The Twisted Tale of Saffron Schmidt Page 6

  Saffron smiled as she tacked Hanna up, wondering if Henry would develop any of his mother’s habits. So far, his training from Herr Schäfer had proved him to be nothing but a robot. Saffron hopes and prayed that would wear off as he grew older.

  Although she didn’t need the gate to reach Hanna’s stirrups anymore, Saffron still used it as a mounting block, not wanting to hurt the old mare’s back. As she was getting older, her muscles were naturally weakening and she didn’t need any unnecessary strains and stresses.

  Stepping off into a springing walk, Saffron headed Hanna towards the forest. Her mind wandered back to that day, four years ago, when she’d stumbled across the single paw print of a creature that definitely did not belong in the forest. For weeks after, she had religiously taken Hanna into the woods, scouring the ground for any hint of a track, but her efforts always proved fruitless.

  Her interest had slowly evaporated and she put it down to stress of the situation making her think it was something it wasn’t. The desire to ride inside the treeline had also been curbed after Herr Fuchs caught her riding one day and reported her to her parents. For months afterwards, her mother would watch her from their house, keeping a beady eye on her rebellious, hormonal teenage daughter.

  Habit had soon formed, along with built in boundaries, and Saffron had soon found herself not even thinking about going inside the treeline. Along with her weird, recurring dreams, Saffron had tried her hardest to ignore the suspicions building in her mind.

  Today though, after the incident in the wagon, all of Saffron’s past experiences were spinning around her mind like a fairground carousel, trying to fall into place to explain something of some sort.

  On a spur of the moment decision, Saffron decided to go into the forest today. With the hunting party already out and about, she would have to go deeper than ever before to avoid being seen. She urged Hanna into a trot and ploughed through the undergrowth, heading further and further inside the vast expanse of the mysterious forest.

  The deeper they ventured, the closer together the trees became. Sunlight streamed through the bare branches, the deathly appearance of everything around her causing a violent shudder to jolt down her spine. Saffron dared to look behind her, seeing no hint of the way they’d just come in, despite the nakedness of the woods around her.

  Trying to ignore the unease climbing in her chest, Saffron turned back to the front, mentally mapping the easiest path for her and Hanna to take. Lots of random evergreen bushes and thick hedges were planted out here, giving them easy cover should she happen to catch sight of the hunting party.

  Saffron settled Hanna into a leisurely walk, taking in the scenery around her. After a couple of minutes, she realised that the forest was utterly silent. Was that because the hunting party was near? Had all the animals gone into hiding in fear of their lives?

  Hanna’s huge hooves rustled through the dead leaves covering the forest floor. The sound soon became so deafening to Saffron that she wished she could blow them all out of the way to stop it.

  That was when Hanna stopped dead.

  Saffron’s heart leapt into her throat. She immediately scanned the forest floor around her. There, right in front of Hanna’s legs, was a paw print.

  “Sorry, girl,” she said, jumping down from the mare’s broad back.

  Hanna stood stock still as Saffron hurried to the huge imprint on the forest floor. She bent down and placed her hand tentatively inside it. Her small hand barely filled the main pad, let alone reaching the remaining four pads and the claw marks.

  “Wow,” she breathed.

  Looking ahead, she saw another one a few feet ahead. Scurrying towards it, she counted six steps before she reached it. From its position, more to the left than the first one, she realised that this was one stride—right front leg to left front leg.

  “How big is this thing?” she whispered, totally awestruck.

  She stood up, looking at the trail ahead of her—nothing but mud, crisp brown leaves, and a clear trail of monstrous sized paw prints. Running back to Hanna, she grabbed the mare’s reins and clicked to her to walk forwards. Hanna refused to move.

  A deep frown creased Saffron’s forehead. She stood arguing with the mare for several minutes before she heard voices. Panic erupted inside her. Rushing to Hanna’s side, she mounted up and turned Hanna back, the mare moving freely away from the unexplained paw prints.

  Up ahead, she spotted a thick evergreen bush between two thick trees. Urging Hanna towards it, she positioned herself behind it, then dismounted and peered through the dense green leaves.

