"How big is this forest?"
Kyva murmured to herself as she resumed walking. She had been wandering around since last night, and yet she found nothing remotely like an exit. Worse, not once had she come across a single soul she could ask for directions.
"Did… everyone just leave at the same time?" she thought out loud.
It had been so many years since she'd even see the world beyond the people who controlled her life. She wasn't sure if hunts even followed the same rules here, or if rules like that still existed at all.
The thought made her feel even smaller and more clueless about how the outside world really worked, like a child loose into a world far larger than she had ever imagined.
Unbeknownst to her, the reason the hunters were no longer around was simple enough. The fox she cradled in her arms, and his deer accomplice had already driven most of them out of the forest. Their absence had, unintentionally, spared her the trouble of being found instantly by the warden and his men. For now at least, though she knew nothing of it.
Kyva shifted the fox slightly in her arms and sighed.
"Alright… let's think," she muttered. "If we can find a stream, we can at least wash up. Maybe catch something to eat." She paused, glancing around through the trees. "Otherwise… we just keep walking until this forest finally spits us out somewhere– somewhere we can rest before dark."
Calhoun listened with mild interest. From her quiet rambling, he picked up on one important detail:
She was just as lost as he was.
Judging by her current state, he doubted the fugitive girl was one of the hunters. But she handled the trap far better than he would have expected. His thoughts drifted back to the ugly buffoon who had stuffed him in a cage, and the man had been actively searching for someone, desperate enough that he was willing to trade animals for information.
Calhoun flicked his ears.
Poor girl.
If he had been human, and someone like that had been out to get him, he would have stabbed that man's heart straight out of his useless chest. And he would have done it again a thousand times over until the fury in his blood was well and truly spent.
Kyva pushed aside a low branch and stepped over a tangle of roots, her bare feet sinking slightly into the damp forest floor. The air was thick with humidity,clinging to her skin and making every step feel heavier. Above her, the trees stretched endlessly toward the sky, their dense canopy swallowing the light.
She slowed, then stopped, turning in place as she scanned her surroundings.
"Everything looks the same," she muttered, frustration creeping into her voice. "The trees… bushes… more trees." She rubbed the back of her neck and sighed. "At this rate, we're likely walking in circles.*
She took a few more steps forward, but something unusual caught her eye.
Up ahead, the trees thinned just enough for a patch of grey stone to peek through the undergrowth.
She stopped short.
"...Wait."
Kyva shifted the fox in her arms and leaned slightly to the side to get a better look.
"Is that… rock?"
Curiosity quickly pushed aside her exhaustion, and she stepped carefully through the brush. Branches scraped against her sleeves as she moved closer, the gray shape slowly coming into view.
It wasn't just a rock.
A massive slab of stone rose from the forest floor, taller than two men and half-buried in moss and creeping vines. Its surface was worn smooth by time, but the faint carvings still clung stubbornly to the stone.
Kyva stared at it for a moment.
"Well… you don't usually find something like this in the middle of nowhere."
She stepped closer, brushing away a curtain of vines with one hand. Beneath them, shallow lines etched into the stone formed strange symbols, curves and marks she didn't recognize.
"...Some kind of monument?" she guessed quietly.
The forest around it felt different somehow.
Kyva slowly circled the stone, studying it from different angles, her eyes tracing the worn carvings.
"If someone built this," she said thoughtfully, glancing down at the barely engaged cub in her arms, "then there has to be a road… or a village… something nearby. You'll be coming with me to check it out, won't you, little foxy?"
A flicker of hope stirred in her chest. She reached out and placed her hand against the cool surface of the stone.
"Please don't tell me I'm getting excited over a random rock."
Calhoun studied her behavior, noticing the fragile spark of hope in her eyes. It made him wonder what kind of trouble she'd had to flee from to end up here.
Like this.
Then he heard footsteps.
He heard them before she did, faint but unmistakable, along with the scent of what he could tell was trouble.
A familiar one.
The fugitive girl must have caught the sound too, because she turned sharply toward the forest behind her. Calhoun watched as the color slowly drained from her face the moment a figure appeared from behind the trees.
"Liam?"
The name slipped out before she could stop it, her breath catching in her throat as her eyes locked onto the figure standing between the trees.
For a moment, her mind refused to process what she was seeing.
