A/N: Once again, I shall be responding to comments in chapter if I can't reply privately. If you do not wish for a public response, just let me know in the comment! I shall be updating chapters at the end of the month - life is far busier than when I first posted this story!

Liss

Thank you, that's so nice to hear! I'm glad you found this story again and that you've liked it so far, and I hope you continue to enjoy it :)

CHAPTER 1: Dreams, fields and strangers.

x x x

There was a taste of metal on my tongue.

That in itself meant one thing, usually, and the Gods couldn't have picked a worse time to bring on a thunderstorm.

My heart beat furiously in my chest, in my ears. I couldn't recall running, or what had startled me, but the tightness in my chest and the frenzied throbbing in my head begged to differ. I needed a paracetamol.

The world kiltered and swayed violently, as thought I'd unwittingly stepped into a rotating cylinder. The floor constantly moved and I stumbled more than I walked. It was too bright to be nighttime. I forced one foot in front of the other. Pushing through the fatigue that came crashing down and swelling up—engulfing me.

Something was wrong. But what?

I tried not to trip over my feet. If I fell I wouldn't get up, I knew it.

Something grabbed at my ankles, my calves and my knees—no, more like brushed against them. Not malevolent hands then, but what ever 'it' was shouldn't have been there.

The rushing in my ears muted the outside world.

A wave of nauseating lethargy hit me out of nowhere and I lost all will to remain on my feet.

Rolling onto my back, I let the darkness come for me, soothing me like waves lapping over a body made of red hot, angry coals.

A voice gently sang in my ears. It wasn't a voice I recognised, but it was heavenly, whoever she was, even in a language I couldn't understand.

x

I awoke, startled, with the vaguest awareness of grass tickling my nose, causing my skin to itch. I scrunched my eyes shut, plunging from the faint red glow of the sun shining through my eyelids to momentary and relieving darkness.

My body felt as though it had been smashed into a thick layer of pillows—which was not as comfortable as one might be led to believe.

Blinking several times I came to. Long strands of waving grass shot skywards. A few wisps of cloud drifted lazily on the current of wind high above, and the only sound was the whisper of a breath through the waving greenery.

That wasn't right. Where were the buildings, or at least the trees?

I tilted my head to the side—another tickle of grass.

I raised my hand in front of my face—five fingers. So it wasn't a dream, or perhaps a super hyperrealistic one.

A cool breeze rushed through my fingers.

No, not a dream.

Sitting up I groaned when my brain felt like it was about to slosh out my eye sockets and nose, and my back complained profusely. I cradled my sore head before chancing a glance around. Soon wishing I'd just stayed laying down.

It wasn't the abundance of nature engulfing me for miles around in all direction that had my brow knitting together. It was the outright lack of buildings. No streets, no yellow or cream or red brick flats… where was the Söderström… where were the boats?

Squinting in the bright midday sun, I tried and failed to explain how I'd ended up in a field, nowhere near Stockholm and nowhere near my house either.

My parents…

A sob worked its way up my throat. I chocked and pushed the heels of my palms into my eye sockets, forcing myself to breath long and deep.

There would be an explanation for all of this, I told myself. Chanted it until I believed it.

Images and threads of memory blurred, but I remembered being out to celebrate Pappa's birthday. The heat belting from outdoor seating lamps, the spicy and sweet aromas of various cuisines mingled with the fresh wind blown from the river. The sunset kissed triangular sails of boats passing by…

The memories got foggier as I pushed them for more information.

A nightclub, denoted by gaggles of girls in varying styles of party clothes 'hanging' outside as well as the booming base and music assaulting my ears. My fingers curled around the handle of… a fiddle case.

Then all went black.

I should have felt shocked, panicked, frightened even, but the haziness that drifted with the blackout in my memory soothed me, like a warm blanket smelling of pine and smoke, or a childhood lullaby hummed in the surreal moment between drifting and finally falling asleep.

I surveyed my surroundings, nonplussed to find myself still in the field—perhaps a plain. A silvery green forest in the distance and what I understood to be a mountain range stretched along my right side.

