Madeleine had chosen a good day to travel to Molyneaux, which was the largest town close to the village; as the sun was shining brilliantly and there was hardly any breeze, so she didn't have to worry about having her hair blowing in her face or the map being blown away.
As she and Sabine trotted along the meadow, she took in the beautiful scenery around her and she could see why Leon liked to go out there to read and do his studies.
In the distance was the dark, haunting, forbidding and uninviting forest, the very one that no one, not alone, not even in groups dared to go, for fear of never being seen again, being eaten by wolves or worse, being captured by the so-called beast rumoured to lurk there and dragged off to who knows where.
But Madeleine wasn't too worried as she, like Leon did, didn't believe the rumours and the forest wasn't on the route to Molyneaux, or so she thought as she was never really good at reading maps, figuring out and taking directions and estimating time, which was not good for someone taking a solo journey.
Madeleine was hoping the journey would be worth it, as she rode on, her money pouch on her belt jiggling with the coins that the Beaufort twins had given her the previous day partly to pay her (albeit reluctantly) and partly to get the imported Chinese silk they wanted or rather demanded for their new dresses.
The ladies at the dress shop, as much as she disliked them, told her that Molyneaux had the silk at a grand materials shop for a reasonable price, costing less that it would in the village, yet of good quality that would keep the twins happy.
'Isn't this going to be a great journey, Sabine?' Madeleine said cheerily, as the horse trotted, excited about the chance to travel by herself and see new things, even though she was getting silk for two spoiled girls' dresses, without a care in the world.
Sabine, unlike Madeleine, wasn't so sure.
Had it been Leon riding her, she would be relaxed and happy since he was the more sensible of the two and the one she was most close to, but with Madeleine in charge, Sabine was certain that something was bound to go wrong and seemed to be acting out of character, and snorted in response to Madeleine's comment, as if to say, 'I'm not sure about this, I don't really trust you to get us there safely. You could get us lost!'
'You're such a Negative Nelly, Sabine!' Madeleine sighed, 'You have no faith in me whatsoever and I can assure you that NOTHING is going to happen to us. You've been hanging around Leon too much and you've becoming just like him!'
Sabine just snorted, not wanting to debate this any longer.
'Just a few hours more and we'll be in Clarat to spend the night there and tomorrow morning, we'll head off again and before you know it, we'll be in Molyneaux by midday, get the silk and head home again!' Madeleine said confidently,, which made Sabine twitch nervously.
Mid-afternoon, Madeleine stopped at a nearby valley, so that Sabine could rest and have a drink from the river, while she ate her lunch and looked at the map to see where she needed to take the turn into Clarat, which was a small hamlet before Molyneaux, where travellers who went there spent a night there in the inn before heading off to their destination the next day.
However her inability to read maps was soon proven when she couldn't make sense of it and looked at it like it had done something to offend her and she screwed up her face in frustration, as she battled to hold the map.
Leon would have no trouble with it, since he had taught himself geography and would be able to tell her where to go, but she had to do it by herself and was struggling with it badly.
'Darn maps, I can never figure them out,' she muttered,' Honestly, how can I, a successful dressmaker, make beautiful dresses yet can't read a map? It just doesn't make sense! If only Leon was here, with his self-taught geography, he can help me and it would be so easy. But I have to do it myself!' she sighed.
Then suddenly, like some act of fate, a gust of wind out of nowhere, blew the map away and Sabine looked worriedly as she saw the map fly away in the distance but Madeleine didn't seem to be bothered.
'Ah well, I'm not too keen on maps anyway, they're more trouble than they're worth,' she said, seemed to be glad to be rid of the offending piece of paper, but Sabine whinnied nervously, out of character for this brave and tough horse who wasn't worried or scared about anything, but she was already having serious doubts about this journey and Madeleine's inadequate map reading skills.
Now that the map was gone, she wasn't confident that Madeleine wouldn't get them to Clarat and Molyneaux safely, since she wasn't good at directions and take a wrong turn into somewhere dangerous like the dark, forbidding forest and whinnied loudly, which caught the attention of Madeleine, who finally noticed that the horse was acting strangely.
'Calm down, Sabine!' said Madeleine, stroking the nervous and agitated horse, 'What is the matter with you? This isn't like you to act like this, you're usually so brave and tough and don't scare easily! Everything is going to be alright, we'll just have to use basic instincts and rely on any road signs and paths. After all, what's going to happen between here and Clarat?
