That's when I felt Thawn's grip around me loosen and when I heard a crack and then a heavy object thud onto the floor.

I gasped at the sight of Thawn's lifeless body amongst the leaves. His eyes, open and still and his limbs, sprawled awkwardly.

"You don't know these woods, do you?" a tall, dark-haired, young man asked as he stepped towards Gale. I watched anxiously only to see him free him from the ropes with one slash of a pocket knife.

"We aren't from around here," Gale replied immediately getting to his feet and pulling me into a tight embrace. "Thank the Gods you are safe," he whispered in my ear before planting a kiss on my forehead. "And thank you," he added looking at the man. "Who are you though?"

"Somebody that knows about this place much better than you. I suggest you go back before it's too late," he stated bluntly.

His face was hard and serious with a stiff glare but there was an underlying kindness in his demeanour. 

"We can't," I answered quietly. "We fled our pack. Going back there would only be suicide."

"Which pack?" he questioned.

"Elder."

There was a slight pause and I swear I saw a flicker in his eye before he noted: "you've come a long way then I see."

"Do you know of a waterfall?" Gale asked. "Only we've been looking for weeks with no success."

"The one you are looking for is two days travel from here," he explained. "...If you know the way, but these woods are easy to lose yourselves in and there is no path."

"We have no other option. It is that or wait to be hunted down like rabbits by more of our former pack," Gale replied looking down at Thawn's body. 

The man paused for a moment as if he was fighting a moral battle in his head. He eyed us both up and down and then from Gale to me and then back to Gale.

"Then I shall have to show you," he sighed. "I know these parts better than anyone."

"Are you sure? We are complete strangers to you," I replied.

"You were complete strangers to me when I saved you the first time, were you not, my lady?" he pointed out.

"Thank you.....?," I said

"Rhydian. And you are?"

"Robyn and this is Gale," I introduced. He silently nodded before looking up into the sky which was a radiant blue canvas with the midday sun rays streaking through like splatters of golden yellow. In the trees, birds sang and the leaves brushed past one another in the soft breeze. It was a beautiful day but a November's day all the same. The air bit and slashed at our skin and as soon as the warm kisses of sunshine are gone, the forest will plummet into an abyss of insufferable cold.

"We have a long journey to the and nightfall is only a half a dozen hours away. We must get going."

I nodded and we set off through the late Autumn forest.