  Two men came into view, Herr Weber and Herr Fischer. Herr Fuchs followed close behind with three other men Saffron couldn’t quite see. Their raised jacket collars and large woolly hats made it difficult to pick out facial features.

  A shrill whistle cut through the chat. “Here,” Herr Weber yelled, beckoning for the rest of the party to join him.

  Dread clamped around Saffron’s heart like a vice. The tracks. They would see her tracks as well as the paw prints.

  “There’s hoof prints here...” Herr Fischer said, frowning.

  “I’m not bothered about no damn wild horse,” Herr Fuchs said. “I want this damn wolf. I want its head on a stake. Now.”

  Saffron’s blood turned ice cold. A wolf. She stifled a gasp, putting her hand over her mouth. Wolves always ran in packs. Was there more than one? Was Sehrstadt at risk?

  “Sir, with all due respect, we’ve been hunting this thing for years. What makes today any different to any other day?”

  “I don’t know, Peter,” Herr Fuchs replied. “What made the day the war ended any different from any other day?”

  Walter Fischer fell silent.

  Saffron’s pulse pounded through her ears. A wave of nausea, excitement, and apprehension tumbled around inside her. If they caught her, she would be in serious trouble. Time seemed to tick by with a painful slowness. Saffron looked at Hanna, pleased to see the old mare nodding off, not bothered by anything going on around her.

  At least there’s no present danger, she thought to herself.

  “Follow the tracks,” Herr Fuchs shouted to his men. “And you three, cover them up as we go.”

  Saffron watched, wide eyed in astonishment, as the three men at the back filled in the paw prints, patting down the earth to a smooth flat surface with shovels, leaving no trace of what had ever been there before.

  Waiting for several minutes after they’d disappeared, Saffron eventually came out from under her cover. She tiptoed her way over to where the paw prints had been. Not one single track remained.

  “What the...?”

  Saffron made the decision that enough was enough—for today. Mounting Hanna, she quickly made her way towards what she thought was the treeline, the way she’d come in.

  However, after riding for ten minutes in a straight line, Saffron came across a familiar looking evergreen bush stuck between two thick trees, and an unusually flat surfaced muddy path several metres in front of it.

  “What the...?”

  Confused, but trying to quash her rising panic, Saffron turned Hanna sharply to the left, heading her in a straight line for several minutes that way. When she came back to the same evergreen bush again, Saffron started to let fear take over.

  “How can this be happening?” she said, pointing Hanna in a different direction and pushing her forwards that way.

  Low and behold, ten minutes later, she was back at the same point. Terror coursed through her veins. She spun Hanna around on the spot, looking for a way out, some way, anything that pointed towards being the exit.

  But everything looked the same. Dead tree after dead tree, interspersed with the odd evergreen bush, and a forest floor of mud, patterned with Hanna’s hooves, back and forth.

  Aware that the hunting party was still out here somewhere, Saffron bit down on her tongue to stop herself from screaming out loud. Tears welled up in her eyes. She leaned forwards, resting her forearms on the front of the saddle. Closing her eyes, she allowed a few tears to fall.

  Hanna snorted and stomped her feet as she threw her head up and down. Saffron glanced up, catching sight of something in the distance. Desperate, she dug her heels into Hanna’s sides, pushing the mare into a fast canter.

  They bounded on, Hanna’s big hooves thundering through the silent forest. Saffron kept her eyes pinned on the movement behind the evergreen bush in the distance, focused on the rustling leaves. As they approached, the leaves stopped rustling. Saffron held her breath.

  Suddenly, to the right, a flurry of red dashed across Saffron’s peripheral vision. She pulled Hanna to the right, heading her towards the bright colour moving through the bland colours of the forest. Clicking to the mare to pick up the pace, the wind whipped at Saffron’s eyes, blurring her vision with tears.

  The red blob turned into a hazy mark but its vibrant colour was still clear in Saffron’s vision. Keeping it in vision, Saffron kept the mare on track, determined to catch it. All of a sudden, her mind whirled with the peculiar feeling of déjà vu. Her dream came back to haunt her, only this time in reality.

