Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Author's Note: Thank you for those still reading this story. And for those who celebrate it Happy Thanksgiving.

Rescue Isn't Easy

Z wasn't sure how long she had been moving through the Dying Woods before she realized that the sky was dark. Still looking up she wondered if it was dark because of the time of day or if it was dark because of the woods themselves.

There wasn't anyway that Z would know unless she was able to get out of the woods right then, but she wasn't able to; she hadn't looked everywhere yet.

She did realize that Sky could very well be in his own land right now. Or he could be dead. That was something she didn't want to think about. If he did die then…it would have been her fault.

She hadn't come out here because she wanted to keep him safe, that she knew. She was out here because she was in love with the stupid guy and she had driven him away. Though to be honest it wasn't just her fault, how was she supposed to know? Shouldn't he have waited and just explained things?

Sighing she tried to push away those thoughts that had been going through her mind non step since entering the woods.

Why there were the Dying Woods she had no idea. They didn't do anything but house horrible creatures that could easily kill not just people, but other animals. And these were creatures that were just horrendous, they were mixed animals. Why no one had thought to be rid of this place sooner was beyond her. Then again had the Dying Woods not existed would she have met Sky?

A growl interrupted her thoughts. She wasn't quite sure where it had come from so she decided to stay still and wait for a few minutes. As she sat stationary another growl broke through the silence and this time she could tell that it was to her left and not too far for her. Her horse, which was already jittery, started backing off. She hated leaving her horse, but she knew that it wouldn't go toward that sound so she got off and tied her horse to one of the branches. She hoped that if she wasn't going to make it she might be able to let him go before she died. Shaking the morbid thought from her mind she turned back towards the area she had been aiming for.

Quickly she followed the next growl and soon was able to peer through the trees into a clearing. Sky was there moving his sword against the claws of a beast of immense size. The creature was unrecognizable as anything she had seen before. There were four legs yet the thickness of them was the size of small trees. The fur only covered certain areas leaving patches of bright red, oozing spots. She wasn't sure what it was oozing but she knew that she didn't want to find out.

The head seemed much too small for the size of the body and yet it seemed to be able to move just fine. At that moment the creature's forked tongue whipped out and snapped a tree in half. Sky jumped back to avoid the tree falling on him but in doing so the creature moved closer to him, causing his movement to have only brought him closer to danger.

Z moved forward and quickly used the dagger she had slashing down half the length of the leg. As she jumped backwards black blood oozed from the creature and it turned to stare at Z with anger in its eyes.

"Z?"

Z let her eyes turn to Sky and she nodded. He stood up straight with his sword and nodded to her slicing across the front legs of the beast. Crying out it moved its gaze back to Sky and swiped at him. He ducked and moved out of the way of the blood that fell to the ground hissing as soon as it connected to the dying grass.

Z could tell that the creature wasn't sure which one to go after so she knew that if they were going to get rid of it they would have to work together. Since the creature's focus was on Sky she quickly moved forward again this time she sliced across the same leg that she had wounded before. The beast turned and stuck it's tongue out trying to grab at Z. Without thinking she turned and moved away from it, before she could turn to look back at it she felt something pull her leg down.

As she turned around she saw that the tongue had encircled her ankle and now the creature was pulling her towards it. Before she could react she watched as Sky sliced through the tongue causing a terrifying shriek to issue forth from the creature. He reached down and she took his hand. His eyes were still on the creature as it moved its head back and forth. Z quickly picked up her dagger and pulled the rest of the tongue off of her and kicked it away from the two of them.

They needed to get rid of the creature and leave the woods soon before other creatures came and helped it, or it overcame them. After surveying the beast that was eyeing them warily she spoke to Sky without taking her eyes off of the creature, "Distract it. Go that way."

"What are you going to do?"

"We don't have time for a discussion. Trust me?"

Z wasn't sure what she was expecting his response to be to those words but before she had much time to process it Sky began stepping closer to the creature and moving in the direction she had indicated.

