Page 20 of Lily of the Valley

Outside, she mounted up the horse already waiting for her. "How long have you been awake? Why didn't you wake me?"

Casting her a look of fond amusement—Lily hoped it was fondness, anyway, fool that she was—Scout said, "I hardly needed help saddling horses and lugging bags, and you need your rest." She held up a hand when Lily started to protest. "Once we reach the ruins, you'll be doing all the hard work, and there is an entire palace for you to retake. Get your rest while you can, because you won't be getting much of it soon."

"Fair point."

Scout heeled her horse, and Lily followed her, vanishing swiftly into the beautiful forest that seemed to echo with soft laughter. They came quickly to the old road marker the fox had shown them before, and carried on from there, ever looking for more remains of the old road.

After a couple of hours, though, they were forced to halt when no sign of one could be found. "We should stop for lunch anyway," Scout said. "Maybe after rest and food we'll see where we've been staring at it the whole damn time."

Lily laughed, because she could not count the number of times she'd stared right past exactly the thing she was looking for. Dismounting, she dug out their afternoon rations from her saddlebag and settled on a large bit of rock to eat, flushing for no good reason at the way Scout sprawled on the ground with her back to the rock, right next to Lily's legs.

It would be so easy to bend over and kiss the top of her head, curl a hand around her neck and stroke it fondly. She could only imagine, though, that if Scout had wanted someone to do such things with, she would already have a companion. Who wouldn't choose Scout if given even a hint of a chance? Even when Lily wanted to clobber her, even when she was smirking and being annoying because not everyone could draw water or mop a floor, she was kind and helpful. She had done so much for Lily, for no real reason at all, and was doing still more—things that would put her in very real danger, especially as she'd be going against her former pack.

Queen or not, Lily did not merit such…calling it devotion would be presumptuous. Such earnest assistance. Scout had been so much, seen so much, when Lily had never left her kingdom, not even for diplomatic visits. She'd asked time and again, but her father hadn't thought her old enough for such things.

Would he had said differently, if he had known what was coming?

No longer really hungry, Lily nevertheless ate all her food and chased it with cool brook water.

Scout stood and stretched with a groan, showing off long limbs and lean muscle, shoulders and arms built by years of chopping wood. Lily looked away, face hot, and cast the core of her apple off into the trees before walking around the area looking for signs of an old road. "I don't see anything." So far, they hadn't taken more than a couple of minutes to find, if they weren't immediately obvious. "Did we go astray? That seems highly unlikely given you, though, Scout."

"I have never once gotten lost or lost a trail, and I'm not about to start now," Scout replied. "Damnedest thing that it's being so difficult now."

"Maybe the closer we get, the less the road is intact? Though you'd think the opposite would be the case, with the deepest parts the most protected. Hmm…"

"No, I think you're right. The closer we get to the heart of the forest, the more protected it's going to be. I know this is the right direction, though, there should be more road around here somewhere." She lifted an arm, holding it out straight. "Somewhere on or near this line, I think."

Lily nodded and returned to looking, kicking away detritus and rubbing at interesting spots, hoping to unearth familiar pale gray stone carved with a rose.

Instead, she came upon an actual rose. It was large, the very color of fresh-spilled blood, bathed in thin streaks of sunlight that had pushed through the thick canopy. "How beautiful." Drawing closer, Lily reached out to touch it, gasping when it proved to be ice cold to the touch. "How…"

"What did you find?" Scout asked sharply, and was at her side so quickly that Lily jumped. "I've never seen a rose like that." She frowned thoughtfully as she touched it herself. "No rose that cold should be able to survive, and it's the only one on the bush; there aren't even any other buds. Peculiar, to say the least."

The rose suddenly shimmered with light, and then one by one the petals drifted to the ground. Dismayed, Lily crouched and tried to catch them, though what exactly that would accomplish she couldn't say. She'd just grabbed a couple when she saw it: a hint of familiar pale gray stone. "Look!" She pulled away grass and detritus to reveal the whole tile, looking up with an eager smile at Scout, whose answering smile made her heart flip. Flushing, Lily dropped her gaze to the tile again. "So where do we go from here?"

"Northeast. If I'm right, we should reach the ruins in just a few more hours, barely before dark."

"So soon?"

"Yes, if I'm reading certain landmarks correctly. I thought it would take us much longer—it should have taken longer, going by the old accounts I looked over while in town. The Laughing Forest does as it pleases, though, I suppose." She offered a hand and tugged Lily to her feet, and Lily didn't think she was imagining that the grip lingered a moment before Scout let go and stepped back.

As the forest had grown so dense, and the markers increasingly difficult to see, they continued on foot leading the horses. Now, though, they looked for the beautiful blood red, ice cold roses, following them deeper and deeper—until suddenly the forest gave way to an enormous valley that was heavily shaded around the edges by the canopy.

In the center, nearly lost amidst trees and foliage, were the ruins of a castle. She could even see the remains of a tower, covered in all colors of climbing roses and with a tree growing up the middle of it, almost like the tower had been built around the tree.

"Is this truly the original Rosenfall?" She asked, barely noticing as the reins slipped from her fingers, bringing a hand up to clutch at her shawl. "I can't believe this was here this whole time, and not even all that far away…"

Scout snorted. "It should have been a lot further away, I know it."

"If the forest could do that, why couldn't it simply give us a direct path?"

Before Scout could reply, the nearby bushes rustled, and a moment later appeared the beautiful, enormous fox who had first shown them the road tiles. "Hello again."

The fox yipped and wagged its tail playfully, then motioned for them to follow before sprinting off across the valley.

"I'm not running!" Scout bellowed after it.

Lily giggled, retrieved her horse's reins, and they headed off across the field to the castle ruins.

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