  “No,” she whispered, sitting back in the saddle and slowing Hanna down. “I wasn’t riding in my dream.”

  Wiping at the stream of tears leaking from her eyes, Saffron cleared her vision, momentarily losing sight of the red mark. When she scanned the landscape ahead of her, looking for it, she panicked as she realised it wasn’t there. It had vanished. Nothing could be seen at all.

  But what she did see was the lush green grass of Sehrstadt, twenty metres out. Crying out in relief, Saffron picked up the pace again, desperate to reach safety once more. The second they emerged from the forest, at a flat-out gallop, Saffron let out a long breath and burst into tears.
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  Chapter Eleven

  Saffron had the misfortune to think that her bad day was over. When she returned to the paddock, her father was back with Henry. Quickly patting at her eyes, she tried her best to look cheerful and just fine, but Walter was no fool.

  “What’s wrong, Saffron?”

  “Nothing, Papa. Why?”

  “Girl, don’t treat me like a fool. Put the mare away and join me inside. We need to talk.”

  A lump of trepidation formed in Saffron’s throat. Had her father seen her emerge from the forest? What could she use as an excuse? Or should she just be honest?

  She wanted to take her time tending to Hanna, to delay the inevitable, but at the same time, she knew her father wasn’t a patient man. Promising Hanna she would come back in a bit with her feed, she hurried indoors to find her father sat in his beloved chair, reading a newspaper. The open fire crackled next to him, the orange flames fiercely licking at the pile of logs he’d thrown on.

  From his wooden, hand-carved chair—lined with boar skin for comfort—Walter tore his attention from the newspaper, folded it up neatly, and placed it on the chair arm. He enjoyed keeping a track of modern events occurring in BlauPferd. The fact the papers were out of date by the time he got them didn’t bother him. It gave him something to do when he needed time away from work and his family.

  Leaning forwards, he looked up at Saffron and said, “Your mother is out. Now, tell me what’s going on, dear girl? I am not as blind as you may think.”

  “I...what do you mean?”

  His grey eyes darted towards the doorway before settling back on his daughter. “I know you’ve been in the forest, Saffron. More than once.”

  Saffron’s mouth ran dry. Her throat closed up. A hurricane of words and excuses spun around her mind, but nothing settled enough for her to form a coherent sentence.

  “You know, don’t you?” Walter said.

  Saffron’s heart thumped against her ribcage. A burst of adrenaline shot through her bloodstream, spiking her senses. “I...I...know what?”

  A light-hearted chuckle sounded from the old man. Nearing sixty, he had been late in life starting a family, but he had only wanted to do so under the right circumstances and with the right woman. He’d explained this to all his children in an effort to make them appreciate the sanctity of relationships.

  Saffron knew that her mother was twelve years younger than her father. Anna had explained that she wanted to explore life and what it had to offer her before settling down with a husband to start a family. She had been thirty before falling pregnant with Saffron, but as she was wholly satisfied with her life up to this point, she lived for her children rather than wishing she had opportunities to do things the children now prevented her from doing.

  “Dear girl,” Walter said, beckoning his daughter towards him. “You have more of me inside that head and heart of yours than you’ll ever know. Come on now, don’t take me for a fool.”

  Her breath caught in her throat as she debated playing the dumb card. After a few seconds, she glanced down at the wooden floor and nodded. “I know something isn’t right, Papa. I just don’t know what.”

  Walter smiled. “I didn’t think it would get past you. You’re too clever for your own good. What do you know?”

  “I know we’re not allowed to meet previous Offerings. I know I’ve seen wolf tracks in the woods. I know I’ve seen meat being brought back on the supply trip. I know that the hunting party isn’t hunting wild boar and pheasants. The Offerings...are they even real? Because I’m beginning to think otherwise. What is going on?”

  “I cannot say too much,” he replied. “My realistic views are often not appreciated around here, and I don’t just mean your mother.”

