Amaya's mind was a white canvas, deprived of its colors. Her body was a status like those in her garden. The screams coming from the other side of the river were a blurred line in the buzzing of her ears.

A dense fog flared from the animal- the beast's nose. His heat enveloped Amaya's body and fear. It studied her with the glow of his red orbs, and water gathered at the rim of her eyes.

Was it the end?

At that moment, she thought of her mother, the beauty of her soul that once was like the sun pouring joy over the kingdom, and her father before the grief, the blood, and the vengeance weighting on his features, twisting them to anger, to war and then to agony and regrets. Then she saw the boy, his face blurred, but the memories still buzzing in her heart like a bee on a flower. Then she saw him. Older, broader, taller. His face was as clear as a river in spring, and the nobles and purity of his heart bled through every of his actions.

He smiled, and a drop traveled down her cheek.

"Amaya!" Lach screamed, and as he was about to jump back in the stony path, a hand grabbed him so forcefully he stumbled backward, almost tripping. He threw a glare. "Let go of me."

Bett held his gaze as tightly as his forearm. "Don't." Their eyes flung to the beast. "If you do anything, it will attack her. The only way she can survive is if she stays still."

Lach jerked his head away from their nonsense, chest clutching as if a giant hand contracting it. The beast's shadow slowly hovered over Amaya, his mouth salivating and wide open. Lach held his breath. She wasn't moving, and still, he was approaching. "It will attack her if we don't do anything." He snatched his arm away.

"Any sudden movement could threaten her life." The words were loud but hit the wall of Lach's urgency. He clutched the hilt of his sword as he went down to the river path. Bett followed him like his shadow. "Those things were the ones lurking over you that night. They didn't attack you because you were both tightened up." Lach's feet stopped at the edge of the frozen river. "You go there, and you condemn her and Ornuv." Lach's grip on his sword clenched. "Let's wait." Bett's eyes narrowed. "If it doesn't feel threatened, then it will go away." Lach kept his hand on his sword but grounded his feet, swallowing back his fear. Still, it stuck in his throat.

He just hoped that Bett wasn't playing another trick.

The animal stomped his foot like a wild, impatient and starved horse, but Amaya stayed still. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. Only tears flowed down her cheeks. The beast grounded her clawed paws, and his ruby eyes swallowed her whole before he spurred a guttural growl so loud it tremored the ground and shook the world under Amaya. Her knees and hands scraped the wet stones with a moan.

The river hissed, its cold shield cracking.

The colorless lips stretched, and Amaya almost believed it smiled. It scooted closer, its big paws barely covering the rocks so much that its claws sank into the cracked river.

Amaya's chest heaved, and a thundering under her skin drove her back on her feet. She jumped to the following stones.

He wouldn't get her. She wouldn't let him get her, too.

The world pounded and trembled as a large paw engulfed another rock. The water panicked and hissed its dissatisfaction to be woken up after such a long slumber. Amaya's feet landed on another rock, but its icy cover was thicker and trickier. She slipped down the river, her feet breaking the ice before the sensation of millions needles pierced her skin. She hissed painfully before she crawled back to the top of the rock.

The world tremored again, and she glanced over her shoulder.

The beast was a stone away, but its mouth hovered over her, saliva drops falling like melted sticky honey. The drum of heart was wild gallop. She needed to reach the other rock, but as she moved her drenched foot, thunder hit. She let out a painful moan. She could barely move, and jumping was out of the question.

She was screwed.

On the other side, Lach's back tense. "She is not moving anymore." Bett's dark eyebrows pressed together. "I think she is hurt." Lach jumped on the rock, flying through Bett's grip.

"Don't!"

"Amaya!" Lach screamed as he jumped to the next rock. The river had grown jittery, and ice-blue waves attacked the stony island. One of them slapped Lach, and his jaw clenched at the spikes piercing his body. Still, he continued. "Amaya! I am here!"

Amaya's eyes flickered up through her damp curls. All she could hear was the anxiety of her breath and the carnal groan of the beast carrying through the forest like a blowing horn.

