Woodsmen Approach

Bia fell asleep about midnight, the moon was high in the sky, and the winds gentle. Keeping us downwind from where I had guessed the Woodsmen watched. She slept soundly, her body needing the rest. I kept watch my arrow sitting across my bow string ready to draw at a moment's notice. I kept a hard eye on the trees. Shadows moved easier at night. I got to my feet and replaced my arrow and bow. Pulling my dagger from my thigh holder. I walked from the front of the cave. Quietly moving from the mouth of the cave I circled around the shadows. The saw the bodies before I heard them. They were struggling with something; they were having a very quiet discussion about something. I walked closer carefully choosing my footsteps. I saw the body on the ground, he was dying. It was sad to see another life being lost, but at the same time. I was taught to kill Woodsmen on sight so it only made my job easier. But the look in his dark eyes as he latched onto my blue drew me closer.

"You need help Mase, you are going to bleed out here in the woods."

"I would rather die than be subjected to their torture." I felt insulted; we did not torture. We healed; helped. It was them who wounded, stole, pillaged.

"We do not torture." I spoke up and the other two jumped in to action. An axe was thrown wildly my direction, it was easy to side step, and other dagger plunged downward. I blocked the arm, and swung upward with my own dagger. Bringing it neatly under the other Woodsman chin.

"You steal from us. Make it impossible for us to make a living." I felt my heart beat speed up in my chest. The man on the ground tried to stand.

"Mason you are only going to hurt yourself."

"You wounded one of my sisters; and it looks as if they returned the favor. I offer help in exchange for safe passage back to the village." The man in my arms wiggled, and I figured I would need to show a little good will to be able to grease the wheels. I pushed the Woodsmen away and he turned to me with untrusting eyes. I looked at the dagger in my other hand and flipped the blade over to my finger tips. Holding the handle out to him; he looked at the handle then to his friends.

"Is this a trick?" I looked at him and gave a soft smile.

"No. I wish to help your friend heal, and then I will leave and take my sister home. No trick." They looked at each other and then to their friend.

"Don't let her touch me." He had the most venom in his eyes out of the three.

"Mason you will die. We can't let you die." He tried again to push himself up and I sighed. Men in all species were stubborn.

"I will not harm you. You don't have to be afraid." He spit in my direction and I didn't feel insulted, although the other two Woodsmen harshly drew in a breath. They all looked tired and like they wanted to go home. I look to the other two.

"Do you want me to help him?" They both nodded and Mason swore at them.

"Don't let that thing put its hands on me." I shook my head and dropped to my knees next to his head and with one swift upper cut, knocked him unconscious. Both of his friends became nervous stepping closer.

"I mean no harm. He would not allow me to help him if he were awake." I looked back to them waiting for additional permission to proceed. The one nodded and the other followed his lead.

I rested my hands on the Woodsmen chest, and felt his energy slowly seeping away from him. He was tired, he wanted to die. He also was angry, he didn't want to accept the help of anyone.

"If you harm him Elf we will kill you and your friend." I snorted and opened my eyes.

"You could try Woodsmen…but you would both die. Do not mistake me for the younglings you just faced." They both looked at the other, but they fell silent. And I asked the forest to give me a little more strength, helping him to speed his healing. To knit together the skin and muscle from what looked like a lucky shot from a bow. My fingers came in contact with his skin and it was like a jolt from an eel. I ripped my hands back. A gasp leaving my chest and Mason groaned like he too had been shocked at the touch of our skin.

"Remember the deal Woodsmen. He will live. He will be fit to travel in the morning." I pushed away from the ground and stumbled a second before righting myself.

"What did you do to him?" I turned back and they were knelt next to their friend.

"I saved his life." And I walked quietly back into the darkness of the trees, soon the mouth of the cave came into view. Bia was still sleeping thankfully. I reached down to her shoulder and carefully woke her.

"Come we must start moving. I will help you." I looped her arm over my shoulder and hauled her to her feet. She stumbled against me trying to regain her balance.

"I don't know if I can make it." She muttered and her head fell against my arm.

"We will make it." And I took the first step to what would become the most tiresome journey I have ever had to take. After about an hour of stumbling through the trees, her knees buckled. Her body had no more to give, and I bent down and put my shoulder against her gut and pulled her up over my shoulder. She grunted and settled onto my shoulders. This was not going to be a quick as it hat been going there. I put one foot in front of the other. And that is all I could think about. One foot in front of the other. Even after I was past the point of tired. One foot in front of the other. And I felt the exhaustion make my knees tremble. I needed to stop, but I had no idea how long the truce with the Woodsmen would last. And Bia needed to see a proper healer.

"You are heavy." I mumbled and she didn't answer me. I tightened my hold on her and started again. And it took me nearly the rest of the next day to get halfway back to the village.

"JO?!" I could have cried with relief.

