The huntsman talked to me as we walked, apparently trying to put me at my ease with friendly conversation. His name was Samuel, as he and his men were on their way to a kingdom called Alberny, which I gathered was a long way away from where we currently were. It involved passing through the Dark Forest, across the Black Mountains, and through the Enchanted Forest.

I was not impressed with the imagination of whoever had named these locations, but I was impressed by the amount of traveling Samuel and his men were prepared to undertake.

“Why do you need to go so far?” I asked him.

A sort of far away look came into his eyes, and all he offered in response was a vague, “I want to see an old friend.”

I didn’t pry.

It only took about twenty minutes to stumble onto the forest path. Samuel had a map of the area, and he periodically sent one of his men up into a tree to take a look at the stars to ensure that we were still heading in the right direction. Just like I had suspected, I had probably been wandering in circles for ages. I was stupidly lucky that I ran into the huntsmen when I did.

“Thank you so much!” I said to Samuel and the others. “I never would have been able to find my way back on my own, you probably saved my life.”

“Do you recognize this place? Can you find your way back to your companions from here?” Samuel asked.

I looked around, trying to spot something familiar about the section of the path we had come out on.

I looked up the path.

I looked down it.

I looked at the trees lining either side of it.

“Um…” I said, and I realized that I had no idea, not even the foggiest idea, whether I’d already been here or not. “I don’t… I don’t know,” I admitted. I felt my stomach sink, and I looked helplessly at Samuel. “Which… which way do you think I should go?” I asked him, even though he surely had even less of an idea than I did.

To his credit, he didn’t just shrug and say “I dunno, your problem now, lady” and take off. He considered my question for almost a full minute, and even quietly asked one of his men their opinion on the subject. 

Finally he said, “I think continuing forwards is the wisest choice. If we have come out behind the place where you and your companions set up camp for the night, then we will come across it in due time. If you were to double back, you may waste valuable hours covering miles of path to no avail, and then you would have to double back once again just to return to this spot. Hours would be wasted, and you would likely be left too exhausted to continue, and risk not finding your friends again. If we are in front of the camp you and your friends made, then before long we will come to the inn that is halfway through these woods. That will be a long walk, but less so than mistakenly doubling back, and you will find a warm bed and good food at the end of it. Besides, it is likely that eventually, if your friends are searching for you, they will head to the inn at some point to inquire whether you have been seen there. It would be easier and more comfortable to wait for them there, than to wander up and down this road in the hopes of running into them.”

“You keep saying ‘we’,” I said, a little hesitantly.

Samuel smiled. “We won’t abandon you now. Like you and your companions, we had set up camp for the night to avoid having to travel after dark. But now we might as well continue, and enjoy a more comfortable rest in the inn. Besides, there is safety in numbers, and you oughtn’t to be traveling these roads alone at night. Giant spiders are, unfortunately, among the least of the dangers out here.”

We walked another two hours with no sign of Jack or Erik, or our camp, or any sign that they had passed this way at all. It seemed as though the Twelve Huntsmen and I had really come onto the path ahead of where I had first gone into the woods to take an ill-advised pee, but like Samuel had said, it was too late now to backtrack another two hours, probably more, in search of our campsite. It had to be nearing midnight now, and after about twelve hours of hard walking, I just didn’t have the energy for that. So ahead we forged, and all I could do was hope that Jack and Erik would come to the inn sometime tomorrow in the hopes that I had found my own way there. I tried not to think too much about the possibility that they had gone into the woods after me, and were even now lost themselves, perhaps getting attacked by spiders or wolves, or worse.

Finally, after what seemed like an age, we saw a pale yellow glow breaking through the trees ahead.

“The inn,” Samuel said, sounding audibly relieved, and all thirteen of us put on a burst of speed to hurry down the remainder of the path towards the warm light.

The light was coming from a lamp that hung from an iron peg on the front of the building, which was a small, two story stone cottage. Samuel hurried on ahead of the rest of the group and pounded on the front door. A few long moments passed, until I started to get worried that no one might answer. But then the door swung open, and a bleary eyed man stood there, blinking groggily at all of us. He looked confused at first, then as his eyes scanned the veritable mob before him, increasingly alarmed. Then his expression settled into one of weary resignation.

