A long-haired man in a damp white tunic and loose pants stood at the center of a very quiet forest path, his eyes were closed and his arms folded over his chest like he was thinking of something.
A few minutes into it, his ear twitched when he heard the faint rustle of a leaf.
He smirked and instantly, his figure blurred. Practically disappearing and reappearing in front of a shrub that was just a few meters away from where he was standing.
He shoved his hand into the brush and took out a trembling big brown hare that he held roughly by the ears.
He sneered at the trembling rodent. "Thought you could hide from me, didn't you?"
"Lord Azrael!" He heard someone call from a distance away. "What on earth are you doing?"
Azrael's eyes moved slightly. "Fabian?" He asked. "What are you doing all the way out here?"
Fabian looked mildly taken aback. "What else would I be doing here if not in search of you, Milord?" He sighed, rubbing his forehead. "What is that in your hand?"
"Food." Azrael answered simply.
Fabian's eyebrow twitched. "But we are near a city already. Is there a need to hunt?"
"True." Azrael agreed. "Still, it will take us about an hour to get there and another hour to settle down for food, but my men are starving now."
Fabian sighed. "We should have arrived at Lavim by now, but you delayed us." He said. "The fact that the men are starving is your fault, Milord."
Azrael tilted his head. "And that is exactly why I am taking responsibility."
His aide's brow twitched. "So what shall I do with that?" He asked, pointing at the animal.
Azrael tossed the trembling hare over to him. "Give it to the knights." He said. "I'll see if I can find anymore–"
"There is no way you would be able to find any other prey this easily, Milord." Fabian interrupted. "They have all hidden themselves for an unknown reason." He glanced at the animal in his grasp. "You were lucky with this one."
Azrael hummed in thought. "I suppose you're right." He paused. "Fine, let me go get my coat first and once the knights are done with their meal we will head out."
"You left your coat back at the lake?" His aide asked.
"I forgot it." Azrael responded with a smile. "I could leave it for whoever is in need since it is not so important but there is a reason I want to get it back."
Fabian raised a brow. "...And what's that?"
Azrael tilted his head to the side, like he was listening for something. "You see, Fabian, " He drawled lazily as he glanced down the path. "I sense something very interesting in that direction."
* * *
"What…?" Ashelia voiced in disbelief. Her head swerving around, desperately in search of the wolf.
But Meryl was truly nowhere to be seen
A horrible kind of panic washed over her, and her face instantly drained of all its colour.
Before she could have any other thoughts, Ashelia hurriedly waddled her way out of the lake, her eyes nearly tearing up.
She could clearly sense that there were people coming her way with one especially sinister energy trailing right behind them.
She trembled heavily as she struggled to put on her undergarments, the material kept slipping from her grasp at the slightest opportunity.
Ashelia almost shrieked in frustration. 'Corporate with me, won't you?!"
She had just barely finished putting on the bottom part of her underwear when she heard the sounds of boots thumping against grass.
Ashelia's heart nearly stopped and she couldn't think of anything else other than to gather her remaining belongings and run.
She couldn't fully clothe herself in her current situation. Her eyes moved around frantically as she looked for somewhere to hide.
Her gaze landed on a tree with a ridiculously large trunk, standing just a distance away from the lake.
She rushed to hide behind it, and her breathing had become uneven. The tears that had welled up in her eyes earlier now flowed freely.
Ashelia pulled at her hair with both hands. 'Urgh… what do I do?' She gasped. 'And where on earth is Meryl?!'
She tried taking deep breaths to calm herself but it wasn't working. Her eyes moved to the bow and quiver at her feet and she pursed her lips.
She didn't know the way out of this forest, only Meryl did, and if she tried running any way her mind told her to, she could end up in an even more terrible situation.
Ashelia bit her lower lip in thought. She closed her eyes. 'But I have only ever hunted small animals… will I be able to shoot down humans?'
She took in a deep shaky breath to calm herself. Well, it wasn't like she had a choice.
When her mind had settled down to a certain extent, Ashelia started to plan her next move. She strapped her dagger to her thigh and slung the quiver over her shoulders.
She didn't have time to put on her dress, the strangers were closing in too quickly and because they were too many for her to fight off at once, she had to ambush them from a distance.
Just as she was about to pick up her bow and leave her current hiding place, a light wind blew and that familiar but strange, intoxicating scent penetrated her nostrils but it seemed stronger this time.
Ashelia instinctively tilted her head upwards to find a large dark coat hanging on one of the tree's branches.
She stared open-mouthed at it for a second before she reached out a hand to grab it. She brought it close to her nose.
'So this is where the scent came from…' She thought in a daze. 'But it's not strong at all… so how come I could smell it all the way from the lake in this state?'
Ashelia intended to take another sniff when she heard male voices coming from a distance behind her.
She flinched.
She had almost forgotten the situation she was in!
Ashelia quickly put on the large coat, picked up her bow and dress and rushed to hide in a thicket of bushes nearby.
A moment after she nocked an arrow to her bow and aimed, a group of burly men came out from the other end of the area.
They looked roguish and barbaric.
'Bandits!' Ashelia concluded. There were bandits and she counted five of them. All of them with brandished weapons laced with a greenish substance that glistened under the sun.
Poison.