“Whatever do you mean, brother? The omega’s home is up north,” Jareth said. And I could not hold myself back. The absurdity of it all. The days of confusion. Wondering what Jareth was playing at. Why he was being so kind. It all came to a head at that very moment.
With the prince’s mouth hanging open unceremoniously. With his eyes bulging out of his head. With a vein popping in his forehead. With Jareth’s simple answer. With his even tone of voice.
I laughed. A choked up guttural chuckle. Somewhere between a sob and genuine laughter. Between relief to have an ally and fear for what came next.
I would remember the prince’s face twisting and changing as I laughed. Before my fate changed, and my shackles were broken. Victor’s expressions evolving into every emotion under the sun. The betrayal wrapped up in shock that was written on the lines that coloured his forehead.
Two heels tapping on the belly of the black stallion, and we went flying. Past Victor on his overpacked mare. One that would never catch up to us. Victory was in our hands.
We rode towards the forest; with a speed I had never known before.
And we got close. We were nearly at the forest’s edge.
A pained neighing filled the air. I could have thrown up at the sound of it. At the excitement that turned into dread. The horse fell first, and we fell soon after.
I tumbled on the grass, through dense shrubbery. Thorns biting the bare skin of my ankles. I heard the horse whinny and whine. The cause: an arrow in his neck.
Jareth was already up. A glass spear in hand. His eyes on Victor, several meters away. The prince was still on horseback. He was gaining on us. His arrow was pointed at Jareth. I got up and braced myself for the fight that was to come.
“Run,” he said. I took a step back. “Run to the forest, omega.”
The forest was right behind me. So close I could already feel the energy of it tangling up with my magic. But I could not just leave Jareth.
The alpha released a spear. It made a perfect bow and landed on its target. Victor was down. It was grotesque, the way the spear went through his shoulder. The way he ended up on the ground with a thud. His mare running away. She was quickly nearing the forest’s edge. Where Jareth wanted me to run to as well.
“Go now, omega. Tell your alpha what happened here today. Tell him the prince is dead. Tell him I am waiting for his message,” Jareth said. He pulled out another spear and advanced towards Victor.
“He is not dead yet,” I said.
“He will be,” the alpha responded.
I could not bear to watch. However much I hated him, I could not watch him die. This was nothing like the battlefield. Everything felt different when the faces of the defeated were no longer anonymous.
So, I ran towards the forest. A place not known to be kind to humans. But I was not a human. And the forest was a part of me.
Eighty-one nights after meeting the General
The forest was endless. I wandered past the same trees, the same streams, the same dense shrubbery, for hours on end. The forest was not silent. The wind was quiet, but the magic in the air was almost tangible. I heard it calling out to me. Recharging my essence until I was buzzing with it. The energy of greenery was housed within me. Regrowing my magical core after it suffered total depletion.
It was what kept me going. The roots at my feet rooting themselves within me. I walked through the night without rest. I never changed direction. If I kept going forward in a straight line, I would keep going north.
There was a moment where my resolve faltered. When my eyes were fighting to stay open, as morning dew coated thick moss with droplets. The sun was rising. The canopy was too dense to know where exactly it was on the horizon.
An oak tree stood tall, right where I needed to pass. My eyes fell to my trousers. Frayed and cut up by the branches I was wading through. There was liquid running down my arm. It was blood trickling down from the scratches the forest gifted me. Ibecame aware of the blisters on my feet. And I took a moment to sit against that oak tree. I was hit with the truth of it. I was lost.
The forest had to end somewhere. But how far would I need to travel? How long before a wild animal stumbled upon me? Yes, the forest was mine, but it was not mine alone. My head was heavy. I closed my eyes for a moment. And very quickly, I was out.
When I came to, I first thought I had died. In front of me was a creature. A light. Gold and yellow and bright. It woke me up from my slumber only to enchant me. A ball of light, small but vivid.
A pixie. She warmed me up from the tip of my toes all the way up to my chest. Filled me with an emptiness that was pleasantly numbing. There was no dread, no fear of the journey that was ahead. And she moved away from me slowly.
I knew the fairytales. Of pixies leading travellers out of the forest. Of offering them hope. Guiding them through the story’s darkest moments. And I got up as she moved away. This light was my lifeline. I clung on to her desperately enough to make my way through the forest in a hurry. I stumbled forward at an unsustainable pace, for a while, just until I caught up to her.
I found myself next to her by a stream, gently rolling down a hill. I kept up with her. Hoping that the stories were true. That this creature would be my salvation.
I followed the light until I saw nothing but her. The forest dissipated in her presence. What was left was a world of my own. I still heard the stream, steadily flowing at my feet. I could smell the forest, feel the afternoon sun. But I wasn’t there. Not really.
I thought then that the goddess of the forest must have sent me the pixie as a gift. A safety blanket made of gold, given freely from one healer to another. I saw her then, in my mind’s eye. She looked like my mother. There was no time. No pain in my feet. Nothing but a vision.