Gabrielle picked at the grass around her feet, ignoring the sound of the birds chirping still, even so late in the day-ignored the warmth of the sun as it pressed insistently against her arms. She had rolled her sleeves up to her elbows and folded her trousers to her knees. The heat seemed to have come out of nowhere. The rays burst through trees in a glorious show of light, making the clearing almost unbearably bright, and the ground was speckled with shadows of the leaves that tried in vain to block the sun. There was a clean crispness to the air; a dewy tang that lingered, pronouncing the forest more loudly through her senses.
But it all felt bland to her. Nothing could compare to the lively images that currently flashed in her mind and had occupied her thoughts through most of the past couple of nights. After the incident in the pool she had found it more than a little difficult to go to sleep lately. Gabrielle closed her eyes, thinking back and letting her thoughts drift.
She had just been floating there in the water looking up at the sky; relaxed, calm, thinking of nothing but the feel of the water and the cool night's breeze on her skin. Then she remembered hearing a low, dangerous growl and she felt the slight ripple of movement in the water. She'd lifted herself into an upright position and looked around, but in the restricted light she hadn't been able to see clearly. She had only seen what had looked like a couple of shadows fighting and snarling near the water's edge.
But then there was another growl and she'd looked up. Gabrielle remembered the twinge of fear she'd felt in her chest when the moonlight glinted off the animal's eyes and teeth as it got ready to strike. She'd pushed away until her feet had reached the ground and stumbled awkwardly near the edge to look for a weapon: a rock, a stick, anything that would have stopped it from attacking her. But it never had the chance.
The woman had run into it, tackling it to the ground with a punch. Gabrielle couldn't remember where she had come from, only that she had been there, and in the nick of time. Seconds later the wolf may have reached her if she hadn't turned up.
Who was she?
The woman looked unlike any other she had ever seen. As she had stepped out of the shadows and into the moonlight, Gabrielle had thought her hair had looked as black as night itself; her expression had been one of confusion-as if she had never seen another human in her whole life. She had worn some kind of pelt as clothing and it had covered her modesty, but had left her toned body visible. The moon had leached her skin of colour but it hadn't made the woman look intimidating. Instead it had added to the kind of peculiar innocence her face had already possessed.
And then there was the growling.
It had confused Gabrielle immensely when she'd witnessed the woman, not carry on attacking them to protect herself or Gabrielle, but had instead stood before them and growled as though she were talking to them. They hadn't snarled at her or even moved to attack. They had just left-run away as she'd gestured, as if they had understood her. When she had turned to Gabrielle and growled at her too, Gabrielle had thought the woman mad and brought the stick up to protect herself against her. Up until a couple of days ago, Gabrielle had thought her and Lila to be the only human's in the forest. Now there was a seemingly wild woman running around the forest who could talk to wolves? Just how many more of people like her were there? Was there a little wolf-human civilisation somewhere in the middle of the forest?
Being a playwright called for an open mind, but the whole concept had left an unsettling feeling in her stomach.
That had been, of course, until the woman had looked at her. When the woman's blue eyes had pierced through the night, Gabrielle hadn't seen any sign of aggression or danger towards her. Instead the woman's eyes had held an almost like a childlike quality to them, as if she had been looking at something she didn't understand and she was merely curious. It had been surprisingly endearing and made Gabrielle feel less wary. Though it hadn't helped her feel any less uncomfortable when the woman had stepped toward her holding her sheet up, reminding her suddenly of her nakedness.
Gabrielle clutched the collar of her shirt tightly, making sure that the sides were together and sighed.
The woman hadn't looked in the least bothered about the fact that she had been naked at all. Instead her attention had been focused solely on her face for some reason; her eyes had almost burned into hers, like she had been trying to communicate with her eyes when she had not been able to understand her when she'd spoken. Gabrielle frowned suddenly. But then, if the woman wanted to communicate with her, why had she backed away when she'd approached her-almost as if she had been afraid?
"Gabrielle? Are you alright? You've been pretty quiet all day, y'know? It's not like you."
Opening her eyes, Gabrielle spotted Lila throwing branches from around their little clearing into a pile inside a circle of rocks. Getting the fire set up early, she thought.
"Yeah," she cleared her throat when her voice cracked from lack of use. "I'm just thinking."
