It was a cold and dark windy night when Ib's head gently bumped against the carriages window. She had grown tired of looking out into the stormy night sky and seeing all the tree's that surrounded them so she had decided to take a nap but to no success. She had been called to her aunt's house for urgent business although it was never stated what but Ib had packed up quickly and called Charles to bring the ginormous black brazed carriage around with it's four white horses. She swiftly looked back into the window allowing it to be a mirror to reflect herself. She had never really noticed herself in all of her life. She had long brown hair with bangs to cover her eyes slightly that were the oddest shade of red. She never truly knew where that shade came from but it was a feature that made her unique.
The carriage wobbled a bit startling Ib out of her daydream and she braced herself against her leather seat. This was not the normal wobble of the dirt pathway but felt like something much more serious and the horses neighing loudly and Charles yelling at them to stop confirmed her suspicions. She heard through the carriage Charles hop down from his post and walking around the carriage till he stopped on her left side and then a slew of curses ran through his chapped mouth. Ib had thrown the recently closed curtain open and gave Charles a look and then he went to open her door.
"S'ry Ma'am, but the damn axel on the w'el broke and it 'eems like we ain't mov'n fo' a 'hile," He reached for his hat and strung it between his hands twisting and turning it in controlled rage. Ib simply reached her hand out for him and he took it as she started to step out of the carriage. She took a look at the wheel and had seen the axel busted but it seemed as if it didn't break on its own but as if on purpose. Waving the silly notion off she turned to Charles, "Well, it's better if you stay here with the horses since if I do they would surely run away. I saw a light some whiles down the road, maybe a nice house where they can help us. I will only take a little bit so stay here." Charles nodded understandingly, he had a bad knee so he could not walk very far and Ib had known that but also she often had an independent spirit about herself and usually did whatever she wanted to.
Charles slowly started to deplete in size as Ib walked on attempting to find the light she had seen in the distance. It was a faint light possibly candle light or some form of it that she had seen only a mile possibly down the road. As she walked down the road the trees seemed to become denser and more populated around the dirt road, almost as if they were trying to conceal something. Other than that light she had seen there were no signs of civilization for miles like the town they had stopped at the other night, once they had left that they had seen no houses or farms anywhere. Ib lifted her dress a little higher as the road was starting to get muddier and she walked on and her shoes squished in it.
A rustle in the bushes scared her out of her concentration on not stepping in the bigger mud puddles. She looked over to her left where she had heard the noise afraid that it was a man or thief that had been watching her as she got out of screaming distance of Charles. She froze in fear and waiting to see if anyone was going to jump out of the bushes but they didn't. Instead, what she saw was the faint light that she saw earlier. It was a little farther into the forest meaning she had to move bushes and tree branches out of her way so she started on that. Once getting into the actual forest she had to practically pine up her dress with how much mud was on the earth. She didn't really understand as to why there was no mud...it had not rained in at least a fortnight. But she pushed through the bushes and the faint light became stronger in her presence until she saw that there were actually more and the faint lights were torches leading onto a path. She could not exactly see what the path led to since it was leading up a slight hill but she was sure that it would lead to some form of house. That was the only possible explanation.
She looked nervously behind her where the dirt road was still visible and bit on her lip as if to decide whether or not to follow this path. Her feet led her in the direction of the path before she could even make a decision as if something was making her mind up for her. It was an uneasy feeling and she wasn't sure if she should follow it but she thought what was the worse that could happen and continued her feet to lead her.
The torches flames danced in the wind that was beginning to pick up and she wondered during some gusts how they didn't blow out. It was as if they were leading her somewhere as they all pointed towards the pathway in the way she was walking. They also played shadows along the trees making it look as if people were watching her make her walk up the small hill and waiting anxiously for her to make it. The tree's started to thin out as she made her way to the top and this indicated that there had to be some kind of civilization over this hill and she would be able to go back to Charles in a matter of hours.
Her feet were itching for her to reach the top and she started to quicken her pace to reach it faster. Finally, she did.
Over the hill there was what looked like a castle or at least a decaying one. There were towers that were crumbled and fallen over and it looked as if some bricks were missing. If it weren't for these lit torches and the animals running around in the side pins then she would of walked back to Charles and stayed at the carriage for the night. At least, that's what she should have done.