Two
I woke to a crow's cawing. Daylight poured into the hut through a tiny window set high up, near the ceiling, and cracks in the walls glowed white in the darkness. I was lying on a hard bed, in a room with two others just like it.
I felt disoriented until a baby's scream from my right made me jump and recalled memories of yesterday, and I swung my legs off the bed to go investigate. I passed through a door made of what felt like animal skin and belatedly noticed that I had used my injured arm to push the flap aside, but it hadn't hurt. Surprised, I shifted the neckline of my dress to look at it and found no indication of bruising, just a thin strip of cloth holding a clump of leaves to the skin. My head itched and my fingers met another bandage when I reached up to scratch it.
The baby that had been the source of the cry was in the main room of the hut, with both Jack and Danielle hovering over it. Another woman, young with blond hair, stood by, looking worried.
"Will he be alright?" she asked, arms wrapped defensively around her middle.
"I don't know," said Jack. "He's got a fever."
"And a cough," Danielle added when the baby made a strange choking noise. "Did you take him into the woods?"
"Only a little," the young woman replied, biting her lip, "I went to go pick flowers and Charles was busy, so I took Aaron with me. I didn't think—"
"Apparently not," Danielle said harshly. "You know that the sickness comes from the forest."
"He'll be okay, Claire," Jack assured the young woman, giving a pointed look to Danielle as if to say, 'Don't be so cruel'. Danielle smiled faintly at him and smeared a brownish paste on the baby's chest, and held it there with a bandage.
"There," she said, picking him up and cradling him briefly. I saw a look of sad longing cross her face, but it was gone was fast as it had come as she handed the child to his mother. Claire clutched him to her chest protectively and thanked the two healers, then left the hut.
"Master, with all due respect—" Jack began, but Danielle cut him off with a raised hand.
"I know," she said. "But she was silly enough to make the mistake once and had I not corrected her, she would have done it again." She turned and saw me standing in the doorway. "Ah. Good morning, Katherine."
"It's Kate," I corrected her uneasily. A sickness coming from the forest? By this time, I'd reasoned with myself that this must all be some crazy dream, and by doing so, had accepted it somewhat as reality. My body was probably lying in some hospital, in a coma or something. Ah well, I thought fatalistically, better this creepy medieval village than nothing at all.
"No," Danielle said firmly, "it is Katherine."
"Lord Benjamin disapproves of shortened forms of names," Jack explained quickly when it looked like I was going to retort.
"Who's Lord Benjamin?" I asked, forgiving Danielle for calling me by the name that brought back bad memories. Jack looked at his master.
"He is the village leader," Danielle said forebodingly, "and he is very dangerous. It is best to stay away from him."
There was a short silence, and Jack was the one to break it. "Are you hungry? You slept in quite a bit. It is almost midday."
"No," I said, but he brought me a piece of bread and a carrot anyway.
"You need to eat," he said.
"Thanks," I smiled and took a bite of the bread. It was coarse and stale, and had a very unpleasant taste, but my stomach rumbled at it and I realized just how hungry I actually was. The rest of the food disappeared quickly and Jack chuckled.
"Where are you from?" he asked conversationally, leaning his elbows on the table in the middle of the room.
"I was on the plane from—" I began to say, but then thought better of it. No one here seemed to know anything about the present, or the future, or reality, or… well, no one here seemed to know any thing about my world. "I'm from Canada," I answered finally, evasively.
"I have never heard of that town," Jack commented, "Is it far from here?"
"Uh, yes," I said, "yes, it's very far."
"How did you end up here?" he asked, "Travelling? Perhaps a pilgrimage?"
"I got lost," I lied, "while hunting."
"Then perhaps you will join me," Danielle said.
"Pardon?" I asked, though I'd heard, "Go hunting?"
"Yes, of course," she responded, her back turned to me and her hands busy fitting what looked like a crossbow with an arrow. "If you are confident enough to go out by yourself, you must be very skilled. I would like a partner. Jack has no talent for it, and he does not like it, so I am usually alone." She turned around and held the weapon out to me, slinging another over her shoulder. I took it cautiously.
"Alright," I agreed. How hard could it be?
Very hard, I soon discovered. Danielle laughed at my clumsy attempts to shoot a rabbit, and let the lie I'd told slip. We rested down at a small stream, sitting down, drinking the fresh water, and talking. She was kind, albeit a little strange, and I learned that she'd been forced to move here with her infant daughter from a neighbouring country after being accused of witchcraft for her healing skills. I began to ask where her daughter was now, but approaching hoof beats interrupted me.
"Hide," Danielle told me quietly, but firmly.
"What?" I questioned, turning to look at her, but she had disappeared. "Danielle?"
The horses drew closer and then came into view. They stopped when they saw me, and three men in armour dismounted and walked toward me. I backed away slightly, wishing I hadn't set my crossbow down on an out-of-reach rock.
"You!" shouted one of the men. He was not tall, but not short either, with a long cape draped over one shoulder and was obviously the leader of the two others, who looked like guards. "What are you doing out here? This is far beyond the boundaries. You know the risks!"
"I'm sorry," I said, making my legs to bend into a sort of klutzy curtsey and added, "sir."
His gloved hand grabbed my chin and forced my face up. "Hm," he sniffed, "I do not recognize you. Are you from the village?" He was strange looking, with wide eyes and a sharp nose.
"I'm just," I struggled to say; his grip hurt, "passing through."
"On your way to where, I wonder?" he questioned, then laughed. "Doesn't matter. You've a pretty face, girl. Come to the fort tomorrow, and I'll make it worth your trouble."
With that, he whirled away and strode back to his horse and leapt up onto it. He turned back to glance at me and I felt rather than saw his eyes rove over my body, and then he dug his spurs into the poor animal's sides and they were off. Once they were out of sight, Danielle reappeared at my side.
"Where the hell did you go?" I demanded angrily.
"I told you to hide," she said evenly, "but you did not listen. Now Benjamin knows you." She cast a dark look in the direction he'd gone. "Do not go to his castle," she instructed me firmly. "Do not go."
"Wh—" I was about to ask why when a loud screeching noise cut me off. Danielle whipped around, crossbow up, looking for the source, and I instinctively took a step backward. The noise continued, and in the distance we could see trees falling. We looked at each and took off running simultaneously, me following her toward the village. Once inside the town's boundaries, we turned to look with the other villagers who'd come outside when they'd heard the sound.
Murmurs of 'what is it?' and 'what's happening?' drifted about among the crowd. Jack came up beside me and Danielle.
"Do you know what that is?" he asked her.
"It is the forest's defence," she said simply. I stared at her until she spun on her heel abruptly and marched back to her hut. Jack and I took one last look at the falling trees and trailed after her.
"How do you know?" I demanded.
She smiled. "I have been here for a long time," she said. "I lived in the forest for many years before I moved into this village. There are many things I know that you do not." She took the crossbow from my hand and hung it up on the wall, and took the string of rabbits she'd killed from her shoulder and set it down on the counter, where she proceeded to cut them open. I looked away, repulsed, as she separated flesh from bone.
Jack helped her and they chatted about various things from the difference between two herbs to the thing in the forest. She wouldn't say exactly what it was, and I suspected that she didn't actually know.
