by Nicole Yek
"Yes!" Biff replied with a hop.
There were so many questions rolling into her head and she didn't know where to even start. She was so lost and confused and curious, there were so many emotions, too many. She felt as though her head might burst from all the unanswered inquiries forming and piling up into a high mountain inside her mind. Luckily, Mathis took note of her distressed expression and cleared his throat to catch her attention.
"Master Hywel's curse is triggered by the moon," he said as in a way of answering at least one of Garnet's unasked questions. "He shifts into a wolf whenever he sees it, so that's why he left before the clouds uncovered it. It's quite a horrifying transformation and we'd rather not see it again."
A deafening howl suddenly pierced through the calmness of the night, causing the brunette to jump in her seat. Mathis, unfazed by this, glanced up at the sky and Garnet followed his gaze to find the moon hanging high in the raven night sky.
Mathis let out a low chuckle. "He never misses a night."
That was enough to tell her that the abrupt howl was from none other than the silver-haired wolf boy. She looked down at her hands which were clasped together on her lap and took a second to think. "Curses," she said finally and her eyes darted onto the small talking animals around her. "All of you have been mentioning curses ever since I got here, so please tell me, are you all under the Wood's curse?"
They either gave her a nod or a quiet ‘yes'. They didn't want to talk about it, that much was clear to her, but Garnet needed to know what happened. She hoped to find clues in the events that occurred in the past and eventually put the puzzle pieces together, and maybe it would be her ticket out of the Wood.
"Do you mind telling me about it?" she questioned them as gently as she could.
The small animals exchanged reluctant glances with one another but none of them were brave enough to step up and talk about it. "I'm sorry, dearie," Anbreen said, looking up at her with apologetic eyes. " I hope you don't mind, but Biff and I have to get back to the nest."
Garnet shook her head. "Not at all."
"Well, I hope you all have a good night." The mother wren said. "Come along, Biff."
"Goodbye, Garnet!" Biff exclaimed as exuberantly as always. "I'm sorry we have to go so early, maybe Mathis or Button can tell you about the curse! They're older so they should know more about it!"
She gave him a light nod in farewell and the little wren, along with his mother, spread their wings and flew off. Garnet's attention was instantly shifted onto the squirrel and rabbit beside her. She stared at them with expectant eyes. Mathis was scratching the back of his head while Button was still curled into a white ball, attempting to fall asleep.
"Well, don't look at me." Button said. "You've all been with me long enough to know that I've always been a taciturn person, making me explain a story that long would be utter torture."
Mathis released a defeated sigh and decided to give in and be the one to tell the story. But before he could get a single word out, a younger male voice cut him off. "Don't even think about it, Mathis." Atticus the frog came hopping. Apparently, he had been hiding in the tall grasses behind them and listening to the whole conversation in silence. "You and I both know that it's not our story to tell."
"Atticus!" Mathis cried out with his furry arms outstretched. "What an unexpected surprise, I-"
"Save your breath, Mathis, I'm not in the mood for any of your excuses." Atticus said in a sharp tone.
Garnet looked down at the frog who had hopped onto the log next to the squirrel. "What did you mean by it's not your story to tell, Atticus?"
Atticus seemed hesitant to answer but gave in after deciding that there wouldn't be any benefits in keeping it a secret from her anyway. "We're not under the Wood's curse, well, not exactly. We're under Hywel's."
"What do you mean…?" the girl questioned, feeling confusion beginning to take her once again.
"Let's get this settled before I tell you anything else, alright?" Atticus said. "I'm going to tell you about the curse and how it happened, although briefly, and I won't get into all the tiny details. Some are rather personal to Hywel."
"Being the Master's best friend does have its perks, doesn't it?" Mathis grinned. "Would you mind also letting us know what he thinks of the lovely little miss over here?"
Garnet's face flushed immediately and she slightly resented the squirrel for bringing the topic up again.
Atticus shot him a blatant glare. "That is completely irrelevant to what we're talking about right now." He then returned his gaze on the brunette. "Anyway, have you heard of the story about the prince of Cerenth? The prince of the kingdom on the other side of the Wood?"
She took a moment to think about it and nodded. "You mean Prince Declan? He's the one who died in a battle between another kingdom, right? Although I can't recall which one it was…"
"It's the kingdom of Paerean." He said. "But its name doesn't matter much in this story. So you know about the deceased prince, and I presume that you know about the king's illness as well?"
The girl nodded again. "I do, he's been ill for several years now. He was planning to resign from his position as the king and crown the prince after he came back from battle."
"But he never did, so that's where the second prince of Cerenth comes in." Atticus continued.
"The second prince? I didn't know that our kingdom had another prince." Garnet said, surprised.
"Well, it does, but he's been kept as the royal secret for all these years. It was the queen's order. She didn't want her second son to have to bear the burden of being a prince and wished for him to live the life of a normal boy, and it was easy as the second prince wanted nothing besides that as well." The frog explained. "But after receiving news of Prince Declan's death, the king had no choice but to make the second prince the new heir to the crown. So left with no other option, he ran away with a few of his closest and most trusted aides, and I think you should probably to be able to surmise who he is by now."
