Authors Note: Sorry it took me so long to update, but I was cut off from the internet for awhile.
As the night drew on, and the temperature dropped lower Snow White began to shiver, the thin dress she wore offering no protection to the cold night. The fire wasn't very warm either, any heat that it gave off was quickly pushed away by the wind. She glanced up at the huntsman; he didn't seem to be as cold as her, only shivering a little when the wind whipped them particularly hard.
Eric looked at the lovely girl shaking in the cool air. He felt like he should do something to warm her up, but what could he do? He had nothing with him that could stop the cold air from penetrating every inch of anyone's body. If he did he would gladly offer it to her. Eric wondered why he would. He had no reason to care about what happened to her, earlier that day he was even going to trade her life for someone elses! Maybe it was because his Sarah would have wanted him too, maybe she reminded him a little bit of her. The girl moving and slowly standing caught his attention; she had her arms wrapped around herself as she stepped loudly around the tiny fire to sit by him. Eric's eyes followed her every movement as she sat down next him. Not right next to him, but close enough. She looked at him for a moment, before staring at the fire once more. Eric watched he, she was so tense, so cold. He put his hand on shoulder, the sudden movement making her jump.
"Relax, you won't be as cold" he said. Snow stared at him, giving him a strange look before he said "being tense will make you colder". Eric watched as she slowly relaxed a little, and heard her quietly sigh, as her tense muscles loosened, he could feel her shoulder droop a little more under his hand now..
It really does help Snow thought, as relief flooded through; her body continued to shake, not so much from the cold but more from exhaustion. She jumped again as the huntsman removed his hand from her shoulder. Snow had forgotten he had placed it there, and her skin tingled from the sudden loss of warmth there. Eventually the huntsman drifted off to sleep, but Snow was reluctant to, fearful that if she fell asleep, she wake up in the tower again, only to find that this had all been a cruel dream. Fearful that she had been given a taste of the freedom from escaping, and she would only have it yanked out from under her. Morning came and Snow White woke up after forcing herself to sleep, she sighed happy that she awoke in the woods, that what had happened earlier had not been a dream. Snow rolled onto her side and found she was staring at handsome face, sleeping peacefully. She suddenly realized that it was the huntsman, and she hastily stood up, thankful he was sleeping. Then something caught her attention, it was the sun, slowly peeking through the trees, Snow stepped into the center of the clearing, watching the golden rays slowly rise. Snow closed her eyes, allowing the warmth from the sun beams to cover her, smiling to herself. It was the first time in ten years she could see the sun and was able to be completely bathed in its glorious light.
Eric woke up to bright light, surprisingly bright for the dark forest; he looked up squinting to see the girl standing in the sunlight. She looked even more beautiful he thought to himself. The girl opened her eyes and looked at the huntsman, realizing he was awake she awkwardly stepped off to the side embarrassed. Eric stared at her for a few more seconds than stood up and stomped out the last few burning embers from their fire.
"We should get going" Eric said to her, "now". As he walked away Snow quickly ran out of the clearing to follow him. The huntsman abruptly turned around, and looked at Snow before pressing the hilt of a knife into her hands. Snow stared at it blankly, unsure of what to do.
"If someone comes to attack you" he said, "raise your arm, like this" Eric pulled her arm up to block his, "to block the attack, and then shove the knife in them, here" he brought her hand with knife to rest just below his rib cage. "And don't pull it out until you see their soul leaving their eyes". Letting go of her Eric continued to walk forward slowly.
"I could never do that" Snow said, looking at the ground astonished that anyone could expect her to kill someone. Eric turned around to look at her then said "you won't have a choice".
At the Duke Hammonds castle William, along with 6 others, proudly pulled in 3 black carriages and heap of dead armor clad men. William saw his father and dismounted his horse swiftly walking over to meet him.
"William" the duke said sternly, "you disobeyed me again; you went outside the castle walls and attacked the Queens men again. I cannot afford to lose any more men to your defiance of rules" his father shouted quite flustered.
"Not a soul was lost, father" William said humbly. The duke sighed, defeated. "There is another you should know" Hammond continued "I have received word that the princess is still alive, and has actually escaped the Queens castle". William stared at his father in disbelief, she is alive he thought. The words raced through his mind a million times.
"I am going after her" William said and with that he turned on his heel and mounted his horse, with that he galloped off into the forest to find his childhood friend. The Duke shook his and then said a silent a prayer for his son's and the princess's safe return.
Eric turned around to see the girl again, for the fifth time, struggling to free her dress from a thicket of branches. He walked over to her, determined to make this the last time they stopped for the girls dress. Pulling a knife from his belt he bent down cut the fabric so it was much shorter. When Eric looked at her face he realized how much he had scared her. Eric had forgotten that it was just yesterday he was going to kill her with a similarly menacing weapon, and had pounced on her in a similar way. He swiftly backed away from her and the girl slowly relaxed. She stepped out of the thicket of nasty branches leaving the rest of her dress in them. They walked along until finally Eric could see the edge of the forest, there was small stream dividing the dark forest from the other woods, and strange bridge going over it. As he and Snow got closer Eric noticed that there were bones scattered everywhere and the rocks on the bridge seemed to be crumbling. It wasn't safe and Eric knew it, but he decided to take the bridge anyway.
Snow looked around as they slowly made their way across the bridge, she stayed as close to the huntsman as she could. Snow picked up on noise behind them, it sounded like something was moving very slowly. She looked at the huntsman and noticed he heard it too, and looked at little nervous. When they heard a louder noise they both turned around and huntsman quickly shoved her out of the way, shouting troll.
"Get to the other side" the huntsman screamed pushing her out of the way. Snow saw the troll hit the huntsman hard and he flew to the other side of the river landing hard on the ground. The troll headed towards him, and before Snow knew what she was doing she screamed at the troll getting all of its attention. The troll ran over to her and roared loudly at her, causing Snow to fall back onto the slope leading down to the river. But she knew she couldn't back down, it would certainly mean death from the troll. Slowly staring the monster in the eye snow rose to her feet, and cautiously reached out with her hand. Eric watched in disbelief as the troll actually bowed its head and walked away, who was this girl he wondered? He slowly stood up, and trudged over to her, still faint from the hard blow his head received.
"I told you to run" Eric said to the girl. There was something inside of him, that for whatever reason was completely relieved she was alive.
"If I ran you would be dead" Snow said a swell of pride in her chest. It was the loudest she had spoken since she had met him and to the huntsman it sounded like she was yelling. It caught him completely off guard. Eric stared her and then turned around and began to walk away. Usually he didn't ever, thank anyone for anything, but then again, he usually didn't receive help from anyone. But when Snow caught up with him, for whatever reason he told her "thank you", snow gave him a strange look as he said it. "For saving my life" Snow nodded her head than replied "you're welcome". Eric couldn't help but smile at her tiny voice shyly saying the words. Snow blushed furiously when he did, and looked away giggling, the huntsman followed suit by laughing, and soon enough, for whatever reason they were both laughing hysterically with each other.
Authors Note: Please Review!