A Promise Through The Bars: The First Series

by Lemon Leopard

Princess Snow White, a title dead to her, is imprisoned one fateful night. For twelve years, she struggles to survive in her cell, slowly losing her faith, her hope, and finally her will to live. Just as she is about to end it all, a woman named Sara is thrown into the cell near hers. Sara asks Snow White to do her a favor. A favor that may change everything.

11. Chapter 11 The Merciful Heart

Chapter 11 A Merciful Heart

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"Get up, lass," the hunter says, shaking me awake. I rouse, groaning from the dull fire in my back.

"Com'on, get up." He grabs my left hand and hauls me to my feet! Fear fills me. I almost yank my hand out of his, but I stop myself. His grip about my hand is strong and secure. I lift my groggy eyes to the shadow of his head.

"We're nearly out of this forest. Jus' a half day's walk." He gives my hand a gentle squeeze and releases me. Day five, I think. Just a little father and we'll be out of this hellish forest.

"How are ye feelin'? How's yer wound?" he asks.

"Uh…" I clutch my right side. "It burns a little. I know the pain is going to get worse throughout the day…unless you have ale to spare?"

The hunter shakes his head, my heart sinking. "Ye drank the last of my ale."

"Oh God." I sigh, guilt wringing my heart. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have drank the rest of your ale—"

"It's fine. We need to move. Can ye keep up?"

I barely nod, still feeling the heat from my fever and from my embarrassment. God, I've become a drunkard. Even if he does have ale left and he is only lying to keep some for himself, I have consumed far more drink than he has.

"Yes," I say.

"Good." He turns, waving his hand for me to follow. "Keep up."

I force myself to remove my hands from my side and follow him, already biting my tongue to keep from whimpering and sobbing. I know my wound doesn't hurt terribly now, but knowing that the pain is going to get worse throughout the day, perhaps to the point of it being unbearable, the fear that I may not be able to make it out of here when we are so close—it all adds together to worsen my physical pain.

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I cannot stop shaking, but I'm not shaking from the cold. My flesh tingles without end all around my mouth, but the tingling is not because of the cold. Despite the winter cold, my body is on fire! Perspiration clings to me like a second skin. What I wouldn't give to take off all my clothes just for some cool air, but I cannot do that in front of the hunter! Perhaps I'm shaking from fatigue and weakness? It's taking all my strength to walk after the hunter, let alone stay on my wobbly feet! I know my body is consuming itself to survive. There's this newfound weakness in my muscles. There's a new crushing ache in my bones and joints that I have never experienced before. I know I should eat, but the thought of food—I wrap my arms about my stomach. My throat is tight. Nausea churns my stomach. God, the thought of eating right now makes me want to retch, but I have nothing to throw up.

"How're ye holdin' up?" the hunter asks, drawing my eyes to him.

"I'm…" My jaw drops at the sight ahead. Beyond the hunter's broad back, the trees thin out, allowing grey daylight to break through! "Oh my God," I say, my heart racing, my spirit soaring! I almost forget my burning wound and my aching joints.

"That's the edge of this damn forest—" I take off past him, running for my life to get out of this damn forest!

"Greta!" the hunter calls me, but I don't stop. I never stopped for all the maids and servants who warned me to stop running through the castle lest I trip, and I'm not about to stop for the hunter! I run through the thinning trees towards the daylight! Sweet, precious daylight no matter how dim and grey it is! God, this almost seems unreal, but don't let this end!

"WAIT!" The hunter snatches my arm and stops me dead in my tracks!

I almost scream, but I resist the urge and wheel around to face him, burning with anger. "What are you doing!?—" The hunter is bathed in grey daylight now, his face stern, his eyes burning.

"Look," he says and nods to the towering, rotting tree beside me. I manage to look at the rotting tree—the rot is only visible on one side of the tree. The other side, the side facing the edge of this forest, is charred black…as if a direct blast of fire struck this tree sometime in the recent past. I reach out to the charred trunk with trembling fingers and brush my fingertips along it, collecting soot on them.