  Saffron frowned, alarm bells already ringing in her head. “What is it?” she whispered, her question almost a breathless gasp. “What happens to the girls who go into the forest?”

  The wise old man pulled his lips into a thin line. “They are sacrificed.”

  The sharp gasp Saffron made almost choked her. Instant fear flooded her. “For...for what?”

  “Not for what, dear girl. To what.” He licked his lips and rubbed his hands over his face. When he made eye contact with his daughter again, his shadowed eyes were full of fear. “It is a creature so hideous I cannot even begin to describe it. The mere thought of it sends shivers down my spine.” As if to prove a point, he shuddered. “It is big, Saffron. Its size would tower over both of our horses put together.”

  Thinking of the size of Henry and Hanna, Saffron wanted to call her father a liar. Nothing could be as big as that, not within these parts, surely? Someone would have seen it before now.

  “But that’s not all, Saffron. Its teeth are many, and their sharpness would rival any blade. It has claws like talons from an eagle, and its thirst for blood is greater than any animal I know.”

  All the colour drained from Saffron’s face. Assuming her father was speaking from legends and myths, she couldn’t help her response. “You’re wrong... You have to be. It can’t be true.”

  Walter smiled at his daughter. Glancing quickly towards the closed door, he turned in his chair and lifted the side of his shirt.

  When Saffron saw the ugly, red scars across the left side of his body, she jerked backwards. Four scratch marks the length of a ladle disfigured his flesh from his shoulder blade diagonally down to the front of his left hipbone. The puckered scars still looked as red and angry as if they’d been done yesterday.

  “Wh...what happened? Are you telling me you’ve met this thing?”

  “That I have, dear girl. I attempted to kill it. My sister happened to be one of its Offerings. She had a suspicious mind, just like me. When she was chosen, we hatched a plan where I would meet her on one of the hunting trails and go with her. We had everything accounted for—except it. We knew it would be some sort of beast, but I expected a bear at worst. I’d been out into the forest a few days before and dug out a pit, filling the bottom of it with wooden spikes. The idea being to lure the creature towards my sister and have it fall in the trap.”

  Saffron swallowed the dry lump in her throat. “Did it not go in the trap?”

  “Oh, it went in the trap,” Walter replied, smiling. “And it walked straight back out.”

  “What?” Saffron’s mouth hung wide open.

  “That pit was ten feet deep, eight feet long, and eight feet wide. We heard the wooden stakes pierce its body. It howled in pain. We saw blood spurt upwards. But seconds later, it jumped out like nothing had happened. I could see its wounds, Saffron. I saw straight through its body and right before my eyes, that hole sealed up like it had an invisible zip.”

  Tears sprung to Saffron’s eyes. A bitter, metallic taste lingered on her tongue. Beads of sweat formed on her palms and around her face, cooling her with their icy presence. It took her a minute to realise her entire body was quivering. Nausea rolled around in her stomach like the clothes she washed in the dolly tub.

  “But...but that’s not possible,” she whispered. “It can’t be.”

  “I had other weapons with me, in case the pit trap failed. Nothing worked on it, dear girl. Not the shotgun I had, the machete, or the spear I lodged through its heart. It all seemed to just piss it off more.”

  “So how did you escape? What happened to your sister?”

  Her father gave a sad smile. Water glistened over the wistful look in his eyes. “I like to think she made it to the City, but I’ll never know for sure. The only reason I’m alive today is because something frightened that creature away. After it swiped me here”—he placed his hand on his left side—“it froze mid-air as it took aim for my throat. It spent a few seconds sniffing the air, gave me one last look, growled, and bolted.”

  “What scared it off?”

  Walter shook his head. “I can’t say for certain. The pain from this wound was like white hot agony. I’ve had some injuries in my time, dear girl, especially working in the forge, but I can tell you that this is the most painful thing I have lived through. The excruciating pain sent me delirious, I couldn’t see straight.” He paused and looked at the floor. “I can’t be sure if the glimpse of what I saw was real or an illusion.”

  Saffron sat bolt upright. “What? What was it, Papa?”