THE FOREST [Fiction]

The last of the light of the sun dissipated on the horizon, leaving the ground around Catherine soaked in darkness.  Her heavy metal armor clinked as she walked, while she eyed the walls of Castle Redrock and the roads surrounding it.  She had recently been promoted into knighthood, and wore the title proudly - not just because a knight was the embodiment of strength and protection, but also because she was the first woman in the entire countryside that had been knighted.  It was no small feat either, it took her years of training, and because that wasn't enough for the smug Knight-Captain Kirk at the time, she also bested him in armed combat which quite obviously disolved any doubts he had.  Knight-Captain Kirk was a fair enough man, but he was known for being overbearingly masculine, and often looked down on women, whether he meant to or not.  When Catherine was younger, Kirk, then a Knight at the time, would oversee her training and pair her with sparring partners, but he definitely made it known he had more faith in his male squires.  It mattered not, she proved him wrong, and she was the Knight now.

Being a Knight, one of her duties was to patrol the outside of the castle, inspect for damages or unknown objects on the walls, and also alert any nearby travelers that the gates to Castle Redrock would be closing shut, so they must hurry to make it inside.  Tonight had been uneventful, she hadn't even seen any travelers.  Only accompanied by the soft wind and the crunch of rocks and dirt beneath her steel boots, she continued her patrol to the North side of the castle, where a massive forest had grown and began not too far from the path she was on.  The Forest never had an official name, people just called it The Forest.  It didn't really need a name; it wasn't famous for anything, nothing special ever happened there.

Catherine approached the forest's edge, and thought she heard something.  She stopped to quiet her armor, and listened intently.  It sounded like someone singing, maybe, way off in the distance.  Why would someone sing in a forest in the middle of the night?  Catherine stepped off the path, and looked back at Castle Redrock.  Her duties would have to wait, this is just too strange to not investigate.

At first, the path she took to The Forest was mild, mostly just small grass and rocks, but as she drew closer to it's edge, the grass became thicker and more dense, until she finally reached the edge where all the foliage seemed to meld into each other, bushes and grasses and trees all packed onto each other with no break in the greenery.  Shadows danced on the trees from the light of her torch.  The density of the forest would also be a cause for fire, and Catherine decided she had pretty good vision in the darkness anyway.  She snuffed out her torch, and twisted it into the only small patch of dirt she could find and left it there.

Her eyes adjusted quickly, and she looked to the sky.  It was clear, no clouds in sight, and the moon glowed faintly, just beginning its ascension on the horizon.  It would provide just enough light to make seeing things easy for Catherine.

As she made her way into the forest, the singing grew louder and more clear.  The voice was singing, but it certainly wasn't in any language Catherine knew.  At this point she probably considered herself within yelling distance, so she called out.

"Hello!  Is anyone out here?" She yelled firmly, he voice shattering the quiet around her, causing a disturbance as several small animals scurried away from the sudden noise.  No response, just more singing.  "Hello?" She called out again, this time as loud as she could.  As soon as she finished the word, the singing grew even louder. Catherine's curiosity grew, and she hurried her pace, her thick armor smashed through branches and shrubbery alike.  The armor created at Castle Redrock was some of the finest armor in the kingdom, thanks to the two brothers that worked the forge.  They were young, but masters at the art, and had been more than happy to craft Knight Catherine's armor to perfection, as she'd been friends with them since childhood.

Catherine came upon a small river in the forest, covered in algae, resulting in a green appearance like the rest of the forest.  It certainly didn't look exciting to cross but there was a large tree on the other side, and it seemed to be where the singing was coming from.  She sighed and trudged through the muck, the foul-smelling algae clinging to her shiny armor.

She finally reach the other side.  Luckily the water wasn't deep so the highest the nasty green growth got was just above her knees, but the smell was still horrendous.  The singing continued even louder now, and Catherine was nearly full-on sprinting in her armor to the other side of the tree.

Bound to the tree with rope was a woman, and she looked at Catherine with tear-filled eyes.  Something was off though.  Catherine eyed her face and realized that the words she was mouthing were not the same as the words in the song.  The song continued as the girl continued to sob and try to speak to Catherine.  The girl's arms were tied outstretched from her, and just then Catherine saw her fingers twitch.  The girl seemed to be pointed downwards and towards herself, her dress maybe?

Catherine didn't expect a response, but asked permission anyway. "Milady, I think you're telling me there's something wrong with your dress.  Please allow me to inspect it."  The girl seemed to be mouthing the words "yes" among other things, but only more singing came out, so she nodded her head up and down in agreement.  Catherine drew close to the woman and placed her hand on the girl's hip, then slid downwards, feeling for anything unusual.

Sure enough, Catherine made it to the distance where a small pocket in the dress might be, and felt something hard.  She reached inside the pocket and pulled the object out.  It was a gem of some kind, bright red like a ruby, and perfectly shaped.  She looked up the to trapped girl and she nodded quickly and repeatedly, seemingly trying to indicate that was the problem.

With no other choice, Catherine set the sparkling gem on a rock, drew her masterfully crafted sword, and crushed the gem with the hilt.  The gem shattered, and the pieces disintegrated into red smoke and disappeared, and the singing abruptly stopped, replaced by a scream.

"Watch out!" Screamed the woman tied to the tree, and Catherine was suddenly flung into a smaller tree, her rear armor buckling under the strength of the collision.  She slumped to the ground and looked forward to her attacker.

A witch.

Short and haggard in her dark robes, the ancient witched cackled maniacally at Catherine.  The witch made a motion with her hands and Catherine's body was forced to the ground on her back, some invisible weight bearing down on her, making it impossible to move.  The witch drew closer to Catherine, standing over her now.

The witch cackled again, she seemed incapable of normal speech, and didn't really look to be in a talkative mood as she reached for a small, extremely sharp dagger hidden in her cloak.  Struggling against the weight of the force holding her down, she realized that the mysterious force wasn't holding down her whole body; only her torso and her arms down to her elbows.

She waited until the witch had the blade at Catherine's neck, ready to let loose a river of blood.  "Desperate times, desperate measures."  Cathering mumbled to herself.  Catherine squeezed her thumb in her gauntlet with her other fingers and heard a small click.  She closed her eyes and flung her wrist towards the witch, a small mechanism releasing a cloud of dust.  The witch screeched as the dust burned her eyes and blinded her, and reeled back in pain, and the weight was lifted off Catherine as the witch lost focus on her.

Catherine seized the moment and retrieved her fallen sword, plunging it into the chest of the witch, completely running her through.  The witch coughed and crimson blood spewed out of her mouth, and then her body slumped and Catherine pushed the witch off the end of her sword, her body hitting the grass below with a soft thud.

Catherine quickly moved to the tree where the girl was tied, sheathed her blade and drew out a dagger, cutting the bindings and freeing the woman.  She offered her hand out for the woman to grasp and said with a warm smile,

"Witches.  I hate witches.".

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