She saw the deepening of her sister's brow and sighed, knowing what was coming before she even had to open her mouth. "Are you by any chance thinking about the, 'Wild Woman' you supposedly saw the other day again?" Lila asked, using her fingers to make air quotes. "I've already told you, Gabby. This place is doing things to your mind. Maybe it's those berries you ate, or the lack of good food getting to your head? Is there such a thing as too much fresh air?"
Gabrielle shook her head. "No, Lila, she was real, I'm not crazy. I saw her with my own two eyes!"
Lila faced her, placing her hands on her hips. "Oh? Care to remind me of what she did again?"
"Lila," Gabrielle warned. She had told Lila what had happened as soon as the woman had disappeared, describing everything she could remember about the encounter. Unfortunately, in her rush to tell her everything, she had forgotten to hold back certain details such as the woman talking to the animals. Of course, being the cynical, realistic woman her sister was, Lila had just laughed at her, claiming that it was her imagination, or that she was tired.
Lila looked up at the sky, mimicking Gabrielle's voice badly. "She swooped down out of nowhere and saved me from the wolves that she later spoke to, sister! It was amazing!" she sighed and, noticing her sister's frown, came to kneel by her. "You can't tell me if I came running to you saying the same thing, you wouldn't think me mad?"
Gabrielle gritted her teeth. She didn't know what was worse: knowing that her sister didn't believe her and that she seemed to almost enjoy poking fun at her over something she thought was just a very vivid dream, or that Lila adopted a look of pity whenever they spoke of the subject, making Gabrielle feel as though she was mad. Neither option of thought made Gabrielle feel particularly great.
"Lila, I am not crazy. It really happened!" Gabrielle insisted.
Lila's voice became soft—as if she was talking to a child who knew no better. It annoyed her. "I am glad that you feel you are able to let your imagination run wild in this place, but sooner or later you will have to rein it in to protect yourself before you lose touch with reality. Being in an uncivilized place gives you the chance to explore new stories and characters, but we are leaving soon. What you create here will have to stay here if you are to retain rational thought."
Gabrielle thought about the idea of leaving and frowned. No, she wasn't ready yet. They had almost stayed in the forest a week now, but she had a feeling they were on the cusp of something new-was only just starting to explore a whole new world hidden deep within the trees. She wanted to know what else was out there, what other creatures stalked the forest and called the land their home. But most of all she wanted to know who this mysterious, dark haired woman with her strangely familiar piercing blue gaze was. Just how long had she been in the forest and why she could understand the wolves and communicate with them but not Gabrielle?
Noticing Lila still looking at her with pity-filled eyes, Gabrielle pushed herself to her feet with a huff and walked over to where she'd left her satchel sitting beside a boulder. She sat on it, ignoring that her sister disappeared from her sight to get more firewood for a moment, and reached into her satchel to pull out her newest scroll.
It had been one of her blank ones, but after what happened, Gabrielle couldn't help but write down the bits and pieces she remembered from the encounter. In the past few days since it had happened, Gabrielle had written more than what she had in years. The words had come easily to her, a story already forming in her mind and a character idea she had begun to fall in love with. It excited her. She felt like a little of her old self was leaking through into her work the more time she spent leant over her scroll, scratching away at the paper with her quill. For the first time in what had seemed like years…she felt happy.
She was scrawling about the woman's appearance when Lila came back into the clearing again, whistling. "You seem cheerful, Lila," she noted. "I thought you hated it in here?" She looked up.
Lila piled the wood she'd collected near the circle and sat, tucking her legs under her. "I'm just happy that it won't be long now before we're out of this dreadful place, and back on the road again to civilisation." She closed her eyes and smiled, clasping her hands together as if in prayer. "Ah, I can't wait to have a proper bath, one with hot water and soap and such. Not swimming around in questionable cold water that nine out of ten times is infested with fish. I can't wait to be in a nice, warm bed and not sleeping on the ground—the same level as an insect, Gabrielle. I'm tired of waking up in the morning with dirt, leaves or ants crawling around in my hair." Lila touched her hair that she'd tied up into a mess on her head and sighed. "My hair feels like straw!"
Gabrielle paused in her writing feeling suddenly uneasy. She pursed her lips, twirling her quill between her fingers. "Well, actually, Lila. I was hoping that we could lengthen our time here." Seeing Lila's eyes flash open she rushed to finish. "It's just that I have finally found my prompt to work…my inspiration. You think I'm losing my mind, but I feel I'm finding it. See?" she held up the scroll to show her the words she'd written.
