As I rode through the forest, I made sure to check that the sunflowers were in good shape every once and a while. They looked beautiful and I was going to make sure that the person who receives this gets it in that condition. When we were coming up to a cross path, I stopped and looked at the map Francis gave me.

I turned my head to the side as I moved the piece of paper around to read it. At the shop I thought the map was readable, but when I looked closer at it, that was a lie. Francis's handwriting was so fancy that I couldn't read one word of it. Even the rough drawing in the back was horrible.

"Man Francis, why would you do this to me?"

After a while, I gave up and placed the piece of paper back into my bag. I looked left, then right before turning back to my horse.

"Well, where do you think we should go Silver?"

She turned her head to the side as if to look at me then nodded her head toward the left.

"Alright! I trust your judgement so let's go!"

I turned the reins to the left and let Silver galloped to the left. At that point, the ride went smooth but as I ventured deeper into the forest, I started to get worried. The path I was once on seem to vanish as well as my sense of direction. All the trees look the same and I didn't know how to get back.

Even after all those times I've been in and out of this place, I could still get lost. When I tried reaching into my mind for distinct memories to be my guide, nothing helped. In a few minutes, I felt that I've been going around in circles all day. My mind was starting to ache and I wanted to go back to Matthew.

When we reached a pond, I let Silver rest and take a drink as I examined Francis's map again. It seems that the path I usually take to get from the first town to Feliciano's farm was the one I had to take. That part I got right for sure.

From that on, I was actually supposed to go right at the first cross path and then follow it from there. A sigh left my lips and wonder how I wasn't able to figure this out before when I was at the crossroad the first time. Also, it seems like I couldn't trust Silver whenever I needed to pick which direction to go to.

I took a good look around me and then back at the map. Thankfully, at the very edge of the paper, I could see a sadly drawn oval that was labeled 'pond'. In my head, I started praying this pond was the one that was on the map.

Once I thought that Silver had her share of water, I climbed on and reread the map to make sure I was gonna go the right way. In a few minutes, I nodded firmly and rode through the trees while putting my faith on this map.

When I looked back to the sky, it seems that the sun was going to set soon. Soon after, I felt my tummy grumbled.

"Yea yea, I'll feed you."

I patted my tummy a bit then reached over to the sac and took out a piece of bread to eat. After a while I even grabbed a carrot for Silver which she gladly ate. We soon had our fill and happily made it back to the original crossroad. Or that's what I was hoping.

We were back on the road but for all I know, this could lead me to another town that I've never been to before. A sigh left my lips as I let Silver go right and follow it from then on. When I looked around, there were no animals in sight.

The birds weren't out and singing their usual song. But then again, it was nearly winter and it should be the time to stock up before the snow kicks in. I held back an involuntary shudder when a cold autumn wind passed us. Warm weather always appealed to me more than cold one. This time of year usually brought sadness to my family.

A frown formed on my lips when distant memories flashed through my mind but I decided to ignore it like I always did. Now was not the time to be grieving of the past. Especially when I'm on a delivery as important as this.

As time passed, the sky was getting darker and I was wondering if this path was gonna get me anywhere at all. I've been on this thing for what feels like hours and I haven't seen any other signs of life.

"Argh, this better not be a wild goose chase from Francis or I'll..urgh."

Another sigh left my lips and I took the time to look at the sunflower bouquet again. They were a bit ruffled but still looked stunning. When I thought about the girl that walked into the store earlier, she looked rather pretty. It made me wonder if these were for her boyfriend.

"Better hurry up on this delivery."

I was pulled out of my thoughts when Silver suddenly came to a stop. When I looked up, I was met with a somewhat large cottage. My eyes went back to the map that Francis gave me then to the brown building surrounded by thick trees.

With a shrug, I got off of Silver and petted her head for a job well done to get me here. Hopefully this was the right place but then again, who other sane person would decide to live in the forest if there were terrible creatures here. I held the bouquet in my hand and then approached the front door.

When I was standing a feet away from it, I firmly knocked on the door and was surprise when it creaked open. I looked left then right before pushing the door open slowly. Inside, it was slightly dark since there was no light so I relied on the slight ray of sun I had left.

I could distinctly see a sofa in front of a fire place while another area had a table and chair. My mind told me to just leave the bouquet at the front door but I thought that would be rude. So without anything better left to do, I cautiously went in and then scanned the area again.

