“Is that you, baby girl?” It felt like a troop of butterflies had taken flight in my belly and then knocked. Another one!
It was such a joyous moment that quickly turned to dread as I had no one to share it with.
‘Sawyer,’I reached out for the millionth time.‘Sawyer, we have a baby girl and she just kicked for the first time,’I told him.
His silence was the most depressing part of each day. I was afraid that one day the loneliness might actually consume me.
With a deep sigh, I thought about the line Buffalo had written.
I found it! It’s right off the well-worn path. Plain as day once you trust.
Trust who? I just wished he’d told me who I needed to trust.
Trust.
Trust?
I drifted off with little hope that I would make it out of here. I just had to trust.
Three months later…
“Walking in the woods,going to find the caaaaave,” I sang as I waddled through the bushes and up the mountain. I was so preggo I couldn’t see my feet anymore. My hips and back hurt and I was down to weekly cave searches. It was too exhausting, and I was starting to have contractions on cave hunt day, which I knew it was too early for, so I had to take it easy. Walk slow: one trip up the mountain with my wolf inside of me and hope for the best. I’d become completely numb to the fact that I’d been here six months. I’d tried one more time to find the Paladin lands last month and got lost coming back. It took me five days to find the cabin.
Five days alone in the woods with no shelter and no sure source of running water was terrifying, especially when pregnant, but I’d learned so much in my time here that I was able to find food and water pretty easily. Now I’d resigned myself to the fact that the woods would not let me leave until I had found the cave. So I had two options. Find the cave, or stay here and live out my days in nature forever.
I sighed, trying not to fall into a depressive episode. Last week I’d just lain around the cabin only getting up to hunt or wash, and I recognized symptoms of what was probably depression.
How the hell was I going to raise a baby here, alone, possibly forever? I was a social creature, I needed human interaction and Instagram and people to talk to. The baby would help. I could talk to her, but … Sawyer, my parents … what were they thinking and doing right now? Were Sage and Astra losing their minds? I’d bet Rab was like “I told you she would take forever.”
“ARGH!” I yelled at the mountain as I reached the top and bent to untie my ankle string.
A female moan ripped through the woods and I froze, fingers hovering over the knot on my ankle as goosebumps ran up my arms.
No. No. No.
The day had finally come. I was hallucinating, hearing voices. The noises from the woods were tricking me.
“Hello!” I shouted as I pulled my hunting knife from my thigh holster.
It wasn’t real, probably just a tree moving, not—
A distinct feminine moan, similar to an injured animal, called back to me.
What the hell?
My heart leapt in my throat, and I looked up the mountain path where I was supposed to go, before glancing out into the darkness of the woods where the noise came from.
Was it a trap? Was it a person who needed help? How was that even possible?
You’re not real. It’s not real. I chewed my lip, feeling the nervous breakdown threatening to consume me.
There was another moan that gave way to a whimper and I froze. If someonewasout there, I had to know for sure. Diverting from the beaten path that would lead me up the mountain, I went sideways and to the left, slowly. This led away from the cabin, away from the cave, but nearer the direction I thought the Paladin lands were.
Would someone have come looking for me? I didn’t allow myself to hope such a thing, especially since Rab said whoever crossed over into the Dark Woods and was not of alpha bloodline would be cursed. But … maybe it was a fey or a troll or someone else. Anyone else would do. If they were hurt, I could nurse them back to health and then I’d have a friend here. I’d best friend the shit out of a dark fey right now, I was that desperate and lonely.
Spurred on by these exciting thoughts, I slowly trudged through the thick forest bramble, coaxing the twine behind me so that it didn’t get caught on anything and tear. My belly was large, but the baby was sitting pretty high, so I was able to move with ease across the mountainside without too much trouble. One thing being in the Dark Woods had done was get me in shape. You either got in the best shape of your life out here or you died. I didn’t mean that I was skinny, I was strong, with endurance and mental aptitude I just didn’t have before I came here.
“Hello?” I called again, wondering if I was leading myself into a trap. So far for six months I hadn’t seen another soul, but that didn’t mean that people didn’t travel through here. I’d seen bear, deer, fox, rabbit, elk, a whole host of animals, but no people.