Liam.
Here?
Her fingers tightened around the fox as a wave of cold dread washed through her.
How…?
Her first instinct was to run.
Her body even tensed to move– but the thought died just as quickly. She already knew she wouldn't make it far. Not through the forest.
He was already so close.
So she stayed where she was, frozen in place.
How had she not sensed him?
"Why are you here?" she demanded before he could speak, her eyes already flicking past him and scanning the trees for another escape route. "Did… did you seriously track me all the way here? What exactly do you want from me?"
"I need you to–"
"No," she shook her head immediately, taking a step back. "Don't come any closer, and I mean it. I know why you're here. But you and your uncle should stay as far away from me as possible. I heard everything and what your plans are. But if you think I'd go back to the same place that stole eleven years of my life away from me… you're out of your mind."
She held her cub closer. "No matter what you say, I'm not going anywhere with you."
But Liam didn't move closer.
In fact, he looked almost as tense as she felt. His gaze kept drifting past her, toward the forest behind him.
"I need you to calm down," he said quietly. "I'm not here to take you back."
He glanced over his shoulder again, his jaw tightening. "You need to leave. Now. Before they get here too."
Liam turned back to her now, the urgency of the situation written all over him. "Listen, you have every reason not to trust me. But I'm telling the truth. Those men, the ones you're hiding from, are already in this forest. They promised my uncle a huge sum if he assisted… but I found you first."
He looked behind him once more before adding, "I need you to stay away from the main road. There's news spreading that you killed an important general."
"K-killed? Me?" Kyva could not believe her ears. She never killed anyone.
"I can't explain everything," Liam continued quickly. "But… I know you're innocent, and no one deserves to be tagged as a slave. You need to go, now."
Kyva stared at him for another second, trying to process everything he just said to her. But there was no time to question it. If Liam was here, then the hunters could already be nearby.
Realizing he was genuinely trying to help her, Kyva turned abruptly toward the narrow opening the stone slab had created between the trees and ran.
She really could not catch a break, could she?
Meanwhile Calhoun, still cradled in her arms, watched the chaos unfold with quiet amusement.
He still had no idea what was really happening. But from merely piecing the little puzzles in their conversation, turns out the fugitive human he chose had apparently killed someone.
And then there was the mention of slavery.
His ears flicked thoughtfully.
What manner of trouble had this human entangled herself in?
"I'm not going back," he heard her murmur again and again, as though the words themselves lent her the strength to keep moving. "I refuse to go back. I don't… I will not go back."
The sudden glimmer of tears in her eyes caught Calhoun off guard.
For reasons he could not quite name, the sight displeased him.
And truly, had those men no sense of shame? The girl had merely taken a life. It was not as though she had cast the heavens into ruin.
Was there more to this that he was not yet aware of?
Humans were peculiar creatures.
Still, this matter was beginning to vex him.
His tail flicked once behind him.
It seemed he would have to involve himself in this affair, if only until he learned the truth of it.
Kyva was still running when the fox suddenly twisted free from her hold and bolted in the opposite direction.
Oh no.
"Wait–"
The words barely left her lips before the small creature disappeared between the trees, leaving her behind. How was it able to run so fast with a severe wound?
She wondered what had happened.
Did it sense the danger as well?
Fear pricked at her chest. Where was it going? And what if it collapsed somewhere she couldn't find it?
Without thinking, she started after it– but stopped abruptly when the sharp snap of a twig echoed behind her.
Her breath caught.
Slowly, she backed toward the trunk of a tall tree and pressed herself against the rough bark.
She heard it again, more footsteps approaching this time.
Nothing could make her turn around to peek. She didn't need to. She knew it was them. She could feel it.
Her fingers moved on instinct, reaching over her shoulder and gripping the worn curve of the bow she had taken. She stilled when she heard a voice speak.
The warden.
"Funny thing about fear," the man said, almost conversationally. "You can smell it long before you see the one carrying it. Which means you must be very… close."
A soft crunch of leaves followed. Kyva's fingers tightened around the bow, and her heart hammered against her ribs. Despite the anxiety clawing through her at his words, she remained still.
"You are in deep trouble, little slave," he continued, and Kyva could hear his footsteps getting close.
Closer.
And closer, when suddenly–
"Warden!" Someone yelled. "She's over there!"