The Hut in the Woods

Prince Yoh watched as the blond girl whom he had found unconscious by the river bank was being attended to. She was burning with fever. He immediately brought her to Faust, the former medicine man of the Kasai palace and a dear friend of his since he was a child. The doctor and his wife were banished from the kingdom after failing to remedy the king's burnt face brought about by his twin brother. The Usuis of Kouri would not accept them as they were allies with Kasai and the other two kingdoms were simply forbidden to Kasai's and Kouri's residents. Since they had nowhere to go, they settled down in a secluded part of the forest, far from the reach of the Asakura monarchy and hidden from everyone else in the land.

"She is quite a beauty. Is she someone you met from your many adventures in the forbidden lands, Your Highness?" Faust teased him while placing some leaves on the girl's forehead. The doctor knew the prince's excursions since the royal would often stop by his hut before he would cross the borders.

Prince Yoh blushed, "Er.. no, I just found her lying by the river bank on my way home. How is she?"

"She'll be fine. Good thing you found her before her illness could develop into something worse. She seemed to have been through a lot of things. I wonder what happened to her and more importantly, I wonder where she is from." The doctor's face grew serious. "No sane person from Kasai and Kouri would even dare to get near the river border. Well, no one but you and your spy friends, Your Highness."

"I had seen her before although I can't remember where. I'm sorry for bringing you into this, would it bother you if she was one of the other two kingdoms' people?" inquired the prince.

Faust brightened up. "Of course not, I've been banished by your father so the laws of Kasai do not govern me. But if she was one of them, she has to go back home immediately before anyone finds out that she had trespassed into Kasai."

"If that's the case, you can count on me to help her return to her land," the prince assured him.

"Extending your help to a possible enemy of your kingdom? You are really an odd one from your clan. I presume this is an opportunity you wish to grab to delay your return to the palace?"

Prince Yoh's face reddened with embarrassment.

Faust looked at him amused. His speculation had been confirmed. He stood up and swung his arm around the prince's shoulder. "Come now, my prince. Let's leave her alone to rest and recuperate. You can stay here as long as you want."

In the Kaminari prince's room...

Prince Ren slumped face down on his bed. He was too tired to even change his clothes. He had been joining the search party for the missing princess for the last three days but they could not find a trace of her. The men were already losing hope but he was determined not to give up that easily. He heard the door being slowly opened and someone had entered his room without permission. He did not bother to rise up from his current position to check on the visitor.

"Ren." It was the king's commanding voice. Out of courtesy, he instantly stood up to acknowledge him.

"Yes, father. How can I serve you?"

"You have recently been tiring yourself out to the point of exhaustion. You should use your remaining vacation days here to rest and lift your spirits up from this... this misery you are subjecting yourself into."

"Remaining vacation?" the prince repeated to confirm if he had heard him right.

"Four days from now you are to return to the Royal Patch Academy as scheduled."

The prince closed his fists in defiance. "I won't leave here until I find her."

The king shot him a stern look. "Both Kouku and Kaminari's military forces had been utilized to search the entire land. They couldn't find a single body. She must have been washed out to the sea and that would make it even harder to look for the cadaver."

"Why do you speak of her like that father? She is just missing," Prince Ren raised his voice in anger.

"She IS dead, Ren. They ARE dead. It is painful but we have to accept it. The news of the murders had already spread across our kingdoms. We cannot let the other two know about it or they would use Kouku's defenselessness to their advantage. Moreover, we cannot forever commit the services of our royal guards to finding just ONE person who IS most likely gone."

"That ONE person means the whole world to me." The prince whispered as he avoided his father's cold stare. "I would like some time alone. If you could just let me be... I want to rest now."

The king sighed, "If it would appease you my son, we will extend the search for another three days. After that, we have to bury the dead already. We will hold the funeral of the Kouku royal family in the morning. In the afternoon, you will leave for the academy."

In a secluded forest in Kasai's boundary...

She couldn't feel her legs anymore. The strain of running non-stop had already taken its toll on them. Although she desperately wanted to rest, she just couldn't for she was the lone prey that night. The downpour blurred her vision and the only thing she could see were the silhouette of trees swaying violently with the strong wind. She thought she heard their voices trying to hurry her up. The predators were already at her heels.

Run Anna! Run!

She could hear her parents' voices as if they were right beside her. Tears began to flow down her cheeks because those were the voices of the spirits who had recently left their earthly bodies. They were gone and they won't be coming back. She considered resigning to her ugly fate yet she did not want to let her parents' sacrifices go in vain. She felt helpless but she didn't want to look like it. She was even stopping herself from screaming out her fiance's name. It was not in her character to call out for someone's help although she badly wanted him to save her.

She was praying for the Great Spirit's assistance. Unfortunately, it's not sending anything to help her. She had nowhere to go, no one to save her. She could hear the evil laughter of the predators waiting for the perfect time to eat her. Hope was already fleeting her when she saw a spark of redemption through a rampaging river and she jumped in.

The blond girl woke up with a start and found herself in a small dimly lit room. There were piles of boxes that were stack up from a corner and a wooden cabinet near the doorway was filled with glass vials of murky-colored liquid, bundles of dried leaves, and bottles of white, yellow, and green powdered substances. More boxes were lying on the foot of her bed. It was truly a crowded place --- far from the grandeur of her room in the Kouku palace. Memories of recent events rushed back to her and she suddenly felt cold despite the warmth of the blanket that was covering her.

"Oh, you're finally awake," a beautiful blond lady appeared by the door, carrying a basin of steaming hot water and a towel.

"Where am I?"

"You are in Ka---," the woman began to answer.

"-in my hut," a pale-looking blond man who showed up behind the lady finished the reply for her. "Our …. son", he remembered his promise to the prince not to reveal his identity to their guest, "…found you unconscious by the river. You were asleep for three days. Maybe you could tell us what happened to you."

"Let's save that for later, my love," his wife stopped his inquisition and approached the girl. "Come join us in our dinner. The food's already prepared," she helped her rise from the bed.

The princess roamed her eyes around the hut. More wooden cabinets displaying bottles with all sorts of things were installed in almost every corner. There was a small kitchen with dirty pots piling up and a small table for four was already set up with delicious-smelling food. The princess heard her stomach grumbling. She was really famished.

"Please feel free to help yourself," the kind wife smiled at her as they sat down. They were staring at her with full-blown curiosity. If she were in the palace, she would have sent them to the dungeons for disrespecting her but right now, her hungry stomach was clouding her sense of reason. She's becoming impatient for the husband and wife didn't seem ready yet to start the sumptuous meal.

"I'm home." The door of the hut swung open and a familiar raven-haired boy who was the apparent cause of the delay entered. "I put the logs for the fireplace in the storage shed."

"There you are, we are about to start dinner. Come now, SON," Faust beckoned him to the table.

"Er… yes, father."

"What's your name, young lady?" asked the pale blond man a few minutes after they began eating.

The girl hungrily drank the soup. "I'm Anna," she uttered. She had intentionally dropped her title for she still did not trust this weird-looking family. The attack had made her cautious of her surroundings.

"Anna… I heard that name before," the son spoke as he chewed on a piece of meat.

"So why are you lying around the river, Anna?" the father eyed her. He seemed to be suspicious of her as much as she was of them.

He was answered with a few minutes of silence. "Some people broke into our house and attacked us during the night." The girl paused eating and finally replied. "I managed to escape."

Everybody froze and directed his attention towards her. Tears were starting to form as she recalled the horrific events but she was successful in holding them back.

"And your family?" it was the father who had the courage to ask.

"They are all dead."