The Lady Of The Woods (closed)

silvertongue217

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The woods spoke to him

Maybe it was the peace that came on a silent night when the wind rustled and the animals were still. Maybe it was the way the forest exploded with sound in the morning as the animals went about their daily life. Maybe it was that he was utterly alone out here at least when it came to humans.

Or maybe he just liked being alone

The hunter wrapped himself in the cloak pulling out his bow and rubbing the wood oil over it one more time. He was meticulous using an up and down motion and testing the leather string that made the bow taunt.

“A weapon crafted by your own hands flies truer and straighter then any mass produced”

His instructors words rose up in his mind causing a small smile to play on his lips. He pushed the memories away before they became unpleasant and instead stood keeping his eyes on the white rabbit currently lounging in the field. He pulled an arrow out of his quiver and notched it pulling it back and drawing in a carefully measured breath at the same time. With practiced ease he settled on the target and released the arrow at the same time blowing out slowly.

The arrow sailed through the air slicing across the distant and impaling the rabbit. It gave a squeak of protest but was down before it felt any true pain just like he intended. He was always thankful for what the forest gave him and made sure any kills he made were clean.

“Thank you oh bountiful mother” The Hunter whispered approaching the kill and bringing out his skinning knife “I make this kill in your name and in thanks for all you have given me”

He cleaned and skinned the kill moving his cloak down to reveal his long black hair. He scratched idly at his rough stubble tying the rabbit with twine and throwing it over his shoulder. He spent the rest of the morning checking his traps collecting a pigeon and another hare before he finally began returning home. He whistled a jaunty tune to himself as he did breathing in the fresh air and blowing out with his nose. All thoughts of his past life and the bloody war forgotten.

For the moment at least

He reached his home a simple wooden hut by a stream and stepped in placing his kills by the door before pulling his cloak off. He put his bow down and sat getting ready for dinner and enjoying his simple life.

Unaware of how much it was about to change
 
A small smile played at her lips as she watched the man stalk the beautiful white rabbit. Usually bearing witness to the slaughtering of one of her beloved creatures would have driven her to weep. Hunters seldom understood the gravity of such in act. The ripples it created in the delicate balance that was her dominion. All the cared about was the grumbling in their bellies or the empty spaces above their mantles. Not the babes this creature left to starve nor the snake whose meal they stole.

But this hunter was different. She had been watching him from the first time he found his way into her woods. Unlike most of her kind, she was very protective of her realm and would often use her arts to rid herself of such a nuisance but this one was different. The way he stepped lightly and avoided the low hanging limbs of her blessed trees seemed not to be for self preservation but out of respect. He never took more than was necessary to sustain himself, meaning that his trips into her woodlands were infrequent. But still he was regimented and it got to the point when she would look forward to his arrival so that she may catch a glimpse of his dark hair or hear his whispered words of thanks in the air.

His thanks to her. She often wondered if he knew of how she observed him, if his actions were just for show. To appease her. But she could feel his intentions, pure and honest. He was a good man and good men seldom came into her woods.

She took to following him to the edge of the forest. Listening to his joyful whistling from high up in the trees as he made his way home. Each time she came closer and closer to allowing him see her but had yet to set her feet to the ground.

Maybe next time, she always thought, as she watched him make his way to his door.
 
He sighed and tended to his stew breathing in the aroma and adding a few seasonings. He found a simple joy in cooking in its simplicity and in the fact that he was using his hands to create and not destroy or hurt any one. He supposed he was a pacifist at heart even if he was a superb bowman. He used his bow as a tool and nothing more and he made his peace with that and made sure to thank the forest whenever he could.

He was just about to take the stew off of the fire when his senses suddenly prickled. He didn’t know what one would call it but he some how knew that their was some one coming some one who was not a friend. His hands reached for his knife and tucked it into his belt his shoulders tensing as he resigned himself to his fate. It was only a matter of time before his past caught up to him his crime for deserting needed to be given its proper justice.

Sure enough seconds later there came a pounding on the door a heavy pounding that could only come from armored gauntlets.

“Open up!” A gruff voice said followed by another one urging him on “we know your in their deserter”

The hunter sighed and went to the door “I wish to be left alone and nothing more I have coin what will it take?”

There was silence as if they were considering his words before the door suddenly banged open sending him tumbling to the floor. Before he could reach for his dagger the armored gauntlet slammed into his face causing him to see stars. He felt himself being picked up and dragged outside before he was thrown to the ground right in front of a pair of boots.

