The woman immediately jumped into the defensive pulling out the two knives from her boot. Bette put up her hands slowly and said, “I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m a woods guide here, there are four men chasing you.”

“Four men?” she repeated looking over shoulder nervously and spotting them at a distance, “oh fuck!”

“Come on,” Bette said offering her hand, “no one knows these woods like me.”

The woman, narrowed her eyes in mistrust, but then grabbed Bette’s hand and let her guide her through the forest. Bette immediately pulled the woman off of the path and deep into the trees. They ran quietly, Bette expertly maneuvering in all the right places.

“Shh,” Bette said pulling the woman down into a large bush and holding her close. She could help but breathe rapidly at being so close in proximity to this mysterious woman from Midland. Bette figured if her pursuers were from Midland, she must be too. As much as Bette hated magic, she was very intrigued by this woman.

They held their breath as the four men passed by them on the path. “She just fucking disappeared!” one of them groaned.

“She couldn’t have gotten far,” someone else growled.

Bette and the mysterious woman stayed hidden in the brush until the men’s voices stayed away, then Bette peaked out cautiously.

“They’re gone,” Bette said turning to the woman who had already stood up and started leaving.

“Thank you, kind stranger,” she said over her shoulder getting back on the path.

“Your welcome,” Bette responded smiling at her and waving at her, “you should probably go the other way.”

The woman smiled back at her and then walked back out onto the path, going the opposite direction of where she was going at first. Bette resumed her trail toward her cabin, looking at the woman on the path through her peripherals. ‘God, she’s fucking beautiful,’ Bette thought.

“Hey woods guide?” the woman said looking at the fork in the road she had reached.

Bette smiled at her confusion and walked toward the path, “the name’s Bette.”

“Oh, Bette,” the woman said with a smile, “um, which leads me away from Midland?”

Bette cocked her eyebrow in curiosity and said, “is there someone or somewhere you need to go? I can take you.”