"Hold on, I've seen you before."

The dream girl spoke.

"You've got to wake up darling."

She rushed up.

The forest was gone.

"Look what you did."

"Least she's awake now."

The voices next to her... she turned to face them.

There was a boy in a bright red coat, and a stocky brawny woodsman by the look of his clothes.

    "Umm... Hi."

    "Red!"

    "I'm' trying to be nice."

    "Who are you? Where am I?"

"That's what we want to know."

Another feminine voice.

    "Who-"

There she was.

Her otherwise cloud shaped hair full of microbraids that were held by a ponytail.

Lips lush and scarlet as some of the red strands on her hair.

Her skin an ochre so alive that felt like fall was given human form.

On her shoulders a red velvet shawl held by a pin in the shape of a crescent moon crossed by an arrow, mirroring the missing half of the shape and making a full moon where a rose made of red jewels was framed as the center piece entangling its vines in the silver arrow.

    "My name Is Rose Scharlach, a pleasure to meet you your majesty, welcome to my granny's humble abode."