I was on a slight slope. As I continued to scan my surroundings I saw, a little further down, another head poking out of the grass doing the same as me.

My heart jumped, a rush of relief barrelling through me, followed by a sharp shot of surprise.

She caught sight of me and waved like we were long lost friends. Timidly, I waved back before getting to my feet, ignoring the persistent ache in my lower back.

A pang of lightheadedness hit me, making me stagger and sway through the grass like a drunk butterfly. She was no better as she stumbled towards me, looking how I felt—sore, dizzy and utterly confused.

"Hey," Came a thick accent. Danish or perhaps Germanic?

She was thin and a full head shorter than me, dressed in ripped jeans, tight white shirt and a leather jacket. She had a sweet face, dark brows in contrast with long light chestnut hair and lively sky-blue eyes.

"You don't mind me asking, but do you know where we are?" Her voice chimed with an up-beat positivity despite our predicament, startling yet hard not to like right away.

"You may indeed ask but I don't have an answer, sorry." I replied, trying to mirror her positivity though it fell flatter than one of my Victoria sponge cakes.

"Don't be sorry. I'm Kimbela." She stuck out a small, slim hand. I shook it gently, afraid I might break it.

"Nice to meet you." I smiled back. My usual nerves of meeting new people paled in comparison to the relief that I wasn't alone. "I'm-"

"OH MY GOD WHERE THE FUCK AM I?!"

The sudden outburst from a third person made both Kimbela and I jump a few feet into the air.

"Holy Gods alive!" I almost growled, clutching my chest as I turned to find yet another girl sitting in the grass. This time in a skimpy black cocktail dress.

I was beyond perplexed by the situation unfolding, no doubt Kimbela felt the same, but we extended our hands to this third girl to help her up.

Hit by the same bout of dizziness as us, and her six inch heels didn't help, she fell back on her backside, squealing indignantly.

"Who the hell are you two?" She scowled, as though it was our fault she were here, or that it was our fault she'd fallen on her ass.

She was pretty, very pretty. Slim with shoulder length bleach blonde hair, a comely oval face full of makeup that framed dark bewitching eyes and enough jewellery to start a small business.

"Good morning to you too. This is Kimbela." I gestured to Kimbela who waved quickly then shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. "And I'm-"

"I really don't care, okay. Where the hell am I?" She demanded, looking at us expectantly. Her scowl, more than her clipped tone, hinted at an attitude I didn't fancy getting on the wrong side of.

"You're more than welcome to help us figure that out." I suggested, trying to mask the fact she was already rubbing me up the wrong way. We were all in the same situation and her behaviour so far had been uncalled for. I had to tell myself that this could have been her coping mechanism, so who was I to judge?

"You mean you don't know?" She asked, panic seeping into her wide eyes and she looked ready to cry any moment.

"No. Unfortunately, we don't." Kimbela confirmed. "We are all in the same boat."

I gave the girl a sympathetic smile, and she burst into tears.

"Oh my god…what am I going to do!" She wailed. "I'm in the frickin countryside." She hugged her knees to her chest and buried her face there, acting as if the countryside was a worse fate than being lost.

"ImabelatefortheUGFFF"

"Um, pardon?" Kimbela and I asked, unable to distinguish the continual flow of muffled words.

"I said I'm going to be late for my manicure!" She wailed, lifting her head briefly before burying her face again.

"Manicure? In your…um…party clothes?" I raised a suspicious yet amused eyebrow.

"No stupid! Tomorrow! Which is today and-" She finished her sentence with a muffled growl.

Stunned by her grievous statement I didn't know what to think, let alone say to comfort her.

Kimbela let out a disbelieving noise. "Girl are you serious? You just woke up in a strange field, no food, no water, no shelter… and all you can think of is your nails?"

"Do you have any idea how hard it was to get that appointment!" The nameless girl shrieked before rolling onto the ground, balling her eyes out some more.

Kimbela cast me a look of utter disbelief.

"Um…look if we work together, we may find our way home sooner." I suggested to the balling girl in front of me.

"You don't even know where we are!"

"No, but we can find out if we try." I tried to reason. She just rolled onto her back, sat up and through her streaked makeup yelled abuse at the sky—or at us, I really couldn't tell—at the top of her lungs.

