The warden turned just in time to see a blur streak through the trees.
"What are you waiting for? Catch her."
He clicked his tongue in irritation, wondering what sort of useless men he had brought with him on this mission. At his command, the five men scanning the area immediately went after her.
Behind the thick tree trunk, Kyva remained as stiff as a board. She listened to the warden's footsteps fade as he hurried after whatever figure they had mistaken for her, still not daring to steal a peek. Even when the forest finally fell quiet again, she could not bring herself to move.
Her legs trembled violently, and when she tried to step forward, they buckled beneath her, forcing her to grab the rough bark to steady herself.
Did… did she really kill someone?
The thought made her stomach twist.
How was that even possible?
She had never killed anyone. She had only poisoned the captain to render him unconscious, not to kill him. She would never take a life so callously.
It couldn't possibly be her doing.
She had taken the poison herself, and woken up. The drought was not effective enough to claim her life, then how could it have killed him?
Something about this did not make sense.
She was innocent.
Kyva swallowed hard and glanced deeper into the woods.
She would have to find somewhere safer to hide, until the warden abandoned the search.
But what about her fox?
Her heart tightened at the thought.
The poor creature must be wandering the forest alone, and she needed to find it before anything happened to it.
Meanwhile, the warden pressed determinedly through the undergrowth in pursuit of the fleeing figure ahead, his men following close behind him.
In his haste to capture the slave, he failed to notice something peculiar. The figure racing through the trees seemed… rather tall. Still, it darted through the trees with such urgency that none of them slowed their pursuit.
"Faster!" the warden barked.
The chase did not last long. Surrounded on all sides, the fleeing figure finally stumbled to a halt. It turned sharply as the wardens closed in.
Finally sensing that something was wrong, the warden stepped forward, his breath heavy with irritation, and all six men froze. Before them stood not the frightened slave they were looking for, but a middle-aged man with graying hair and a bewildered expression.
The warden's face darkened.
Was this supposed to be some kind of trick?
"This isn't her!"
He turned angrily to Liam, who had made the announcement that she was the one running away. His gaze hardened into ice as he seized the man who had been running by his tunic.
"Why were you running?"
The man blinked at him, equally offended.
"Why was I running? Why were you chasing me instead?" He retorted, freeing his tunic. "If six men, whom you don't know, suddenly come charging at you for no reason, what would your first instinct be? Stand there and greet them politely? I am not stupid enough to do that."
The warden exchanged glances with his men, infuriated with all of them that they had not noticed it too.
Obviously the girl they were looking for would not be running that fast either. He had been so close to finding her.
The man in question, clicked his tongue in annoyance as he adjusted his tunic. "First, it was that barefoot girl bursting out of the trees and scaring the life out of me,now it's the lot of you charging after me like hounds."
At the mention of a girl, the warden turned sharply to the man.
"What girl?" he demanded. "Where exactly did you see her?"
The man winced slightly as the warden hauled him closer, wrinkling his neat tunic again.
"The girl I nearly ran into!" he said quickly, pointing off toward a random stretch of forest. "She ran that way before I made it here. Nearly knocked me flat before she bolted. She… didn't look like a hunter to me."
The warden followed the direction of the man's finger, his eyes narrowed slightly. He knew the forest well, at least half of its winding paths due to the news about strange beasts lurking here. The route the man had indicated led toward a trail most hunters used when returning to the main road. If the girl had gone that way, she might be making for the roads by now. Of course, she wasn't planning to linger in the forest all of her life. He should have kept his focus elsewhere.
Ever since she had escaped, he had been tasked with finding her, and she was starting to get on his nerves more than he originally thought she would. He had even been punched in the face by his boss for letting her escape in the first place.
Unfortunately, he could not kill this annoying man either. Everything, including everyone, was starting to make his blood boil. He just wanted to find her and be done with it.
After a moment, he released the man with a shove, clearly irritated. The man straightened his tunic indignantly while the warden turned to his men.
"We'll search every road leading to the forests," he ordered sharply. "You know what will happen if we don't bring her back as instructed. Especially after murdering an important profile. Come on!"
The middle aged man watched as the warden strode toward the direction indicated, disappearing behind the trees with his accomplices. Only when the forest fell quiet again did he let out a sigh and shook his head.
Moments later, he brushed an imaginary speck of dust from his sleeves. His expression shifted into something aloof, and a soft light suddenly enveloped him. It shimmered around his form like morning mist touched by sunlight, bending and folding upon itself until the figure of the ordinary man dissolved within it.
When the light faded, someone else stood in his place.
Calhoun.
Tall and striking, he carried a presence that seemed almost too radiant for the mortal woods around him to contain. Silver-white hair spilled down his back in a long cascade, brushing against his waist and glinting faintly beneath the scattered beams of sunlight that filtered through the leaves.
Had anyone been there to witness the sight, they might have mistaken him for a divine being strayed from the heavens.
The prince lifted a hand, studying it with mild surprise, like he could not believe that he just transformed.
He had not expected to possess enough strength to shapeshift so soon, talk more of returning to his true form despite nearly losing his life. Whatever herbs that human girl had used to treat him was working in ways someone like him didn't exactly understand.
It felt like she had magic in her hands, or something like that.
This wasn't normal behavior.
But it helped.
His original intention had been simple. He planned on leading those pathetic men away and ending their miserable lives so he could be done with them.
Yet the thought had faded as quickly as it came.
Killing them would only invite more trouble for his human, and he did not need that right now. The thought made Calhoun click his tongue softly in annoyance.
What, exactly, had become of him?
A fox Prince, reduced to allowing himself to be dragged about by those wretched humans so he could spare the life of the human he had chosen. That girl was special, and now he knew he chose well this time around. Because, for the moment, he needed her.
After all, surviving in this unfamiliar world alone would be… inconvenient.
However, before he returns to where he truly came from, he would make sure he looks for an opportunity to end that warden before leaving.
For now, he needed to find his human and return to her.