"LORI! ANNA!" I called back with a hoarse voice, and I heard their footsteps. I pushed myself a few more steps and they came from my right. I smiled at them and they rushed to help me with the burden that was Bia. Anna put her arm under Bia's other shoulder, after I sat her down on her feet. I stumbled away and Lori took my place. She looked me with pride.

"I knew you would bring her back with you." I smiled at her and felt the sweat drip down my temple.

"Never leave a sister or brother behind. Although I will say I am glad she isn't a brother… I don't know how far I would have gotten carrying a man." They both chuckled at me, and I followed them back through the trees. We were back in the village after a few hours of walk.

"Let me clean myself, and get redressed we will head out." They both nodded and Lori's eye cut back to Vincent's hut.

"You have plenty of time. Go. See what he needs." I bumped her shoulder with mine. She smiled at me, I moved back to my hut to take a shower. To wash away the sweat that clung to my body. After reclothing myself I stood in my doorway, slowly spinning the tip of the dagger against my fingertip.

It felt like he shocked me, Woodsmen didn't have magical abilities. And frowned, it was unsettling. It could have just been magically left over from Bianca. The two body signatures clashing. That had to be it, left over energy signature.

Crazy she-elf. I about came up out of my skin. The voice sounded like it was right behind me, and it felt angry. I spun around with the dagger ready to draw it across flesh. But I saw nothing but empty air. I took a deep breath, first encounter with Woodsmen. I was shaken that was all, my brain needed sleep. And I needed to get the dark haired man out of my head. He wouldn't be the last person I healed I was sure.

Her touch was like a flower petal falling against my skin. The shock…

I felt my breath hitch in my chest. What was this? I looked around. No one was there, but I was so sure that I had heard someone. I put my dagger away, I would have just enough time to see the village seer before we had to leave again.

I knocked on the door and a soft voice bid me to enter. I walked in and the smell of vanilla cookies entered my senses.

"Baking?" I asked and she nodded to the small wooden table. I snagged a still warm one and sat down at the middle table.

"Gianna…I need your help." She didn't stop kneading the dough.

"No you don't." I looked at her and sighed. She would make this hard for me.

"I am hearing-"

"The Woodsmen who's life you saved today." It was like a punch in the gut. Of course she would have known; she was the village seer nothing happened present or future that she didn't know about.

"I admire your courage to approach them to save Bia. You were right in thinking they would not let you leave with her, without something in return. I am not saying you did wrong by saving the young man. But you touched his skin…" I waited for her to continue, but she turned her full attention back to the dough, adding chocolate chunks.

"It was like being shocked by an eel. I don't understand what happened? He was so prejudice…I just wanted to help him…it was left over body signature clash from Bia." Her eye brows shot up her forehead.

"I don't see it that way. And even if it was you would not be hearing him now…this is something else. Something new. Uncharted. Forbidden." I felt the words slam into me like a hammer. New? Uncharted? Forbidden? The only thing I knew about that was forbidden was to bring them back to the village. They would murder us all, and we did not want to lose the knowledge that the elders had. We would lose everything if we lost them.

"I don't understand Gi. Help me to understand please."

"You have opened the bond now. You both are part of journey now, so entangled with each other I cannot tell who it is meant to be for. You have to find the truth about the past, you must journey from here to the land of the Woodsmen, you have hid from your destiny long enough Joanna. It is time to face it. With him."

"Whoa, whoa. Journey to their land? I don't think so. Are you trying to get me killed? They will murder me on sight, let alone anyone who wants to come with me, because I know Anna and Lori are not going to let me willingly walk into the Woodsmen town." I stood quickly from the table and felt my legs turn to jelly.

"You must go on this vision quest Jo…you have no choice. You set things in motion…and we must try to get ahead of the curve. Or I fear we will all parish in the after shock." The room around me pulsed with life, and I could see the signatures of all the life around me. I planted myself on the ground. Center. What are you trying to tell me Mother Earth?

I strode across the field, the man stood there. Mason. His dark brown hair curly pulled back with a leather strap. He held the bow with confidence. I felt the draw to him, deep in my heart. It knew what this was; bonded. Mated. Forever. An elf and a Woodsmen…forbidden. He stopped and turned to look in my direction. He couldn't see me, but his Carmel honey eyes missed nothing.

"She elf." His eyes closed as I drifted closer, I felt the draw, and I couldn't resist it. It would do more damage to resist.

"I will find you, and you will break the spell you placed on me. And then I will kill you." And the hatred in his eyes hurt my soul. It hurt my heart, his insult from before came back to my memory. He had a bad past with my kind. I reflected deep within myself. Journey. What did we need to do? I tried to direct the vision. And it felt like being sucked through a hole and I saw the inside of the castle, it was old. In ruins, but there was power here. Real power, and it was ready to emerge. A shadow climbed the steps with quiet feet, and it came to the center of the room. The hood hid the top half of the face, but I had a feeling this was going to be bad. A hand reached out, it was nearly blackened with decay, rotting flesh. I was so glad I couldn't smell it. It touched the stone table, and power flared to life around the blackened hand. A smile spread sickly across the lower half of the face, and he spun around.

