by H L Muller
“Ah!” I squeal, slapping my hand over my mouth. The water is freezing, the morning sun doing nothing to heat the rapidly moving stream.
I wash quickly, rushing to get out of the icy water. Letting my hair down from the braid, I wash and finger bush it, and leaving it hanging down my spine to dry out.
"Shit!" I mutter under my breath, realising I forgot something to dry off with. Making the best of the situation, I get out the stream and sit naked on one of the stone boulders at the water's edge, hoping the sun and air would quickly dry me before Ika came looking. The moment I had the sun rays on me without the cold water I started to warm up again. Thankfully, Ika either wasn't awake yet or he didn't bother with coming to look for me.
Mostly dry, I make my way over to my clothing. Pulling on my panties and camisole, before my skirt and jacket, before sitting back on the boulders to put my boots back on. As I put my left foot into my boot, I encounter something soft and squishy. "That's weird," I muse aloud while still trying to get my foot into the boot. Suddenly the squishy thing in the shoe moves, and a sharp intense pain breaks out in my left toes.
I scream at the top of my lungs in pain. Not knowing what to do, I remove my foot from the boot, and out comes a snake. As the snake's head peaks out of the boot, Ika comes running and steps on to the rocky bed.
"What the fuck?" he asks, taking in the scene around him. Me sitting on a boulder, dressed but I had my skirt hiked up around my waist with my panties, unfortunately, on display for him. My right boot is secured on my foot, while my left foot is bleeding, and my left boot is in my hands with a snake coming at me.
"HELP! HELP!” I scream at Ika, “IT BIT ME!"
Ika rushes forward and grabs the snake out of my boot. Holding it securely behind its head he starts to investigate the markings on the snake. With the snake out of my hands, I fix my skirts to cover myself. "What are you doing? KILL IT!" I yell.
"I need to know what type of snake it is first, woman. Stop your screeching. Good news. It's a baby carpet python."
"HOW IS THAT GOOD NEWS, IKA!?" I am still yelling. I can’t calm down. My foot is still throbbing in pain.
"It's not venomous. So, while you are hurt, you won't die from the bite. He probably crawled in your shoes last night as somewhere warm to sleep and was woken up when you put your foot on his face." Ika says with a slight smirk on his face, almost distracting me.
"Is this supposed to be amusing? It’s somehow my fault that I was bitten by a fucking snake?" Swearing to get my point across.
"It's all good Darlin', no need to get those white panties in a twist." He walks over to where I am still sitting, shoe in hand and wraps his arms around me. He lifts me in one easy swoop, one arm around my shoulders and the other under my legs. I scramble to wrap my arms around his neck quickly, holding on to ensure that I don’t fall.
"What are you doing!?" I ask him exasperated.
"What does it look like, I am taking you back to the camp, so I can clean and bind your foot before we set out for today. It's not like you could walk barefoot through the forest with an open wound. You would be opening yourself up to all kinds of infections. Couldn't have you losing any of your pretty toes now could we Darlin'?"
He places me down on my bedroll and walks to his bag. Removing a small pouch, he returns and sits next to me on the bed roll facing me. Placing my left foot in his lap, Ika works in silence, going about cleaning the snake bite with a medicine, and then wrapping it up tightly. Once secure, he places my stocking over my foot and put my boot on for me. It is a strangely intimate task. I have been dressed by servants my whole life but had never felt the way I did with Ika putting a stocking and shoe on my foot.
"All good Darlin', how are you feeling now?"
"Sore, but better. Thank you. How did you know to check what type of snake that was? How did you know what to do?" I ask in amazement.
"I have encountered a lot of snakes in the forest and had to learn what to do when they bite, or how to avoid an attack. Now we can't sit around here all day, we need to head off if we are going to get you home."
"Uh... I hate to ask this of you Ika, but I have never done my own hair before. Would you be able to braid mine so it's out of the way for the walk?"