"The soot is warm," I whisper, looking up at him.

He nods slowly and lets go of my arm. "Look all around ye." He looks about us, scanning the terrain with cautious, grave eyes. "See all these trees along the edge of the forest?"

I carefully scan all the trees marking the border of this forest. Black char and soot covers all the sides of the trees facing the outside of this forest. Whatever happened to these trees, it was not too long ago that this happened based on how warm the soot is. I look at the hunter, his hard eyes still scanning the trees and beyond this forest. He stalks past me to the very edge of the forest, but he does not move beyond the cover of the last thick tree. I walk as softly as I can to him, but he holds up his arm, stopping me just behind him. A weight lifts off my shoulders, lightening the load upon my brittle bones and easing their pain…It's the air. It's far less dense out here than it was in that dark forest. I draw in a slow breath, this breath entering my lungs with much more ease than when breathing in the forest. I must have become accustomed to the heavy, thick air of the forest because I did not know that I was having difficulty breathing until now. I selfishly breathe fast, almost crying out with joy from the fresh air filling my lungs. Hopefully, we pass through no more dark forests.

God, it hardly matters! I shake my head of the joyous thought and look beyond the hunter. About a strong stone's throw ahead is a cobblestone bridge that has fallen into disrepair. It spans across a deep gulch that has dried up God knows how long ago. My heart aches. No doubt this is Ravenna's doing. I know she has done this, but there is still a part of me that questions it. Perhaps she never truly meant to drain the land of its life as she has done. Perhaps this gulch still flowed with water some years ago. I remember Sara mentioning how the land has become infertile—which would lead to famine.

"What happened to all these trees?" I whisper, looking back at the hunter.

He shakes his head. "I have my suspicions, but I cannae say for sure." He glances back at me, his grave eyes burning into me enough to brand me. "Jus' keep yer eyes open and stay close. C'mon." He looks ahead at the bridge and stalks toward it, taking each step cautiously while he scans all about him. Fear fills me, but I follow after him closely, caught somewhere behind and beside him. I don't want to be right at his side within danger's reach, but I also don't want to be right behind him where he cannot grab my hand and run off with me should we need to flee.

As we draw closer to the bridge, I look down at his careful steps. He moves along like a nightcat despite his bear size, avoiding the stones and twigs strewn across the frosty earth. Back in that damn dark forest, the ground was blanketed with thorny brambles and sharp twigs. Wherever I stepped, I was crunching the twigs and brambles underfoot, but not out here in the open. There's the occasional pile of twigs and stones, but there is plenty of barren earth to place my steps.

We reach the edge of the bridge where the earth meets the lumpy grey stone and the hunter stops. I stop just behind and beside him and watch him while he surveys our surroundings. He told me to keep an eye out. I look about the bridge and on the other side of the dried up gulch, finding nothing but an endless stretch of ruined road reaching into the horizon. I look down at the dried up gulch below—skeletons. A lot of them. Many of the skulls have sharp, serrated teeth. Two large finger-like appendages sprout from their spines. Wings. These dead creatures resemble that oulinder the hunter slew.

My brows furrow and I search the bed of bones for human remains…none. There are mostly oulinder skeletons and a few that look to be wolves and deer. Another souring ache fills my heart. These oulinders, wolves, and deer came here seeking water and died from thirst when none could be found. God, that poor horse that carried me to safety was consuming rotting twigs for nourishment. Is there no green to be found? Is it because of the strangely dry rain that there is no green? Or is it because Ravenna has drained all Tabor of her fertility and turned this once rich, fertile kingdom into a barren wasteland? How could she do this?

"Com'on," the hunter whispers and starts across the bridge. I step onto the bridge after him—the hunter stops suddenly, holding out his arm in front of me.

"What is it?—"

"Shh."

