***
Olea stumbled through the woods, desperately trying to find the trail that she lost. “Bo!” she cried into the woods, branches whipping her in the face as she rushed. She finally stumbled over a root and dug into the ground. Trying for a moment to get up, she was suddenly tackled by despair and hopelessness. Olea began to sob then, her feelings washing over her as she curled into a ball. “Bo…” she wept, “…I’ll never make it. I can’t save you. I can’t even keep myself from getting lost, let alone stop Mar.”
Just then, though, Olea heard a muffled sound. Her gaze shot up and she blinked away the tears in her eyes to see something she wouldn’t have noticed before; a little home. It was overgrown with plant life—so much so that it was hardly recognizable as someone’s dwelling. But there was a little light shining through the crack of a door.
“Bo?” Olea whispered, staggering to her feet with a sniffle. She walked over to the house and knocked on the grassy door, the sound echoing in the woods.
Soon the door was opened by a lithe, young woman. “Yes?” she said in a kind voice, gray eyes scanning Olea in a way that betrayed her tone. Her hair was a silvery white, and she wore a simple dress adorned with flowers and herbs. She smelled of them as well.
“I’m looking…for a man named Boelik,” Olea choked.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know anyone by that name,” the woman said. “But come in. You seem like you’ve been through quite the ordeal.”
Olea shook her head. “No, I can’t. I have to help him.”
The woman gave her a quizzical look, cocking her head slightly and raising an eyebrow. “What for?”
“The prince thinks he’s some monster, and so Boelik is being hunted by him right now.”
“And is he a monster?”
Olea paused. “He has a strange arm. But Bo is no monster.”
“And?” the woman pried, sensing something more.
“And I love him.”
The woman smiled. “Now, that is worth my help. My name is Helena. Come in, and we’ll see how I can help you.”
Olea stepped in tentatively, and Helena closed the door. There were workbenches and strange herbs and liquids in vials scattered through the house. The house itself had a hundred different scents that assaulted Olea’s nose.
“So, do you know where he might be?” Helena asked, going over to a shelf filled with the vials, lifting and turning some to better inspect their contents.
“No, I lost the trail some while back.”
“Well, then I have just the thing,” Helena said, bringing over a golden liquid in a small gourd-shaped vial. “Hold this, please.”
“Okay,” Olea said, carefully taking the bottle between her hands.
Helena grabbed a long, twisted stick from where it leaned against a workbench.
“Why are you bringing a stick?”
“Staff,” Helena corrected. “I’m a white witch, dear.” She walked over to Olea’s side and held her around the waist. “Now, drink the vial and imagine your Bo on his given path. We should appear a few strides ahead of him, so be prepared to step aside.”
Olea looked over at her and nodded, uncorking the vial and downing it. She closed her eyes and envisioned Bo. A breeze churned around her and there was a bout of nausea for a moment, and then both were gone. Opening her eyes, she and Helena instantly parted as Bo ran through them, skidding to a stop.
“Olea?” he exclaimed, breathless, whipping around.
“Bo!” she cried, throwing her arms around him. He started at her touch.
“What are you doing here?” he asked as he refrained from returning the embrace.
“Helping you. This is Helena; she helped me find you.”
Helena did a little wave as Bo peered over at her. “Hello. Now, I believe we have a prince to throw off?” Bo and Olea separated and nodded. “All right then. Now, hide behind those bushes, both of you,” she commanded, pointing to some bushes next to a broad tree. “I’ll be up in the branches of this tree. Don’t come out until I tell you to, and then seem as threatening as you can.”
“What are you going to do?” Bo asked.
“I’m going to shake a powder from my staff that I mixed to scare off troublemakers. It makes a person see anything as its most horrifying possibility. For example, I would seem a horrid black witch,” Helena said with a mischievous smirk.
Bo nodded. “I understand. You don’t want us to fear one another.”
“Right. Naturally, the effects wear off after some time, but by then you may have damaged the way you see one another.” In a moment, the trio heard crashing coming from the surrounding forest and heading straight for them. “Hurry!” Helena hissed, sprinting to the tree and rushing upward.
The three got into their spots and hid, keeping even their breaths to a minimum. Soon Mar and his paladins were in earshot, and the horses had come to a halt. “Where is it?” Mar yelled. Bo tensed beside Olea, who sidled closer to him and stifled a whimper. The leaves almost completely blocked the pair’s view. “Where did the creature go?”
