Page 15 of In Darkness Forged

It didn’t require much urging. The animal merely tossed her head once before turning and trotting back the way they’d come. Before she was even out of sight, she’d broken into a canter that was considerably more energetic than any gait she’d been willing to maintain for Aislin. It was only a few moments before the sound of hoofbeats disappeared entirely beneath the roar of the river, churning in its rocky bed.

Aislin closed her eyes to the road and turned towards the sound, knowing she must not stop to think. Dwelling on the possibilities would only allow her fear more room to grow. She had to keep moving. Had to find her way forward. There was no going back until she gained what she sought, so with her jaw set and her eyes narrowed, she turned away from the false promise of home and safety and began to run.

One booted foot in front of the other, as quickly as she could traverse the winding path.

There, just ahead. A narrow stone bridge spanned the raging rapids below, but Aislin did not pause to gaze on its evident age nor at the torrent of water that divided the life she knew from everything that lay ahead. She simply plunged forward, eyes fixed on the path beneath her feet until the bridge was little more than an indistinct memory. The trees grew close together all the way to the canyon’s edge, so after only a few minutes of running down the narrow track on the other side, the sound of water was once again only a murmur in her ears.

Only when it had disappeared altogether did Aislin slow to a walk and then stop in the middle of the road. Her breath sawed in and out of her chest as she bent over, placed her hands on her knees, and acknowledged what she’d done.

She’d crossed the border. She was no longer in Farhall, but in the mysterious kingdom of the night elves. She now walked where warriors feared to tread, in a land of magic and mystery that somehow held her only hope for the future.

Now all she had to do was find an actual night elf, convince them not to kill her, then beg them for help and answers they had no reason to give.

From far overhead, she heard the wild, lonely cry of a crested hawk, and knew that Alaric, too, was leaving her, his duty done.

And she was finally, truly, alone.

She’d been envisioning this moment all day. And she wanted to be brave—to stride forward with courage and face her errand with her head held high. But as night fell over that unfamiliar forest, Aislin’s courage began to crack.

How had she ever imagined she could do this?

Oh, right. Because she had never been outside her own tiny village before. She’d had no concept of how dark and lonely and terrifying it was to be on her own, lost in a forest that seemed worlds away from the friendly hollows and hills of the woods near her home.

With each bend in the road, Aislin found herself flinching at the sounds of wind in the trees or small creatures as they scampered through the brush. She felt ridiculous jumping at nothing, and considered making camp, but the thought of moving off the path and into the dark woods gave her no comfort. It would be better to continue on while the moon was high and bright and gave her enough light to see the road in front of her.

Eventually, though, lack of sleep spilled over from her fogged mind to drag at her aching limbs, and she grew too exhausted to do much more than plod forward. The moon began to sink behind the trees, and that was when the first howl echoed eerily through the night.

Aislin told herself it was probably just an actual wolf and would leave her in peace, but then the rustling began in earnest—no indeterminate scurrying this time, but footfalls, soft and measured. Matching her progress, stride for stride.

She stopped, a sick tremor of fear seizing her lungs and making it difficult to breathe.

Her feet, too, seemed mired in mud, and her back ached with the anticipation of an attack. Where would it come from? The front? Or behind?

Why had she not made camp when she could? Then she would at least have a fire to anchor her defense. Now she had nothing but the open road, which left nowhere to hide.

Running would only make it worse, she knew, but if it had not been for her exhaustion and the leaden sense of dread weighing down her feet, she likely would have fled, relying only on the panicked instincts of a creature who knew it was prey.

If it was night elves who stalked her in the dark, would they take pity on her and listen to her questions? Or would they kill her outright for the audacity of trespassing on their lands?

Surely they would talk first. Surely…

It was difficult not to wish that her grandmother had been right—that she had some hidden magic that would come to life in a dark moment. But no sudden sparks of power leaped to her fingertips, no arcane knowledge blossomed in her mind. This was real—neither a story nor a dream—and she could not hide from it, no matter how frightening it might be.

She’d known she would have to confront a night elf eventually, so her best chance was to present herself openly and make her request honestly. To appear soft and weak, incapable of posing a threat.

Soft, weak, and delicious, her brain insisted, frantically urging her to flee as the wolf howled again, much closer. So close.

So very, very close…

And then she was no longer alone. One moment the moonlit path stretched away in front of her, empty but for rocks, tree roots, and the encroaching shadows of the forest. Now, the road simply seemed to end at the feet of an unnaturally large black wolf. It did not snarl or crouch—it merely stood there, blocking the way, regarding her silently out of glowing green eyes.

Wolf? Or night elf?

The latter, she decided, when the creature made no move to attack, but its stillness did not lessen her fear.

Should she pretend she hadn’t seen it? Stop and shiver in her tracks and let it see her as prey? Or walk up, pat it on the head, and say ‘nice doggy’?

She was still considering her next move when she realized that the wolf’s true function had not been to block or to threaten, but to distract her. While she’d remained motionless, staring at its dark, dangerous bulk, new figures had slipped silently from the trees to surround her.

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