Amid the havoc that was Saki's week, what arrived in the form of a common courier was none other than the icing on the metaphorical cake come the strike of dawn the very next morning.

A letter addressed to her was delivered without fee, and before Saki could so much as identify the crest that adorned the man's chest, he had disappeared through the trees as if his very life depended on haste. As she had expected in the throws of cynicism, Minene's ears were as sharp as a barber's razor, and Saki's contract of employment as a general cleaning maid had been dashed for just three reasons;

She failed to dress exactly as the Head of Housekeeping instructed, and showed little pride in her place as a Maid to the Royal family.

She was found guilty of "verbally assaulting" the Second Prince and failed to follow requests as expected of a humble maid.

And finally, she failed to complete her work to the Head of Housekeeping's standards, which in of itself was the largest load of rot Saki had ever heard.

Saki didn't doubt for an instance that all of this was Minene's own doing, and she certainly didn't believe that this was instigated by the Second Prince of Clarines, since she had heard him state for certain that he wanted Shirayuki to talk her into that job after all. But she had that job she needed to do for Garak first, and she wasn't in any mood to go wandering back to the castle to find out what was going on, so she packed her gear and proceeded to head to the east in order to commence the job she had been given before all this confusion with the Second Prince and his cursed decisions came to her awareness.

The journey itself was rather peaceful, and Saki was at the edge of the infected area by midday of her second day travel. However, arriving at her said destination was not as enjoyable as the trip. She arrived at the intersection of two villages, which used to be just under a mile from the infected forest, only to find that the surrounding life was engulfed with the strange residue.

And what was worse was the fact that there was not a soul within sight in the outskirts, or even within the boundaries of either village at all.

The once-been verdant forest canopy was a sickly grey against a clouding sky, foliage hanging listless as its grasses beneath withered away to wisps of decaying remnants. The air was silent, stale and sickly, tainted with the same unpleasant edge of what felt like death. No life seemed to remain within the area, even as Saki carefully traversed the outskirts of the southern most village. What was a modest farming village was now reduced to a shell of an existence, with all its farmlands contaminated, if not dead, and its livestock entirely missing.

Saki grit her teeth as she walked further in, knocking door to door in hopes to find some residents still around.

Needless to say, it was a fruitless effort. Not a soul remained in the village, even as Saki carefully let herself inside each house to check. All consumables were absent, along with personal affects. It was as if the whole village had packed their belongings and left as soon as the contamination had begun to appear.

Sadly, the second village proved no better. An abandoned village with naught a soul or shred of belongings remained. In every sense it was as if the villagers had vanished without a trace. Had Saki been remotely superstitious, she would have believed there was dark magic at work. However, Saki believed whole-heartedly in what she saw with her own two eyes over seemingly nonsense stories.

'This isn't good...' Saki muttered as she secured her scarf over her face to try and block out the odour of death saturating the air.

She did not like how far this sickness had travelled in just over one week.

She travelled and walked, keeping her eyes on her surroundings and her ears trained for any hint of sound on the air. For the remaining shreds of daylight, Saki traced the outlines of the contaminated area, pinpointing exactly where it stood, and marking the line with a cross gouged into trees with a dagger.

As soon as Nightfall came, Saki backtracked half a league from the contaminated area and set herself up in the branches of one of the trees.

Even there, it felt like the stench of death had followed her on the breeze, for not even the sound of evening insects broke the chilling silence.

Upon the arrival of dawn, Saki was met with a chilling result from her area marking the afternoon before. The contaminated area, while expected to have broadened at least by a small margin, had spread beyond by at least fifty meters overnight in many areas, while the bulk of it had spread around forty. While not enough to see growing within a handful of minutes, it was still enough to show an alarming trend.

How long would it take for this to reach the outskirts of Wistal city? Saki didn't want to consider the ramifications of such a question. And the deeper through the forest she walked, the more she began to find that the stench of death really wasn't a figment of her imagination.

Saki's breath escaped her in low huffs as she carefully trekked through the contamination, pausing to inspect nearby trees every now and then. Intact animal carcasses littered the area in varying states of decay, and the stench of death only seemed to grow heavier with every passing minute. The grasses had died down almost completely as the trees slumped as if their trunks had turned to leather. The ground thudded with dry, lifeless sounds beneath her boots, and dead leaves dropped from the dying trees all around her.

Saki's attention was ripped straight from the deathly forest to a large and unhealthy mass of brown fur lying slumped at the edge of a drying lake off in the distance. What was scarcely recognizable as a young brown bear was motionless, recognizably starved to skin and bones, as was the state of the forest itself. In fact, it was not the only one which she could see throughout the patch of forest she was currently traversing.

It proved her earlier observations to be far more true than even she liked to admit.

However, the sight of a man-made structure in the distance was next to gain Saki's attention, and she changed her route to approach it.

A log cabin stood atop a hill with its lumber splitting and discolouring, and its windows boarded up with planks of pine and nails from the outside. The strange contamination appeared to adhere to the walls like mould, much like it did to the base of the trees in the cabin's surroundings. It was one of the half dozen she had found in her journey that morning, and while she expected yet again to find no sign of life within its walls, nor signs that would give any indication of the whereabouts of the former residents, she still moved up towards the building.

Saki stepped up the decaying porch steps of the cabin, taking note of the sallow, almost sagging edge to the old wood cabin, with the smell of rot and something far worse permeating even just the outside of the humble, rundown abode.

