Chapter 43. Unexpected Encounters




Alexander felt desperate. He really needed to find some game today. He had said goodbye to Aliendre early in the morning and left their little cabin to go hunting. Aliendre had felt so thin under her dress when he hugged her goodbye. The child in her belly seemed to absorb all nourishment from her. She should eat for two but the problem was that they didn’t have enough food for one. Alexander had also lost a few pounds during the winter and the hunger felt like a big hole in his belly. He had never known real hunger before. It was something completely different than what he had called hungry before he had left everything to run away with Aliendre. He had never regretted that choice, but he was worried about Aliendre. She would never admit that the lack of food was a problem though. Both he and Aliendre were quite skilled with the bow but without someone who could track the game it proved difficult to find enough wild animals. He knew that pheasants sometimes made traps but he had never learned how to do it because that was not how people like him were supposed to hunt. In his old life he had only hunted for sport, not to fill an empty belly. His pathetic attempts to make traps had been completely unsuccessful. The horses had barely survived the winter either so he had chosen to hunt on foot instead of risking overstraining the poor creatures. Maybe they should have eaten the horses before, when they had more meat on them but now it was barely worth the trouble as the horses were only skin and bone. He also feared that they would be in even worse trouble without horses.

“Alexander, what a surprise to see you here!”



Alarmed and startled Alexander looked up. The voice had come from above and spoke in Elvish with a different accent than Aliendre. Dark elves were known to hate humans and the Light elves probably didn’t have any warm feelings for him anymore either. The owner of the voice obviously knew who he was so he figured it must be a light elf who hid somewhere up in the trees.


The next minute the owner of the voice dropped down from above, just in front of him. It was not an elf at all; it was that creature that he had released from the dungeons last year. She was heavy with child but that didn’t seem to stop her from climbing trees and jumping down from them.


“Alexander, I’m so pleased to meet you here in the Forest. How are you?”

The bow and the words that she spoke with the elves’ language were polite but the laugh on her face made him feel like she was mocking him. Her sharp fangs showed when she smiled and he remembered how she had severed Styrbiorn’s hand with them when she was caught. Styrbiorn couldn’t work as a guard anymore because his hand would never be fully functional again. In addition to the fangs and the horns the creature had a long knife strapped on her leg but Alexander thought that he would have time to put an arrow in her heart if she would come closer.



She didn’t come closer though, instead she seemed to be just as cautious as him about keeping a safe distance between them. But apart from keeping the distance she didn't seem to be afraid of him at all. Instead the smile on her face made him feel that he that he amused her.

“You make a lot of noise when you walk, Alexander”, she said reproachful. “Please tell me why I owe this pleasure to meet you here.”

“Are there more of your kind here?” he asked. Then he realized that he already had the answer considering her condition. Of course there would be more creatures like her in the forest.

“No, I’m all alone in this big forest,” she answered with a mannered sad voice and giggled. “You look much skinnier than when I last saw you.”

The last words made Alexander’s skin crawl. Was she sorry that he was skinnier because there would be less to eat on his body? “Yes there is very little meat left”, he said, “so there is really no point in trying to eat me.”



A wave of disgust mixed with surprise went over her face before she started to giggle, almost hysterically. She looked at him with those yellow eyes that he felt were so hypnotizing and gathered herself enough to reply. “I have already eaten today so I think I will pass, but thank you for telling me,” she said politely and started to giggle again.

“Why did you come to the castle last year? Who are you?” Finally he could ask that question that he should have asked before releasing her. Aliendre had told him about the Forest people but this creature who called herself Roe didn’t make any sense. “You never gave Aliendre a message at all as you said that you would.”

“Maybe I did, kind off,” Roe said and looked thoughtful. “I went to the castle just because I wanted to see how the humans live and I’m a child of the Forest. The real question is, who are you Alexander?” She looked at him as if she was studying some interesting insect before she started to giggle again. “What I really came to ask is how Aliendre is doing. Is she as skinny as you are?” Roe didn’t laugh now but sounded as if she was genuinely concerned.

Something about how she asked the question made him want to tell her everything. It had been so long since he spoke to anyone but Aliendre. “She’s happy but I worry about her because we don’t have enough food to eat.”



The answer seemed to startle Roe. “But,” she hesitated and looked around. “There’s plenty of food everywhere, this is a very generous forest if you treat her with kindness and respect.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Wait here!” It looked like as if it couldn’t be long before her baby would be due but that didn’t seem to affect her at all. Easily she climbed up the tree and disappeared.

Alexander had no intention at all to stay and wait so that she could come back with more of her kind. He started to walk, hoping to find something to put an arrow in.

It was around noon and he still hadn’t found anything to eat when he heard Roe call his name again.

“I told you to wait for me”, she said reproaching, and threw two rabbits and some roots at his feet.


“What is this?” Alexander asked “and why?”

“This is food,” she said with the same tone as if she talked patiently to a child. “I told you that Aliendre is my friend and I don’t want her to be hungry.” She turned around to walk away when she seemed to remember something and turned back. “I almost forgot,” she said. “There is one important thing that I would like to ask from you. I understand that you are a Prince and that means that you can make decisions about other humans.” She looked at him to see if he would confirm this. Startled he nodded. “Could you please make the humans that have moved into to my forest leave again? They are not kind to her and that makes her less generous to all of us who live here. ” Having said what she wanted the creature who called herself Roe, a child of the forest, turned around and disappeared into the forest.


The food that Roe had given them had been more than welcome. He had eaten very little, hiding some of the food when Aliendre tried to make him eat more. She needed to eat more than he did. He almost hoped that Roe would show up again, with more food even if he realized that it depended on him to find something to eat to keep Aliendre, and the baby that they were expecting, alive. He found a brook and thought that he might have some luck there. Animals needed to drink and if he was lucky he might even catch a fish. How he wished that they had brought a net to catch fish with before they left the castle.



Suddenly he was standing eye to eye with an outlaw. This must be one of the humans that Roe had mentioned. The outlaw was dressed in chainmail and a helmet which was unusual for the outlaws as far as Alexander knew. Another oddity was that this man had a sword strapped at his side but no other weapons, when a bow or a quarterstaff would have been more likely weapons for the outlaws.



Alexander’s muscles were tense as he and the outlaw were watching each other on each side of the brook. He figured that he had an advantage as long as the distance was too long for the sword. If he aimed at the unprotected throat he might have a chance. Alexander cursed himself for leaving his sword at home as he stretched for an arrow.