“Pathetic” The man said spitting on him “you lot make me sick it’s no wonder you left the army was probably better off with out you”

“I wont fight you” The hunter said coughing up some blood “I wont stop to your level”

“Then you’ll die”

He felt the dagger plunge into his back and cried out from the pain. He began to fade feeling multiple knife wounds press into his body and the blood beginning to seep. From above a storm began to rage but he hardly felt the rain all he felt was the deep deep tumble into nothingness.
 
She spied the men just before she went back to her perch in the trees. Heavily armored and fitted with more weapons than were necessary for one hunter, she could not help put pause and listen as they pounded on his door.

A deserter. No wonder he is so good with a bow. But that didn't explain his reasons for leaving service to the crown. She had heard such a thing punishable by death and imagined a man who would risk such a fate must have been a man of great conviction. Sure he was living in comfortable solitude but he was by no means hiding. There were at least two roads that past within a days walk from the path that lead to his front door.

When the men burst into his door, she could not help but act. No matter the laws against it, she could not remain within the protection of her trees.

In truth she provided the trees their protection but still she left them. He bare feet in the earth as her long green linens billowed behind her. She felt his panic, his despair, as they began beating him and her emotions mirrored his. But it wasn't as simple as that. Her cross emotions brought storm clouds. Her tears, the rains. Her breath, the winds. And she brought them all with her. A few muttered words brought thunder and lightening overhead loud enough to put a fright into the war horses tied outside. They were strong willed beasts and with a few whispered words, she sent them to be free as they were meant.

It was the departure of the animals that saw the door flung open and she sent a turbulent wind to push the first man back onto his ass.

"Leave him," she billowed, and thunder crashed above her head, bringing the other men to the doorway to investigate. "You are not welcome here."

The look of sheer bewilderment on the faces of such dangerous men sent shivers through her. To use ones magic against the humans in intervention of human affairs was frown upon. She would hear about this but for now she needed tend to the hunter as he lay bleeding on the floor.

"Leave him NOW!" She screamed and the ground shook beneath their feet but her's lifted from the dirt. That was enough to send them running in all directions and she rushed into the door in their wake.

"They are gone now hunter," she whispered into his ear as she tore open his shirt to survey his wounds. There were many, and deep. "You are safe now."
 
He felt the ground shake, heard the crash of thunder and the storm raging outside. He felt it all but his mind was in an entirely different place. He could feel his consciences fading and was thankful that he had been stabbed so much he was numb. The first few cuts hurt the most but the black and the void came quickly far more than he would have thought. It was ironic in a way to know now that his victims hadn’t suffered to much in the war of course he always aimed to kill and not maim (unlike some of his brothers in arms) so maybe they hadn’t suffered as much as he worried they did.

He heard the men fleeing and spent a few seconds wondering what frightened them so. They didn’t to stick around and see him fade? He found that most people wanted to watch death work or were interested in such things. Not that it really mattered he supposed…..

Since he was dying

Then there came the whispering

It was a woman’s voice soft spoken nice and very pretty. It calmed him in a way while also sending shivers down his spine and his heart racing. Who was she? Her voice sounded familiar but he was sure he never heard her before. She seemed ot be saving him and he tried to thank her but found he couldn’t speak. Was he already to far gone? It seemed unfair in a way that he had company in death hat was kind but couldn’t say any thing or even thank them.

Then again his life was unfair in general

The hunter closed his eyes and tried to rest content that he was being cared for by the hands of an angel in his last moments and finding peace with that.
 
She smiled as his tired eyes settled on hers before they drifted shut. "Rest now," she muttered as she ran a hand along his face. Even with the pallor of near death she could tell he was handsome with his square jaw covered in light stubble. There was no way she could leave him here to die. She could not leave him alone. She couldn't help but think that if she had shown herself to him sooner he would not be in this position.

There was only one thing she could think to right her imagined wrong. The rules had already been broken, what further harm could mending this man's wounds do. She slipped her arms under his limp body and lifted him easily from the floor. Once she placed him gently on the bed, she worked to remove the remnants of his blood soaked shirt to reveal his many wounds. It would be nothing for her to close such wounds but his body would still be useless for a few days while he healed internally.

"Worry not dear hunter," she whispered into his ear as she moved to lay beside him, her hand already mending the deepest wounds on his chest. She listened as his breathing settled and became less labored. Before long there was nothing but bright red splotches where wounds had been.

When he woke, she knew he would need sustenance and though the stew smelled hearty enough it would be too much for the hunter to take in such a weakened state. As much as she wished to stay by his side, she knew she would have to leave him to gather things she might need to assist in his healing.