Surprise showing at my question, Ika just nods and moves to sit behind me. He has a soft and gentle touch, carefully combing through my locks with his fingers and untangling as he braids my hair. Ika hands feel amazing in my hair, and I bite down on my lips trying to contain a hum from contentment at his touch, that might make things awkward.
I feel a lead weight settle in my chest at the thought of going home, and never getting to experience life like this again. In silence, my hair was finished, and remorsefully I help Ika pack up the bed rolls and prepare Stormy for another day's worth of walking.
We leave our campsite behind, and begin our walk resuming the pace and atmosphere of silence from yesterday. If this is the only time that I was going to really be able to be myself around another person, then I want more memories to relive for the rest of my life.
"So, tell me more about you Ika."
"What would you like to know?"
"Anything you feel like sharing. We barely know each other, and I doubt we will see each other again after today. You can tell me anything you would like to and know it wouldn't go anywhere."
"Hmm. Well, you basically know all there is to know about me. I live alone, I am a lumberjack and wood carver. I don't like people's company."
"If you don't like people’s company, or strangers, why are you helping me get home?"
"I hardly know. There is something lingering in my mind. It's like a calling, telling me that I must see you home safe. I cannot explain it very well."
He felt a calling to ensure I got home safe? Ika had been a stranger, still is really, and yet he felt responsible for ensuring my safety? My heart swells.
"Thank you," I reply softly. I don’t know what else there is to say.
Gruffly, he changes the conversation. "We were much closer to the Palace after our journey and camp yesterday. So, we are about an hour away from the main market now."
So close already? What am I going to tell my family about my overnight trip? How can I tell Ika who I really am? He will find out the moment a guard or servant laid eyes upon me.
We take a break next to a small creek, letting Stormy take a long drink of water and giving ourselves a rest. I am trying to delay having to leave Ika, and I hope he felt the same. I need more from him. I can’t explain it, but I feel safe with him. Happy and this contentedness that I cannot put into words.
Catching his eyes, I take a leap and ask, "Ika, why don't you carve anymore? When you speak of it you sound both in pain and longing for the feeling and peace it gave you, why did you stop?"
He looks away from me, that same pained expression from last night on his face. Ika lets out a deep breath and starts speaking quickly, like he is just wanting to get it over with.
"Roughly four years ago, King Kryler set the village of Adaira aflame. He was angry that King Mason had insulted him over his daughter, Gertrude. Things between them were already strained when King Charming married Queen Cinderella, but when Princess Gertrude went missing, King Mason blamed Charming, stating that he had stolen her away to be his mistress. Honestly, the whole situation doesn't make sense to me.” Shaking his head, I feel like I have just been punched, "King Kryler retaliated, and not long before his death he burned Adaira. Rumour has it he had just learned that Princess Gertrude had visited there the day she went missing, and wanted to stop any chance King Mason and, then Prince now King Harrison had of tracking her down. King Kryler sent soldiers in the middle of the night, they blocked all doorways and windows, and set everything on fire. There were no survivors. All of my friends, the children, buildings; all gone. I tried to save them, I got there in the end and tried to get someone, anyone out. There were no survivors. Since the horror of that day, I have not been able to carve again. Not until I met
you." He mutters the end, finally meeting my watery gaze. I cannot not believe this, but I cannot call him a liar either.
"I'm sorry, Ika." I reach out a hand to him in comfort, and he grasps it gently.
Now I really cannot tell him who I am, he will hate me. If what he said was really true, he had lost everything because of me.
We spend a few moments in silence, holding hands in comfort. Gently Ika withdrew his hand from mine and starts preparing for us to continue walking again. I am looking forward to a hot bath tonight, I had aches and pains from so much walking.
"We are close now Ika, you can head home now if you like. I can take it from here." I tell him, keeping my emotions from my voice. How could one day and a few small moments have such a substantial impact on me? The idea of being separated from him is repulsive to me, but it needs to happen. He will hate me when he realises who I am, which will happen the moment we get to the main market.