A low, rumbling growl sounds behind us, sending tremors up my legs. The hunter and I spin around to face the growling creature. A massive serpentine head on a slender neck rises up from the side of the bridge. The creature's leathery skin is pebbled and grey like the stone of the bridge. He peels back his thick lips, brandishing his large serrated teeth. He lowers his head and bares his twin horns to us which look like trees sprouting from both sides of his head. The creature rises more until he towers over us, as tall as three bears stacked atop each other, showing us his stream-line body and large wing stretching out from his back. A dragon no doubt, but one wing? Where is his other wing? The dragon plants one giant clawed foot on the bridge, shaking the bridge beneath us. The dragon's amber eyes lock with mine. He throws his jaws open and roars.

"LAMIA!" the hunter says! He draws one hatchet from his back and swings, striking the dragon's leg planted on the bridge! Bright red blood sprays at us, splattering our clothes. The dragon roars in pain, withdraws his leg from the bridge and lashes at us, sending the hunter and me flying off the bridge! The impact of the dragon's blow doesn't register in my body until the blink of an eye, a crushing pain spreading across my chest and stomach—I land hard on my backside in a bed of sharp bones, forcing the breath out of me. A shock tears through my body, shredding apart my muscles and reawakening the crushing weight in my bones. I struggle to sit up, groping for any purchase among the sharp, splintered bones. I look up at the bridge. The dragon rises up past the bridge, his amber eyes falling on me. His thick leathery lips quiver as he growls. He opens his maw to reveal the black abyss of his throat. A yellow glow appears at the back of his throat! I'm going to be burned alive!

A hand grabs my arm and hauls me to my feet. The heat of the dragon's breath wafts over my face.

"RUN!" the hunter says. The hunter and I spin about and clamber up the gulch over the splintered bones on the opposite side of the dark forest. The hunter barely drags me behind him. The rushing of the dragon's fire sounds behind us, the heat licking at our backs! The hunter dives with me behind a large tree stump. We scramble to the stump and press our backs against it while the dragon's fire rushes to our right and left, the tree stump parting his fire about us! The rush of the dragon's breath ends.

The dragon screeches and strikes at the stump behind us, cracking and splintering wood. I glance at the hunter. He pushes himself into the stump as much as possible, gripping his hatchet in his hand. Past him, a few flickering flames and embers from the dragon's fire burn on the ground. That explains the scorched sides of the trees.

The hunter looks at me, his eyes grave. "I'll draw the lamia's attention! When I do, get away from here!"

Panic takes me. "WHAT!?—" He springs out from behind the stump and charges down the gulch! "HUNTER!?" I scramble to the edge of the stump and peer past it. The dragon bounds back down the gulch with ground-shaking steps, chasing after the hunter!

"DINNAE LOOK BACK! GO! FOLLOW THE ROAD TO HYMARK!" the hunter says as he turns to face the dragon!

"YOU FOOL!" I say. What is he doing!? He's going to be burned alive! The dragon lowers his head and reaches with open jaws for the hunter! I scream—The dragon's maws SNAP—the world comes to a standstill. My heart plummets. Tears sting my eyes. The hunter…despair claws into the last of my hope. What am I going to—the dragon rears up, screeching in fury. A bear-sized man runs out from under the dragon's belly! My heart thrums.

The hunter stops and turns to face the dragon again. He swings his hatchet at the dragon's throat, scraping off grey scales as the dragon jerks his head back. The dragon's amber eyes narrow on the hunter's hatchet. The dragon snarls and turns his body to the side, brandishing his tail—lined with serrated spikes on both sides.

Fear grips me. "Oh God." If the hunter's arm or leg gets caught between those spikes when the dragon twists his tail, the spikes will easily sever the hunter's limb! The dragon starts swinging his tail at the hunter's legs! He leaps out of the way, nearly getting his left leg caught between the tail spikes. The dragon screeches and swings his tail back and forth, forcing the hunter to keep dodging out of the way so that he has no opportunity to attack. Back and forth the dragon swings his tail, forcing the hunter farther away from the bridge. My brows furrow. I don't understand. The dragon could easily turn the hunter to ash with his firebreath, but he continues this arduous dance with the hunter, swinging his tail just close enough at the hunter's legs to keep forcing him back. For that matter, the dragon could easily sever the hunter's legs, but he only draws close enough to force the hunter farther from the bridge. Frustration pricks at my skin. Why!?

