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Ch. 11 The Black Wood
The soft misty rain was held back by the tightly woven brush that sheltered us. The sun had begun to set and I could hear the rumbling of Bip's stomach and feel mine. Bip slept like the dead curled into my side. I wanted to sleep too, I was exhausted, but I couldn't close my eyes. Dee hadn't returned yet, and with the shadows settling in for the night I was too tense to sleep.
Looking down at Bip, I wondered what sort of magic he had used that would exhaust him so much. A spark of guilt crept up from my gut. Once again, I had been saved and this time someone could have died.
A twig snapped and I scrambled to pull Bip closer and hide deeper into the brush. Then I saw Dee poke his head out, my bag in his mouth.
"Dee!" I half shouted in relief as he squeezed his large body into our hideaway. My nose scrunched up on its own accord at the wet dog smell, but I smiled at him.
"Thank you." I said, taking the bag that was far heavier than when I had left it. Looking inside I saw apples, a bunch of watercress, and what looked to me like lily bulbs. Looking up at him I nearly cried. I picked an apple out and took a big bite.
"You've saved the day Dee." I said, savoring the sweet juice in my mouth. I moved over as close to the brush wall as I could and motioned for him to lay next to Bip. He curled his body around the smallest of us, his tail tickling my shins as I turned on my side and finished my apple. I laid my head on my arm, and reached over Bip to lay my other hand on Dee's shoulder. I just wanted to touch him, just to remind myself that he really was there. Now, with Dee back my body no longer felt on high alert and within moments of laying my head down, I was fast asleep.
The next morning I woke up alone, curled in on myself. At first I sat up quickly in panic, looking around for signs of the other. As I scrambled out of the small sanctuary my panic that had been twisting my insides calmed down. Bip was next to a small fire, roasting what looked like fish on sticks. My mouth instantly began to water. He looked up from his cooking to grin a toothy smile at me.
"Good morning mistress." He said turning a fish. I couldn't help but smile at him; the rascal. As I sat down next to him, my eyes wandered about, still not finding what I was looking for.
"Where's Dee?" I asked a hint of worry in my voice. Bip blew on a fish before handing me the stick.
"Probably went out to do his doggy business I imagine." He said taking a fish for himself. I nodded. After eating, I would have to do the same.
"Bip, what happened yesterday?" I asked after biting into the fish.
"As I recall, you clumsily fell off a cliff." He said gently jabbing me in the ribs. I gave him my most skeptical look.
"You know that's not what I mean!" I said forgoing the breakfast to glare at him. The boy took a bite much too big for his mouth and sighed around it.
"I used too much magic is all." He said after a whole minute of chewing his fish. He chucked the now empty stick into the woods and stood to stamp out the small fire. I wondered where he found dry enough wood.
"That's all? Bip you fainted! What if something had gone seriously wrong?" I asked tossing out my own stick.
"Would you have rather fell?" He shouted at me his face twisted in frustration. I felt the irritation I had been feeling vanish and a feeling I knew well spring up in its place; hurt. Gradually Bip's face softened out again.
"I couldn't just let you die." He said resignedly stuffing his hands into his pocket rather shyly. "You're the only one who says I'm amazing." Suddenly, I realized that I hadn't been the only one scared out of their wits yesterday. Bip had been terrified too. I stood up and resolutely made my way to him. He looked up at me with a faint dusting of pink on his face. I bent down to his level and tossed my arms around him, determined to hug the life out of his small body.
"You ARE amazing Bip. Thank you." I felt so…uncomfortable, and foolish, as my throat had decided to constrict on me and make speaking nearly impossible. As I pulled back I noticed his face had gone a lovely dark shade of red. One of his hands came out to scratch his nose as he looked anywhere but at me.
"Yes, well, we all know that don't we?" He said almost in a pout. I smiled and shook my head at his childlike embarrassment.
"I'm going to go take care of something. I'll be right back and when Dee shows up, we'll move on." I said making sure to grab my knife out of my bag this time. A lot of good it did in there. I made my way towards a rather sheltered spot to take care of business, and once done, turned to make my way back. A tall dark figure caught my eye before I could take a step and I dodged behind a tree before he could see me.
All dressed in black, black hair slicked back, and when he turned his scars visible. The crow! I hid behind the tree again thinking of possible reason for him to be out here. I peeked out again to see him speaking to a small bird, probably a sparrow.