Expecting yet again to find nothing inside, Saki lifted a hand to open the door.

However she found the tarnished and rusty brass handle to rattle against her attempt and refuse her entry.

The rustling of decaying grasses echoed through the sickly forest, bringing Saki to glance back with a curse bubbling beneath her breath. She could feel a chill on the air, foreboding enough to bring the woman to try to force the break the door lock apart with one swift turn of the handle.

'I-Is somebody there?' A faint whisper of a voice sounded from within the cabin, surprising Saki right out of her wits.

'A hunter from the Royal city.' Saki answered quickly. 'I was sent to investigate the sickness of the forest. Are you alone, here?'

There was no response in words, however Saki felt the frantic rattling of the door handle beneath her fingers and promptly withdrew her hand.

Seconds passed as the door rattled and clicked, before revealing the owner of the voice from within.

A small girl scarcely no older than seven stood with the door cracked open a mere few inches, revealing very little of the interior of the darkened cabin. Wide and desperate brown eyes stared up at Saki's cloaked and masked form, with her mouth parted as she gaped up at the stranger on her doorstep. Unhealthily slender and sallow in complexion, the girl's unkempt and wiry brown hair and tattered clothes painted a ghastly enough image, if the wave of bile-inducing stench hadn't done enough of it the moment she had opened the door just that little bit.

'A-are you here to save us?' The nameless girl whimpered.

'I'm not, no.' Saki spoke as she slowly crouched down on her side of the door, none the least surprised as she saw the girl seem to flinch and make just the smallest move to close the door on her. 'But that doesn't mean I won't help, if I can.'

The little girl on the other side of the door seemed to stare silently at Saki.

'Who is us? Are your parents here? Or any brothers or sisters?' Saki asked.

Slowly, the girl shook her head.

'Grandpa won't wake up...' She whimpered. 'Papa said to stay inside and went to find help... but he hasn't come home...'

Saki's gaze shifted briefly to the inky darkness that veiled the rest of the cabin from view.

'When did your Papa leave?'

The girl seemed to frown slightly as she looked down at her hands, counting off fingers as she thought quickly. '...Papa's gone for nine sleeps now.'

Nine days, then?

It doesn't take nine days walk to get to Wistal for help, let alone any of the other villages along the way. Saki knew that for a fact, which didn't paint a very hopeful prospect in the back of her mind.

However, the sound of feral snarls echoing just at the line of trees drew Saki's immediate attention from the girl's situation, and a terrified gasp from the girl before her. Ever so slowly, Saki lifted herself to her full height and turned her head to peer cautiously over her shoulder.

A pack of six forms at least had prowled towards the cabin, those of half-starved grey wolves with their teeth bared as they stalked towards her one step at a time. Saki knew from experience that if she could see six in one spot, then there were undoubtedly another two at least slinking around to flank their prey from the sides.

She couldn't handle this many on her own, even with her poisons at hand.

'Will you let me inside?' Saki questioned lowly as she kept her gaze firmly upon the wolves within her immediate sight.

There was no response from the nameless girl, however Saki heard her footsteps edge out of the way.

And that was all the invitation Saki needed; As soon as she had shifted her weight onto one foot, the pack of starved wolves sprung to motion. The frantic padding of paws and the blood-curdling snarls propelled Saki to hurl herself straight through the door and slam it shut with all the strength she could muster.

A pained shriek escaped a charging wolf as it collided head-first into the door a mere instance following the door's close, and the desperate gouging of claws against the rotting wood tore through the interior of the cabin as Saki placed her weight against the door to keep it still.

Nimble fingers belonging to the tiny girl in the cabin were prompt to turn the key in the lock and seal the door once again, leaving the snarling and scratching of claws all the wolves could do. Saki stepped aside as she watched the girl quickly place a sturdy piece of lumber up against the door handle as well to brace it even further against the ravenous hoard outside.

With the door suitably blockaded against the wolves on the other side, Saki could venture a glance to her surroundings.

And as she glanced around briefly, Saki found herself undeniably shocked by the sight she found inside.

The pungent odour of rotting flesh hung heavily on the air, so thick that Saki herself had almost gagged through the thick layering of her scarf, though expected upon hearing the slightest piece of the story the little girl had provided her. The immediate interior of the sealed up cabin was almost entirely closed up with old bed sheets and cloths sewn together and nailed across doorways and access ways combined, leaving the only space of accessibly cabin being the two meter space Saki was currently standing in. Within the immediate space of the door were piles of old blankets and emptied containers of what had been food, and a scarce selections of tools small enough for the little girl to handle herself.

Living in squalor, with no way to seek help from the outside world. It was a life Saki wouldn't wish upon any thing, or any one, no matter how vile or cruel a being they were.

The faint shuffling of feet drew Saki's attention from the grim conditions of the cabin, and to the girl who was carrying a large elk-skin canteen to the door. With the way the young one carefully uncorked the canteen and poured its contents through the gap beneath the door, Saki gathered that this was not the first appearance of those wolves.

And as what turned out to be a concoction of bear urine and sulphur earned nothing more than a growl and the faint dispersing of paws from the wolves on the other side, Saki felt her gaze narrow even further.

It was going to be a painfully long stay in this place.

--=[Submitted 28th July 2018, 2386 words total]=--