The Atonement of a Writer

11. Noir

Upon seeing him, she immediately asked, "Well? Did you see who it was?"

He shook his tiny head. No, Arielle. His face was covered.

She frowned. Then it was unlikely she would ever find out who he was. Should she just forget it? But...something inside told her that this was someone important. Very important.

She glanced outside the window with a growing grin. She just got herself a good mission.

"I'll find you. I'll definitely find you."

~*~

The blaseness she'd felt disappeared as soon as she set foot on her journey.

If Lili were actually Arielle, she would probably befriend and ride a jaguar and make it back within the hour. The jaguar would later become an ally in her efforts to fight Colette, who would be continuously trying to harm her.

However, she was not Arielle, and she didn't want to get potentially mauled by a frustrated wild animal. It was always better to practice communicating with the tame, calmer beasts at the estate. Therefore, her options were very limited.

Lili walked. And it was a very long walk. Along the way, she thought she'd seen the same tree twice, but still she walked. Her clothing would probably have attracted a lot of attention, since she was wearing a half-burnt dress originally intended for the palace, but there was not a soul in sight to judge. At some point, she ducked behind a tree and took off her layers of clothing, not to mention her corset, until she was wearing a comfortable amount of clothes. In this world's standards, she was barely dressed, but in her standards, she was finally somewhat-normally dressed.

Then, she walked.

It was exhausting. She didn't know the first thing about surviving in the wilderness. It was also too late to hit herself over the head for not thinking of adding teleportation magic when she was creating this world.

So she just walked.

There was nothing else to do. She was lost and tired, with nothing to do but walk. The path she was following was smaller than she'd imagined, even though it had been large enough for a carriage, and it seemed to be leading nowhere. She had to at least get to the main road for a chance to run into somebody, but it was proving impossible. Now that the adrenaline had passed, she could feel every muscle in her bones as they screamed in protest. This was the most exercise she'd done since...well, her whole life.

Every step Lili took, the soles of her feet groaned at the weight of her body. She wondered how far she would get before she collapsed. Personally, she had never worried about how the victim of a kidnapping got home. Because in books, that detail was always omitted and deemed unimportant. But now, Lili was feeling its importance very, very much. The determination to get rid of Colette as quickly as possible was draining out of her along with her energy.

Unfortunately, like how she couldn't use Arielle's powers, she also didn't have the inherent ability to tell north from south without a compass, an ability everyone here seemed to possess. Therefore, she had no idea where she was, if she was even walking in the right direction.

Lili looked back, not for the first time. Nothing. She had expected the fire to spread, but it didn't. It seemed to be contained only in the enclosure. However, she didn't have the energy to think much of it. The fear she should have felt when being kidnapped was rushing into her tenfold. She was barely dragging her bones forward, and would collapse soon. Once she did, she knew she would not be getting back up. She felt more fear dying alone in the middle of a forest, her corpse feeding the vultures, than being burned alive.

It was all she could do to drag her tired bones onward.

Just where did her naivete come from? How could she possibly think that she could make it to the end of the road? One look at the sky, and she could tell that the sun was almost set.

Out of the corner of her eye, something black fluttered. Spinning around quickly, she watched just as a crow landed on a nearby branch.

Its feathers were a deep blue-black, much like Killian's hair. What caught Lili's attention, though, was the hint of gold at the underside of its beak. Otherwise, the crow blended in quite well into the night.

Was that...

"...Noir?" She asked tentatively.

She got a harsh caw in reply.

Noir was Arielle's crow, one of the many she befriended in the Soule estate, known for his distinct beak. When Lili arrived, she'd noticed him right away, but he never approached her, staying in the background.

Lili was more than relieved to see a familiar face, even though it was just a bird. "Did you follow me here? Do the others know?"

This time, she got a cock in the head and a hoarse call. She had no idea what it meant, so she assumed it was a no.

She groaned and sank to her knees in exhaustion. Every step took too much out of her. Night had fallen, and even if she wasn't going to get eaten by wolves, there was always something else out there salivating at the smell of human flesh.

Dammit. If she'd known it would come to this, she would've tried to communicate with and seek help from the creatures of the forest when she still had the energy to do so. Clearly, it was death for her either way.

Useless, as usual.

"Well, can't you go now?" Lili's voice dropped to a plea, as if Noir could understand everything she said.

Noir flew down beside her and cawed again, making Lili twitch in surprise. He wasn't acting like his normal aloof self. Back in the manor, he was always there, but never approached Lili, as if he could sense that she wasn't Arielle.

Lili looked at the beautiful bird tiredly, regret coloring her tone. "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry, Noir. I really...don't know what you're saying..."

He, in turn, rubbed his cheek against her skin, as if to comfort her.

"I'm sorry..."

The world was spinning. She was cold, hungry and tired. Slumping against a tree, she stared bleakly at Noir. Was this how it was really going to end? Never in her life would she have thought she'd end up like this. The dash of hope she'd felt when she saw Noir was gone as fatigue took over instead.

Maybe I'll just take a short nap...yeah, if I'm lucky, I'll wake in the morning and continue on my way...

Lili ignored the voice in her head telling her naps could not solve all her problems. The last thing she heard before she lost consciousness was something that sounded suspiciously like footsteps rustling nearby.