Lila's eyes held no humour as she looked at her little sister. "Gabrielle, you said a week at the most. I have made the best of our time in this forest…the best that can be made in this wretched place. I want to go back to a town-talk to other people, eat real food, have a hot bath, buy new clothes, not spend another week rolling around in the dirt!"
"You don't have to roll around in the dirt," Gabrielle chuckled, and then stifled the sound by turning it into a cough when Lila's expression remained unamused. She sighed, returning back to her scroll. "I feel good here, Lila. I feel healthy and free to be me again. That's what you wanted to help me achieve feeling, wasn't it? The reason you came with me?"
"I came with you because I thought when you talked about travelling you meant to other cities. Not traipsing around dirty, gods' forsaken forests!" Lila snapped, taking Gabrielle by surprise.
It was very rare Lila raised her voice, especially to Gabrielle when she was angry. She had thought she had been coping rather well in the forest for the past few days. Lila had gotten over her initial squeamishness at being in a dirty, unknown place, and seemed to make the best out of the situation, working along with Gabrielle to make fires, collect wood and teach each other how to cook fish properly. But Gabrielle realized her sister must have been hiding her true feelings about being out in the open forest with her.
Unlike Gabrielle, Lila liked being in control of things; she didn't like not knowing what was around the corner, didn't like surprises and exploring new things. She preferred the safety of the things and places she was familiar with and often maddened herself worrying over what she didn't know. It drove her insane sometimes, but where Lila was realistic, Gabrielle wasn't. She was more of a dreamer, which was why they often sought each other's company – to give what the other usually lacked. But sometimes, Gabrielle knew her imagination could be too much for her sister to behold.
"The sooner you forget about this…wild woman of yours, the better you'll be," Lila declared. She stood and started pacing up and down the clearing, waving her hand in front of her face to create a breeze when the heat became too much for her.
"I can't,"
She paused. "What?"
Gabrielle frowned, lowering her scroll again. "I can't just forget, Lila. There is a woman out there living with animals! What if she needs our help?"
"What are you going to do? Learn to speak wolf? Make it your own little mission?" Lila said sarcastically. "If I remember correctly from what you told me, this woman couldn't understand you, could she?"
"Then I'll teach her to understand me," Gabrielle said resolutely.
"Gabrielle, would you listen to yourself! You sound as though this is some kind of game to be played, but it's not. We have run out of the proper food we brought with us, I'm running out of clothes and patience." Lila placed her hands on her hips, staring down at her sister. "We are leaving tomorrow."
Gabrielle shot to her feet. "What? No, I don't want to leave yet, Lila! It hasn't been a week yet!"
"I don't care. Gabrielle, I went along with this because I thought it may help you, but it seems all it has done has driven to follow a strange dream you had. You're becoming delusional. As your older sister and your assistant it's my obligation to look after you."
"I'm not leaving."
"I can't stay in this forest another week, Gabrielle. I may go mad. The place already seems to be having that effect on you."
Gabrielle felt the tears sting her eyes but refused to let them fall. Instead she frowned, turning away. She couldn't bear to look at her sister knowing what she thought of her. Without saying anything more, Gabrielle grabbed her satchel and turned away from her sister, moving toward the edge of their clearing.
"Wait! Gabrielle? Where are you going?"
Gabrielle paused for a moment, her hand holding back a leafy branch out of her face. She turned to look over her shoulder and felt her stomach twinge. Her sister stood there wringing her hands nervously, her mouth turned down and her eyebrows knitted together in concern. She sighed. Gabrielle knew her sister only wanted the best for her, but she needed to be alone to think for a while, instead of sticking behind to possibly end up arguing with her more. It wouldn't do any good. They needed to have a break from each other.
"I just…want to be alone to write for a little while, if that's okay? I won't be far," she promised.
Lila pursed her lips, looking as though she wanted to say something but held her tongue. She nodded. "I'll be here, sister."
Thank you for reading this chapter. Comments/reviews are welcome and deeply appreciated. I always like hearing back what you think of the story as it develops. If there are any issues regarding spelling/grammar, or you have any con-crit, please don't hesitate to inform me in a PM. :)