"Well, they should find her then, that's our best lead." He said nodding resolutely. I wondered who he was looking for, and a part of me thought it was me but I shot that thought down quickly. I moved a hair backwards and snap, stepped on a few twigs. Diaval's head looked back and forth cautiously as the sparrow flew away. He looked on edge as he walked my way, and I could feel my heartbeat speed up. I moved closer to the tree again hearing the crunch of his approach.
"Mistress! Did you get lost?" Bip shouted and Diaval stilled before I heard him begin to walk the other way. I took a deep breath and let it go grateful to have missed him this time. As I pushed off the tree I nearly fell back in surprise as Dee rounded the tree and sat down to stare at me.
"Oh! Dee! You scared me!" I said placing a hand over my heart as if that would slow it down. If I survived this adventure, I was sure to have heart problems in the future.
Dee stood up and wagged his tail, moving towards our makeshift camp.
Bip stood waiting for us with his hands on his hips looking a hundred times better than yesterday. "Well? Are you two done?" He asked teasingly. I ruffled his hair and picked up my bag.
"Lead on imp." I said, shouldering the bag. As we began our trek once again, I found myself wondering about Diaval again and again. Who was he looking for? Why was he all the way out here? Bip must have noticed that my mind was far away because he stopped in front of me with an odd look on his face.
"Alright, what's got you so deep in thought? Thinking is dangerous for you." He said playfully. I frowned at him and pinched a rosy cheek.
"Cheeky thing you are." I said as he escaped my grasps rubbing his cheek, while Dee shook with a laugh.
"If you must know, I saw Diaval this morning out in the woods." Bip and Dee went rigid still and looked at each other.
"Well…that's odd, did he see you?" Bip asked uncertainly. I shook my head.
"No, he didn't see me, thank goodness." I said, my relief obvious in my voice. Bip nodded and glanced at Dee with an odd look.
"Well maybe he's out here looking into something for Maleficent, or the queen." He added before turning around and beginning the trek once again. I glanced at Dee who now stood next to me.
"Remember that man I told you about? The one who I want to see my real face?" I asked him as we resumed our slow pace after Bip. He looked up at me and nodded his shaggy black head.
"That's him." I said, feeling my cheeks grow warm. I readjusted the straps of my bag and watched the ground in front of me carefully.
"About a month ago, the same time I met Bip, he showed up. At first he frightened me, what sort of man could look at me and not at the very least grimace? Then he kept coming around!" I must have had a frown on my face because honestly it still confused me.
"He seemed to exist only to bug me, I thought…I thought maybe he just wanted to mock me. I've known men like that." Next to me Dee moved his head into my hand and I smiled at him scratching behind his ears.
"But, I thought even if that was what he was doing, it wasn't so bad as long as he didn't outright make fun of me. At that point, I sort of liked looking at him." I said, feeling my face grow ever darker in color.
"Then one day he called me beautiful, and I knew he was making fun of me. It hurt, a lot, and yelled at him. After that he stopped coming to see me." I sighed then, the question had been on my mind since then. What if he had meant it?
"So here I am, risking life and limb to show him my real face. Kinda dumb isn't it?" Next to me Dee stopped and in turn so did I to look at him in questioning. He looked almost angry.
"Dee?" I asked, wondering if he was okay, but the dog shook his head and ran to catch up with Bip. Had I said too much? Was he disappointed that that was my reasoning behind my adventure? Or was he angry with something else? In any case, I hurried to follow after them.
By the time we reached the edge of the Black Woods, we had all fallen into a comfortable silence, until Bip broke it.
"From here on out Dee will guide us, Mistress. Be very careful. There are worse things than trolls in there." He said, moving to take my hand as Dee took the lead. The woods were drastically different from the trees around us. It seemed to be made up of nearly all maple trees, but their trunks were black as obsidian, and just as shiny almost like the trees were made of glass. The leaves were a soft white color that seemed to glow, and looked like snow when they fell. It was sinisterly beautiful, but I reminded myself of the danger that lurked within and tightened my hand in Bip's. Dee looked over a large shoulder to us as if asking is we were ready.
"Let's go Dee." I said moving towards him resolutely. Even if my reasons were childish and selfish in the beginning, I was already here thanks to Bip and Dee. I wouldn't stop now.
