The Shadow of the Forest

The Shadow of the Forest

By Stephane Eckhardt

Prolouge:
The sun rose over the eastern mountains, casting a gentle light into the valley of trees below. A thatched roof poked out of the trees in the middle of the valley. The thatched roof belonged to a small cottage where its owner was just now starting to wake. Emerald green eyes blinked open as their owner started to yawn. A hand came up to cover her mouth as she yawned. The door opened to the sparsely furnished room and a little girl with auburn red hair and emerald green eyes bounced into the room.



“Momma… Time to get up” The little girl chirped as she climbed up onto the bed. Her mother smiled at her.



“Alright Cora… Alright.” She ruffled Cora’s hair as she sat up. “Go call in Theron…” the little girl nodded and bounded out of the room to call their half wolf- half hound inside for breakfast. Daphne, Cora’s mother, got up and stretched. She dressed in a simple off the shoulder pale green kirtle. Daphne quickly brushed out her hair and put it up in a messy bun as she heard the wolfhound bound inside the house and Cora’s squeal of delight. She left her room and knocked on the door to the room that Cora shared with her twin brother, Alexander.



“Alex… time for breakfast… get up” She called, heading into the living room/kitchen of the cottage to start to fix their breakfast. A blonde haired boy, about the age of seven came out of his room, rubbing the sleep out of his clear blue eyes. He sat down next to his sister and waited for food.



“Momma… I had a strange dream last night…” Alex said as Daphne dished up some porridge. Daphne glanced at Alex.



“What was it about Alex?” Daphne asked as she dished up some porridge for herself, a little less then what the children had. She sat down across from her two kids and waited for her son to tell his dream.



“Well… I was out in the forest, hunting… and a man saw me and started to chase me… he chased me all the way back here… and he saw you and Cora… and… I can’t remember the rest. I just know I was scared.”



Daphne smiled. “Don’t worry about, son. I won’t let anyone harm either of you.” She finished eating and started to do the chores around the cottage. “Cora, Alex, you two can go play if you want, if you go outside, take Theron with you…” The children cheered and ran out of the house, the wolf hound on their heels. Daphne just smiled and continued working.





***





Lysander growled as he was thrown to the ground. He blocked out his father’s jeers and stood up again. He looked at his opponent and flung himself at the bigger man again. This time he managed to throw the other man off balance and toppled them over. Lysander quickly pinned the other man before the fight would drag on. After the ten-count, Lysander’s father entered the ring, glaring at the blonde haired fighter.



“That was the most… deplorable fight I’ve seen you in. What’s the matter with you?” He growled, cuffing Lysander’s ear. Lysander shrank back and glared at the older man



“I won, doesn’t that mean anything?” He asked, rubbing his ear. He dropped his hand once his father turned to look at him.



“You should have had him in the first few seconds of the fight…. Not twenty minutes. You are pathetic… it’s got to be your mother’s weak blood. That’s it… all women are weak…” He muttered the last part to himself. Lysander felt his blood boil when he heard his father badmouth his mother like that. The poor woman passed away three months prior due to an illness and Lysander’s father blamed her for being weak. She had to be strong to put up with an ass like his father.



“Don’t talk about Mother, that way…” Lysander said in a deathly calm voice.



“Or what?” Lysander did nothing. “Like I thought, get out of my sight.” He ordered.



“Yes Sir…” Lysander said between gritted teeth as he left the training yard. His hands were fisted as he entered his room. “Someday, old man. Someday I’ll show you what your ‘pathetic’ son can do…” He vowed, looking into a mirror. He sighed and let go of his anger when his friend Toras entered his room.



“Hey…” Toras said, tossing Lysander his shirt. “You forgot it out at the ring…”



Lysander caught the shirt and tossed it down on the bed.



“Lighten up… the captain’s hard on everyone.”



“Yeah, but you’re not his son…”



“Right… well… I… hey, guess what I heard?”



“Hard telling with a pea brain like you”



“Hey, I resent that… just for that I won’t tell you” Toras crossed his arms in a huff. Lysander laughed at his friend’s attitude.



“I’m sorry… Toras” Lysander tried to say with a straight face, but failed. Toras pouted slightly.



“I’ll accept that as an apology, since it’s the best I’m ever going to get from you.” Toras said after a while, his eyes twinkled with mirth.



“I am sorry… but what news have you heard?” Lysander said, panting a bit from laughing so hard.



“A new patrol is going though the forest on the other side of the western Mountains… and you’re leading it.”



“The western mountains…. But we have no control over that land, it’s untamed…”



“Exactly, King Vasilis wishes to extend his borders. And as knights of the Frost Vale, we need to obey his commands.”



“Aye…” Lysander said, sitting down on the bed. Toras nodded.



“We leave in this eve. Get some rest, friend” Toras said, leaving Lysander to his own devices. Lysander sighed and slumped back against the headboard. If he could secure the forest and lands for the king, surely his father will be proud. With that thought, He closed his eyes to get some sleep before they were to leave. Dreams of a fiery redhead with the spirit of an untamed hellcat frequent him. The red head he had tricked into his bed one night, seven years ago. Lysander opened his blue eyes. It was dishonorable thing for a knight to do, but they made a wager, if the woman could best him in a sword fight, he’d let her go, if not, she was to warm his bed that night. She almost won that fight too, but a trick had been her downfall. What a night of passion that followed.



She was a hellcat in the battle field, but she was a lioness in the bedchambers. He was surprised when she fought every time he pressed his dominance, not that he minded, the women he had prior to this crimson haired vixen, were meek and yielding to his seductions, but this woman… she… she was the one that he couldn’t conquer… the one that still, seven years later, made his blood boil in need. That supple body under his, yielding, yet unyielding at the same time had left its mark on Lysander. No other woman could measure up to that one warrior wench.



When the morning sun had entered that room at the inn, Lysander had woken to an empty bed, the red haired wench was gone.



Lysander sighed and got up from his bed. That female warrior he met seven years ago still troubled his thoughts, She was like a drug, and he was addicted to her. He wanted more, but in the seven years since, he hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the voluptuous wench. He sighed as he looked at himself in the mirror, once they secured the lands to the west, he’d search for this…HIS warrior wench. He smiled and donned his armor.