The Green Lake

Chapter 8

Shinja had gone past the last path that led straight to where her grandmother lived, where her soul resided and visited every now and then. It was all real to her and the thought that Terese was ever a spirit never occurred to Shinja for each time she came to the Secret Garden, Terese would come too and counsel her.

Because she was riding at a high speed, her satchel fell off the horse's back. She commanded Flower bender to stop.

"Wooo Flower-bender wooo..." The horse listened to her command and slowly paced down its trots.

If she had not held on tight as Flower-bender engaged in this action, she would have fallen off due to inertia. She got off horseback and ran back a few steps from where they had stopped to pick her satchel off the ground. When she was done, she mounted the horse once more. But as she did this, out of nowhere a pair of huge hands grabbed hold of her by the neck, scratchy fingers covering her mouth.

The strange grabby hands started squeezing her throat, leaving marks on her tender skin causing the veins on the sides of her neck to pop nearly coming out of her skin. She could not recognize who it was because night was beginning to fall now, mist covered the place getting in the way of her vision. The mysterious man pulled her off the horse and dragged her until she could only see Flower-bender from afar.

Was she to die here? Not many people knew of this place. Who would find her body? She braved her mind to stop thinking the ill thoughts. She nursed enough courage and bit the grabber's hand so hard that a coppery taste hit her tongue. It was her assailant's disgusting blood in her mouth. He let her go at once, and she started screaming almost immediately; he two actions happened simultaneously. For an instant, Shinja thought she was seeing things when the man glitched, fading in and out, in and out, until he disappeared.

It was a ghost and a man all at once. Ghost-man? What had she gotten herself into? All in the name of seeking clarity and space! Stuck in wonder, Shinja could not tell what the creature had wanted from her. This did not stop her from running towards her horse to continue with her journey. She fought through the misty atmosphere until her eyes spotted her mare in the distance. Poor thing, she thought. She had to get to her safe place as soon as possible. Darkness brought with it its own demons and her heart palpitations did nothing to help her condition.

Running to where her horse had been tied, she checked her satchel in search of the charm book. She had thought of using it to craft a protective charm that would keep her through the entire journey. The formula had to be in there somewhere. She knew that there was always something to be offered by the char-ch- Her thoughts froze as her fingers stopped in their fruitless search. Where was it? THE BOOK WAS GONE! HOW?!

Her eyes opened wide in disbelief. Shock? Fear? So many emotions were going through her mind at the moment. When had this happened? When had she lost the darling book? Damn it all to hell! She was stuck.

She dug her fingers deep into the pockets of the flimsy thing she called a satchel and still found nothing. Her mind was running wild with all the possibilities of when and where she had dropped the book. She got the satchel off Flower-Bender's back and shook it upside down like a woman at the verge of insanity. How had she lost it? When?

As she did this, she felt something cold creep on her feet. She looked down slowly trying to calm herself from freaking out. When she saw the odd creature on her foot, she couldn't help but scream. Shaking her leg to throw it off of her. What in the world was happening to her? Where were all these creatures coming from?

She used the end of her veil to wipe off the slimy residue from the odd creature that had stuck to her foot. Its slime glowed, green and gold in their lightest forms, the colors would have matched that of a beautiful galaxy, if it had not come from an odd creature. It had looked like a frog but then again it had a tail attached to its rainbow colored back.

A frog with a tail? Was it even a frog? She had not seen anything like it before in her entire life but then again, there had never been a Silver prince in her life ever. The Silver prince, Silver... come to think of it, this was all his fault. But it was not time to start throwing around blame.

Shinja felt like giving up. Regret flooded her mind as she turned to leave. You should have stayed back at the palace. She started thinking that maybe facing the prince was not that bad as she had initially thought. God, she was such a mess! She put her slime covered veil back on the top of her head. She had been so much in a hurry to even consider using a more secure bag choice than the one she had carried, look where that got her. Now she has lost the charm book! Perfect!

Shinja realized that she was in more trouble than she had thought initially. She neared close to the border crossing into the Black Forest. It was not called black for nothing; her grandmother had warned her against using it. When she arrived at its edge, she realized the reason for all the odd creatures. It had been because she was nearing the Black Forest.

'If ever caught between using it and choosing another path, use another path my child.' Terese had warned her.

Fate had brought her here, or she had done it herself. Could someone actually bring fate to themselves? Or was it that fate always came to you?

~*~

The king and the rest were now getting closer to the Green Lake. As soon as they got close, they heard the crying voice of a young woman. It sounded far off from where they were. Was it Shinja? No one could tell. The places they were approaching were spookier than those they had initially gone through.

Prince Silver quickly branched off into the forest because he, of all the princes, had heard Shinja cry. He was sure the voice they heard was hers. The king stopped him with his sword at the front of the prince's chest and nearly laughed at the young lad's inability to think straight. He had no idea what they were in for. It was his kingdom, his daughter they were searching for; the young lad's eagerness therefore was to serve to their demise if he did not engage wisdom.

This part of the kingdom was roaming with all kinds of evil. The underground witches used these outskirts to keep people off the land but only the Greens could keep them at bay. If a stranger came in too soon, made one wrong move, they would be dead in the wink of an eye. Too many voices, lots of creatures, creepy glowing eyes in the dark. One had to be extra careful, if they were to make it out of these lands in one piece.