"Not gonna happen, Darlin'. I told you I'd see you home, and that's what I am going to do."
I take Stormy's reins for our last leg of the journey. We continue in our previous style, not speaking and I spend the walk overthinking instead. It keeps hitting me that I don’t want to leave Ika. I wish I could have just stayed in the woods with him, that I could have been selfish for once in my life and done what I wanted. Yet, I knew my duty to my Kingdom. I knew I needed to return to the Palace. Maybe once I had returned, we could maintain contact. Nothing said I never had to see him again, he would need to know who I am though; and as much as it was going to hurt him, I need to be the one to tell him before he finds out for himself.
Looking up from my hands, which were ringing Stormy's reins, "Ika, I need to tell you something!" I called out to him, noticing the entrance to the Palace. No, we couldn't be here already!
He looks back at me, "Yes, Darlin'?" I open my mouth to respond, as a Palace guard walks around the gate and sees us.
"Princess Gertrude! You have returned!" Turning to another guard, he starts issuing orders, "Call the King, he must be told at once!" He turns back to me "Come Princess. George here will take Stormy to the stables, and I will escort you inside to the King."
My eyes did not leave Ika's face as the guard spoke. I can see all the emotions play across his face as the guards’ words sink in. Before I can speak with Ika or tell him anything, I am manhandled away from Stormy and ushered inside the Palace. With a final glance over my shoulder, I see another guard talking to Ika.
Fifteen
IKA
Princess Gertrude. Not Trudy. How stupid could I have been to trust her?
"Sir, who are you?" A guard asks, pulling me from my thoughts.
"Ika." I clip out. Turning to the market, I need to gather more supplies before I start heading home. As it hit me that Stormy was being led away with my bag, the guard grabbed my arm, halting my retreat.
"Sir, you will be required to see the King. Either you can go inside willingly, or I can restrain you and take you in by force. What do you choose?"
Perfect. So not only have I been escorting a Princess home for the last day, but now I had to see her idiot King of a brother and probably face the death sentence because she has been missing for four years, and I am the one who brought her home. It never crossed my mind that she could have been the Princess. She looked only eighteen and the Princess would be verging on twenty-two, and she was dressed so nicely. If you had been missing for four years would you not be somewhat scrappy? My stomach twists into knots, how could I be such an idiot? She was trapped in the Silent Wood all that time. She wouldn't have aged at all. How could I have not realised it sooner?
My unique, strange, beautiful Trudy, the woman I have an overwhelming urge to protect, who I am starting to care for, is the Princess Gertrude of Daes.
Before the guard can force me to do anything, I walk down the pathway to the Palace, mentally preparing myself for what could be one of the worst meetings in my life.
Sixteen
PRINCESS GERTRUDE
Escorted to the Throne Room, I enter to find my brother sitting on the throne, looking older than had last at dinner the night. How can he have aged so much in two days?
"Harrison, what is going on? What is all the fuss over, I have been gone just over twenty-four hours. Where is Father?"
Shock colours Harrison’s expression as he sits there staring at me.
"You dare to speak to me in such a way?!" Harrison barks. What is he getting at? We always speak to each other this way. He is the Crown Prince of this Kingdom, and my older brother. He has always demanded my respect and submission to him, as my superior, but we are still informal most of the time.
"I am sorry Harrison, but I do not understand what is going on? Where is Mother and Father?" I ask softly, bowing my head; trying to appease him however I can. He is obviously in one of his moods today.
"Where are Mother and Father?! Where have you been?! You have been missing for four years Gertrude, and the first words out of your mouth aren't explaining where you were, but are instead making demands of your King?"
"K-K-King?" I stutter. Ika hadn't been right, had he? Surely, I haven’t actually been gone for four years. "I swear Harrison, I only left yesterday morning. I rode out to Adaira to look at the galleries and buy art, then I got lost in the woods. I managed to find a cabin and made my way back with the assistance of Ika." Who I will never see again, and I will never get to explain to him who I am.