Kimbela and I stepped back to let her vent her frustration.

We sat a little further up the slope. Watching over the girl as she sobbed into her knees and spoke of where we could possibly be.

We remembered being around the same place, funnily enough. She had been exploring Stockholm around the same time my family were out celebrating. I identified the building she remembered visiting as Storkyrkan, the cathedral on the opposite side of Gamla Stan from my last memory. We concluded she may have been in my vicinity judging from the fact she had been wandering alongside the river.

"Love the boots." Kimbela complimented as I leaned forwards to tie the lace of my DM's which had come undone.

"Thanks, yours are cool too." I said, looking at her thick almost knee high combat boots.

"Do you think she's calmed down a bit?" Kimbela jerked her chin at the girl.

I shrugged.

The long grass waved and bowed in the sudden gust of wind, bringing with it a tell tale denseness in the air and the tang of unusually sweet metal. I debated a moment before opening my mouth.

"No clue, but we need to do something about food and shelter. There's a light storm coming."

"How'd you figure that?" Kimbela's genuine curiousness was endearing, and much preferable to previous responses I had received.

I shrugged again. "I can…smell the atmosphere."

Kimbela, who had turned to search for the storm I predicted, looked at me. Suspicion arched her brow yet she smiled all the same.

"You got a keen sense of smell girl."

"Yeah." I half snorted nervously.

Kimbela surveyed the surroundings and quickly came to the same conclusion I did. "If we move to the woods we can find the materials we need."

"I'm up for that, I have some idea of how to survive, but not much." I admitted, dusting off my dress as I got to my feet.

"That's okay, my dad was a survival trainer. Ex military. As long as no one does anything stupid we should be okay. I can't fix broken bones without the right equipment." She said matter-of-factly, taking my outstretched hand and pulling herself up with a small thank you.

I admired her calm attitude, and the fact she had a plan was a welcome bonus. If she knew how to build a shelter or catch a rabbit I was more than happy to follow her instructions.

"Well, let's do our best to avoid broken bones then." I smiled at her, glad when she returned it.

We wandered down to the third member of our party, relieved to find Glenys, as she introduced herself, was willing to listen.

"Basically, our plan is to find shelter in that forest over night and search for help in the morning." Kimbela explained as I took off my cape and handed it to Glenys. She looked miserably cold and I had on a few more layers than she did.

"Thanks." Glenys mumbled, looking at the cape in mild disgust before pulling it on. "I don't wear animal fur. It's cruel." She snorted, wrapping it tight around her. Shivering visibly.

"It's fake, no animals where hurt in the making of that cape." I said, my tone flat.

Glenys eyed my hand embroidered grey woollen calf length dress, flouncy white sleeves and the thick embossed leather belt around my waist—the assumption that I was either home schooled or eccentric forming behind her eyes.

"Still, no one wears things like this now-a-days." Despite her words, Glenys seemed grateful for the warmth it provided, so I didn't take her outburst seriously.

"Well, let's get a move on shall we?" I said.

We helped Glenys to her feet, and began walking towards the forest.

"Wait! I can't walk all the way over there in these!" Glenys protested, indicating her stiletto heels.

"Take them off then," Kimbela called back to her. "We are not stopping until we get to that forest." Pointing decidedly at the trees.

"Seriously, you're just going to leave me here! Do you know how much these shoes cost!"

I struggled not to roll my eyes before turning around and asking her;

"Do you want my shoes too?"

"No-"

"Then take them off or walk in them!"

With a groan and a scowl, Glenys tottered behind us in her heels.

We slowed down enough for her to catch up. I couldn't help but feel a smidgen of sympathy for her ending up here in party clothes. It wasn't long before she took off the heels, and she made it more than halfway to the tree line before giving up, complaining of her sore feet.

Kimbela may have been smaller than Glenys and I, but what she lacked in height she made up for in strength. We carried Glenys the rest of the way to the trees, because her swollen and blistering feet looked painful, and set her under a tree to nurse her sore feet.

"Right. First, we need shelter." Kimbela started to list the things we needed like branches, preferably with leaves on, and fire wood.