"Many things in this forest tend to disguise themselves as people we know, more so those we love. Don't fall for them." The King said this, never making eye contact with the prince, he only stared ahead into the forest ahead with his eyes deep in thought. He was with them but also quite far off in his mind.

Silver stared down at the sword then lifted his eyes to watch the king. He did not understand why he was being halted from seeking Shinja out.

Wasn't the king concerned about his daughter? He was not even trying hard enough according to what Silver saw. He was being so calm about a situation that was a matter of life and death.

That is where he was wrong, the king worried more than anyone but he masked it with false confidence, feigning hope. Despite his doubts about Pink-White's concern for his daughter, Silver listened to the old man's advice and followed him silently waiting for the right moment to strike.

Pink-White rode ahead of the crew. He made the water in the Green Lake disappear before others got close to it. He did not want anybody to see the camouflage of the waters. When the rest reached where the Green Lake should have been, they continued riding their horses for in the lake's place dry ground had surfaced. As soon as they had passed by it, the lake re-appeared but no one—apart from Pink-White—noticed it.

On their way into the forest on one of the paths, prince Brown noticed a small brown pocket book. It's covers beaten by years of being passed down through generations. Shinja's charm book.

Dropping his sword to the ground so that he had an excuse for getting off his horse amidst a mission, he picked up the little book before anyone else could notice that it was there. He pocketed it into his armor and did not mention it to anyone.

~*~

Shinja successfully went through the Black Forest with much ease except for the bugs that bit her here and there. She thought that maybe because she had passed her tests before she entered the Black Forest. However, that was far from it, it was the ghost women from earlier who had appeared behind her again and kept the evil at bay in order to grant her safe passage. They waved off scary monsters, castor spells and darkness to keep her safe.

She caught a glimpse of the hedge laying adjacent to where she paused with Flower-bender. Her grandmother's flower garden, finally. Hope at last! That confirmed to her that she had made it safely to her destination.

~*~

Pink-White, his horsemen and the princes made it inside the Black forest. Always a step behind Shinja but they did not know that. They came across a large fierce beast that they jointly killed.

Voices began whispering into Pink-White's thoughts. They sounded like little dry leaves in the summer rubbing against each other roughly, except these words were saying words not just making a crashing sound. First, he dismissed them as paranoia trying to magnify his fears. He did not want anything distracting him from his journey. But the voices nudged on succeeding finally to penetrate his mind.

Apparently, it was not the tormenting horrors of the Black Forest. These horrors were known for hounding the victim's mind, filling it with horrible fears and threats driving them to insanity of never-ending melancholy. That was not the case this time, it was hope. Sweet hope being declared crisply into his mind's ear.

'You will find your daughter soon enough,' whispered the voices. He carried on with renewed vigor and hope.

Dusk rained over the forest faster than the sun rose from its sleep. The king ordered the horsemen to find a suitable place to set up camp so that they could rest. Silver on the other hand could not rest. He was kept awake by strange visions of Shinja professing her love to him, then after she waved and disappeared into thick dark woods. The dreams repeated themselves over and over tormenting him throughout the night.

~*~

While at the entrance of the garden, Shinja's soul left her body and drifted into the clouds. Flower-bender encircled her lifeless form when her body plopped off the horse's back.

Her soul reached out to Silver. She saw him, slapped his cheek and disappeared into thin air. In that same dream, she rejected his flowers.

Early the next morning, her soul returned into her body frame and she woke with a start. First off, she noticed that she was no longer on Flower-Bender's back. She saw something odd. Someone had picked her up, cleaned and dressed her. Wh- her thoughts were cut off when she opened her eyes.

Once she opened her eyes, she saw her grandmother, Terese.

"How is this possible grandma?"

"You needed my help, child. I could not ignore coming to you."

Her grandmother made sure she ate, they talked for a bit and then she prepared to leave for home.

"Thank you, grandma. I now know what to do."

She took a different route out of the forest. Her grandmother had directed her where to find the Middle Forest. It turned out to be much safer than the Black Forest. Terese had told her to choose love.

'Nothing lasts longer than love.' Terese had told her. She would bank on that to keep going so maybe she had finally figured out what to do. She would see when she got back to the palace. The palace? They must have noticed she was gone by now. What would they think? What would her father make of her reckless actions?

She planned on apologizing, hopefully even explaining her reason for doing what she did. She thought this to convince herself that she was going to talk to her father even though she knew well enough that it was not going to happen. We will cross that bridge when we get there for now, I have to get out of here.

~*~

The king used the junction that joined the Middle Forest. Even when he had done that, he did not leave his mother's place unsearched. He sent men into Terese' flower garden so that they may search it. They came back with nothing helpful, only that the place did not exist. They could not see it. He remembered his mother's protective charm over the place.

Of course, they had not seen it, only with a Green would a stranger be allowed to see Terese' special flower garden. He blamed himself for having not gone along with them. So much for giving out orders, your majesty! There was no time for them to make the search again. He chose to leave that and continue on to search other places. The entire Middle Forest was another jungle of its own. By luck, maybe they would find his daughter there.