Chapter 4: When it Was All Suppose To Be Right.

Erica’s eyes skimmed through the pages trying to understand the words, but she could not read a single letter. She picked up her ink pen and wrote, ‘Prosopiko, I don’t understand a word. What are you trying to tell me?’ Erica waited for a few moments but she didn’t receive any answer, she sighed and put the diary in her bag and went out for breaking her fast. Peter and Erica sat on the table and ate the corn cereal that her father had made. She then got up, picked up her bow, stuffed her arrows in the bag.

“Okay, father. I will see you in the evening,” she kissed her father’s forehead, “Will you be hunting today?” he asked her and she shrugged, “May be,” she replied and he chuckled and nodded, She then went out of the house and went to the fields to take her horse riding lessons. After walking for what felt like forever, she reached the lessons field, after attending her riding lessons. She decided to go for a hunt to freshen her mind and all the time she couldn’t stop thinking about the fact the she had lost so much dear to her in her eighteen years of age already, “I must be cursed, In case of saving, I saved only my virginity,” she laughed to herself, as she kept walking she came near a stream from where she used to fill her water skin. She heard some leaves crunching noise, so she immediately reached for her bow and arrow steadily and quietly.

She looked at the source of the sound but saw no one, she kept herself steady for some moments but again saw nothing or heard nothing again. She sighed and shrugged, ‘May be it got away,’ she thought to herself and then sat on a nearby rock, she opened her bag and pulled out Prosopiko, she opened it, expecting to find an answer, but only found, ‘It will take time, but you will get over eventually,’ Erica looked at the page weirdly, “Why the hell it did not respond to my earlier message, what was up with that writing?” she said to herself and pulled out her lead pencil from her bag but was distracted by a whooshing sound that came from the other side of the stream. Erica cursed under her breath, and swiftly placed her diary into the bag, and then pulled out an arrow, she flung her bag over her shoulders and adjusted the arrow into the bow.

She swiftly jumped on the stones in the stream, avoiding the rocks and went to the other side of the stream trying to following the sound as if someone was running over crunchy leaves, she looked down and saw that there were no dried leaves that would suppose to make the sound, ‘what is this sound then?’ she grew more and more curious and intrigued to find out the source of the sound and the creature causing it. She rushed quickly and quietly keeping her pace fast. She grew closer and closer to the sound but could not see anything.

She had come so far away from the town and she had not realized it at all, as she looked at the sky it was almost time for sun set but her curiosity has not died down at all.  As she came rushing into an open field she slowed down and stopped to catch her breath, she took deep breaths and saw something come out of the bushes. As the creature revealed itself to her, Erica’s breath was caught in her throat.

It was the most gorgeous, healthiest and biggest black stag she had ever seen. Erica slowly placed her bow and arrow down, “There, there, you black beauty, I am not going to hurt you,” she said as she placed the bow and arrow on the ground. And stood back up softly, she then pulled out all the arrows from her bag with her one hand whilst standing completely still. Erica tried taking a step towards it, the stag did not stepped away or retrieved time.

Erica went near the stag, and softly touched the crown of its head. The stag leaned in her touched. Erica was now brave enough to touch it with her both hands, she softly brushed its neck and the crown of its head. “Aren’t you the most beautiful thing ever?” she whispered.

It moved in such a way that if it was offering Erica a ride. Erica looked at the stag, and then she stood up on a big piece of rock near by, then she jumped and sat on the stag’s back.

She sat idly for few seconds trying to adjust on the stag without a saddle and a bridle. She didn’t knew what to grab onto, but the stag didn’t gave her any more time to think because it started running. Erica quickly grabbed on to its neck for support and shrieked. The stag broke into a running speed that Erica has never experienced, although it was new for her she still tried to sit up straight and enjoy the view she was having for the very first and probably a last time.

Erica laughed loudly in pure joy and excitement. She held onto the neck of the stag loosely for support, her long hair were flowing in the wind and she could feel the goose bumps and the tingling sensation in her spine and in her stomach as well. The stag had taken her very far away from the town. As the stag kept running, 

‘Turn around sweet heart, turn around, you don’t belong here, turn away now, go back and don’t ever think about coming back here again’ she heard her mother's voice. Her instincts told her to turn away in that moment but she was also enjoying the sense of adventure.

She saw something that she would never have believed if someone else had ever told her about; a black squirrel, then black sparrows and peacocks. “Oh my goodness, I must be dreaming,” she said to herself.

“Well, we should go back now, it is almost sun set now,” she brushed the stag’s back and it didn't listen to her, “No, turn around, turn away now,” she commanded the stag but it didn’t heard her at all and kept running at an unbelievable fast speed, it was running so fast that Erica couldn’t get off of it even if she tried to. She would definitely injure herself to the extent of breaking her bone or dislocating her bone, and then she wouldn’t be able to walk back home. At this point all of her excitement and joy has been vanished.

Erica smelt something in the air, a soft beautiful smell that she had never smelt before. She inhaled deeply and immediately regretted it, because that soft smell turned into a pungent smell and she started getting dizzy and her vision got blurred. She swing as she lost all of her consciousness but she felt as if the stag had taken care of her, and prevent her from falling off of it. She had her head rested against the back of stag’s head as she subconsciously looked at all the unbelievable sceneries passing by. Whether it was reality or her imagination but the trees the she was in were far more colorful, and that was the only thing that she saw before completely blacking out.