Come on, girl, it's starting to get dark, we better get going,' Somewhat calm, Sabine reluctantly trotted back on the path.
'Good girl,' Madeleine said soothingly, as they headed on. Sabine had no choice but to trust her master but she still had a feeling that something bad was going to happen and it was about to present itself in a dark and nasty way.
After a few hours, as the sun was setting, Madeleine and Sabine, having missed the turn into Clarat, approached a fork in the path which led to two different paths. The left one looked like the best option, as it was bright and inviting with trees and wildflowers lining it.
The same couldn't be said for the right path, which was dark, bleak with skeleton-like trees devoid of any leaves and it was the one that led to..the dangerous forest. A distant howl could be heard nearby, which indicated that wolves were not far away and were looking for fresh meat.
'Oh dear, Sabine, we've seen to have missed the turn,' said Madeleine. Sabine gave a snort as if to say, 'Oh, you think?!'
'Don't get smart with me, madam, I've just had about enough with your behaviour today. Now, it looks like we have to take one of the paths. Maybe if we're lucky, it will take us to Clarat, but which one is it? Decisions, decisions..'
Madeleine, while looking back and forward at the paths, did some mental calculating in her mind about which one would be the best option. The left path, while bright and safe-looking, was too narrow and would take longer to get to Clarat, if it went there at all.
The right path, as dark and gloomy as it was, was wider and looked accommodating, according to Madeleine and for all she knew (which wasn't very much) it looked like a quicker way and with the darkening sky, Madeleine made the decision to take the right path and urged Sabine to head that way, but the horse refused to move.
'Come on, Sabine, we're heading this way,' she firmly said, pulling the reins. But Sabine knew that, contrary what her master thought, the path was indeed dangerous and, as she normally did when whoever was riding her insisted on taking a dangerous route, still refused to move, in spite of Madeleine's commands.
'Oh, Sabine, don't do this!' Madeleine grunted, annoyed that the horse was using her instincts against her. It didn't work like that, since she was the master, but Sabine continued ignoring her and staying where she was, only moving her head towards the safer path, hoping that her silly master would notice and take the correct path, but Madeleine didn't and was starting to lose patience with her.
'Why do you always have to be so STUBBORN?' said Madeleine, getting frustrated and resisting an urge to kick the stubborn, difficult and moody horse who had been behaving strangely all day. Instead of losing her temper, Madeleine took a deep breath and dug into her bag, bringing out an apple, knowing that Sabine would give in by being bribed. She waved it in front of Sabine and calmly said to her-
'Sabine, I'll give you this delicious apple if you take us to the right path. I know the path looks scary, dangerous and unappealing to you, but I think it's the right one that will get us to Clarat quicker.'
Sabine then knew she was beaten. As much as she tried to be stubborn and resist bribery, a promise of a tasty, juicy apple, a crunchy, moist carrot or even a delicious handful or even better, a bucketful of golden oats was enough to persuade her to change her mind and she accepted the apple and after she finished eating it, turned right into the path.
'There now, that wasn't too difficult, was it?' Madeleine said, speaking to the horse like she was a fussy child, 'And it only needed an apple to persuade you.' Sabine, fed up with Madeleine's antics, just snorted and could only hope she wouldn't regret her decision.
As they trotted along the path in the bleak, dark forest, Madeleine was beginning to have second thoughts, as she saw that the path was very unfamiliar to her and it didn't look like it would lead them to Clarat like she thought it would.
Not helping the situation was the skeleton trees bending towards them, owls hooting in the distance, growling and howling echoing in the air, strange noises and the general darkness and coldness, which made Madeleine realise that this definitely wasn't the path to Clarat and that she had made the wrong decision.
'Oh help,' she said, with some nervousness in her voice, ' Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.'
Sabine whinnied as if to say, 'And it took you this long to figure it out? I told you this would happen, but you wouldn't listen to me and now we're in deep trouble!'
'Alright, Sabine, you were right and I was wrong. Are you happy now that your actions were not for nothing? You can say it, you know, I'm no good at making decisions, map reading and taking directions! There, I said it!' Madeleine shouted, her voice echoing around the forest. Sabine whinnied in a smug way.