Back outside, she put her hand in the dirt and gave a little whistle. Before too long two great black bears lumbered out of the trees and a sparrow came flitting to settle on her outstretched finger.

"You would guard this place until my return," she said to the bears as she moved between them, making sure to touch them both. To the bird she said, "And you little one keep watch. If any comes you find me," before she wiggled her fingers, sending the bird to hover above the hunter's house a moment before it settled on the roof.
 
The darkness began to lift

Slowly but surely he began to come back to the land of the living. He groggily moaned his hand twitching as he tried to move them and figure out how badly he was hurt. Strangely enough he felt fine… more or less but how was that possible? He had been stabbed, stabbed enough times for him to know there wasn’t any real recovering from that. He should be dead! Or hovering towards it at the very least.

So why was he alive?

He opened his eyes slowly blinking at the pain that exploded in his head. He tried sitting up but stopped a wave of nassua over coming him. He resisted the urge to throw up and instead went for his bow using it as a make shift crush to get himself up. He leaned against it and hobbled over to the chair by his table. He crashed against it and sighed his hands pulling at his shirt and getting it off. He tossed it away and looked down getting a better look at his wounds.

He looked at his wounds shocked; they were mostly healed starting to fade even. But how was that possible? Magic? The soldiers told him such thing existed but he didn’t truly believe it not know. Yet how else could his wounds have healed? He certainly couldn’t have done it himself.

Which meant some one healed him

He closed his eyes resting and letting his breathing go even. He needed to conserve his energy let it heal himself.
 
She smiled when she came out of the trees and saw her guards still at their post. With a wave of her hand, she sent them back into the woods where they belonged and made her way inside the hunter's house. The sack the had slung across her shoulders, she placed on the small wooden table next to the cook fire before she made her way back into the hunter's bedroom.

"You should be in bed," she said when she saw him in his chair, surprise plain on her face. Her eyes shine, flicked from a deep green to an icy blue as she looked at him, all the while the color rising in her face. "I hope you do not mind my coming into your place uninvited but I could not allow those men to kill you. I am Evonie, Guardian of the East Woods, and you hunter should be in bed. Your wounds are closed but they still need proper healing inside and you need lots of rest for that. Come now," she said as she move to stand beside his chair and reached to take his hand, but only held it. "I'll not make the salve until you're comfortable in bed."
 
The Hunter watched his eyes taking her in as she moved around his small cabin. He suspected there was some kind of spirit of the forest the forest was too abundant some times to well taken care of. He knew enough from his father that these sort of spirits didn’t take to kindly to humans stamping around their forest and that the hunter had to be respectful at all times. He made sure to do so by leaving her offerings and paying homage to her whenever he took from her forest.

But he never expected to meet her

Or for her to be so beautiful, she was truly a goddess with mesmerizing eyes that drew him in and threatened to steal his very soul. Her body was sublime well at least what he could see of it. He could feel his pulse pounding at the thought of having her hands on him in any way even if it was to heal him.

“Of course Goddess” He said dipping his head in respect and a bow before rising to his feet. Her hand served as an anchor allowing him to stay on his feet as he hobbled to the bed. He felt his head wanting to split in two and flopped down groaning and wincing as he closed his eyes.

“I suspected you were in the forest” He said trying to keep his mind off the pain “I hope you don’t mind my living here I have heard you spirits can be very….. guarded with your woods”
 
She smiled as he spoke. This wasn't the first time she heard it, but never so close. Even despite his injuries his voice was strong, yet gentle somehow. One with such a voice didn't belong in any army and she was glad he deserted. A giggle escaped her when he referred to her as goddess.

"Please, Goddess is my mother," she said as she worked a handful of pungent herbs with a mortar and pestle. They had names of course but she would never divulge such things to a human. Interfering was one thing, teaching was another. "You may call me Evonie, but if that is too familiar Guardian would suffice," she told him as she moved to sit on the edge of the bed. "This will burn," she said softly before she began to massage the spicy green paste across his hard chest and down his side, making sure to cover all of the stab wounds. "If you don't feel it then you're in more trouble than I thought."
 
“Oh trust me I can feel it” He said wincing as the paste began to burn at his skin. He was determined not to look like to much of a weakling in front of her however so he took it wincing still as he shifted to get comfortable and regard his guest. So she had a mother then? Well it would seem the tales of Gaurdians being born from tree’s or some other element of nature was hogwash. He was tempted to ask her for more information but decided doing so would be rude.