I look down into the gulch and search all the bones once more for human remains. Nothing. This dragon has never killed a human, or at least not here at this bridge, and the dragon is forcing the hunter farther from the bridge. Why!? I look to the bridge—there, tucked away within a pile of tightly woven branches beside the bridge, is a clutch of five large, bright green eggs. The burnt trees, the oulinders and wolves, the deer—this bridge is the dragon's home, and he—no, she, is defending her home and her young! She is not trying to kill us, but rather chase us away! She burned the oulinders and the wolves because they posed a threat. The deer she burned to consume. The blighted men…I'm not sure why none of them made their way here, but there are no human remains. Surely there would be some, even some blighted men, if she killed them.

I look back at the hunter and the dragon. She is still forcing him further down the gulch away from her eggs! If only I had stopped the hunter. If only we had run! There's no telling how long the dragon will keep from killing us. If she feels threatened enough, she will kill us with one blast of her firebreath! The only blast of fire she wielded did not reach us. No doubt she purposely waited for us to run away and to find cover before she chased after us with her flames.

As she takes another swing at the hunter's legs with her tail, he swings his hatchet in the path of her tail, slicing through the flesh, bone, and flesh of her tail. The severed part of her tail lands in the gulch with the clacking of bones. She hollers in pain and pulls back her bleeding stump. Enraged, she turns to face the hunter head on and swipes her claws at him! He leaps back just as her claws swipe within inches of his stomach! Just as she brings her foot back, his eyes focus suddenly on her chest. The hunter found her weak spot!

"NO!—" He charges beneath the dragon and swings his hatchet over his head, slicing between the protective plates of the dragon's chest. She stops in the midst of the fight and stiffens. The hunter runs out from under her belly while a shower of water and crimson spills out of her chest onto the gulch of bones. The dragon whimpers. A terrible pang pierces my heart. My eyes go to the hunter. He is perched halfway up the gulch, watching the dragon closely. He is waiting to the wayside like a predator waits for his prey to collapse before moving in to feast. My chest tightens. This man who made me feel safety for the first time in fourteen years, this man who I made the choice to trust despite all that was warning me inside not to—I have been deceived. The hunter is more beast than man, while the dragon…I look at the dragon.

Her legs tremble beneath her weight. She struggles with the last of her life to stay standing while the pouring of water and blood out of her chest lessens. Her head droops towards the earth, her body slowly swaying from left to right, right to left, left to right. She lets out a pitiful whimper and collapses to the earth with a ground-shaking crash. A sob escapes me. She gave her life for her unhatched brood and now her children will die without their mother to protect them and feed them.

The cracking of bones pulls my tearfilled eyes to the hunter as he moves down the gulch towards the felled dragon, treading over the bones of all she killed to protect her children, readying his bloody hatchet for the final blow!

"No!" I scramble out from the stump's cover and race down the gulch towards the hunter, almost tripping over all the bones.

He does not stop his advance towards the dying dragon. "Go back," he growls.

"No!" I manage to pass him and place myself between him and the dying dragon, forcing him to stop his advance. "Sheathe your weapon!"

"What th'hell's wrong with ye!? I told ye to get away from here!"

"I will not!" He sidesteps to get around me, but I move with him, blocking him with my weak little body. He could easily pick me up and throw me aside. He very well could, but that does not change my resolve. "I will not let you hurt her anymore."

The hunter looks at me briefly with bewilderment and scoffs. "She's goin' to die, ye are only prolongin' her pain!"

His words stop me. I look back at her. She had moved her head along the gulch of bones while my back was to her, her dull amber eyes gazing in the direction of her unhatched brood. She whimpers in a mournful way, her dying eyes glistening…with tears! She knows her children are going to die and she is desperate, powerless, and dying. Bones crack beneath the hunter's steps as he marches right up to the dragon. He brings his hatchet down on the back of her neck, severing her head from her body. Her struggling body slumps to the ground. The little light left in her glistening amber eyes goes out.

