After what felt like hours Perryn slowed down, panting, out of breath she finally decided to take in her surroundings. She was in a forest that much was obvious, straying from the main road had led her here.

  It dawned on Perryn that maybe blindly running into a forest perhaps was not the wisest idea, that creature could have made its way into the forest for all Perryn knew.

  The surrounding trees were unnaturally tall, blocking out most of the sunlight. What sliver of light that did make its way through did practically nothing in helping Perryn navigate through the forest.

  It was twilight now, soon to be sunset and Perryn hoped to circle back and reach the end of the main road to head into the town where her and her entourage were to meet with the groom’s party.

  She was hoping to reach the town before nighttime, before that thing could find her. How that creature had yet to perceive her was a miracle, the Gods were kind today.

  The sound of water broke Perryn from her thoughts. Perryn tilted her head towards said sound.

  ‘A stream?’ Without thinking too much about it and with a st burst of energy she quickly made her way over to the stream.

  Lacking the decorum befitting of her status, she plopped down to the ground, hastily lifted her veil and dunked her head into the stream, if her tutors could see her now Perryn is sure they would all die of a heart attack. Years of training down the drain, not that Perryn gave a damn about them currently.

  She came back up for air and drank her fill of water. Her stomach felt like it would burst by the time she was done.

  Perryn let out a small sigh, the vents of the st hour finally catching up to her. She crawled away from the stream and heaved, the water she drank being the only thing to come up, she had been too nervous to eat anything before the journey, something she was grateful for now.

  Perryn could not hold it in any longer, she felt like she was drowning, like a fish caught in a net unable to free itself from its inevitable doom. The air felt too thick to swallow; she could not breathe and like a child failing to hold back their tears, her sobs echoed through the forest, she should have been more cautious, the creature could very well still track her down but, Perryn could not control her body.

  She grasped at her throat, scratching, it felt like something was lodged in there, realizing it was a fruitless endeavor, she rocked herself back and forth, hands leaving her throat and instead wrapped tightly around herself. By the time she was calm enough to continue her march to the town and the forest sounds alive.

  Perryn looks around, her hands tremble uncontrolbly as she struggles to wipe away her tears, with a shaky breath and unstable legs she makes to stand, after a few tries she finds her footing and slowly walks away from the stream and back into the unknown.

  Unstoppable, time moved on and as it did uncertainty clouded Perryn’s mind, surely, she would have heard festivities by now after all, despite being the fourth son, he was still a son of a high-ranking councilor.

  She must have been walking in a circle because she was sure she had passed the same tree a few minutes back. The tall trees made it impossible to see and now that sunlight had given way for moonlight, the task of finding refuge was next to impossible.

  Perryn slowed down, she was honestly contempting giving up for the night, it would be wiser to find some sort of shelter and wait for daylight before she continued searching for civilization but-

  The chances of that creature finding her would be much higher considering she would be out in the open, sleeping and unprotected. Perryn regretted not picking up some sort of weapon from the fallen guards, in her blind panic she had not considered it. Then again no one could fault her, if a group of trained soldiers failed to take the creature down why hope she could do any better?

  Perryn scoffed, she’d look like a fool swinging a sword around, then again, better a fool than dead.

  Perryn stopped completely, she leaned against a tree, she would rest here, if the creature had been tracking her she would be dead by now after all, it had been just minutes before her entire entourage was sughtered.

  Perryn slowly slid to the ground, she had long discarded her veils and carried only the circlet.

  ‘I can at least throw this if I were to encounter that thing,’ Perryn snorted, ‘Like a golden circlet is going to do harm to it.’ She thought to herself.

  Perryn felt the slow tendrils of sleep reaching for her, it had been a long day, and she was worn out, physically and mentally.

  She began to drift off and that is when she heard it, the sound of steel, grunts, and ughter, fey and wild followed by a screech, one she was familiar with, someone was fighting that creature, and it sounded like they were winning.

  A speck of light in the dark, hope flickering against her chest, Perryn stood abruptly and made her way towards the sound, she could escape if they were willing to aid her.

  The closer she got the louder the fighting became, and at some point, she could hear it, an instrument, more specifically a flute. The ughter and music from the group was enough to make Perryn cautious.

  Perryn finally made it to the clearing; she hid behind one of the many trees and slowly peeked there, she could see her would be saviors and they were most certainly not human.

  Fae and more specifically, Elves.

  There were about five of them all emitting a faint glow, they were garbed in beautiful silver armor which seemed to absorb the moonlight making them seem ethereal. Perryn gaped, Elves, here, her thoughts were cut short when she heard another screech from the creature being fought.

  While still hard to make out, it was a frightening image, it was tall, huge with scales that gleamed in the dark, it looked serpentine except Perryn could make out the four set of arms it had, with nails sharp enough to tera through metal.

  It swung wildly as if a cornered beast fighting for its right to life. Perryn turned her attention back to the group of Elves, they moved in sync, like dancers after perfecting their routine, they would ugh anytime the creature made to attack them, to Perryn it seemed obvious.

  They were toying with it, like a cat pying with their meal right before they gobble it up.

  As if sensing her thoughts or its doom, the creature instead of attacking wildly, makes an attempt to escape quickly turning around to make its way deeper into the forest.

  The Elven leader, at least who Perryn assumes is the leader, as a silver circlet rests against his head, also with the excessive amount of jewelry he seems to be wearing screams something and everything happens all at once.

  The air feels cold and heavy, the leader flings his arm out and the world shifts, a sort of glowing hole forms right in front of the creature and with the Elve on its tail it is forced to go through it.

  The Elves follow afterwards and with a st look behind from their leader the hole shrinks and vanishes.

  Perryn is in absolute disbelief, here one second gone the next, fleeting like a candle in the wind. She slowly makes her way to where the fighting, if one could call it that, had been, a few pearls here and there and deep sshes in the surrounding trees were the only evidence of their battle.

  Her one chance for help gone, before Perryn could spiral any further, she heard a groan behind her, coming from a shrub a few paces away from the main battle.

  She slowly made her way towards it and there on the ground, id an Elf, clearly left behind.

  Just great.