Chapter three already! Yay! Thank you to everyone who reviewed and absolutely made my day. I love to hear from people, especially feedback.

I'm trying to stretch this story out enough so you can get a feel for how they're feeling and when so we won't get to Lover's Lake for a good while. They don't even get out of the forest in this chapter so if you're reading this story, you're going to be here for a bit lol

Again thank you readers and I hope you enjoy!


Chapter three:

The following morning Sofia was able to eat an apple without a problem. She had a look of content on her face as Cedric scanned over the map trying to figure out where exactly they were. She peeled an orange and split it in half and he absentmindedly took the other half, peeling it apart and eating it without much thought.

She did the same with an apple. Cedric took it without paying attention and started to eat it. And she passed him some berries and he just ate them. Her smile hurt her cheeks as she kept passing him food and he took it without much thought. She didn't know why it was so humorous but it just made her feel warm inside.

Finally, he looked up and stared at Sofia as she tried to pass off more fruit. He turned pink.

"You don't have to feed me, girl. I am more than capable of eating by myself." He was pretty sure no amount of his normal scathing self would wipe the grin off of her face. He just sighed and stood up, making everything disappear that he conjured.

"Thank you for last night, Cedric." Sofia said very sweetly. He was positive his face couldn't be more red if he tried. For whatever reason the thanks she gave him made him feel like he'd done something... perverted the night before. Who says thanks for last night anyway?

"Yes yes, if only there were more people like me in the world." He took the wards down as Sofia packed up her bag and hoisted it over her shoulders. Cedric paused and walked behind Sofia. "Hold still." He opened her bag and replenished their supply. "Can't eat all of the food without backup."

After Cedric was sure he knew the direction, they headed off into the forest. Once setting a comfortable rhythm, he began to tell Sofia what creatures they would be facing and how to kill them. She still seemed uneasy about killing something else but if they were as dangerous as he explained, she decided that she needed to be okay with it to save them.

"Sofia." Cedric said sharply and her head jerked in his direction. "How do you kill... a wendigo?" She thought for a moment. "You need to know this quickly, you won't get the chance to think long if we come across one."

"You set it on fire." She said quietly. "Cedric, how will we do that?"

"Don't forget silver works if you pierce their heart. But that only slows them down. If you're able to slow them down with your arrows I can use the spell Igne Furoris and be done with it. Now, speaking of your arrows, let me see one." Sofia reached behind her and pulled an arrow from her quiver. "Unfortunate." He stopped. "Dump out your quiver." She unclipped the quiver and poured it in front of them. Cedric pointed his wand at the small pile and mumbled an "Ad argentum" and they turned to pure silver.

"That's amazing! I thought that was only something you could do with alchemy." Sofia gushed and picked one up.

"Luckily for you I know much about alchemy. However, this isn't a permanent spell. It should do the trick though." He helped Sofia pack up her quiver and he thought for a moment and before letting her put it back on he tapped it with his wand. "Perpetua implete." Her quiver illuminated a faint green light. "It should make it so you don't run out of arrows."

"Thank you so much, Cedric." She smiled happily at him and clipped the quiver to her back, maneuvering the bag she was holding. He wasn't sure how she managed to do that before but the trouble she was having with it now was pretty comical to watch.

"We don't have all day, princess." She glared at him and he tried to hold his smile. He enjoyed teasing her. "We could've saved the kingdom by now..."

"If you're so impatient why don't you hold the bag." She thrust it in his direction and any sounds of protest went unsaid with the pout she gave him.

"Bratty princess and their annoying tendencies..." He mumbled as he snatched the bag. It was Sofia's turn to smile.


"Rugaru?" Cedric asked after several minutes of a comfortable silence as they walked further into the forest.

"There's a special knife that kills it but we don't have that so it's unhelpful. Also fire." Sofia said quickly and the giddiness Cedric felt at the knowledge that the princess had been paying attention to him was extraordinary. Sofia noticed the smile on his face and that in turn gave her butterflies.

"At least you were paying attention to something I said." Cedric managed to scoff and Sofia shook her head at him. "Banshee."

"Um... bronze knife?"

"No you're thinking of Sirens. You kill Banshees with gold or iron... Sofia have you ever tried to use your amulet?" He asked suddenly and she looked at him confused. "The amulet gives you... powers of sorts. Has it ever given you a weapon?"