"I can sense you Elf. Tell your Elders to prepare for their deaths. Long time coming they are. Tell them that Aldon had returned." And with a flare of power I was pushed away from the castle, knocking breath from me as I slammed back into my body.

I came up off the hut floor with a fast breath, coughing trying to gain back the air I lost from the blast and Gianna was standing there watching me with wide eyes. Her pale skin seemed to have an even cooler tone. Which I did not believe was actually possible.

"No. He cannot return…there is no way he got past my protective magic." She seemed to know what had happened in my vision. Which was also not really surprising.

"Who is Aldon?" Her face turned pale and she squeezed her hands together, released them and then squeezed again.

"Aldon is the worst thing our people could have ever done. He used to be a warrior; before the treaty. Before we even knew what the threat of the Woodsmen was…he was made…a child of darkness and magic. Made to protect us; but he turned on us. Started to kill those who were in service with him…and he was banished to the outer realm. By the Elder which is where he should have stayed for all eternity…but now…something has changed. And not for the good."

"What will happen if he is not returned to the outer realm?" Her eyes got wider and her face paler.

"It will be the end of all life as we know it. It won't matter if the Woodsmen find us, they will be wiped out with us." I felt my own blood drain from my face.

"How can he be stopped?" She turned away from the table and walked deeper into the hut, and I didn't know if I was to follow her. But I did, there as information I needed. She walked into the room that looked like it was made entirely from crystal the sun outside casting a golden hue inside. She picked up a small bag and opened it.

"Only the princess of the northern tribe can stop him; there is no other way. She will possess a power to combat his darkness. Find her Jo. You have to or the life we know is over." She pushed the bag into my hand, and I looked at it.

"What does the Woodsmen have to do with this?" I was still foggy on that part. I was taught to stay as far away as possible but now she was telling me to run to them with open arms. That was not going to go over well with them or my own team.

"To get to the Northern Tribe you must cross through the heart of their city." I shook my head. That seemed like a whole lot of trouble that could be avoided.

"We could go around?" Gianna smacked me upside the head and I flinched away from her. Fearing another smack.

"Are you the Seer? Do you have the power to see the future?" I shook my head.

"No, I am sorry. But what do we need in the middle of the city. There will be more danger going through than around."

"The bond. That is what you need. Without it you will never make it to the Northern Tribe." She pushed me from the crystal room and towards the door. The stupid bond…I didn't need it. I didn't understand why it was so important. But again I was not the seer. I didn't know the future.

"You must take Lori and Anna with you. Only together will you make it through to the Woodsmen city." I felt my heart drop like a stone into my stomach. I did not want to risk them like that, I would give them the choice to back out. That is the only way I would be able to handle any future danger presented to them. They would have the choice to back out. And then I had to get our trip cleared through the Elders. That was going to be the hard part, they rarely saw reason.

"Do not worry about the Elder's I will handle them. You must find that boy and then the Northern Tribe." She hurried me out the door, and followed. Locking her hut behind her.

I met with my group…or part of my group. Anna stood there waiting, balancing the tip of her blade on her finger.

"Anna, where is Lori?" I approached her and she quickly replaced the blade in her holster.

"I think she is still with Elder Vincent." I felt a ghost of a smile on my lips. Get him Lori. You deserve him. We would wait, end of the world be damned. At least one of us would have a chance at love, Lori deserved it. I leaned against Anna for a moment.

"There are some things we need to talk about, I will fill Lori in when she joins us." Anna nodded and right now she was all business. And I told her everything, about healing the Woodsmen, the shock when I touched his skin, the vision, Aldon, the princess I had to find, and about the world ending if I failed.

"That is a lot Jo. I don't think I can actually mentally process all of that at once…how did you find out?"

"Gianna… she sent me on the vision question…the bond also through her, but the voice I heard on my own. I want to ask you to come with me Anna, but I won't force you. This journey is not yours to take…"

"You couldn't get rid of me if you tried Jo. We are more than team mates, we are sisters. Of course I will go with you." She pulled me into a hug and I realized how devoted I was to them and they were to me.

About 20 minutes later Lori came jogging towards us, and I wanted to hear about everything. She gave me a smile and I looked at her sorry for what I was about to lay on her.

"How did it go?" I asked with enthusiasm I felt under the dread. She gave a huge smile, but didn't say anything.

"Lori?" Anna wasn't one for reading body language. Lori smiled at her and her cheeks got red.

"We bonded…or we started to at least…the electricity between us is…I can't even explain it." I looked at her and smiled. Knowing how the shock felt, like your heart was being restarted. She would know soon enough that I understood, for right now I let her dream about her bond and romanticize it for me. Because I was sure that mine was going to be nothing like that. More like a fight to the near death; if I could get close enough to tell him about it.

"Why do you guys look so upset?" I looked at her and she looked confused. Anna looked to me and she would tell her if I couldn't. But this was my burden to lay out at her feet. I would ask her to join me, but somehow with her bonded it was harder for me.