"Amaya!"

She jerked her face over her shoulder, and her face bloomed into relief. "Lach..."

"Come to me!" He urged breathlessly as he landed into another rock, balancing his arms before he steady. He was two rocks away from her.

Only two more.

"I can't. I think I twisted my ankle."

"It's all right. I am coming-" Lach's eyes passed behind her, and his face paled. Amaya didn't understand until she felt a thick heat on her back. She stilled. A growl propagated a sour and rotten smell. She slowly turned around. The glowing red of his orbs was so closed it almost seemed she swam into hell.

A trembling hand reached for her pendant.

The beast pulled away before it launched forward.

Lach's yell tore through the air.

**

The little boy's eyes widened as he took in the two men before him. They were hoovering towers in silver armor with eyes that could make back away the most ferocious bears. But not him. "You have to leave." The little boy spat, and the towers tremored a laugh.

"Elson. Shh." Yehime pressed his head against her chest. "Don't talk to them."

But the little boy's face hardened. "They can't be in our house. This is our home."

A guttural laugh snickered through the men as Yehime shushed him.

"All you have to do if you want us to leave is tell us where your older son is," One of them said.

"We don't know where he is," Yehime said, keeping her voice composed. Her hand grabbed against Elson's shoulder.

"What about you little man?"

Elson stayed quiet, the grip on him tightening.

"Well. We will leave when your older brother is back." The man who spoke pulled a chair from the tiny table and dropped on it, his armor ringing. "Until then. We all stay here. Order of the Court."

"Do you understand that little man?" The other added behind, patting his sword hilt.

"We understand," Yehime stated, but Elson kept his eyes on the sword.

"Don't worry, Elson, everything will be all right." She whispered. "Lach will be back soon."

**

She couldn't feel anymore. All her senses were numbed. The cold water slipped away from her body like skin soaked by the summer heat and fear evaporated like dancing smoke to the sky. Amaya. The name was whispered softly in the background of her mind as she rose, her feet leaving the cold stone.

No urgency. No panic, just peace growing warm in her chest before it sprung all over, consuming her like a burning forest. But she was still whole, the burn acting like a weapon and a shield.

She floated like a cloud and lighted up like a hundred burning torches.

Lach's eyes followed her to the sky with wide eyes, and Bett's jaw slackened. "Amaya..."

Amaya's head slowly raised to the beast. Any fear snatched away from her features. The beast growled harder, desperately attempting to insert dominance. Still, Amaya lifted her hand up, spurring a thunder of light that pierced through the beast and exploded white all around them.

Lach shielded his face with an arm, the other keeping him from going down the river.

Bett hid behind a tree as thunder groaned through the forest, so blinding and stormy even the trees turned their ruffling branches away.

The beast howled, the red of its eyes turning a calcinated brown, as he stepped into the river, now unbound from ice and swinging his waves like the sea in the middle of a revengeful storm.

Lach gripped his whole body to the rock, but the waves were distressed, and his hands were slippery. If he let go, he would be taken away by the river. He cracked an eye open under his wet strands. Over the hazy white blindness, Amaya glowed like a golden sun.

The beast's last howl flooded with desperation, and its paws pounded back into the forest, black smoke following like a wedding dress train.

At last, the blindness dissipated, and the glow faded, and Amaya's body dropped into the river.

A panic sound left Lach's throat before he dove into the now-warm water. He caught her dangling arm before her whole body could sink. He gripped under her chest and pulled her with the last of his strength to the bank, her dress floating around her like a white lotus.

He dragged their bodies on melted-snow ground and cradled her inside his arms. Salty drops fell from his hair to her face. He shook her body, but her eyes stayed closed, her skin turning dull. Horror flooded in Lach's veins. "Please, wake up." He kept on shaking her. Bett crouched next them. "Do something," Lach choked out. Not this. Not again. "Bett!" His voice was an edge to his growing Panic. He shook her again.