"Um... no. I never needed one though. But it lets me get small if I ask and sometimes it lets me shapeshift." This was news to Cedric. He knew the amulet had powers beyond his comprehension but this was amazing.

"Can you try to ask?"

"Okay..." She held the amulet in her hands. "Can a pretty please have a bronze knife?" She held out her hand and after a moment there was a collection of sparkling dust that materialized into the knife.

"Glorious..." Cedric whispered to himself and Sofia smiled proudly.

"Can you please take the knife back now?" She asked the amulet and the knife disappeared as quickly as it came. "That was very impressive thinking." She praised and Cedric cleared his throat trying to get rid of the blush that stained his cheeks.

"Shtriga." Cedric said quickly, trying to change the subject but also very much liking praise.

"Oh, iron. But it has to be feeding..." She trailed off and looked horrified. "What happens if we get separated and I-" Cedric put his hand on her shoulder and she stopped mid-sentence.

"Sofia. Honestly I'm freaking out too. But I can swear to you that unless I'm dying and cannot move or I'm already dead, I will not allow myself to be separated from you." Sofia stared at him, amazed. Her face reddened and the only thing Cedric could do was curse himself for saying something so... gushy to her.

"Thank you, Cedric." She buried her face in his chest and after a moment of being surprised, he embraced her back.


"It has to be stabbed in the heart—" Sofia suddenly stopped talking like she was completely frozen in her tracks. She felt as though all the air was taken from her lungs and she couldn't breathe. There was an impending feeling of dread that sunk her down, even making her shoulders sag.

"Welcome to Malignant Falls." She looked around curiously. It didn't look any different. She thought once they passed the border between the two lands, it would... look dark and dead or something. She didn't expect it to look just as green and vibrant.

She suddenly got a gut wrenching feeling of sadness and covered her mouth to hide the hiccupping sound of sobs.

"Sofia, you can't let it get to you. I know it's hard." Cedric rubbed her shoulder and she sobbed even harder. He shouldn't have spoken so soon, it wasn't long before he began to feel the effects of the notoriously evil land.

"W-why are you f-fine?" She covered her face and he frowned. He wasn't fine, he had a fire in the pit of his stomach that seemed to burn as the moments passed by.

"It affects people differently. Since you're so pure it makes you sad." He explained shortly and had to close his eyes and breathe heavily to stop himself from snapping. He was getting so incredibly angry. His heart hammered in his chest and he kept clenching and unclenching his hands and he was grinding his teeth in a fashion that was entirely unhealthy.

"W-w-what happen-s..." She couldn't finish her sentence but he knew what she was asking. What would a person who was not pure?

She wiped her eyes and looked up at Cedric. She could tell he was angry. But it was terrifying with how angry he looked. His eyes were darker than normal. He had a few strands of hair sticking up with blue static shocks running through it like he was emanating electricity. His lips were pressed in a tight firm line and he was breathing heavily. She noticed the small bolts of electricity didn't end at his hair, it was sparking from his hands as well. She'd never seen him that way. That powerful.

"Get the purple potion from your bag insolent fool!" He barked and she shuttered, trying not to cry again.

"You're holding it! Stop yelling at me!" She said hysterically, and covered her mouth muffling the heavy crying. The sadness was deep in her bones, like a feeling you got if you witnessed a terrible loss. The only thing she could compare it to was when her father died when she was young. She ached everywhere, it hurt to move. She just felt the sadness so profoundly she couldn't handle herself.

"I wouldn't have to yell at you if you had a damned brain! For the love of Hades, I don't understand what about you makes everyone so frazzled! You're just a spoiled princess!" He growled and ripped it off his back and dumped everything on the ground of the forest.

Sofia felt her heart break further. As if someone clenched her heart in their hands and squeezed it so it was harder to breathe. She could even feel the irregular heart beat from the aching pain. All she wanted was Cedric to care for her and he couldn't even do that. She never asked for this life. She wished she was still living in the village with her mother and never had to deal with being a princess, or the duties and everything that came with being royalty. He didn't understand! She just wanted him. She wanted him so bad and he didn't even seem to care about her feelings.

"I never asked to be a princess! Why are you so cruel?" Sofia yelled and shoved him to the ground. "I just want you to like me! You're always so mean to me. Stop being mean!"

