Page 11 of Lily of the Valley

She hadn't even known 'woodcutter' was an entire profession all its own. She'd just… made a lot of silly assumptions that were so obviously wrong in retrospect. Another thing that made her a twit, no doubt.

There was a lot of wood in need of moving. How had Scout chopped so much in the short time Lily had been pulling water from the well? Or had it taken her a lot longer on the water than she'd realized? Probably the latter.

If only the counselors were here now; they'd be having the time of their lives seeing how easy it was to make Lily feel so wretched about herself. Who knew the secret was a single beautiful, frustrating, alarmingly competent woman living alone in the middle of the woods?

Her mouth flattened. Beautiful? Where had that thought come from? Scout wasn't a chore to look at, but beautiful? Not with that attitude.

Huffing, Lily shoved all her stupid thoughts aside and focused only on moving. Picking up a piece of wood, moving it to the pile. She moved quickly to carrying five or six at a time, ignoring the pain in her feet and hands, biting back the urge to let out several unladylike swears every time a stray sliver stabbed or scraped her hand.

By the time she had half the wood stacked against the house, she was sore, sweaty, and ready to go to bed and stay there until all her problems miraculously solved themselves. Instead, she got some water from the barrel at the corner of the cabin and trudged back to work.

She'd just picked up the next batch of wood to start filling the stupid cart when she heard voices. Horses. Children laughing.

People. There were people coming this way. Lily froze, the wood tumbling from her arms. She couldn't be seen. What if they recognized her? What if they told someone she was here?

Succumbing to panic, Lily bolted into the woods and ducked behind a large tree, huddling down into a ball, arms wrapped tightly around her legs, head buried against her drawn up knees. She had to save her people. She was all alone, her friends and anyone else she trusted dead. What was she supposed to do?

Hide and cry in the forest that had already nearly killed her once, apparently.

Some queen she was turning out to be.

One of the travelers, or whoever they were, called out, and a moment later she heard Scout respond, though Lily couldn't make out what either of them were saying. Eventually they fell silent, but that didn't mean they'd moved on. For all she knew, Scout was inviting them in or something, though she had a hard time imagining Scout being that friendly, given how much she hated Lily's presence.

She sat there for what felt like ages, almost drifting off when the sound of soft laughter washed over her. Lily jerked upright, then climbed stiffly to her feet. "Who's there?" Her gaze stilled on a patch of rustling shrubs, and a moment later the most beautiful fox she'd ever seen appeared. Also the largest—she hadn't thought foxes could get that big. Rather than leaning orange like most foxes, this one was more a deep, red-heavy russet, the belly and tip of its tail more a soft gold than white. It's eyes were the most stunning green she'd ever seen, like emeralds in sunlight. "What in the gods…"

The fox yipped at her, leaned down on its front paws, tail wagging in what seemed a playful manner. Then it sprang up, yipped again, and turned, and she swore it moved its head as if to say follow me. When she didn't move, it stopped and did it again.

"Well, why not," Lily muttered, and forged ahead, following the fox deeper into the forest, shivering as she heard snatches of soft laughter every now and then.

After what seemed like ages of walking, the fox came to a halt in a small patch of space that could barely be called a clearing, sitting down in the middle as if thoroughly pleased with itself. It moved its head again, beckoning her close, which she was fairly certain was the last thing she should do with a wild animal. But she'd already followed it deep into a dangerous forest, so what did it matter? She was clearly committed to this foolhardy endeavor.

She dutifully approached the bossy little fox, which moved out of her way and did that playful crouching thing again before dancing back several steps. Lily barely noticed, distracted by what the fox had been sitting on.

Stone—purposeful stone, like an old road or something. There was a mostly clear patch, and she could see hints of where the rest of the road had been lost to the forest. Just left of the center of the patch, one of the stones was carved with something.

A rose.

Lily's heart jumped into her throat. There was no way. That was impossible.

Rosenfall. There were countless legends, each one more fantastical than the last, about the heart of the mysterious forest with so many names: Laughing Forest, Dark Forest, Broken Forest. Only Huntresses and Huntsman, nigh legendary themselves, dared to traverse the woods that consumed most of the continent.

And at its center was the kingdom of Rosenfall. The royal capital was located at the base of the Jagged Mountains, but legend held that the original royal castle had once been in the very middle of the kingdom, the beating heart of the forest itself, until some unnamed tragedy had forced the queen and the other survivors to flee and build their home anew in a safer place.

But once upon a time, all roads carved with intermittent roses had led to that legendary place.

Find the ruins.

Was this what the guard had been talking about? What Josiah had intended as a meeting place? The ruins of Rosenfall?

She looked up to ask the fox, because why not talk to the fox at this point, only to find it was gone. "Great, how am I supposed to get back?" Lily sighed and pushed to her aching feet. Maybe she shouldn't bother with going back. She was hardly dressed, or prepared in any way, for hiking through the woods, but if the road really led to ruins, then there were people there waiting for her.

Lily refused to believe anything else.

"Aubrey! Aubrey!"

She froze. Scout? Scout had come looking for her? Why?

After another moment of hesitation, as the shouting of her name came a few more times, Lily replied as loudly as she could, "I'm here! I'm here!"

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