Chapter 1 aka Julio

A Chapter by Dolphin

The first snowy flakes of winter where falling, slowly as if they knew that they were early, without the full support of the storm to come. Those trees who hadn’t lost their leaves in the fall, had turned a deeper green still retaining their jewel like quality from the past summer when I started coming higher into the mountains despite the warnings from the village men that this place was protected by some forest spirit that gave this place its magical beauty or even … a god. Never the less this place was serene, so at odds with the bloody mission I had, to hunt and kill one or few of the animals that resided in the forest.

Not many people dared to come up so high in the mountains as there were rumors that this beautiful place was haunted or that some spirit guarded this place against trespassers. Memories of the rumors brought a chill up my spine that had nothing to do with the growing chill. Some said the few who ventured into the jeweled forest and their deaths… it was better not to think of such things lest the smell of fear attract other beast that no doubt existed and would be pleased to rip me into bloody strips.

Despite my dark thoughts Starfall remained steady under me, her dapple-grey coat almost blending in with the snowy landscape. Her hoofbeats were soft, almost silent, muffled by the thin blanket of snow that covered the ground. We continued although I knew it would likely be another fruitless hunt. I kept my hand on my bow as I scanned the snowy landscape for any sign of life, but it seemed that the majority of wildlife had taken cover with the wind’s silent promise of oncoming snow. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a blur of white movement.

I whirled and saw a white stag staring at me with pine green eyes, the only sign of color body save for his dark anthers which were large even an old dear, although he didn’t look old. I nocked an arrow in my bow, lifted it and shot him in what should have been a shot straight to his heart. However, it fell short an inch… the dam stag stood at the very edge of my bow’s range. I nudged Starfall into a gallop with my knees toward the stag, nocking another arrow into my bow and let it fly, this time its target was one of its pine green eyes. Yet again my attempt to kill it was thwarted, the arrow simply hatted an inch before reaching his eye and hung there, suspended in the air by whatever magic this creature possessed. And then after a few seconds it dropped to the ground.

It was in that moment I knew this was no ordinary creature, it was the spirit some people said protected this forest or perhaps … perhaps … it was something else entirely.

I halted Starfall, reining her in. There was no way I could kill this creature not only because of its beauty but also if this was the guardian of this forest it was near immortal if not immortal, if the legends were true. And not to mention he was called Gradian of the Jeweled forest, I doubted they would call him that if he just escorted trespassers to the edge of his domain and told then to never come back. Either way I had no wish to die tonight, even if some might consider it an honor to be killed by a god or god like creature. But to me death was death, no matter how you are killed or what you obtained in life everyone still ends up in the same place. And whatever that place was I had no desire to get there … at least not yet.

I put the arrow I didn’t realize that I had nocked, slowly back into my quiver not wishing to startle the creature in front of me. And sat there atop Starfall and waited, the snowflakes seemed to be falling slower, as if time its self-had stopped to witness this moment. Now that I had stopped, I looked at the stag closer and realized that he was glowing softly … perhaps a sign of his immense power, who knew? I was certain now if the magic he had displayed hadn’t convinced me that he was normal his slight glow made it obvious that he was no mortal creature because no normal creature could wield magic nor glowed.

The stag studied me too, his eyes held the gleam of intelligence, and they were assessing me, not as prey to predator but rather as a mentor assessing a student to see if they are ready for whatever comes next.

The stag stood there a moment, bounded away a few steps, stopped and looked back … waiting.

I nudged Starfall into a slow walk toward the stag because some small star far away seamed to incline me toward him. The stag started walking again slightly before I reached him at a slightly faster pace than I was going, forcing me to increase Starfall’s pace or risk getting left behind in the swirling snow.

As I followed him deeper in the forest I wondered where he was leading me, and if I would ever see the outside of this forest.

My stomach gurgled slightly, a reminder that I hadn’t had a good meal for over a week. There had been a poor harvest this year, with the coming of winter food had grown scarce, the prices up. Since my mother was a healer we usually did well enough in the winter since illness tended to rise during this time, but if people couldn’t afford to buy food, they wouldn’t waste money on herbs and treatments if they could buy food with that money instead. The illness that many of us had was hunger, and the best cure for that was food.

My brother Danny had left our little money to see if the next town had any food that wasn’t ridiculously expensive so only the richer folks could afford it. When he didn’t come back after 6 days we feared the worst. So, I had set out into the higher mountains to see if some game still lived where no hunter dared enter. All the lower ranges had already been picked clean, those who hadn’t died moved farther up into the mountain to escape the hunters or at least that’s what I hoped.

I consisted it a small miracle that no one had suggested that we butcher Snowfall or my brother’s horse Midnight-Mist although we often called him Midnight for short. They were useful in the warmer months, it would be a shame to kill them as a short-term solution to our hunger.

I was jerked from my thoughts of the past few days by a soft moaning coming from a few paces away. I looked for the stag and realized that he had stopped, once he felt my attention on him again, he veered away from the game trail that we had been following into the thick forest on the right.

A small barely worn trail was visible though the gaps though the trees that later opened up to a small clearing, in the middle of it there was a young woman in a pool of blood. Her crumpled form was visible though the slight blanket of snow that covered her, spots of red stained the snow where blood had soaked into it. Her long golden hair was splayed around her head as if … she had fallen from somewhere yet no tree was near where she lay.

I watched as the white stag walked to her and put his muzzle on her forehead and vanished like the snow that was falling.

A moment later I felt a presence warp around my mind soft as the wind and it spoke in a voice that was ancient yet young, human and somehow sounded like the rustle of leaves in the wind, “This is the Κοσμήματα forest a sacred place, take care of the young one”. And then it left as if it was never there.

I dismounted and walked over to her as if I was in a trance. I brushed the snow away from her face and saw that pretty though marred by cuts and bruises. The skin that wasn’t injured in some way, was pallid. She was no older than twenty, what was she doing in the forest? She was faintly breathing, a small miracle that I had found her before she died or perhaps not…

I picked her up as if she were a baby and noticed that she was wearing what was typically consisted men’s clothing, tight fitting pants, a tunic, and a forest green cloak. Vastly different that the typical clothes women wore. The cloth was something I hadn’t encountered before warm like wool but somehow smooth as the finest silk.

I whistled Starfall over and mounted her taking care to not jostle the strange women in my arms. As soon as I had mounted Starfall she started to trash around in my arms, her face contorted with pain. I struggled to keep her in my lap, she was so strong. Stronger than any human had a right to be, I was no healer like mother but I knew if all the blood on the ground was hers she should be much weaker due to blood loss. Even though she was stronger than most people I had to get her to Mother before she died in my arms. I set Starfall in a direction which I hoped was home and hoped that I wouldn’t arrive too late.

As I galloped though the forest I could have sworn the stag follow beside me, a white ghost in a land of snow, and felt his pine green eyes upon me as I exited the forest.