The brunette's forest eyes grew as realization dawned upon her and her mouth fell agape. She stared down at the frog in a mixture of shock and disbelief. "Hywel… is the second prince of Cerenth."
"Indeed he is," Atticus nodded. "And the rest of us are the aides that he brought along with him when he ran away."
"Then… then what happened? How did you all get cursed?" she asked, feeling more intrigued than ever to know the truth.
"Well, Hywel's original plan was to get out of the kingdom and into a village, I assume that it might be the one where you're from, and he decided to use the Wood as a means of escape since it would be quite risky to use the bridge. People would talk about a group of unknown travelers coming into their village and you know how rumors spread to the kingdom so easily these days." He said. "But his plans took an unexpected turn and we ended up running into a witch."
"A witch?" Garnet gasped. "Witches are real?"
"You're currently trapped in a cursed forest with talking animals and a wolf boy hybrid and you're seriously asking if witches are real?" the frog shook his head but he had a faint smile on his wide lips.
"Oh… right…" she smiled sheepishly. "I've kind of forgotten about that…"
Atticus gave her one last smile before finishing off the story, "The witch then cursed us and here we all are, with our human bodies stripped away from us and Hywel to live the rest of his life as a monster."
"But I don't think that he's a monster." The brunette murmured.
"You need to keep in mind that not everyone is as open-minded as you are… Garnet." That was the first time that he had called her by her name and it made her break out into a smile.
The frog cleared his throat and looked away. "That's basically what happened, and it's getting quite late, we better get to sleep. Farewell." He hopped off the log and began to go back to the tall grasses from where he came.
"Atticus?" Garnet called out to him.
He turned around to glance at her. "Yes?"
"Thank you." She smiled.
The frog cracked a faint smile in return. "You're welcome."
With that, he hopped off and the girl looked down to find Mathis asleep next to her on the log. She shook her head, smiling. It was no wonder it had been so quiet while Atticus was telling her of the curse. She slowly eased herself off of the log so she could sit on the grass and lean her back against it. She glanced down at Button who had finally managed to fall asleep and as gently and as cautiously as she could, took him into her arms and relaxed back against the log. She closed her eyes, trying to sleep, but it never came and after a while, Garnet opened her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh.
If she couldn't sleep, she thought that she might as well take advantage of the view she had of the night sky and admire it. The moon was the only thing that stood out in the infinite darkness of the night, and there weren't any signs of stars which Garnet found to be rather disappointing. Just then, her ears perked up upon the sounds of leaves rustling and she sat up straight to see Hywel walking quietly inside. He was once again the large silver wolf who had rescued her from the three bloodthirsty wolves the night before.
Hywel paused in his tracks for a moment when he saw that she was still awake, and then made his way over to her. He rested himself on the soft grass beside her in front of the log, his nose occasionally brushing against her arm. Garnet gave him a warm smile. "Everyone else is asleep," she told him quietly so she wouldn't wake the others. "But for some strange reason, I can't sleep."
The wolf watched her with his unique sapphire-blue eyes and nudged her arm with his nose. The girl looked down at him, confused about what he was telling her. She realized then that Hywel couldn't speak when he was in his wolf form and she had to interpret what he was trying to say herself. When she still couldn't understand what he was asking of her, Hywel gave a light shake of his head and placed his chin down on his paws. Garnet noticed that his two large ears were wiggling and her face broke into a ridiculously large grin when she understood what he had wanted her to do, or rather, what he had allowed her to do.
She reached a hand out, touched his head and began to stroke it. She also stroked his wiggling ears and her grin grew wide enough to split her face in half when she saw his tail wagging up and down at a vigorous pace. She let out a giggle and leaned back against the log. She continued to stroke his furry head and ears and she didn't know if it was because she had finally completed her small dream of petting the wolf boy or simply because she had reached her limit and was exhausted, but sleep came to her after several minutes and she was off into a sweet and peaceful slumber.
Chapter Eight
Garnet awoke to the blinding rays of the morning sun and the sounds of birds chirping. She winced at the unwelcoming burst of light and blinked her heavy-lidded eyes several times for them to adjust to the abrupt brightness. When her vision cleared, she stretched out her arms and glanced down at her side. Button had disappeared from her lap and Hywel was gone from her side too. She was about to get up to look for them when she heard Biff's small yet energetic voice call out to her.
"Garnet!" he exclaimed and she saw him fly down from a tree branch behind her to rest on her shoulder. "Good morning! Did you have a nice sleep? Did you have any dreams? I had a dream last night!"
"Oh, really? What was it about?" she couldn't help but grin at the little wren hopping up and down excitedly on her shoulder.
"It was a really nice dream! I dreamt about eating berries: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, all kinds of berries! I ate so much that my tummy got all big and I felt like I was going to explode!" he chirped, his voice dripping with enthusiasm.
Garnet chuckled and reached a hand up to stroke his little feathered head. "It sounds like you had quite a wonderful dream last night, huh?"
Biff gave a light nod of his head. "Yes! It was one of the best dreams that I've ever had!"
"Well, good for you." She smiled and remembered that she was looking for the white rabbit and wolf boy. "Oh! Biff, have you seen either Button or Hywel around this morning?"