'I'm glad you think that. Tell you what, you moaning Minnie, let's go back home. The silk isn't that important. The Beauforts will just have to be content with ordinary silk. It's just not worth it and besides they won't notice, let's just get the heck out of here!' Madeleine said, trembling and flicked the reins to get Sabine to turn around, which she was happy to do, seeing that Madeleine had finally come to her senses.
But as they trotted in the opposite direction, Madeleine had forgotten which way they had come, which made the situation even more dire and from a nearby tree, a bunch of black bats came flying towards them, screeching as they circled around them, making Sabine and Madeleine whinny and scream loudly, as she tried to flick them away.
'Come on Sabine! Yahhhh!' she shouted, as she managed to get the bats away from her and Sabine, flicking the reins furiously and the horse trotted as if her life depended on it (which it literally did), only to stop suddenly.
'Sabine, why have you stopped..' Madeleine said, confused only to see why Sabine had stopped trotting.
Loud growling could be heard, as three pairs of shining yellow eyes appeared, revealing themselves to be three blue and grey wolves, with hungry looks on their faces, their sharp teeth showing as they looked at the nervous, frightened horse and her rider, seeing tasty fresh meat that would soon be their dinner, having lured them in with their loud voices, as they circled around them, preparing to lunge and feast.
Bravely, Sabine attempted to fight the vicious creatures, with Madeleine still on her back, by head butting them, but even a strong horse like her was no match for three hungry wolves, who were not going to let their dinner get away, as they easily overpowered her, attacking and attempting to bite her.
One of them managed to bite her tail which startled her and caused her to throw off Madeleine who landed on the ground, right in the middle of the wolves, running furiously in the opposite direction.
'Sabine!' Madeleine shouted as she watched her disappear helplessly. She just hoped that Sabine would use her good homing instincts to make it back home safely and let Leon know of the danger she was in, but she had wished the horse hadn't left her in the midst of being hunted by vicious wolves!
But Sabine leaving was now the least of her worries, as the wolves, angry that part of their dinner had left, now turned their attention on her, as they crept closer and closer to her, seeing the tasty meal in their sights, as Madeleine felt their foul-smelling breath on her face.
Before she came into the forest, she had never really believed or paid attention to the talk and rumours about the forest and the dangers it had, but now that she was in a life or death situation, she understood why no-one went in here and the wolves were proving to be one of those reasons.
Facing the prospects of being eaten, Madeleine knew she had to get away, but without Sabine, it was almost impossible. However, as a wolf was dragging onto her cape, she decided to choose life, make like an egg and beat it, run away, it didn't matter where as long as she could get away and escape with her life.
Doing a tug-of-war battle with the wolf and her cape, she tugged and tugged at it, until she finally was able to tear it free from the wolf's mouth, ripping it in half. She then ran like blazes, as fast as her legs would allow it, heart beating like crazy and without any sense of direction, but determined to get away from the wolves.
However, the wolves, not prepared to go hungry for the night and let their dinner get away, like part of it did already, chased her furiously, which made her run ever faster, gasping for breath, but she didn't care, her life was at stake and she was not going to lose it to those horrible wolves.
Eventually, Madeleine for all her efforts, found herself in front of some iron gates, which seemed to lead into a castle. Desperate to get in and with the wolves not too far behind her, she fumbled with the gates, only to realise that they were locked.
Heart pounding, she kept fumbling and rattling the lock, even as the wolves, who had caught up with her, were nipping at her heels and grabbed at her cape again.
Struggling with both the lock and the weight of the wolves, she determinedly kept going until miraculously, the gates opened and she hurriedly entered, managing to shut the wolves out even though they kept nipping and growling at her, but the size of the bars on the gate meant that they were too big to squeeze through and they were forced to give up and left, which meant that they would be hungry for yet another night.
On the other side of the gate, Madeleine, having narrowly avoided being wolf tucker and lucky to have escaped with her life, fell to the ground exhausted, as her headband, which had come loose during the struggle, fell off her head and rolled down onto the ground as Madeleine panted heavily, having escaped certain death, as it started to rain and fell around her.
Phew, what an intense chapter! Just like Maurice before her, poor Madeleine also gets lost and falls foul of wolves.
Sorry if it's a bit short, but I think got the main points of it.
Next chapter, Madeleine enters the castle and let's see what sort of welcome she will get.
Reviews are most welcome and thanks to those who have left such kind reviews!