Chapter Eleven

The Unmarked, Book One

Nov 07, 2025

[Ch.1] [Ch.2] [Ch.3] [Ch.4] [Ch.5] [Ch.6] [Ch.7] [Ch.8] [Ch.9] [Ch.10]

Dawn & Wolfe

For the rest of their journey through the Rayless Woods, nothing attacked them. But Dawn noticed the creatures lurking and watching. She didn’t know how long she and Wolfe had spent in these forests. Darkness constantly surrounded them.

They had barely stepped out of the house when the woman – Violet – had called after them, barely clothed, swinging Dawn’s satchel. Dawn’s heart had stopped. Her box. She had almost left it behind. She went to grab her bag, but Violet had refused to let go. She pulled Dawn close, so that her ear brushed Violet’s lips. “He’ll be enjoying your company more than before” she whispered.

Dawn had pulled away and narrowed her eyes at the woman. Violet gave her a knowing smile and let go of the satchel. “Have a good trip” she said in a singsong voice and then disappeared behind the door of her shack. Dawn tried to ignore the implications of the comment, and why Violet thought to say it, and rummaged through her satchel. Reassurance flooded over her when she felt the wooden texture of her box brush against her fingers. When she made sure that all the documents were there, they had left without turning back.

Dawn was furious against Wolfe. Slowly she remembered what had happened. She had been bit by one of the moths. It had poisoned her. She had been in a terrible state of nausea and numbness, while her veins burned with a fiery pain. She had kept falling in and out of consciousness. Wolfe explained that the ring would protect her if she wore it, but every time she took it off, the infection would spread, until it eventually reached her heart and killed her. Dawn had no idea what Wolfe’s intentions were. If he had saved her, then her whole theory about the Governor sending her in here to die was not accurate. Whatever his intentions were though, even if they were good, she hated him. Because he was the reason she had been poisoned and forced to wear the ring for the rest of her life. Worst of all, it would be a constant reminder of this terrible place.

Dawn resorted not to speak to Wolfe, but she soon realized that he was not making any attempts at conversation either. On the contrary, his original easy-going attitude had completely vanished. For their entire journey out of the Woods, Wolfe’s expression was grim, and he didn’t utter a sound.

After countless hours of walking in silence, Wolfe spoke. His voice was hoarse. “We’re almost out. Then we’ll make camp”.

His words broke her out of her trance. She had been mindlessly walking, shutting her mind from all the fears, questions and pains that tried to violate her consciousness, instead focusing on the sound of her steps crunching against the forest floor.

“Make camp with what, Wolfe? We lost all our supplies in the attack” she replied bitterly.

Wolfe said nothing.

It wasn’t long before they stepped out of the woods. Dawn exhaled and breathed in the fresh night air. It was only at that moment that she realized how pungent the forest air had been.

“How long were we in there?” Dawn asked. “A night? Two?”.

“A small smile spread across his lips. “More or less an hour, actually” he said.

Dawn frowned.

He smiled at her state of confusion. “Time works differently in the Rayless Woods”.

Dawn shook her head. “I don’t understand”.

“You know how an experience seems to last longer in a dream than it actually does in real time? Well, it’s pretty much the same concept with the Rayless Woods”.

“So... everything that happened was a dream?” Dawn asked, trying to grasp at Wolfe’s meaning.

“Well... no. The experiences were real” he replied, a pained expression on his face. “It’s just that more happened in there than it did out here in the same length of time”.

“You’re playing with me” she accused, reaching for the only logical explanation.

A soft smile spread across his lips. He walked over to her. “Look at the moon” he said gently.

She looked up at the night sky, suddenly hyper-aware of Wolfe’s closeness; his warmth, his smell.

“What about the moon?” she asked, pretending to be fixated on the sky and not on him.

“Come on Dawn” he said playfully, “I know you’re clever enough to figure it out” he said. Which, for some reason, made her heart flutter and her skin prickle.

What in damnation is wrong with me? She thought, annoyed and embarrassed with herself. You hate him right now. Act like it.

But then she noticed it. “The moon” she said in wonder, “it hasn’t changed”.

She looked to Wolfe, and he gave her a knowing smile.

“Then where are we?” she asked, allowing skepticism to creep into her voice, in the event that Wolfe was still somehow toying with her.

“Not even a day’s journey from Greywell”.

Greywell. That was the closest town that supplied the City of Ardus with fish. A port town. It was a three-week journey from Aura to Greywell.

“No way. I don’t believe you”.

Wolfe gave her a wink and started walking ahead of her. “You will soon enough my dear Dawn. You will soon enough”.

They stopped at the edge of a hill, overlooking the river that ran through the valley where the town of Greywell stood.

“Wolfe” Dawn said in utter disbelief, “that’s Greywell. It’s actually Greywell”.

“Told you” he said with a grin.

Dawn ran her hands across her scalp. If crossing through the Woods had brought them from Aura to Ardus in just a matter of hours, that meant she was leagues ahead of her pursuers.

Joy and relief filled her, and all her anger and resentment toward Wolfe melted away in an instant.

“Wolfe! You’re a genius!” she laughed and threw her arms around his neck in a tight embrace. He hesitated, and then returned her hug.

Dawn pulled away, her face beaming with joy. A burden had been lifted off her shoulders.

“Let’s keep moving” she said, hopeful. “We’ll rest when we get to Greywell”.

She still had difficulty grasping the concept of a timeless forest that swallowed you up on one side of the map and spit you out on the other. How many more mysteries lurked in the shadows of this world, Dawn wondered.

“We’ll be there by midday” Wolfe said.

They didn’t speak for the rest of the way, but it was not like before. Wolfe seemed to regain his easy-going persona, and Dawn was too focused on making it to Greywell to let her vile thoughts plague her. Instead, she let herself think about the feeling of Wolfe’s thumb brushing her knuckles when she had been in her state of fever and semi-consciousness. The thought of his gentle touch sent chills through her. Wolfe cared for her, that much she knew. But she did not understand why.

Distress clung to Wolfe like a starving leech, sucking everything out of him. So much had happened in such a short amount of time. Who was this girl he walked with? The night they met she had talked to him as if she had known him for years. They had danced together. They had bonded. They had shared something. Then, the moment he had left her, she had been sharing a kiss with the Governor’s son. The boy she had tried to make jealous by dancing with Wolfe. He had seen her spend the entire evening with her lover, clearly already having forgotten about him. Then Dawn had become skeptical of him when he had come to rescue her, but she trusted him enough to leave everything behind and follow him. She constantly questioned his intentions, and yet she rode with him without question. She said stories were lies and yet she had eaten up every word of the tale he had told her. She had resented him throughout the journey out of the Woods, the emotion rolling off her like waves. But the moment she understood the result of going through the Woods, she had laughed and hugged him. Even now the tension that had been present since the moment he had Appeared in her cell, was gone.

Wolfe tried to play it cool. He wanted her to be in a good mood, at least for a moment. But a flurry of emotions thundered inside of him. She had captivated him, and he had become infatuated with her. But he had turned those feelings into something else. He had distorted them into something ugly and confusing. Though nothing tormented him more than the unheard words Violet had whispered to Dawn.

He allowed himself to steal a glance at the girl. A faint smile brushed her lips. He wondered what she was thinking about. Was she relieved to be out of the Woods? Or was she thinking about her lover?

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