“I don’t know, sir. The tracks seem to end here.”
“Then it must be—” Mar was interrupted by a bout of coughing, and his men soon joined him. Even the horses began to sneeze.
“Now!” Helena’s voice came. Bo and Olea jumped up and jerked around, trying to look as frightening as possible. Bo even made animalistic noises that alone would have scared Olea. The men and horses screamed, immediately bolting in the other direction.
Once sure that the hunters were gone, the trio regrouped on the ground, the stars winking into existence in the dusk. Crickets surrounded the group, their chirping filling the air.
“We did it,” Olea sighed.
“Barely,” Bo said. Helena smacked him on the shoulder with her staff. “Ow! What was that for?” he growled, shooting her a glare.
“What do you say to the lady?” Helena pressed, unperturbed by Bo’s cranky face.
Bo looked at Olea, the irritation already gone from his gaze. “Thank you for the assistance.”
“You’re welcome,” she replied, coming over and leaning against his left side, putting his clawed arm over her shoulder.
“I’m glad you aren’t afraid of me,” he mumbled. He pressed his face to the top of her head and closed his eyes as he breathed her scent.
“Why would I be afraid of the man I love?” she said softly, burying her face in his fur in turn.
Helena gazed upon them quietly, a small smile on her face. She came over to Bo and whispered a proposal in his other ear. He looked at her and nodded, a sparkle in his hazel eyes. He turned his eyes back to the exhausted Olea beside him and gave a soft smile.
Bo whispered back to the witch, “We will do it by my creek,” and gave her directions. “Olea?” Bo asked then, turning to his friend.
“Yes, Bo?” she said, her voice muffled through his fur. She turned her face so that one of her warm brown eyes was visible.
“Would you like to stay with me, at least for the night?”
Olea nodded. Then, “Bo?”
“Yes?”
“Your things are about where you entered the forest in the chase.”
“All right.”
Olea stifled a yawn as she glanced over to Helena. “Thank you.”
Helena nodded once, a smile on her face.
“Let’s get you home,” Bo said, sweeping Olea off of her feet, startling her to full wakefulness.
“I can walk,” she protested. “And what about Helena?”
“Already home,” Helena said, disappearing before them in an instant, only an echo of her voice remaining to vouch for her existence.
“All right,” Olea relented.
As Bo carried her to his home, he hummed a lullaby to her to put her to sleep. He was careful not to jostle her too much as he walked. Her hair cascaded over his arm as he cradled her head, and he found that for the first time in a long time, he felt like he belonged where he was.
&nb
sp; When Bo finally put her in his bed, she was deeply asleep. He smiled and went to fetch his things from where Olea said they were, returning quickly and putting the wolf fur over her as a blanket. He pulled a separate deer hide from the shed and put it on the floor to sleep on that beside her.
In the morning, Bo was up at dawn and found the wolf fur draped over him and Olea sitting up in bed. “Up so early? You seemed exhausted,” he yawned.
“I was. But light shone onto my face from a crack.”
“Oh, that’s right. I’m sorry; I usually use that to rouse me so I can make the most of the day.” Bo sat up and stretched from the hide. Looking out toward the leaks of sun from the walls, he asked, “Would you like to come with me on a walk?”
“Yes,” Olea replied. The two got up, and Bo put on his cloak with the fox clasp over his left arm as usual. Olea stared at him, one eyebrow raised. He looked himself up and down before giving her a quizzical scowl in return. She rolled her eyes and adjusted the navy cloak so that it was even on both sides.
Outside, the two walked to the creek, where Olea took a seat and Bo sat next to her. She was on his left. “Would you marry me?” he asked, his heart full of unfounded fear.
“Of course,” Olea replied, leaning against him without the slightest hesitation.
He grinned, his heart now lighter than air, and shouted to the woods as he wrapped his arms around her. “She said she would!”
“Bo!” she laughed. Suddenly, Helena appeared before them, emerging from behind a large oak. “Helena!”
“Hello, dear. So, you said yes, did you?”
Olea grinned at Bo, who beamed back. “I did.”
“Well, would you like to take your vows?”
“Oh, yes, please!” Olea said.
The pair stood and took their vows with Helena as their priestess, the birds singing in the branches as the light of the sun cascaded through the trees. They kissed to tie their bonds, and as Olea leaned back, she grinned with sparkling eyes as she looked into Bo’s. “And they lived…”
Bo grinned. “…happily ever after.”