I could hear the faint squawking of crows, or maybe flying monkeys. I gave up on trying to figure out what those sounds were.

First things first: figure out how to use the bow and arrow. I couldn't do much if I didn't figure out that, so that was where I'll start.

I placed the arrow against the bow, noticing there was a piece of charcoal at the tip. I'd need to burn it if I wanted to use those things to their full capacity.

Not that I even knew how to use those wretched things.

Ashe Knightley, when I get out of this, I will be giving you a very exclusive private conversation with me. If I get out.

I pulled the arrow back while holding the string, but the arrow fell to the ground. Again, I picked it back up, and again, it fell to the ground.

"Maybe if you tried a different approach—," the voice began.

"Shut up."

Did I just... I could've sworn I just talked back.

"Ooh, hello there, Arya. Pleasure speaking to you. I must admit though, I didn't expect your first words spoken through here to be so violent," the voice responded, the arrogance and cockiness dripping from every words it said to me.

I tried to thinking of something else to say back, but I wasn't able to.

It also didn't help that the arrow kept falling out of my hand. I wasn't clumsy, so why wasn't this thing staying in its place?

Whatever. Clearly I wasn't going to be able to learn how to hold the thing properly, much less within the spam of the night. The hunt would end when the sun rose, and right now, it was midnight. The moon shone through the canopy, providing little light for me to use, and the stars weren't out. Perfectly impossible. Honestly, my luck was just amazing.

Once more, I held the arrow against the bow, but when it fell out of my hands again, I grabbed the arrow and stabbed the nearest tree. Frustrated, I twisted the arrow deeper into the tree, causing it to snap.

"That's quite unfortunate," the voice said.

I ignored it, trying to understand what I had just done. I stabbed a tree. That was what I did. I was starting to think I really was an idiotic moron. How did one manage to do something so stupid?

But then again... I stabbed a tree. With an arrow. Maybe...

Saints, I loved being brilliant.

I put the bow into the barrel on my back and pulled out two arrows, one for each hand.

"Wait, what?" the voice whispered. "What kind of nonsense is this?"

Again, I ignored it. The voice might be stupid, but I, Valarya, was no idiot. Damn, if I kept the streak, I might impress myself too much. Ah, well. Someone had to be the impressive one around here—

A branch snapped behind me. I stopped in my tracks and dove behind a tree, silently praying.

Another branch snapped.

"Well, fight the thing!" the voice said, practically yelling.

I poked my head around the tree, but saw nothing. Was I going insane? No, I wasn't. The voice also heard the sound, so it wasn't just me. I didn't know whether to be grateful or terrified.

Another branch snapped, but this time, it was from above me.

I think I'll be terrified.

I swallowed and, with achingly slow steps, slid out from underneath the tree. The crows wouldn't stop squawking, and I was about to curse at myself before I heard a distant low yell.

"They sound like they're having fun. Almost as much as you are, right?" the voice said.

I wanted to slap the thing out of my head, but I knew I had other things to worry about. First: How was I going to survive until dawn? Secondly, how much food was I supposed to bring back? And thirdly, what the hell was I going to do?

Ah, I do love a good challenge. Preferably not with my life, but—

A bang went off behind me, and multiple screams echoed through the night. At least I knew I wasn't in a circus... not that it would change much about the situation.

I looked forward, spotting a cave.

"Look at that. I say you ignore it and walk away," the voice said cheerily.

I tightened my grip on the arrows.

The cave was probably my safest option at the moment. If there were things in there, I could kill it by cornering it, and if there weren't, I could hide there until dawn. Either way, there was a chance I could die.

Fun. Sometimes I forget how enjoyable my life was, but moments like those really captured the complete and utter joy in my heart.

I ran into the cave and threw myself into the stone walls. Praying, I slid against the wall and continued deeper into the cave, until it got too dark to see further.

Setting myself down, I calmed my racing heart. Saints, I almost died! Those screams... were those the hunters with me? Of course they were. What else could—

"Get up, Arya!" the voice in my head yelled.

I looked toward the way I entered, trying to understand why.

"Run, Arya! Get up and run!"

I quickly turned my head back toward the darkness, and red eyes stared back at me.

My entire body tingled. My throat clogged, and I felt like the world just swallowed me whole, taking its time.

Screaming, I scrambled up, dropping the arrows from my hands as I ran. Behind me the creature was screeching, and I could hear the pounces.

"Help me! What the hell is that thing?" I screamed at the voice, trying to keep myself sane while running and screaming.

As I turned at a curve, I could fell something glide past my neck, and a deafening hiss sounded throughout the cave.

"A dark faerie. Maybe multiple. Quickly. Run out faster, you insufferable woman!" The voice was screaming at me, cursing, tell me to go faster, to not stop.

"How do I kill them?"

There was a long pause.

Too long.

I finally got out of the cave, sprinting and screaming as I ran throughout the forest, not knowing where I was going, or if I had any idea what I was doing. For a second, I looked back, and I saw a boney creature, gray, thin black hair, pointed ears, pointed teeth, and beady red eyes leaping from tree to tree, faster than I was running.

