Oh no! I must hurry. Thought Catherine to herself. Her carriage had been waiting for the past twenty minutes. She couldn't believe she was getting late, again.

Last time, the coachman had left without taking her, because she made him wait an hour.

Why must packing things take so much time? She didn't even have much stuff, to begin with.

After pushing everything inside, she grabbed a thin piece of cloth to tie her suitcase together in an attempt to lock it, since the lock didn't work.

She slid the door from behind her and put a lock on it. Ready to leave.

The coachman got up from his seat and helped Catherine put her luggage inside.

"Leaving so soon, Catherine?" Asked Mrs. Campbelle.

"Yes, Mrs. Campbelle! I'm going to visit my grandmother back at Wockart Bridge." Catherine replied.

"Take care, honey, they say the abjens were spotted there, they've been causing trouble." said Mrs. Campbelle.

"That's why I'm leaving, I thought it would be good to bring grandmother here, till the abjens go away." Catherine replied.

"Ahem" The coachman cleared his throat, signalling Catherine that if he had to wait any longer, he would charge more. But before he could say something, "Let's go shall we?" Catherine asked the coachman, who was surprised by her tone and didn't say anything. It was like he was making her wait.

It had already been an hour, the ride was going smooth so Catherine decided to remove the curtains and look outside the carriage, she was never one who could resist nature. And it had been so long since she had last been on this road. When it came to sceneries, the road from Drakonshire to Wockart Bridge was the best.

Peeking outside the window, the warm sun touched her skin, her eyes shining a beautiful shade of emerald green.

Everything will be fine.

She repeatedly told herself, mentally. She was just going to get her grandmother and leave as soon as possible for Wockart, without being noticed.

✦✦✦

Three hours had passed and it was already dark outside. The carriage continued on its way, faster than before.

A fog started to grow outside the carriage, slowly creeping inside. Catherine grew uneasy.

Oh Dear Lord, please.

She could hear her own heartbeats. It was the abjens, it had to be them.

Wait — if it really was the abjens then the coachman!

Suddenly Catherine heard the horses squeal, she stretched her hand out to remove the curtains from the front window, her hands shaking as she was struck with fear.

Her eyes widened and her hands moved towards her mouth as if she was covering them subconsciously, to not let even a faint voice slip out. The coachman was no longer running the carriage. He was nowhere to be seen and the carriage was running on its own, the horses seemed possessed, their hair a fiery red and the body that glowed a blackish-red hue.

She needed to leave but had no idea where to go. If she would've left the carriage then that would mean death, and if she stayed sooner or later she would die.

The decision was made for her as the carriage turned over and slammed on to a nearby tree.

Slowly climbing out of the broken mess of a carriage, Catherine struggled just to stand.

She came to her senses soon enough when she started hearing voices in her head, voices that she didn't understand. And so she ran.

Abjens, here... I don't understand, weren't they haunting the forests near the borders of Wokart Bridge and Selschey Pek. They weren't supposed to be here.

It seemed like she had been running for hours, her legs starting to give up. She couldn't keep up anymore. As her legs gave up she collapsed under a tree, her vision fading away.

As conscious slowly made its way back to Catherine she began to open her eyes, only to see that she wasn't in Wockart Bridge. She was in the middle of a forest and had no idea how she was alive. She was pretty sure she was going to die last night.

She slowly got up, looking at her surroundings and brushing away the leaves stuck in her tresses.

She checked herself for missing limbs but found herself to be intact which made her sigh in relief.

She knew she had to leave the forest, but didn't know where to go. She wasn't even sure how far she was in the forest, or her way back to the carriage. A part of her didn't want to go back to the carriage but the other part was still stupid enough to want her belongings back even at a time like this.

But she had to move quickly, for she didn't know when the sun would set and the abjens would appear again, and who knows, this time, she won't be this lucky.

Catherine had been walking for an hour now, she was hungry and thirsty. She could feel an itch in her throat, reminding her how dry it was.

Walking further in an unknown direction she wondered if she would make it out alive. Suddenly she tripped over something, getting up she looked back to see what it was.

She gasped as she saw the coachman's dead body! And with her feet shaking, she took two steps back and ran in the direction she came from.

Dead... He's dead! I'm going to die, I will die here! Please, no!

Catherine found herself running again, her vision clouded with tears, she didn't want to die young. and yet here she was, and she was sure she would die soon. And then she stopped. She stopped running back.

"Catherine, what is it that you want to do for the last time in your life?" She asked herself aloud.

She smiled to herself and turned around, she knew what she was going to do. She was going to bury the dead and hope that someone might do the same for her if they ever found her rotting corpse that is.

She was going to bury the coachman after all his unintentional sacrifice gave her another day to live.

And so, with nothing but time in her hands she walked back in the same direction she came running from.

