After what felt like hours Perryn slowed down, panting, out of breath, she finally decided to take in her surroundings. She was in a forest that much was obvious, straying from the main road that had led her here.
It dawned on Perryn that maybe blindly running into such a place was perhaps not the wisest idea, that creature could have made its way into the forest for all Perryn knew.
It would probably have been smarter to stick to the main road alas, fear made her panic.
The surrounding trees were unnaturally tall, blocking out most of the sunlight. What sliver of light that did make its way through did practically nothing in helping Perryn navigate through the forest.
From her lessons, what she could recall of the main road leading to the town was known as 'The Path of Union'.
Aptly named as most couples usually take this path to the town, it was a tradition, one between Perryn's hometown and the town she was to meet her groom to be.
It was sunset now, soon to be twilight and Perryn hoped to circle back and reach the end of the main road to head into the town where she and her entourage were to meet with the groom's party.
She was hoping to reach the town before nighttime, before that thing could find her. How that creature had yet to perceive her was a miracle, the Gods were kind today.
The sound of water broke Perryn from her thoughts, she tilts her head towards it.
'A stream?' Without thinking too much about it and using whatever little energy she had left she made her way over to the stream.
Lacking the decorum befitting of her status, she plopped down to the ground, hastily lifted her veil and dunked her face into the cool water, if her tutors could see her now Perryn is sure they would all die of a heart attack.
Years of training down thrown away, not that Perryn gave a damn about them currently.
She came back up for air and drank her fill of water. Her stomach felt like it would burst by the time she was done.
Perryn let out a small sigh, the events of the last hour finally catching up to her.
She crawled away from the stream and heaved, the water she drank being the only thing to come up, she had been too nervous to eat anything before the journey, something she was grateful for now.
Unable to hold it in any longer, Perryn lets out a sob, she felt like she was drowning, like a fish caught in a net unable to free itself from its inevitable doom.
The air felt too thick to swallow; she could not breathe and like a child failing to hold back their tears after being denied their favourite toy, her sobs echo through the forest.
She should have been more cautious, with this much sound it would surely alert the creature but, Perryn could not control her body.
She grasped at her throat, scratching, it felt like something was lodged in there, realizing it was a fruitless endeavor, she rocked herself back and forth, hands leaving her throat and instead wrapped tightly around herself to provide herself some sort of comfort.
By the time she is calm enough to continue her march to the town and the forest sounds alive.
The hoot of an owl, the croaking of frogs, the occasional rustle of leaves.
Perryn looks around, her hands tremble uncontrollably as she struggles to wipe away her tears, she lets out a shaky breath and like a newborn fawn she stumbles a bit unable to find her footing, after a few tries she is stable enough and thus slowly walks away from the stream and back into the unknown.
Unstoppable, time moved on and as it did uncertainty clouded Perryn's mind, surely, she would have heard the sound festivities by now.
Weddings were always such a huge event, lasting for days, people wanted to take a piece of joy in the union of others.
Perryn must have been walking in a circle because she was sure she had passed the same tree a few minutes back.
The tall trees made it impossible to see and now that sunlight had given way for moonlight, the task of finding refuge was next to impossible.
Perryn slowed down, she was honestly contemplating giving up for the night, it would be wiser to find some sort of shelter and wait for daylight before she continued searching for civilization but-
The chances of that creature finding her would be much higher considering she would be out in the open, sleeping and unprotected.
Perryn regretted not picking up some sort of weapon from the fallen guards, in her panic she had not considered it. Then again no one could fault her, if a group of trained soldiers failed to take the creature down why hope she could do any better?
Perryn scoffed, she'd look like a fool swinging a sword around, then again, better a fool than dead, at least she would have gone down with a fight.
Perryn stopped completely, she leaned against a tree, she would rest here, if the creature had been on her tail she would be dead by now after all, it had not been that long since the death of her retinue.
Perryn slowly slid to the ground, she had long discarded her veils and carried only the circlet.
'I can at least throw this if I were to encounter that thing,' Perryn snorted, 'Like a golden circlet is going to do harm to it.' She thought to herself.
Perryn felt the slow tendrils of sleep reaching for her, it had been a long day, and she was worn out, physically and mentally.
She began to drift off and that is when she heard it, the sound of steel, grunts, and laughter, fey and wild, followed by a screech, one she was familiar with, someone was fighting that creature, and it sounded like they were winning.
A speck of light in the dark, hope flickering against her chest, Perryn stood abruptly and made her way towards the sound, she could escape if they were willing to aid her.
The closer she got the louder the fighting became, and at some point, she could hear it, an instrument, more specifically a flute. The laughter and music from the group was enough to make Perryn cautious.
Perryn finally made it to the clearing; she hid behind one of the many trees and slowly peeked there, she could see her would be saviors and they were most certainly not human.
Fae and more specifically, Elves. Going by their pointed ears, they lacked wings from what Perryn could so that ruled out the possibility of them being Faeries.
There were about five of them all emitting a faint glow, they were garbed in beautiful silver armor which seemed to absorb the moonlight making them seem more ethereal.
Perryn gaped, Elves, here, her thoughts were cut short when she heard another screech from the creature being fought.
While still hard to make out, it was a frightening image, it was tall, huge with scales that gleamed in the dark, it looked serpentine except Perryn could make out the four set of arms it had, with nails sharp enough to tear through metal.
It swung wildly as if a cornered beast fighting for its right to life. Perryn turned her attention back to the group of Elves, they moved in sync, like dancers after perfecting their routine, they would laugh anytime the creature made to attack them, to Perryn it seemed obvious.
They were toying with it, a cat playing with their meal right before they gobble it up.
As if sensing her thoughts or its doom, the creature gives up in attacking wildly and makes an attempt to escape quickly turning around to make its way deeper into the forest.
The Elven leader, at least who Perryn assumes is the leader, as a silver circlet rests against his head, he wore an excessive amount of jewelry, mostly pearls.
He says something in a language not familiar to Perryn and everything happens all at once.
The air feels cold and heavy, the leader flings his arm out and the world shifts, a sort of glowing hole forms right in front of the creature and with the Elves on its tail they manage to herd the creature into it.
The Elves follow afterwards and with a last look behind from their leader, something cruel and wicked, the hole shrinks and vanishes.
Perryn is in absolute disbelief, here one second gone the next, fleeting like a candle in the wind.
She slowly makes her way to where the fighting, if one could call it that, had been, a few pearls here and there and deep slashes in the surrounding trees were the only evidence of their battle.
Her one chance for help gone, before Perryn could spiral any further, she heard a groan behind her, coming from a shrub a few paces away from the main battle.
She slowly made her way towards it and there on the ground, laid an Elf, clearly left behind.
Just great.