Since Sky was closer to it the creatures' eyes turned towards Sky with a glance back in Z's direction every few seconds. When its eyes returned to Sky Z took a step forward only to pause when the creature looked back at her. Before she could react Sky lunged forward and stabbed the creature in the shoulder. From that the creature immediately turned its' attention to Sky and began moving towards him.

Z knew she only had a short time. She quickly moved around to the other side of the creature. Once she ascertained that its attention was still on Sky she quickly rolled underneath the creature and thrust her dagger up into its heart. A loud howl let her know that she had accomplished what she had been trying for.

A gasp escaped her lips as she felt something grab at her and begin dragging her. Thankfully before she could react and scream or something of the like she glanced down and saw it was a human hand. And before she knew it Sky had pulled her into a standing position and the creature was on the ground where Z had just been laying.

"Let's go."

Sky grabbed Z's hand and glanced at the sky and then began moving in the direction that she had come in at. Z almost stopped him and demanded an apology but she realized that they needed to get out before another one of the creatures came along. As they cam around a bend she saw her horse still tied up trying to pull away. Without any spoken communication the two went to the horse and Z gently touched it while Sky spoke softly to it.

Once the horse had calmed down a bit Sky got on and held out his hand for Z; she took it and the two headed off in the opposite direction of the now dead creature.

It didn't take long for them to be back to the winding trail and even though they were on the trail Sky didn't stop the horse and continued moving as fast as was possible. Z continued to glance behind them and she knew that both of them kept glancing around the woods.

It was still pretty dark but Sky seemed to know his way well enough, she just hoped that it would enable them to leave behind the nightmare soon enough. As soon as the horse cleared any woods she let out a sigh of relief. Sky moved further away from the woods and then stopped where the two of them got off.

He turned to her, "What do you think you were doing? You could have died."

"You're welcome for saving your life, again."

"I was doing just fine."

"You were stuck and you would have died. How is that doing just fine?"

He rolled his eyes, "What are you doing here anyways?"

"I wanted…" Z stopped and folded her arms, "Maybe I just wanted to go for a ride and realized that someone was in danger."

"I'm sure that's what happened."

"It's not a crime for someone to help save you. I don't see why you can't just deal with it."

He shrugged, "Again why are you here?"

Now that she was face to face she wasn't sure if she could say anything to him. She had saved him, she had realized her feelings, so why wasn't sure just ready to say something? He had kissed her, which had to have meant something.

"Sky!"

They both turned to a young man riding up on a light brown horse. He had dark blond hair and he reminded her of Sky.

"Jacob!"

Getting off the horse the two embraced. Z watched him curious and almost certain that the two of them had to be brothers, though the biggest difference was that Jacob had a huge smile on his face. "We were worried about you."

"What do you mean? Father was in contact with King Westerly."

"Was that recent?"

"Where have you been?"

"I went to the cabin and when I couldn't find you I asked around. A doctor spoke of your injuries so I tried more in that area and after a while I began heading south seeing if there was someway to penetrate this woods…you know Drew would butcher me if I stepped foot in there. I knew you had and if I didn't make the path before tomorrow then I would go in."

Sky shook his head, "Jacob, you know you shouldn't go in there alone."

The younger man grinned and shrugged, "You did." Then he turned to Z, "And who are you?"

"This is Princess Elizabeth, one of King Westerly's daughters."

He nodded, "So this is your Princess."

"Jacob." He shook his head and then nodded towards Jacob, "Z this is my younger brother Jacob." Sky looked over at the woods before continuing, "We should get out of here before anything else happens."

A look of understanding crossed his face, "You were in the Dying Woods." Then he looked at Z again, "How is it? Is it entirely creepy?"

"It's something on its own."

He nodded, "That would make sense."

"Jacob, you're not going in there. Let's go home." He turned to Z, "I don't think it's a good idea to go back through that path again. We are close to our castle."

Though she knew that she should get back home she also knew that it wasn't a good idea to be near those woods in the evening; it was bad enough during the day. "Alright, let's go."

Jacob got back on his horse and Z and Sky got onto her horse and together they headed further East.