"That was four years ago Gertrude, I am King now. Not just Harrison to you anymore." His voice is so cold, heartless. This isn’t the Harrison I knew. The Harrison I knew is rude, but nothing like this. I am so lost, what is happening?
"I don't understand. Where is Father?"
"He died looking for you. Three years ago. Mother died a month before him, due to the stress and sadness of a runaway daughter. So, tell me, why have you come back now? After all these years? Did King Charming finally get bored with you?"
"She was trapped in the Silent Wood, Your Majesty." Ika's gravelly voice cuts through the Throne Room. Turning towards his voice, I watch as he is escorted in by a guard. Shaking off the guards hold; he bows to Harrison. Ika doesn’t look in my direction and I cannot get a read on his emotions. How does he feel about me being a Princess? Or about me not being honest with him about who I am?
Harrison's eyes flick between us, "Convenient." Sitting further back in the throne, Harrison continues, "How did you find your way into the Silent Wood, Gertrude?"
"I don't know, I was heading home from Adaira and then found myself on his doorstep." Indicating Ika, "This whole talk of a cursed wood is absurd, even as a prank from you Harrison. I know you are cruel, but not like this. Where are Mother and Father? This isn't funny."
"I already told you. They are dead, they died while looking for you. Everyone thought King Charming stole you and either kept you as his whore or killed you. No one has seen you for four years Gertrude, what do you think that does to a Kingdom when their Princess just disappears?"
"They didn't even care about me! They all forgot about me. They forgot my birthdays and didn't bother with my existence unless it was for a marriage of convenience or beneficial for them! And you are trying to make me think they died over me, purely because I was no longer their burden?"
"I tried telling her on our journey, Your Majesty." Ika speaks harshly, breaking into our conversation. Harrison looks taken aback, like he has forgotten Ika was in the room. I hadn’t though, all the cells in my body are alert and aware of his presence. "I have told Tru-Princess Gertrude; the Silent Wood was cursed and that she had likely been held captive for years. I did not know she is Princess Gertrude at the time and did not make the connection for her disappearance." I flinch as he says my name.
Harrison turns back to me, "Gertrude, you left here four years ago. I will keep saying it until it sinks in. You have been missing for four years." Turning back to Ika, Harrison asks, "Why did you bring her here? Were you ordered to deliver her from King Charmi
ng?"
I was starting to get very frustrated with my brother. "I found him at his house when I was lost. Prince, King or whatever you want to call him Charming, wasn't holding me captive. Have you gone crazy? He never wanted me, you knew that and constantly shoved it in my face! Why would you think he had stolen me in the bright of day a mere three months after he got married? Ika has nothing to do with this. If you two are right, then I was trapped for four years. I was not held captive by anyone other than the Silent Wood. Which I didn't even know existed!"
"He is an idiot. You and I both know it was stupid of him to marry Cinderella over you. Why would you know it existed? You were raised to live in another Kingdom, you were never taught about your own." Harrison exclaims. He sounds jealous, that couldn't be right. Why would he be jealous of me? "Why would you need to learn about places you should never have encountered? You never left this Palace unaccompanied, or have travelled so far alone, so it shouldn't have been an issue. What were you thinking, Gertrude? You just woke up one day and left the Palace. Alone. No note or explanation, just gone and you turn up four years later? Who's to say you were not brainwashed against us? Or are a secret spy for Charming. You always loved him, I wouldn't be surprised if you ran away to sign up as his whore and only come back now because it is convenient for you."
I roll my eyes and cut him off, “You are crazy. I never loved him. I loved the idea of getting the fuck out of this Palace!" I turn from the surprise on Harrison’s face and storm from the room, walking towards my bedroom. I could feel a guard following me, tracking my movements to report back to the "King". Instead of going straight to my bedroom I detour to the library. I need to check what Harrison and Ika were saying and prove that I haven’t been missing for four years. IKA! I'd left him in the Throne Room alone with Harrison! I rush back to the throne room, entering to see Ika being restrained between two guards.