He snarled at her and grabbed her arm and yanked her to the ground and pinned her there. He leaned in so close their noses were almost touching. Her lower chin wobbled and tears streamed down the sides of her face.

"I'd never like someone like you." He spat and pushed himself up. Sofia couldn't take it anymore. She hated the anger. She wanted it gone. She wanted to scratch herself all over her skin because suddenly it was just too much weight. She wanted to be weightless. She wanted to be dead. The pain was so deep she needed to dig it out with her own nails.

He found the potion he was looking for. He quickly yanked off the cork and drank half of it greedily and then thrust it to Sofia. She grabbed it with shaky hands and finished it off.

Both knelt on the ground in silence for a while, letting the potion take effect and suddenly they were in control of their emotions again. Sofia looked at Cedric in slight disbelief.

"Princess Sofia I do apolo—" She shook her head at him.

"No." She said quietly.

"I wasn't in control of myself. I didn't realize what I was doing." He explained, and even to his own ears it sounded like a cop out. "Please, I didn't mean anything I said."

"Well, I did." She answered finally. "I just want you to like me. And I don't know why you're so mean to me. So why would it make me tell the truth and you lie?" He sighed and sat down across from Sofia.

"Princess, you're one of the purest people I know. Malignant Falls just proved that. You were sad and when someone is sad they say what they're feeling. I'm sure you know this but I'm... I'm not pure. I'm an angry sod and I don't know how you deal with that on a regular basis but you do. I'm tipping towards evil on the scale if I had to admit. I've done things I'm not proud of. But if you were to ever believe I say things I mean when I'm angry... well then, maybe you are an insolent fool." He gave her a weak smile and she stared at him in the eyes. His eyes lightened in color to the shade she'd fallen in love with. How could he think himself evil?

"You aren't evil-"

"-yes I am-"

"-No. You're not. Mister Cedric, you are angry and you can be mean but you aren't evil. There has been so many times where you could've been evil to me and at most you've shown me forced contempt. You're good, you just don't want to admit it. Maybe you have done things you aren't proud of but that's okay. You can make mistakes. What's important is who you are now."

Cedric drank in her appearance. Even with tear stained cheeks, bloodshot eyes and messy hair she was still more beautiful than anyone he'd ever known. Her eyes were lighter than normal, he wondered if that it just looked that way in contrast to the redness of her eyes now. With the light behind her and her hair tousled, it illuminated the stray pieces to almost resemble a halo. He wanted to pull her into him and whisper comforting words but he wasn't sure if that was the right time. If Cedric were being honest with himself, he didn't think there would ever be a right time. She was too perfect for him. He didn't think he could tether her to him, she deserved the moon and the stars in the sky. All he could offer was... himself.

"Come on let's go." Sofia held out her hand to hoist Cedric up and he reluctantly took it.

They walked further into the forest.


"We've been walking for a while." Sofia noticed and Cedric looked up at the sky. Based on the time of year and the sun movement they'd been walking for about 3 hours since getting into Malignant Falls. The trees were so dense it was almost impossible to see anything else. If Cedric didn't have his magic guiding them, he wasn't sure how they'd get out.

Without much notice, he saw in the distance the trees getting darker, like a cloud of blackness was blanketing the forest just up ahead. It got closer and closer. Cedric grabbed Sofia's hand and she quickly pulled out her wand and held it in a defensive position. The black fog engulfed them and it was almost impossible to see for a few minutes until everything settled down.

"Mister Cedric." Sofia said softly, but with a lot of emotion.

"Yes Princess?" He drawled.

"W...What is that?" She pointed and Cedric followed her direction and saw possibly one of the most grotesque things he'd ever seen. The humanoid figure thrust its body in a very spastic manner in their direction despite having absolutely no face, therefore no eyes to see them. It had no arms and it was so skinny it was almost as if it were made by wrapping a skeleton in plastic wrap. The skin was so thin and its bones were protruding from its body.

"Merlin's Mushrooms." Cedric inhaled sharply. "I have no bloody idea."


If anyone wants to know what creature they're facing, I got the idea from Silent Hill!

So far based on my reviews it looks like most people want their feelings to be admitted at Lover's Lake. I'm completely fine with that, it would be a cute element of surprise for Sofia.

Just warning everyone this is where the story gets very dark. Theres going to be a lot of fighting and blood.

Let me know if there is a supernatural creature you'd like to see them fight!