"You can't kill them," the voice finally responded.

I was dead. So completely, utterly, totally dead. Saints, please, save me. Do something!

"So what do I do? Die?"

"You better run faster because—"

The tree in front of me cracked, then tipped.

"They have magic," the voice finished.

I ran around the tree falling, and I finally stopped screaming, trying to regain control of my body and mind.

"I thought fae didn't have magic!" I screamed in my head.

"Northern faeries from Entorre don't, like Prince Kace, but southern Entorre is filled with magic. Specifically, it has traces of Cadice's magic."

"The curse of Cadice," I whispered to the voice in my head.

"Precisely. Now, Princess, focus. You'll need to contain the creatures with magic. I know you don't have magic, so use other means," the voice told me.

So, the voice didn't know me as well as I thought. It must've recently gotten into my head. Now, usually, I would command it to get out, but I had other issues. The main one was that I was about to become faerie food if I didn't find a magic source other than myself, because for some damned reason, I had no idea what my powers were, or how to use them.

Or if I even had any, which at this point, was highly unlikely.

There was only one magic source I could think of.

"Where's the River of Cadice?" I asked the voice.

Behind me, I heard multiple leaps. Multiple faeries. How many? I heard eight pounces.

Eight cannibal faeries running after me. Today couldn't get any more memorable.

"You're going the opposite direction of where you need to go. How the hell did you get so deep in the forest?" the voice said, its questioning not helping me at all.

Great. I had to find a way to turn back without running into those things. I'd need to make a wide turn so I didn't go right back into them.

I curved back widely, a faerie pouncing right in front of me. It looked innocent for a second, then it bared its teeth and hissed, then screamed when it opened its mouth, showing the inside. Metal was on the inside of that thing.

I needed to move, but my body's muscles froze, watching the damned thing in front of me.

Metal retracted down from the top of its mouth, and through the metal, tiny teeth poked out.

"Insufferable woman! Run before you die!"

When I ran past it, I stabbed an arrow through the faeries head, but it disintegrated into the dirt.

"Run!"

I sprinted as fast as I could, trying to find a water source. Specifically, the River of Cadice.

Through the thickets, I saw a gleam. Something... It was it. The River of Cadice. My legs burned, aching to give up, yet somehow, I managed to sprint one last time.

I stopped at the bank of the the river, and as I turned around, five faeries leapt in front of me, screeching and biting toward me.

"Don't tell me you plan to push them into to river," the voice said.

"I don't exactly have a choice!"

"Fighting them will do nothing, Arya! You need to get them in the river—"

A faerie pounced at me, clawing at my foot. I yelled, trying to kick it off, trying to move away, but I knew I'd fall into the river.

"Don't fall in! Only people from the House of Cadice can be in it without dying."

I was not going to fall in. What if I wasn't from the House of Cadice? I could die! I heard stories about how some of them went insane, and how others were tormented in the river, then died.

I realized that I didn't need to fall in, nor did I need to push those thing in. I just needed them to fall in.

The faerie was trying to rip my shoe off, it's boney finger tracing under my pant leg.

"Hey!" I yelled out.

The thing snapped its head at me.

"Bug off!" I took my other foot and smashed it onto its head, driving it into the ground. Muffled screeches echoed, and the other four faeries looked at me, more angrier than they were before.

I shuffled onto my feet and ran along the river, waiting to see a tree. Behind me, I felt multiple grasps at the back of my knee. Some made me stumble, others made me curse.

A tree. I saw a tree!

I ducked behind the tree, holding tightly to the one arrow I had like my life depended.

Ironically, it did.

"Please," I wished into the night air, "kill Ashe for me if I don't get out of this alive."

The tree against my back fell. Yes! I could dance, or maybe sing! Saints, thank you! Thank you so much!

The tree fell over the river, creating a somewhat safe bridge over the river. I jumped onto the tree, hearing the multiple pounces from the faeries, but they quickly went away, one by one, as they missed me and fell into the river.

Only a few more steps.

There was one more faerie that hadn't pounced at me yet.

"Hey, faerie! Come at me!" I yelled out.

The thing leaned back, stretching itself about to pounce.

I quickly threw my arrow at it, trying to make it pounce faster. I didn't have the patience to wait anymore.

The thing snarled and leapt directly at me.

"Duck!" the voice commanded.

I threw myself down against the tree, holding on. Above me, the hisses of the faerie grew louder, and right as it was above me, I launched myself up, making it hit against me and fall into the River of Cadice.

The tree started turning out of the impact, and I lost my balance, about to fall, so I went back down, holding onto the trunk of the tree with my legs and arms.

"Damn, what a night," the voice said.

I heard distant shouts. I crawled to the other side of the river using the tree, hoping I could find some other hunters.

"Indeed," I told the voice back. "Remind me to have a little talk with Ashe Knightley."