Chapter 4: 4

Miriam slips out of the house as the night falls. The town is quiet, and soon, even the nights will fall silent as the last birds leave for the winter. Only the Blue Bird is left, chirping out its call into the night. The few people still out on the streets raise their hands in greeting as she passes them. It’s not uncommon for the Protector to wander the streets during the dark, and no one questions why she’s out.

She takes the street to her right as she comes out to the square, taking the long route out. It’s the best time of the day when the streets are empty.Sometimes, she can even forget the responsibility, her duty, as she walks underneath the starlit sky. 

They had taken her as soon as they saw the signs, the markers showing she was their next Protector. Sometimes, she wonders what her life would have looked like if her fate had been different. She had wanted to see the world, see what lay beyond the borders, beyond the woods that stretched out as far as the eye could see. If you knew the way, you could pass from town to town, all the way to the capital, without leaving it.

She rounds a corner and comes out on one of the darkest streets in town. No windows line it, the houses all turn the other way, and so no lights show the way as you pass it. It used to be her favourite street as a child. She used to hide here, slipping out of the house to play hide and seek with her brother. She always got cold, though, and in the end, slipped back into the house if he didn’t find her.

She comes out on the street circling the town, the furthest you can go before stepping over the creek and into the meadow. She halts and squats down on the cobblestones to watch the forest. It’s quiet, the wind still for the night, and even the birds have quieted. Somewhere out there, they are luring. She hopes she is wrong, hopes that all her senses have been mistaken, but something tells her it’s not so. They are out there, and she doesn’t know what to do about it. But that means that the citizens no longer can visit the woods and life as they know it will soon be gone. Generations upon generations have lived on this land, producing furs that are exported to the nearby towns and beyond. They’ve grown famous for it, giving the country's people the finest rabbit and ermine skins.

The legend doesn’t speak about how the wolves were defeated. It only talks about the King who saved the land from the beasts and brought peace and prosperity to the country. That was centuries ago, and by now, no other records exist. She wonders if she should ask the hunters, but telling them would mean letting the town know about the wolves, and she doesn’t want to scare them needlessly.

She gets up and continues walking down the street. By the bridge, she takes rights and slips past the creek, her footsteps soundless against the stone. Soon, the meadow will be in frost, but for now, only the dew is disturbed by her feet, and soon, her shoes are damp. She barely notices it. The spell, dividing the town and the wilderness, vibrates within her. It’s holding; she can feel its spindly fingers keeping the weave together.

She passes the meadow and halts just on the outskirts of the forest, where the civilisation turns into wilderness. The woods are quiet, and she feels nothing that disturbs the peace. She takes a step, passes the spells she’s cast, and comes to a halt just where the scrubs start to grow into the forest. It’s quiet, as you would expect on an autumn night. She crouches down and draws her fingers through the mulch. The earth reacts as she would have thought, tiny vibrations that creep up her hand. All is well so far.

She takes another step, and suddenly, her world shifts. It whirls, her head reeling, and she stumbles back, and her head calms. So they are here, after all. The dread creeps up her spine, the same fear that washed over her yesterday. She needs to get out. She backs away, staring into the shapeless dark. Nothing moves, but she can feel them drawing closer. She passes the spells, and they cast their warmth around her as she moves through them, and she’s out in the meadow. She turns and runs.