Lost, and Now Found, eowyn15 [the beginning after the end novel read TXT] 📗

Eric, a young man of 21, rode through the Bellham Forest one evening, on a horse with a cremello coat. He had black hair, as black as black can be, and had a clean shaven face. He always took an evening ride into the forest around the evening of every day. He had a bad scar down his back, which of course was hidden from sight by his shirt, but sometimes it pained him. He got it in the battle against Northbock, the kingdom nearest the kingdom of Bellham, which the forest he rode through was named after. He had lost many friends in that battle, and all his family was killed. He hope that the two kingdoms would stay at peace now.
As he rode along through the forest, he thought he heard a noise. “How silly of me.” he thought. “There’s always bound to be noises in a forest filled with creatures…” He heard the sound again, but this time more distinctly. It sounding like, no…it couldn’t be…someone, or something….crying? He gave the motion for his horse to walk on, as he had stopped it when he heard the strange noise, and he stopped about fifteen feet away from the stream that ran through the forest. Not far away from the stream lay a young girl, maybe of the age of 18 or so, with her back turned to him, sobbing. Eric tried not to stare, for she was naked down to the skin. She had bruises and cuts scattered about her body. Eric didn’t know what to do. She wanted to go and help the girl, for she looked badly hurt, but he didn’t think it proper for him to look upon a naked girl, or should I say woman, especially if they were both of age.
Eric made up his mind, and took a blanket that he carried on his saddle, and carefully walked over to the sobbing girl, laying the blanket around her. The girl became startled and looked around at him with the emotion of fear overtaking her. She quickly wrapped the blanket around herself, noticing there was a young man in her company, though he was looking the other way, acting very much like a gentleman. She didn’t know what to do, so she just sat still, waiting to see what the man would do next. “It’s alright.” Eric said, as soon as he laid the blanket upon her. “I’m trying to help you. I won’t hurt you. Please, if you will come with me, I’ll take you to an old friend, I’m sure she can help.” She just continued to stare. She thought of getting up, but was overcome with fatigue and hurt all over. While she tried to strain herself to sit up, she passed out, hitting her head on a stone near the stream. Eric then thought she was in desperate need of medical attention, and gently picked her up and layed her on the saddle in front of himself. "I'll bring her to Mrs. Rimmings. She'll be able to help this poor girl." Eric thought. So he turned his horse to the right, and rode on through the forest, heading to the "Healer of the Forest's" house, for that was what she was called.

Eric held the girl tightly against him on the saddle, trying to keep her from falling while still trying to make her as comfortable as possible. She was still unconcious, and lay silent and still. Eric couldn't help but notice how beatiful she was, even if she was bruised and bloody. She had dark, chestnut colored hair, and her facial features were perfect, atleast in Eric's opinion. Her nose wasn't too big or too small, and her cheeks were rosy pink, either from fatigue or just naturally, Eric didn't know, but he still thought she was beatiful.
Eric finally led his horse up to a small cottage in the forest, containing just one room. He carefully lifted the girl off th saddle of the horse after dismounting himself an tying his horse up on the branch of an oak tree. He knocked on the door of the small cottage, which was surrounded with plants of all kinds--roses, hydrangia, lilies, shrubs, jasmine, and a million and different types of trees. A stout old woman answered to the door, wearing a raggidy dress with a stained white apron. She wore her white hair in a loose bun, which she tied with a vine, most probably from one of the plants outside her cottage.
"Oh, Eric! You're a little early, aren't you? What's this?" the old woman, Mrs. Rimmings, said with a cracking, yet sweet and soothing voice, looking down at the girl. "I found her in the forest, Mrs. Rimmings." said Eric. "She was naked by a stream, just laying there, sobbing. When I came to her, she passed out an hit her head. I covered her with a blanket an brought her to you, thinking you could help." "And that I can." exclaimed Mrs. Rimmings. She signaled for Eric to lay the unconcious girl on a nearby table in her quaint cottage, and she ran over to some jars and glasses filled with sll sorts of herbs and plants, some that Eric couldn't name by sight, for he knew many of the strange plants in the forest. Mrs. Rimmings began to hastily mix up a mixture of some kind of herb with a strange blue liquid, and poured it in a drinking cup. She then asked Eric to carefully open up the girls mouth and lift her head up so she could poor the mixture down her throat. "That will help her." stated Mrs. Rimmings. "She will stay passed out for a couple more hours, but the potion will help the pain from those cuts and bruises she has to subside."
Back in the days of the battle, Eric would come here and bring a few friends to be healed by the Healer of the Forest. She was known far and wide for her ability to mix up potions that would make your wounds heal and your sicknesses disappear, though scars such as Eric's would sometimes remain. Eric came here about once a month to receive a potion from her to help with the pain of his scar. Try all she could, Mrs. Rimmings coul not make his scar heal permanently. It was her suspicion that a blade poisoned by magic was used to make the scar down Eric's back. He would never fully recover from the pain of it.
A couple hourse later, as Mrs. Rimmings had predicted, the girl did awaken. Everything around the girl was blurry and hazed at first, but after a few seconds the world around her was clear. The last thing she remembered was seeing a young man with dark hair saying that he wanted to help her...She wondered where he was now. As she looked around the room she layed in, she noticed jars and bottles filled with strange substances. There was one small window on the opposite side of the room, with worn yellow shades closed up around the window, making the room dark, but not so dark that one could not see inside it. The girl also noticed that she had no pain, whereas she remembered lying near a stream writhing and crying because she hurt so much. She looked around her naked self, and noticed many of her wounds healed, few having scabs, and most of her bruises gone. She heard a noise, like footsteps, she thought, and hastily pulled the blanket that was laying on her around herself. In came Mrs. Rimmings from outside. "Oh, you're awake, dear girl! It's about time." she said in a gentle voice. The girl got up and stepped back on instinct, though she knew, or at least thought, that this woman wouldn't do any harm. Maybe she was the one who had helped her, and healed her wounds? Mrs. Rimmings handed the girl a dress of majestic blue. "Here you are. You may want to put that on, you know. I'm sure it will fit you. It was my daughter's, years ago." The girl just stared at the kind old woman not knowing what to do. Did she expect her to just pull the blanket off in front of her? They were both woman, but she wasn't ready to go that far just yet. It would be different if the woman was her kin or an old friend... "Oh, you can change behind that curtain over there." Mrs. Rimmings pointed toward the right side of the room towards a large piece of white cloth (a bedsheet, perhaps?) hanging from the roof of the little cottage. The girl wnt behind the curtain and did as she was told to, while Mrs. Rimmings walked over to the curtains of the lone window and opened them, revealing bright sunlight streaming throughout the room, reflecting off the jars and bottles of weeds and the like.

Publication Date: 07-07-2012

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