"Hmm, I think Button's asleep behind one of the shrubs in here somewhere, but Hywel's right over by the stream!" the little wren said with another exuberant hop on her shoulder.
The brunette instantly snapped her head towards the direction of the stream and found that the silver-haired boy was indeed sitting beside it with his back faced to her. "Sorry, Biff," she told the bird and carefully took him in her hands so she could place him down safely on the log behind her. "But I have to go talk to Hywel, we can talk later, al-"
"It's fine," the little wren interrupted her before she could finish. "I know that you like Hywel and want to talk to him more so you don't have to make any excuses."
A furious blush colored Garnet's cheeks at his unexpected words. "T-that is not true! Biff, you-" she tried to grab the teasing bird with her hands but he was faster and he was already floating in the air above her head before her hands could even touch the log. "Come back down here, Biff!" she scolded but instead of doing as he was told, he giggled and flew higher.
"I'm going back to the nest to eat some berries now, Garnet," he said and started to fly off, farther and farther from her reach. "I hope you have a nice talk with Hywel!"
When the realization that she had lost and was outsmarted by a seven-year-old little bird finally sunk into her mind, she released a loud groan in humiliation and buried her face in her palms. "I hate rumors." She mumbled into her hands.
After several seconds of wallowing in self-pity, the brunette slowly lifted her face from her hands and craned her neck to look back at the stream. Hywel was still there, unmoving, but Garnet felt reluctant to go to him after enduring Biff's taunting. She soon became fully aware of how immature she was acting and shook her head, ridding herself of her unreasonable hesitation. Sucking in a deep breath, she got up to her feet, brushed off some of the grass that had gotten onto her skirts, and trudged forward towards the stream.
"Morning," she greeted the wolf boy with a warm smile and took a seat down next to him by the stream.
"Oh, morning," Hywel gave her a slight nod in acknowledgment. "Did you sleep well last night?"
"Yes, I did." Garnet replied, and the memory of the night before when he had let her pet him flooded back into her mind. Her face broke out into a silly grin. She did try her best to hide it but… she never quite had a knack for concealing her emotions.
Hywel raised an eyebrow, staring at her oddly as though she was the half-wolf-half-human hybrid instead of him. "Why are you smiling like that? It's rather scary."
She ignored his latter comment and beamed at him. "Thank you for letting me pet you last night."
The silver-haired boy's nearly translucent cheeks burst with crimson upon hearing her words, his sapphire-blue eyes grew wide in bashfulness. "I-I just…" he stammered, wanting to make an excuse but none came to mind, so he chose to tell the truth. His head was cast down as he exhaled a loud sigh. "When I saw that you were still up so late, I assumed that you had something troubling you, and… the first thing you've said to me when we met was that you wanted to touch my… my ears, so I… thought that maybe it would relax you a bit if you did that."
He slowly lifted his head up to look at the brunette to see her smiling softly at him. "Well, your plan definitely did the trick. I slept like a baby in the end, so thank you, Hywel." She said.
He stared at her for a few seconds, seeming as though he was lost in a trance. "You're welcome… Garnet." He murmured, his brilliant blue eyes limpid yet they somehow looked distant, or rather distracted.
Garnet's forest green eyes widened in surprise. That was the first time that he had called her by her name. When this epiphany finally registered in her head, she flashed a face-splitting grin at him. This made the boy smile and he straightened up in his seat.
"Oh, and there's something that I want to tell you," the brunette said, remembering her initial goal. Hywel looked at her with vague curiosity and nodded for her to ca
rry on. "I know about the curse," she said, her voice meek and barely above a whisper. She could see the boy visibly stiffened at the mention of it and it made her hesitant to continue, but she did nonetheless. "I know about what happened to all of you."
There was a pause of silence as she waited anxiously for his response and only several seconds later did he speak up. "Did Mathis tell you?" he growled, gritting his teeth and only then did the girl notice the two sharp, canine teeth in his mouth that resembled a vampire's fangs. "I swear I'm going to strangle that squirrel-"
"No! No! Mathis didn't tell me!" she cried out in panic as the boy grew furious.
"Then who was it?" he demanded with a glare.
With his blue eyes that were darkened in rage watching her, Garnet wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to tell him the truth and even considered lying to him, but she was a terrible liar and she swore that she couldn't tell a convincing lie even if her life depended on it. "It was Atticus…" she mumbled timidly.
The fury went out of his eyes like a lighted candle blown out by the wind and bafflement flashed across his features. "Atticus? Why would he…" his eyebrows were knitted and he let out a groan in exasperation, running both hands through his hair but the silver locks fell back down over his forehead not a moment later.
"If it helps, he told me because I… kept pestering him to…" she mumbled, staring down at her hands.
"Actually, it doesn't," he groaned again and eventually sighed, slumping back in his seat with his palms flat on the grass behind him to support his weight. "Never mind that, can we please change the subject? I don't feel like talking about heavy issues this early in the morning."
"Oh…" Garnet took a moment to think of a way to turn the conversation around. "Did you have anything that you'd liked to do before you came to the Wood?"