I dragged a large leafy branch along the ground, pocket full of sweet purple berries I had found, when I heard a snap and the rustle of leaves.

I stopped and looked around, unsure what to expect to see, but there was only the silvery band of unusually thick beech trunks sandwiched between the pale green and golden leaves of autumn and the mossy woodland floor.

A quiet moment passed and I reckoned it was safe to assume nothing dangerous lurked in the distant shadows. If it were a wolf, elk, or even a troll, I would have seen it, but a little voice in the back of my head persisted to nag at me, insisting the forest felt…odd.

It certainly wasn't the coniferous forest that backed onto my house, but it had a specific ambiance to it which I couldn't put my finger on.

There was an ominous clap of thunder in the distance and I continued on my way.

Glenys was still sitting under her tree as the gentle pitter of rain hitting the canopy above us began. The shower wasn't far off.

Glenys glanced up and returned to hugging her knees and looking utterly miserable.

"Hey, are you okay?" I dropped the branch in the heap we had amassed.

"Yeah." She replied sharply.

"Chin up, we'll find a way home." I said, trying to be friendly and cheerful. "And search parties will have been sent out for us by now."

Glenys let out a damning snort. "If you say so."

I made to turn and head out again when I remembered the berries in my pocket.

"Blueberry?" I offered, extending a handful of the small berries.

Glenys appeared taken aback by my gesture. I nudged the berries towards her, and her skeptical frown eased as I poured them into her palm.

"These aren't poisonous, are they?" She asked before popping one in her mouth.

I chuckled. "No, I tried them before I picked them."

"That's a bit risky no?" Her expression softened, and a desolate gleam flickered in dark eyes. She noted how I watched her and snapped back into that stony demeanour and grumbled about being cold.

I hummed in agreement just as Kimbela's voice called out from the top of the small hill she had vanished over half an hour before.

x

Kimbela had found a small rock shelter nestled into the slope of the hill. It meant moving deeper into the forest but it was shelter, and a possibility of warmth if we huddled together.

We supported Glenys between us. She didn't fancy going over her ankle again, her left foot more swollen and red than the other, though it didn't stop her from cursing at every stone and twig she stepped on.

The rock cave wasn't deep. The grey stone was chipped and worn from time, but it offered more than a makeshift windbreaker between two trees would have given.

Glenys sat herself on the dry rock inside and complained endlessly about her nails and the pain in her head. It hadn't occurred to me that she might be suffering from a hangover.

Kimbela and I braved the growing wind and wet, tying and weaving our branches into a barrier which covered most of the entrance using Kimbela's para-cord bracelet. It was nifty how three inches of knotted rope could turn into a meter of thin durable cord.

"By the way, I didn't get your name." Kimbela pointed out as we took the opportunity of a dry spell to try and start a fire. Causing friction with two mostly dry sticks with little success. Desperation replacing logic.

I let out a chuckle.

"Gunda-Toril, but most people call me Gunda."

x x x

Hidden amongst the branches high above, a pair of keen eyes caught sight of the intruders and with lethal stealth, followed the women's every move.

First one, then several more Marchwardens tracked them through the forest, observing, weighing the risks these foreigners brought. The three women bore no accent they could identify, their clothing was unfamiliar and disreputable for such young mortal females. Especially, the captain of the Marchwardens noted, those worn by the injured female who disappeared into the rock cave as soon as she reached it, her gruff attitude tolerated by the others like siblings.

"So where do you think we are?" Spoke the short, chestnut haired female. Hands on her hips as she stared at the pile of sticks with annoyance.

"You know, I haven't a clue. This is nothing like the Swedish countryside…" replied the second woman as she tied back waist length dark bronze hair from her face.

The captain couldn't recall such a place name and that fact set him on edge. They did not appear weary from travel, yet they must have come a great distance to hail from an unknown settlement or kingdom.

The female with the thicker accent glanced up at the droplets falling from the leaves and then back to their non existent fire and sighed.

"At least we are relatively dry. But you really have no clue as to where we are?"