“Evoine is fine” He said smiling at her “My name is Hunter” He said grimacing a bit more as the paste continued working it’s magic “Thank you for looking after me I didn’t mean to bring violence into your woods I thought they were so remote that I wouldn’t be bothered much less found”

He closed his eyes and relaxed his breathing becoming a steady cadence along with his heart.

“Tell me will you get in trouble for this?.... I know your kind don’t mix in the affairs of mortals very often is there some kind of code or some thing against it that prevents you from doing so?”
 
"There is a rule yes but I'm not much for those sort of things. I was put in these woods for a reason...an exile of sorts," she tells him with a smile as she finished with the salve on his chest. "And do not apologize for the actions of the ignorant. If the blame was yours I would not be here helping you. Your acknowledgement of me in my woods is all the thanks I need. None of your kind are so thoughtful. Why do you think you have been allowed to remain here?" It was a rhetorical question for she knew he could not know the answer to that. Few humans understood the scoop of a Guardian's influence on the world they lived in. Not even their priests knew just how much the Guardians kept their world in balance.

"Enough questions for now Hunter. You need your rest, worry not of their return. If they set foot in my woods again it will be my full wrath that greets them." With that Evonie rose up from the bed and ran her hand along Hunter's face. He was instantly in the deepest slumber.
 
He felt her touch and with it he was out. His slumber was deep but his mind was still at work conjuring dreams of battle, a flash of steel, the men taunting him and above all a haunting pair of eyes and touch that mended and cared for him. It was those eyes he found the most comfort and solace in so much so that he quickly fell into a dreamless sleep that his body needed.

He finally awoke not to the rise of the sun but the setting off it. He blinked surprised he had slept so long. He felt better however so much so that he swung his legs over the bed and moved off in one smooth easy motion. He stretched groaning as his muscles popped and the last fatigue of sleep was chased away. He heard his stomach grumbling and winced moving over to the door and stripping out his bloody tunic.

“Evonie?” He called looking around his small cabin and wondering if she would still be there. Now that h was on the mend he wasn’t sure if she would retreat back to the forest or if she wouldn’t provide him with company the though of his life without her made him nervous for some reason which surprised him since he barely knew her. Was it her magic? Or just attraction?
 
She was in his meager garden when she heard Hunter calling for her. Well it was meager when she came out but once Evonie put her fingers in the dirt the small plot of plants transformed into something more suitable for consumption. Aside from the carrots and potatoes nearly doubling in size, there were turnips now and radishes too. Tomatoes grew bright red, already ripe and plump with juice. Herbs and dark leafy greens replaced the weeds, while a pace of berries sprouted in a once barren corner of the land. Saving him was one thing, using her arts to make his improve his life was another. This would surely get her in trouble but she didn't care. There was something about Hunter that made her want to meddle in the human world, something she had never had any desire to do.

"I'm here," she called out to him, a small smile on her face as she made her way back to his front door and Evonie was surprised to see him up. And looking so virile after his ordeal. She could not help notice the color had come back to his face, nor did she miss the sculpted flesh of his chest. "It seems the salve worked well enough," she said, feeling her face flush as she averted her eyes. She felt herself staring and was immediately embarrassed. "I guess I'll be on my way then. It seems you have recovered well enough."
 
“Do you have to go then?” Hunter said trying not to wince at the desperation in his voice. He hadn’t meant to sound so needy but he wasn’t eager to be alone in solitude once more either. It didn’t hurt that she was the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes on. He winced as the sudden movement caused his wounds to itch.

“I don’t know about you but these woods can some times be lonely” He said softly looking away and out at the window “I would love the company if you were interested in staying a while” He said looking back up at her and leaning back.

“I don’t know much about you even though you saved my life for instance” He said “I would love to get to learn more about you if you care to stay and keep a wounded man company”
 
Evonie heard his tone and smiled. She understood, the woods could be a very lonely place at times and she could communicate with the animals. But they weren't the greatest conversationalist.

"I just figured you might want to get back to your solitude," she said though she moved back towards his house and climbed the stairs to stand in front of him. He was taller than she expected and she had to tilt her head up to look into his eyes. "But if you wish for company I'd be willing to oblige you Hunter."
 
“Solitary is fine” He said feeling her presence and gulping at the effect it was having on him. He felt an electric charge on his skin a sudden chill on the back of his neck that made him want to bite his lip and tak her right then and there.

“But I have grown tired of it if you don’t mind it I would love some company” He said softly his mesmerizing green eyes taking her in before he turned.

“Can I make you some food?” He said turning to her “do you eat?”
 
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