I slowly shake my head and lift my gaze to the hunter. "How could you?" I say.

He growls and lifts his bloody hatchet out of her corpse. "What did ye mumble!?" He moves to the dead dragon's ankle and swings his hatchet at the joint, severing her foot from her corpse.

A raging fire swells my chest. "How could you!?" I march right up to him, not caring for my own safety anymore. "She was not trying to kill us! She was—" What if the hunter failed to notice her eggs? He would take her eggs and sell them, no doubt.

"I knew that," he says, crouching before the severed dragon foot and sheathing his hatchet on his back with its twin.

"What do you mean?" I ask. Worry stirs in my gut. Does he know about her eggs?

He shakes his head, not sparing a glance my way while he draws a knife from one of his sheaves and proceeds to cut the flesh of the dragon's foot from her bone.

My chest tightens more, filling my arms and hands with nagging tension. "Oh, I know what you mean. I was right about you before I made the choice to trust you. You have not a shred of compassion in you. All you have is a greedy, cowardly heart."

He stops in the middle of slicing flesh from bone and looks back at me, his eyes burning. "What!?"

"You slaughtered this poor dragon just to turn a profit, just as I'm sure you plan to do with me! Or perhaps you wanted me to flee so you could be rid of me and not have to kill me yourself! If you were any man, you would kill me right now instead of sending me off to die under the pretense of saving me!"

His brows furrow hideously over his eyes and he slowly rises to his full stature. "A man disnae kill the innocent."

"And yet you slew this poor dragon." I gesture to the dismembered corpse of the mother dragon. "She was not trying to kill us! She was trying to—" I rein in my tears and anger. I cannot let him know about her unhatched children no matter how much my emotions are surging out of me. "I trusted you," I say quietly. "I should never have trusted you."

The hunter scoffs and looks down the gulch. My brows furrow and I follow the direction of his gaze to the bridge. My heart takes off racing. Her eggs!

"I dinnae have to prove myself to ye," he says and marches towards the bridge, snapping brittle bones under his feet! He knows about her eggs!

"No!" I chase after him. "Leave her children alone! A single tooth of hers is worth far more gold than just one of her eggs!" God, that's probably not true. Just one of her eggs is probably worth far more than a single adult tooth.

"Yer ignorant to many thin's," he says, reaching the bridge and ducking beneath it in stride. I pass beneath it without having to duck because of my short stature.

"Eric…please," I say. We come to the end of the shadow cast by the bridge and stop at the edge of the dragon's nest. I look at the hunter, his eyes focused on the bright green eggs.

"That dead dragon is enough," I say softly.

"Aye, she is." He crouches down before the nest and picks up one of the eggs in both hands, handling it with great care. "Take this," he says, offering me the bright green egg.

I shake my head and take a step back. "I will not aid you in killing them, too."

He groans and closes his eyes. He forces his eyes open and shakes the egg once to draw my eyes to it. "These eggs willnae survive in the cold. We need to place them inside their mother's chest for warmth."

My eyes widen. "What!?" To do such a thing...the hunter does not plan on taking the eggs and selling them for profit, but he wants to give them the best chance for survival…unless if this is some sick obsession of his—to stuff unhatched dragon eggs inside their mother's chest.

"Ye want to save these eggs!?" he asks.

"I–of course." I hold my trembling hands out and allow him to place the egg in my hands. His hands leave the egg, the sudden weight of the egg pulling my hands down! "Oh!" I tighten my weak arm muscles, saving the egg from landing on the sharp, splintered bones.

"Tsk," the hunter scoffs at me and gathers the four remaining eggs one at a time, carefully stowing three away in his rucksack and the fourth beneath his arm. A pang fills me. I know I'm weak, but for him to scoff at me hurts me. It shouldn't hurt me, but I cannot deny feeling the pang.