The place looked like it was uninhabited and I was starting to think that this may seriously be a joke. If it was then I was going to resell them in order to get Matthew some of the maple syrup he loved. When I took another step into what I thought was the dining room, I noticed a piece of paper on the table.

Without thinking, I took the piece of paper and flipped it over. Only two words were written on it.

"Turn around."

A sudden chill went down my spin and I felt that someone or rather something was watching me. I slowly turned around and then immediately I froze. Five or six feet away, I could see the outline of a large wolf that was almost as tall as me. What stood out the most was its violet eyes peering at me. It seems like those people that were talking about large beasts weren't lying.

At first I was rather excited to see such a cool animal in front of me then I felt fear mix in with it. The beast didn't growl at me but we simply stared at each other for the time being. It was almost as if it was observing me and wondering why I was here.

When I took one step to the side, the wolf snarled at me and immediately went into what seems like an offensive stance. My body finally broke through the trance and dropped the flower and paper before rushing to the door. From the corner of my eye I could see the beast quickly react to this and jump at me. I leaped into the air to barely dodge its claw and roll out the door. I scrambled to my feet and ran as fast as I could toward Silver.

She didn't seem to notice me or the wolf that was most definitely behind me at first so I yelled. Silver looked up at me then turned around to start to galloping away. I ran faster and somehow managed to climb onto the saddle in time. However, as soon as I was able to get on, my horse neighed loudly and then tumbled down. I was flung a few feet away from her and I hit the floor with a loud thud.

Another neigh caught my attention, and I looked up to see the white beast gnawing on one of Silver's legs. A normal person would probably leave the horse for dead and run, but I grew up with Silver since she was a colt. That horse was practically family and I wasn't going to lose her when it didn't seem to be her time. Besides, a true hero would never run from the face of danger.

A small wave of anger flew over me when the beast bit harder and I immediately tackled the wolf at full speed and force to knock it away. When I had a good grip on him, I flung the animal as far as my strength would take him then checked on my horse. For some reason, I had more physical strength than a normal person since childhood since I played with bulls.

The wound on Silver's leg seemed deep and I didn't bring any medical supplies to disinfect the wound. I was pulled out of my thoughts when I heard a large snarl. The beasts looked at me with his violet eyes and snarled louder as if to gain my attention. My eyes narrowed at him and I walked away from my horse to focus on the wolf.

I let my hand grip the hilt of my gun as the animal crouched lower to the ground. In my mind, I felt like I had some chance to win this battle but I was against a humongous white wolf with razor sharp teeth. His fur looked rather thick so one bullet probably wasn't going to be enough to bring it down. So I decided that it was best to save the gun for last.

Before I was able to even grip my knife, the wolf somehow manage to appear right in front of me. I leaned back and tried to jump out of the way but he still managed to injure my arm. As I ran backwards to evade more attacks, the beasts kept pursuing me. My heart was pounding loudly against my chest and I could tell that my nervousness was affecting my movements.

The few seconds I was on both my feet, they were visibly trembling from the adrenaline rushing through my body. I couldn't think straight so I wasn't able to properly defend myself in this dangerous situation. Even when I finally had my knife in my hand, the wolf knocked it out of the way and pinned me down. I grab a hold of his muzzle and tried pushing him off but it proved to be difficult.

He kept snarling and inching toward my face whenever he had the chance. However, I wasn't about to let him make a meal out of me, so I brought my right hand up and hit him square across the jaw. I then took the next few seconds the bring both my knees up and throw him to the side. Before I was able to get back on my feet, I felt a searing pain in my leg.

I clawed at the ground then yelled when the pain got worse. When I turned around, I saw that the beast was biting my right leg with no mercy what so ever. His purple eyes looked straight at mine and I felt that he was looking at me with arrogance. That bastard was playing with me!

If he thinks that I was going to let him make a meal out of me that easily then think again. I quickly kicked the side of his face with my other leg even though it was painful to do so. Every movement I made would let his teeth dive deeper into my skin and cause more pain to myself.

At one point of time, the pain was to much and I let myself yell. I clenched my fist and tried to kick him again but he dodged it. When my vision started to get hazy, I heard a firm voice broke through the air.

"Bind!"

A sudden burst of light engulfed the beast and when it disperse, the wolf was held down by golden chains surrounding its body. I slowly crawled away from the scene when I saw that my leg was free and toward Silver. When I was close by, I stopped to catch my breath. At that point, I felt someone pull me into a warm embrace. My vision was still a bit hazy so I wasn't able to distinguish who the person was.