✦✦✦

The sun had already set, and the coachman's dead body was now Catherine's sight. A little hesitant, she started digging with her hands. She didn't dare to go near him but was mentally preparing herself to drag his body into the grave she was digging.

Or who knows, it could be her grave... But she kept digging.

For the first time Catherine looked up, and —

Something coughed, I swear I heard someone cough.

She shifted her gaze to the coachman, right now, everything was scaring the hell out of her.

"Mr. Coachman..." she said while walking towards his what she was sure was a corpse.

She sat down beside him and he coughed! He was coughing up blood. Catherine couldn't believe, he was alive?! All this time... if she had buried him, she would have killed him.

"Thank God you're alive! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry... I never meant for any of this to happen —" Catherine was cut off by the coachman's voice.

"S-Sav-e Your-self" Said the coachman, coughing up more blood. Then he pointed towards his hands towards a tree.

Confused, Catherine looked at the tree. And then it struck her, that's the way out? So he wants me to save myself? Leave him here?

"But I can't just leave you here — coachman? coachman!" Catherine understood he was now dead for sure. She closed his eyes. And Got up.

And she ran, again, the hungry and thirsty Catherine ran again, this time with the hope that she could save herself.

Just as she was passing the tree the coachman had pointed towards, she fell.

"Aaaaahhh!!" screamed Catherine while falling down, the whole seemed somewhat deep as she was still falling and then she landed with a thud.

"Arrgh" Catherine struggled to get up. And when she looked at what was in front, she was speechless.

A cottage underground? A bed.. some cutlery, and a mirror. Someone lives here?

Things were getting weirder by the minute. Who was living here?

As Catherine started to look around in the cottage.. she saw a dressing table, where a paper was kept facing down, and a mirror placed loosely on the wall.

Catherine looked at herself in the mirror, and then looked down at the piece of paper, she turned it around and it read "Dear, show me the truth tonight."

"Dear, show me the truth tonight?" Catherine said out a loud and smiled.

Who would write such a thing, and for whom to see?

A trail of questions lingering in her mind. She looked up to the mirror once again and was surprised to see that it no longer showed her reflection, instead it showed a picture. Of a vast kingdom, a kingdom that she had never seen or known before.

Breathtakingly beautiful... she reached her hand out to touch it. And everything went black.

The cottage disappeared as if Catherine was standing alone in the darkness. She felt her head getting heavy.

Unable to keep her gaze steady and her eyes open, she felt her vision fading. She couldn't feel her body anymore.

What's happening to me? She thought.

Birds. I can hear the birds chirping, so beautiful.

Catherine shot open her eyes. As she looked around she lay in the middle of a forest a feeling of Deja Vu making her sick, or it could have been because she had been hungry for more than a day, not to mention, thirsty as well.

Am I back in the forest again? Is all this a dream?

"Hey you, get off!" a squeaky voice said.

Catherine looked around to see her leg laying over a little human.... with wings.

Moving her leg away, she looked at this... this thing with amusement.

"What are you?" Catherine asked.

"Well aren't you a rude one! Intruding on my land and asking me who I am! You've got guts, little lady! I'm a pixie!" replied the strange little creature.

"A Pixie..." Catherine murmured in a confused tone.

"Yes, a pixie, and this is the land of — well who are you?" The pixie asked with a suspicious look on her small face.

"I... I am Catherine, I was on my way to Wockart Bridge when the Abjens attacked me and they killed the coachman and I ran and then —" Catherine was cut off in the middle by the pixie's voice.

"Hold on! I don't know the story you're spinning here, Catherine. The only thing I understood in all that was Abjens. Did you really see one?" the pixie asked.

"I didn't see them, I just heard them, they killed the coachman." Cathrine replied.

"Whoa! You don't see or hear an Abjen and survive, you liar! Nobody ever survives!" the pixie exclaimed, in a tone filled with anger.

"Please, I'm telling the truth... I don't even know how I'm still alive but please, believe me, I'm not lying. I'm hungry and thirsty..." Catherine's voice was wavering, as if she would breakdown any moment now, for all that had happened was just too much for her to grasp.

A pixie... Maybe this is all a dream, maybe I'm dead, or just hallucinating because I'm so hungry. I need food, and I want water. What's going on, what place is this? Thought Catherine, there was a lot running in her mind right now, and she understood too less.

I can usually sense when someone is lying, after all, I'm the trickster here, but even though this girl's story is absolutely rubbish yet I can't trace a hint of lie in it. What magic is this? Could she be a great mage? I can't sense magic in her at all... weird. What is this thing...maybe I could use her somehow. The pixie thought to herself.

"I'm not really the helping type, but I will help you out. For a price of course!" The pixie said to Catherine giving a cheerful smile, trying to cloak her trickster behaviour.