"Follow me," the hunter says, rising to his feet and starting back toward the dragon's corpse. I follow him beneath the bridge and across the gulch of bones, willing myself to ignore the clacking and clattering of bones beneath my feet. The bones snap beneath the hunter's weight, but they only knock against each other beneath my steps. I look at the hunter's back. His strong back. He said he did not need to prove himself to me, yet here he is carrying four dragon eggs back to their dead mother so we can place them inside her chest and help them survive. Is that even possible?

"Will putting these eggs inside their mother's chest work?" I ask the hunter. "Will they survive?"

The hunter shakes his head. "Whether they will survive or no' isnae up to me, but doin' this will give them the best chance." He glances back at me before looking ahead, a strange, sad look in his eyes.

My brows furrow. "What?"

He sighs as we reach the dragon and stop before the deep gash in her chest. "I planned on puttin' her eggs in her chest before ye said a word about it." He crouches before the dragon and takes the egg beneath his arm in one hand. He grabs the bony plating of her chest with his other hand and lifts it, the flesh inside tearing as he opens up the wound.

My anger lessens. The temptation to let my heart soften for him is awfully tempting. "Truly?" I ask quietly.

He carefully puts the egg inside its mother's chest, squishing and squelching sounds coming out of her wound. He pulls his blood-covered hand out of the gash and looks up at me. "Aye, lass. Truly." He…sounds sincere. He holds his bloody hand up to me, waiting for me to hand over the dragon egg in my hands.

I swallow and carefully set the bright green egg in his hand, feeling as though I am entrusting all the good left in this world to his protection. "Be careful with that," I tell him.

He looks at me briefly, another strange but hard look in his eyes. He looks down at the dragon and places the egg with great care into her chest.

I frown down at him. Why did he say he planned on trying to save her eggs before I said a word about it? To prove himself to me even though he said he did not have to prove himself to me? Because he had a sudden change of heart? The hunter brings his rucksack around his body. He carefully lifts one egg out of his sack and places it inside the dragon's chest. No, he is lying to earn my trust back. I admitted to him that I chose to trust him, though the trust I placed in him was minuscule enough to keep away the possibility of betrayal. I still remember seeing him standing to the wayside waiting for the dragon to bleed out. He let her suffer. The hunter lifts the fourth egg out of his sack and places it inside its mother's gaping, bloody chest. Perhaps he could not end her suffering while she was still standing because she was a threat? He brought a swift end to her when I let him pass me. Though, he severed her head with one swing of his hatchet! If he could do that to a dragon three times his height, there is no fathoming how easily he could take my head off my shoulders.

He takes the last egg out of his rucksack and stows it away inside its dead mother, just as careful with this egg as he was with the first. I look over the gulch of bones, over all the oulinder and wolf skulls. What about any oulinders that come here now? And wolves? These baby dragons are left to oulinders and wolves without their mother to protect them. I look down at the hunter, opening my mouth—he rises to his feet and pulls his skin of oulinder blood out of his rucksack. He pulls the cork out and splashes the oulinder blood onto the dragon's chest, thoroughly saturating her wound. He corks his skin and stows it away in his rucksack. That must have kept the oulinders from us for these past few days, but that is beside this moment. He acted before I spoke this time. Perhaps…perhaps he is being honest? But what would he have to gain by being honest with me?

The hunter goes back to the dragon's severed foot and continues cleaning the flesh from the bone with his knife, stowing the bones and claws safely in his satchel. I sigh and look down the gulch at the bridge, not wanting to see him—the bridge and the gulch beneath it tilt to the right, making me stumble that way over the bones.

"Lass?" the hunter asks. "Ye alright?" A hand catches my arm, keeping me from toppling over.

"I'm f-f-fine," I slur, suddenly finding it hard to purse my lips enough to speak properly. "Wha's…hap'ing?" The world tilts back and forth, my head feeling too light.

"Lass?"

"I…" I blink a few times, trying to right the world again, but darkness steadily closes in about the bridge and swallows it up.