"None. I've lived next to a forest my whole life and yet…" Gunda said, her voice trailing off as if her mind had detached itself from her body. "This might sound crazy but…this forest…doesn't feel normal. Okay, that sounded a lot different in my head."

Eyes, the striking shade of golden Mallorn leaves, searched the tree tops once again, still waiting for something to appear. When nothing did she shrugged a shoulder.

With a huff, the short one reasoned; "Don't over-think it. Over-thinking never got anyone anywhere. Come, this fire is going nowhere and we're better off dry and cold than wet and cold."

Gunda nodded in agreement and they retreated into the cave, unaware of the grey hooded figures running through the tree tops.

x x x

I shuddered, unable to shake off the strange tingling in my spine. Sitting hunched over didn't help, but it wasn't the dull ache of muscles tensing into knots. I wasn't sure what it was, and I didn't like it.

Kimbela and I sat either side of Glenys who bemoaned the fact our fire hadn't gone as planned. Kimbela had pointed out that if I was getting an uneasy feeling then perhaps a fire wasn't the smartest idea. Glenys had grumbled some more about that, but conceded in the end and huddled up to us.

As the rain continued I tried not to dwell on my longing to curl up somewhere cozy—like my living room sofa. The evenings of lounging over most of the four seater, a book in my hands, Pappa watching the latest mythical detective show and Mamma knitting another pair of mittens, seemed hauntingly far away.

Every time I retraced my steps I reached the same conclusion, but there was more, like I had misplaced a memory. I broached the subject to the others and at the mention of the nightclub, Glenys took keen interest.

"You remember the nightclub?" Glenys' question felt more like an interrogation.

"Somewhat, but I feel I should remember something else too…but I can't…it's just a blank."

"Strange…" Kimbela mused. "I have that too. Like someone's tampered with my memory."

I looked at Glenys and asked if she had the same. Her growing panic was answer enough. Yes.

"Great, just great. Someone's drugged us and left us out here. Are they spying on us too or what?" Glenys exploded into a frenzy of tears and hyperventilation.

"Calm down, they can't have drugged all of us. I wasn't inside the club." Kimbela said, rubbing a comforting hand on her back.

"Nor was I." I said, wrapping a comforting arm around Glenys' quivering shoulders.

I let out a sharp hiss, arching my spine and rubbing the spot that had suddenly flared up like hundreds of hot needles pricking my flesh.

"Back pains?" Kimbela asked, still aiding the frantic Glenys.

I nodded, mouth set in a grimace. Kimbela gave me a sympathetic look.

"It's stopped raining, go and see if you can stretch it?"

It wasn't bad advice, and the rain had indeed passed over with only a small rumble of thunder to prove my statement earlier.

Nothing seemed to help it, not stretching, not bending over or curling into a ball. The pain, now sharp like searing heat, crisscrossed my lower back.

I bit back an exasperated groan and craned my head back to watch the tree tops.

A cluster of leaves moved in a treetop just ahead—shaking up and down, too sudden and specific to be the wind.

My heart jump-started into a frantic run and I staggered towards the cave, not wanting to take my eyes from the trees.

"Guys we need to move!"

"What now?" Glenys complained, ignoring the urgent tone to my voice.

The cross over my spine began to prickle intensely. I tore my eyes from the tree and glared at both girls. Kimbela peaked out then winced as though she'd been struck in the chest with a mallet, and Glenys remained curled up in my cape.

"We need to move!"

A roar echoed through the trees.

We all froze. One moment passed, then two.

Glenys shuffled up the rough cave floor, gripping Kimbela's arm tight, dark eyes frantic and wide.

I held my breath. Forcing my heart to still. Forcing my brain to rationalise the movement in the leaves. The animalistic shout. The feeling of being watched.

A steely calm slid through my veins, cooling my blood. My ears pricked at the surge of not so distant high-pitched whistles—the sound of wood and metal through air.

Ba-thump

I counted my heart beats. Fingers flexing in response to a developing collectiveness that guided my body, my instincts, to reach for my back.

"Gunda! Above us!"

Kimbela had barely finished speaking when I was knocked over by a creature which let out that same blood chilling roar.

Thanks for reading!