Chapter 1 v2

There was the faint thud of her tiny heartbeat against his chest. He could feel it.

Her sadness.
Her panic.
Her fear.

Chase kept running, holding his only daughter, Elie, tight in his arms. The distant shouts of soldiers as they burnt down his home haunted him.

They were not safe yet.

Elie was crying and wailing, into his chest and it made something in him tighten and pinch. Eventually she stopped screaming, "Why did you leave mummy? I want mummy." She sobbed into his ear.

In-between his gasps for air, he spoke words of comfort.
"They didn't find her. She's right behind us. Mum will catch up."

All lies.

But he didn't stop, he still had more to lose.

The vague outline of a forest formed up ahead and his stride broke. Trees tall enough to block out the sun and dense enough to smother out even a sliver of moonlight loomed over them. With each step, Chase doubted his decision. When he reached the edge he stopped himself.

He turned back and saw the vast plains he called home glow red in the dusk. Around him he could see the other villages with plumes of smoke towering over them, the flames still hot and burning. Even from here the scent of fresh iron and scorched flesh made him nauseous.

He put Elie down to catch his breath. But as he looked at the sky turn grey, blotted out by the ashes of his people, he found himself on his knees, just watching it all burn.

There were no good byes.
No apologies exchanged.
No final acts of love.

It was all just... gone.

He felt tiny arms around his waist. He couldn't stop now.

So he swallowed his heart and turned to their only refuge. A place no army would ever dare enter, where even the monstrous Crusaders cowered in fear.

The Forest. A woodland so large, a man could wander for a century and not find the other side. Other forests were given names after the people who discovered them, or a place within their borders. They were conquered and mapped by hunters and rulers.

But The Forest could not be mistaken. It was a bastion that stood firm against the touch of humanity, or more like it didn't even care for their attempts. The Forest was not a name, it was a title.

He stared at the beaten path, he had walked it many times. If they stuck to it along the rim of The Forest they would be able to reach Felicitas within a month. And when they got there... He could figure that out on the way.

As he ventured past the first tree the smell of steel and flesh was replaced by the damp and decay of The Forest. It was still fairly normal here, the birds still sung and squirrels could be heard scurrying overhead. The only human sounds were Chase's panting and Elie's muffled sobs.

They continued like this until he could no longer see the sun setting over his home. Chase had stopped looking back, it only clouded his mind with despair, and he couldn't afford to stop.

He inspected a leaf, the veins were still even and symmetrical. They were in the clear for now, they hadn't gone in too deep. He flicked it away and kept walking.

NOT PLANNED PAST HERE

Chase heard something behind him, it was a distant sound, but he could tell it was getting louder.
He slowly crouched and put down Elise, making sure to keep low.

"Dad?"

He pulled out his skinning knife with a bone white grip, brandishing it in the direction of the sound. Elie grew silent when she saw him pull it out.

With measured movements he quietly shuffled off the path with Elie, making sure not to lose sight of it. If they lost the path, they wouldn't be able to leave, not without a compass or a view of the sky.

He waited nervously, he hadn't had time to grab his bow or anything else, so all he had on him was the small knife in his hands. It would pose a threat to a wolf, maybe two? But what of they came across a bear? What could he even do?

His breathing grew calm in anticipation. Just as he was preparing, the tension released when a fox ran past them in a hurry. He let out a sigh and felt the energy drain from his body.

He set Elie down to try and recover some of his strength, but it didn't take much to make him collapse onto the ground. Chase started rocking back and forth, at first to stop his muscles from cooling, but soon he moved simply so he had something, anything, to focus on. He buried his face in his hands as if to physically hold back his tears, but the water slipped through his fingers all the same. He grit his teeth to stop himself from making a sound.

Elie clung to his shoulder and he turned his face away until he collected himself. He focused on her, wiping her face clean with his sleeve.

Her hair was a snow white... Like her mother. It felt almost like she hadn't inherit anything but her temperament from him. He'd been told his hair was too pearly to belong to a man, but he thought it would've looked great on Elie, not that he minded.