Princess Willowyn's Arc

Chapter 36 of 70

For three days Willowyn flew the griffin north. She followed the ridge as the map showed, but the land beyond it was strange to her. Pine forests spread wide and unmarked. Rivers forked and vanished. She had no guide now, only the minx curled in the crook of her arm and her own tired eyes. At night she landed in cold clearings and wondered how she would ever find one man among so many trees. On the third morning, dawn broke over the ridge. Willowyn saw it below her, a castle almost golden in the early light. Steep spires rose in a row. Round towers stood tall above walls of warm stone. Gardens spread around it, clipped hedges and beds of flowers still gray in the half-dark. Warm light glowed in a hundred windows. She had expected a war camp, tents and mud and smoke. Instead she found this. Her heart beat faster. Someone here would know the land. Someone here might know Kai. She guided the griffin down toward the open ground before the gate. The minx sat up on her shoulder and sniffed the air. As they dropped lower, the small animal grew restless. It scrambled down her arm, tail flicking. It had done this once before, long ago, when it caught a scent it knew. Willowyn set the griffin on the grass. Before she could dismount, the minx leapt from her arm and streaked across the lawn. "Wait!" she called. She swung down and ran after it, boots slipping on wet grass. The white shape darted through a gap in the hedge and into the garden beyond. Willowyn ran as fast as she could yelling for her minx “Please come back” she didn’t know this land or the village below the castle, she didn’t even know the castle and if they’d rush out and attack her.