The Return - Part 1

"How did we get here?" Was all Octavia could ask, gobsmacked at where they were.

"How did we get where?" Sylvia replied, rubbing her head after the fall.

As the spinning stopped, she too looked around and saw what to her, was just a small cabin.

"How did we get to this cabin?" Both ended up saying as they wracked their brains.

As Octavia thought about it, she was sure there were in the town not long ago. She could remember the ball, the attack and the escape, but the last thing she could remember was smashing into a door…and for some reason a woman's face. But after that, it was just them being here in this cabin.

"Did we walk here?" Sylvia asked as confusion flooded her face.

Octavia tried to shuffle her memories around and as she did, suddenly some recollection of walking through the forest and entering this cabin came to mind. It was still a bit of a mess, but it seemed like they did. When they arrived they must have tripped and that's how they ended up on the floor, and hitting their heads must have caused the memory to disappear.

"I think…I think we must have. How else would we have gotten here," Octavia said conceding to the memory that was becoming more and more solid in her mind.

As she recalled it more and more, the image of a woman's face kept popping up. It was blurry and she couldn't make out her features well, but she knew there was something important about that face. She would need to look out for them in the future.

"So, where are we? Have you been to this cabin before…and what's with that egg."

Pulling her out of the thoughts that were leading nowhere, she heard Sylvia speak and then told her what this place was.

"This is… where I started, where I was born. That…egg, is where I came from."

"What!"

At that, Sylvia practically sped over to the egg and started examining it. This caused sheer embarrassment to hit Octavia as seeing her examine the egg she came from just felt very…weird.

"Wait, from her journal. This is the cabin my mom stayed at, and this is the egg you came from. I remember you mentioning it, but it doesn't seem real. It also doesn't make sense how you were…born as an adult."

"Neither do I."

After her thorough investigation of the egg, Sylvia started searching through the room. She could see it didn't look like much but couldn't help but wonder if her mother left anything else.

Octavia did tell her that she took what had remained, all of which Sylvia already knew about, but she still looked to be sure.

All through the search, Octavia watched her, all the while trying to keep her eyes open. As she looked out of the smashed window, all she saw was darkness. Night had really set in.

"I think we should get some sleep. You can keep looking tomorrow. Plus, I can take you to, err…see her, in the morning, as well."

That pulled Sylvia's attention from the chest of drawers she was searching, which was followed by her heading over and jumping into the bed.

Before Octavia did the same, she took her bedroll that she had purchased and stuffed it into the window, after she had removed the rest of the glass. She was able to plug up the hole, stopping any further freezing cold air from entering. She did go to take Sylvia's bed roll out, either for herself or Sylvia to sleep in, but before she could bring it up with Sylvia, she responded by saying how cold it was and how they would be warmer sleeping together.

Laying her shorter tail over the end of the bed, she slipped into the faded almost turned-to-dust covers with Sylvia.

Both would have been embarrassed, as they had before, especially with this bed being much smaller than the one in the castle. But both of the passed out instantly and started their much-needed rest.

…

With the dawning of a new day, Octavia untangled herself from Sylvia and got herself ready for the day. Performing her exercises, she also incorporated the swings with her poleaxe, which she obviously did outside, hoping to improve her form, accuracy and skill with the weapon.

Before long Sylvia walked out of the cabin and greeted Octavia, whom she watched for a good few minutes before taking out some food for breakfast.

The meal was light and consisted of the staple for camping in this sort of time, hard tack and water. They didn't have much of anything else, so this was the best they could do.

When everything was digested, they packed up their gear and headed off in the direction of Sylvia's mother's grave.

Octavia kept her poleaxe at the ready as they came to the place she had been attacked by wolf-like creatures, but thankfully, no more had decided to turn up. The journey than on was simple and they faced no danger, where finally, they made it to her final resting place.

As soon as Sylvia saw the grave, tears started to well in her eyes. It was one thing hearing about it back in the castle, but to actually see the place she was buried, just brought it all backup.

Octavia stood nearby and Sylvia slowly moved over to the piled stones on the grave, where she knelt down and started to speak to her. Octavia decided it was best to give her some privacy and so stayed far enough away that she couldn't hear what she was saying. It didn't feel right to be eavesdropping on the likely very heartfelt and tearful words she was saying to her mother.

…

Several minutes when by, where after a while, Sylvia had stopped talking and just sat there looking at the grave in silence. She did so for a short while, before she got up and walked over to Octavia.

The first thing she could see was the teary eyes and the sadness on her face, so stepping towards her, she gave her a much-needed hug, and they stayed holding each other for a bit longer.

"Thank you"

Neither said anything else during the hug and eventually, they pulled away from each other, Sylvia quickly wiping her eyes after she did.

"Can I…can I see the village you mentioned?" Sylvia asked.

Octavia could see that she had gotten everything off her chest when talking to her mother, and now she really wanted to move on from here.

"Of course, it will be a bit of a trek to get there."

Sylvia had no problems with that, and so they headed forwards towards the village that she originally came from.

…

Octavia could generally remember the way, but it had been some time since she first went there, so had to consult the map from the journal, and thankfully they were on the right track.

A few hours into their journey, they came upon the river that Octavia first found when she travelled here. It was as pristine as it had been before, and on the other side, she could see the trees that housed the fruit she had lived off of for a while. The only tricky thing was how to get across.

When she recalled how she did it before, she did so by extending her tail and being able to keep her human half about the river. But with, how she was now, that was not going to happen.

There was also no bridge, or vines to swing across with, if that was at all possible, so there was no discernible way to get across.

Sylvia had asked how she managed it before, and after Octavia's explanation, she too realised that would not be happening this time.

The only way they figured they could get across, was to find the shallowest section of it, and hope they don't get swept away as they tried to cross.

Finding the largest branches they could, they began prodding holes through the surface of the water in order to determine the depth. Sylvia did it near the embankment and Octavia used what was left of her tail to reach over and prod a little further out.

It took some time, and quite a lot of travelling, but they found a section that seemed reasonably shallow. As far as they could tell, should Sylvia walk in, it would end up coming up past her chest. A frightening prospect, but this was the best location they could find.

Keeping hold of the sticks, they used them to keep themselves steady and they slowly entered the river. Octavia took the lead, and as soon as she entered, she could feel the water flowing and smashing into her.

'It seems much more aggressive than it did the last time I travelled through it.'

Once she had slithered a short distance into the water, Sylvia joined behind her and took hold of her hand. Intimate, sure, but that didn't win over the safety of it all, as they could feel the water rushing by and trying to knock them over.

They continued moving, and the river got deeper and deeper. Getting closer to the centre, the water just came up across their breasts.

They had only slipped a few times, but thankfully, all that led to was a few gulps of water as their chins ended up dipping under. So far, nothing truly bad had happened.

That is until they heard a loud splash.

They both looked around to see what it was, wondering if some creature had entered the river nearby. But neither of them saw anything.

When another splash came, Octavia realised that it was a good distance from them. So, as she turned to look upstream, she saw the culprit.

Part of a tree floating down the river…towards them.