Bett stayed focused as they slipped the back of their hand under her nose. "She is not breathing." Lach's face paled. "Move." They urged, taking Amaya from Lach's numb arms and lying her down on the ground. Her face lolled to the side. Bett's sturdy palms pressed the woman's chest under Lach's blinking eyes. She thrusted once, twice, thrice, but Amaya's body still lay inert.

Lach clenched his wet strands, his own breathing stuck in his throat. Bett's palms were like a hammer pounding on Amaya's chest. He couldn't look.

A swift intake of air pulled him back.

Amaya's chest heaved, and her body twitched before liquid spurred out of her mouth. Lach released his hair. "Amaya..."Bett turned her to the side and patted her back as she coughed more water. "Amaya." Relief carved Lach's features as he crawled to her. Her wide, panicked eyes found the comfort of his dark gaze.

"Lach."

**

Lach's eyes paused on the young woman lying beside him, questions tormenting his mind. She was wrapped under a woolen shawl, a peaceful expression smoothening the lines of her face. As much as he wanted an explanation, their previous ordeal had tremendously exhausted the young heiress, leaving her deep asleep.

They had set up a camp a few feet away from the river despite Bett's argument to keep going. The riverbank wasn't safe. It was a vulnerable spot as most travelers come to rivers for water supply and to refresh themselves. But Lach wouldn't let Bett wake Amaya up. Besides, his own mind was in need of rest, too.

Still, he couldn't help the earlier scenes replaying repeatedly as he tried to close his eyes: the swift panic gripping his soul as he watched the beast on the verge of eating Amaya. The moment of pause before the flood of light blinded them all. Amaya's body floating in the sky like the sun. The river choking her. The slump of his shoulders when she fluttered her doe eyes open. It all seemed so surreal.

"This shit was crazy," Bett dropped to a seat beside him. Startled, Lach sent them an annoyed gaze before it shifted to the three fishes mingling in a makeshift net.

"You went fishing?" Lach's brow rose high on his forehead as he observed the sea animals squirming on the green ground.

Bett pulled a knife from their belt and pierced through the flesh of a suffocating fish. "Surprised that a hunter hunt, aren't you?"

"It's just- Where do they come from?" Just a few hours before, the river was a thick glass imprisoning its inhabitants in a frozen death. Fishes wouldn't be alive in there.

Red flood on the fish's silver scale. "It must have been brought by the waves. At least we have food for tonight." They smirked.

Lach encircled his knees. So this was all real.

Catching the unusual silence, Bett paused the point of her sword mid-cut. "I know what you think. Witchcraft is creepy."

Lach's sharp eyes flickered at them. "She is not a witch."

The snort was personal. "Sure. She isn't. Because any normal person can fly in the air and spat light from their body." They eyed Amaya before returning to the knife and fishes, opening a second one.

Lach's jaw clenched. He couldn't explain what happened at that moment but he knew that Amaya wasn't a witch. "Let Amaya tell her side of the story first before condemning anyone." Bett snorted a chuckle, tearing the fish open. Blood gushed. Lach went on, "Isn't that why you hate the royal family? Because of what happened against your people? Because of false narratives and assumptions?"

The knife rose, his bloody tip leaving dark drops on the ground. "These are not assumptions. These are truths that I have seen with my own eyes." The sharp point faced Lach. "Even the blind would be willing to admit it. But you..."

"Me what?" Lach spat, and he untied his long limbs.

"You are willing to not see because of your feelings." Bett's eyes narrowed. "I will tell you something: falling for a witch is a death sentence."

Blood also gushed inside Lach's face. "I don't know-"Bett was already rolling their eyes. "I don't know what you are talking about." He tried to keep his voice controlled, but the buzzing of his heart was rushing and stumbling every word. He spurred on his feet. "I am going to get some wood." The heat of fire might help him sleep.

"Yeah. Do that." Bett kept their focus as they spilled the reddish and shimmering insides of the third fish on the ground.

Lach paused, the pathetic attempt of a reply resting at the tip of his tongue before he glanced at the peaceful and beautiful face on the side a last time and sank into the forest. "This is ridiculous." He whispered to himself. Still, his heart was a wild horse he couldn't dominate.