"Transport!"

Instead of the light surrounding the beasts, it was now circling around us. I blinked once and had to close my eyes when the light was to bright for me. When I felt that it was safe, I opened my eyes again and I was greeted with a blurry view of a person with yellow hair. I rubbed my eyes and then felt surprised when my vision cleared to see the person that I saw earlier.

"Woah your eyebrows look humongous up close!"

His left eye immediately twitch at my response and I immediately felt my head hit the floor with a thud.

"Ow, was that really necessary man?"

I rubbed the back of my head and rolled over with a groan. When the pain subsided, I took the time to check my surroundings. It seems that I was in a stable from all the hay and materials lying around. I then, looked back at the guy with caterpillar eyes to see that he was right by Silver and tending to her wounds. I was about to walk over to them when I fell straight back on a stack of hay. Stupid injured leg.

"Stay where you are. I'll be with you in a minute."

I mumbled back incoherent words to him and then did as I was told. With what little strength I had left in my body, I flipped myself over so that I was lying on my back. After a while, the blonde man came back into my view and sat by my side.

"Um, could you tell me what your name is or else I'll end up calling you 'caterpillar eyebrows' all day."

His eye twitched again but it stopped when he let out a sigh.

"My name is Arthur Kirkland and yourself?"

I smiled widely and gave him a thumbs up.

"Name's Alfred F. Jones and I'm the hero! Thanks a bunch for saving me back there, Iggy!"

Arthur immediately hit me upside the head after I said that.

"You idiot, I told you my name is Arthur, not Iggy!"

"Aww, but doesn't Iggy sound cuter?"

Another hit was delivered and I decided to stay quiet for now. In return, Arthur held my injured arm and placed some liquid on it. Upon contact, it quickly stung my body but I held down the urge to move around. I didn't want to make the caterpillar man angrier. Once the wound was disinfected, he neatly bandage my arm then went over to my leg.

"So tell me why in the world you were so deep in the forest today."

"Well, I was doing a delivery but then I got lost at one point of time. It wasn't my fault though, my boss has super fancy handwriting that it's almost impossible to read it. However, being the hero I was, I easily recovered and made it on the right pat- ouch!"

I stood up a little to stare at Arthur and he apologetically waved at me. Somehow it felt that he did that on purpose but I continued my story.

"So then I ended up at this cottage right and since no one would naturally live in these woods, I suspected that it was the right house. When I got in though, I was met with this huge white wolf. And well you know the rest."

I kept my eyes locked on the stable ceiling so that I could distract myself from the familiar stinging sensation.

"Why didn't you run away? If you left your horse for bait then he would have left you alone."

I shrugged a little.

"I guess I'm just stupid like that."

A small chuckle left my lips but then I felt something hit my head. I stood up and saw that Arthur flicked my forehead. I gently rubbed my forehead as he went back to his work.

"Yea you really are an idiot."

I simply smiled and then remembered the situation I was in.

"By the way, how did you know I was there and why did you save me? Wouldn't it be best for you to leave me there so that the wolf wouldn't focus on you?"

He momentarily paused at his actions then continued what he was doing.

"You didn't look at me like everyone else did."

Arthur never took his gaze off of my leg as he bandaged it when he said that. I blinked once and when I was about to ask him another question, he continued talking.

"I'm sure you've heard the gossip about me being a warlock. When I looked at you though, your gaze wasn't prejudice even though I am one."

"Huh, so that's how you were able to do those cool stuff on that beast. Can you teach me how to do that?"

He neatly tied the bandage together then looked at me.

"Are you an idiot? Not anyone can use magic like I can."

I slightly pouted at him and gave him a puppy dog look that I usually showed Matthew when he was angry at me. When Arthur looked like he was about to give in, he turned his head away and stood up.

"Forget it. I'll just take you to your room."

"Um, is it alright if you just transported me back to my house? I don't want my brother to go out during the night to search for me since I'm not home."

He looked to the side and thought about it for a moment before sighing.

"Fine, but your horse stays here. It'll be better for her to recover at my place anyway."

I smiled and immediately stood up to give Arthur a hug. However, I wasn't able to balance myself in time so we ended up on the floor with me on top of him. In response, I chuckled like an idiot while Arthur yelled.

"Get off me you idiot! You weigh a ton!"

"Aw, I love you too Iggy!"

"Quit calling me that or else I'll turn you into a frog!"

"Ow, so mean."