“You all are seeking hospitality?” he said.

“We are,” answered Samuel. “Can you accommodate us all?”

“If some of you are willing to sleep in the barn I can,” replied the man. He sighed, and jerked his head towards the dark interior of the inn. “Come on in. The stables for your horses are around the back.”

About half of Samuel’s men led the horses towards the stables, while the rest of us crowded into the compact main room of the halfway house. The owner had to squeeze past us all to disappear into another room, from which he reappeared with bowls of food and mugs of ale. It took him a dozen trips to pass out food and drink to everyone, and when the other six huntsmen came back from stabling the horses, the little room became so crowded that we had to start passing bowls of lukewarm stew over our heads to the people in the back, because the owner could no longer squeeze his ample stomach between us all.

“I’m afraid it’s not warm,” he said, “I rarely get visitors this late, so the kitchen fire has been out for hours now. The ale’s good though, and the beds are comfortable enough. There are extra blankets I can get for those who will be sleeping in the barn, and the hay will make a decent enough bedding. I’ll haven’t really the supplies to feed this many mouths, but I’ll scrounge something up for you all to break your fast come morning. That’s the best I can provide though, I’m afraid.”

“That’s more than we expected to find on this night,” Samuel replied, and he passed the man a handful of silver and copper coins. “We’re grateful for your hospitality.”

Lots were drawn to decide who would get one of the beds upstairs, and who would spend the night in the barn. I declined to participate, insisting that I wanted to stay down here in this main room, where I would know the minute the Erik and Jack showed up—if they did.

“It’ll be less comfortable sleeping down here on the hard floor than it would be even on a pile of fresh hay in the barn,” the innkeeper warned me, but my mind was made up.

He provided me with a couple of thick, itchy wool blankets, and soon everyone was parting ways, half of the huntsmen heading off back outside towards the barn, the rest filing upstairs to fall into their beds. Samuel lingered, offering me a comforting smile and a pat on the back.

“I’m sure your friends will be fine. No doubt they’ll come here first thing in the morning and find you safe and well.”

“I’m more worried about finding them safe and well,” I admitted.

Once Samuel too had headed off for a much needed night’s rest, I wrapped myself in the blankets and lay down on the uncomfortable floor, where I could watch the door. I felt nauseous with doubt and worry, for both my new friends’ safety and what I would do if I never saw them again; and the hard floor was painful against my shoulders and hip. I just couldn’t get comfortable, and I couldn’t stop feeling sick with worry. I was positive I’d never get to sleep at this rate, but apparently I underestimated just how drained I was, because the next thing I knew, my thoughts were sliding off into strange, dream-like territory, involving things with too many legs and distant lights in the darkness that I couldn’t quite catch up too—and then sleep finally claimed me.

                                                             *   *   *                                                               

I was awoken an indeterminate amount of time later by pounding on the door.

I jackknifed into a sitting position so hard that I pulled a muscle in my neck, trying and failing to raise my arms defensively. They were pinned to my side, and for a moment I fell into a panic, struggling and thrashing against imagined spider web cocoons until I realized that I was tightly wrapped up in blankets, which were keeping me from freeing my arms. It was an effort to free myself, having gotten badly tangled up in the blankets after a long night of tossing and turning, and by the time I finally was able to extricate my legs, the innkeeper had appeared from the room off the side to answer the door.

I was just rising to my unsteady feet as he pulled it open, and I saw over his shoulder Erik and Jack standing there on the step, looking exhausted and miserable and filthy.

“Erik! Jack!” I cried.

At my cry, their gazes slid past the innkeeper and landed on me, and their mouths both dropped open.

“Rikki?” Jack asked.

“You know these two?” the innkeeper said, turning to look at me suspiciously, as if he was doubtful about the two scruffy young men standing in his doorway.

“She most certainly does,” Erik snarled, fixing me with a positively murderous glare.

The innkeeper sighed, then stood aside to let them enter. “Fifteen mouths to feed,” he muttered under his breath. “Getting ridiculous.” He shuffled off back where he had come from, into what I presumed was the inn’s kitchen.