Far away from Delaney, something stalked through the shadows of the forest.  Eyes scanned the ground and picked up the trail of broken branches and crushed grass.  Things weren\'t sitting as they would be naturally.  Something had passed through here.  Something large.

Moving silently forward, bright eyes flashed with the reflection of the moonlight.  The beast that had made this trail could be easily followed.  It wouldn\'t be long before this hunter found the thing it hunted.

-

Delaney stood still looking towards the fairy ring.  After the fairy music and then the buzzing, the forest seemed unnaturally quiet.  She walked slowly forward, stepping lightly over the ring of toadstools left behind by the fairies dancing.  Delaney now wondered if their forest was littered with rings of mushrooms from the fairies\' night-time fun.

Looking back in the direction she had come from, Delaney held her breath and scanned the trees around her, looking for Frost.  She sighed.  Her mount was nowhere to be seen.

There was no point in waiting here.  She was far away from Edgewood and no one knew to look for her.  At least not yet.  It was still nighttime.  At least if she wasn\'t home by dawn then the men from the stables would alert the guards to her escape.  It would still take them hours to find her.  Right now she was so far away that even if she screamed no one would hear it.

With a terrified and pounding heart, Delaney began slowly through the trees.  She strained her mind to try to remember the way Mabon had led her.  It was no use though.  Her mind had been distracted thinking about the fairies.  She looked around trying to recognize something but nothing stood out.  She passed a tree that had been split down the middle long ago by lightning and knew she absolutely had never seen that.

She was never going to get out of here.

With angry tears in her eyes, Delaney walked and tried to be as quiet as she could be.  She remembered how her husband moved through the forest and tried her best to mimic it.  Still much louder than he ever was, she felt discouraged but continued on.

The moon was no longer directly above her.  It had started the slow descent towards the horizon.  Dawn was still a long way off however and even in daylight, there was no guarantee Delaney would be safe.  She needed to try to find her way home.

As she walked she listened to the animals calling from all around her.  She recognized the sounds of an owl but not much else and that only made her more nervous.  Insects chirped and called nearby but would go silent when she passed.  Delaney had no idea if she was traveling the right way but she didn\'t think she should stop.

-

A shadow swept over the forest floor, its owner moving very quickly.  Small animals hiding in the undergrowth saw this coming and scrambled away, fleeing for their lives.  The shadow was growing longer as the moon moved in the night sky but it only blinked into existence when it met a patch of the moonlight that managed to make it down through the trees.  Otherwise, it was swallowed up in the inky shadows of the night.

The eyes of the forest were on this intruder but fell silent when it passed.  Hardly a twig or stone was disturbed by the passing.  The trail being followed came to an end at a stream of rushing cold water but that didn\'t stop the one following it.  The shadow passed over the water before its owner splashed through and came upon the trail starting up again on the other side.

-

Delaney didn\'t know how long she had been walking but she looked up and saw the moon was getting lower in the sky.  She was still on edge but had managed to slow her heart so it wasn\'t pounding in her ears.  Now she could focus on listening to the world around her.  Vincent had always watched and listened for threats when they walked in the woods and she had never known what exactly he was on guard for.  She wished she had asked him.

Even though she was trying to stay alert, Delaney found her mind continued to float back to Nell and the fairies.  She had thought that she had finally found her solution.  She had felt sure that the princess of the fairies would be able to help her stay with the man she loved.  With that dream crushed, Delaney felt hopeless.

As she continued on she finally recognized something familiar but this made her heart sink.  It was the old tree split down the middle.  If she was seeing it again now then that meant she had spent the last hour or so walking in a large circle.

Defeated, Delaney dropped to the ground in front of the tree and pulled her knees up under her cloak.  She folded her arms over her knees and lowered her head onto them.  Hot tears spilled down her cheeks but she worked hard to keep herself silent as she cried.  The last thing she needed to do was start sobbing and alert every predator in the forest to her presence.

So she sat as quietly and as still as she could although her crying made her body tremble.  Lost in the woods with her eyes closed now, she suddenly found herself wishing she could just keep them closed.  When she opened them she wanted to find herself back home at Edgewood in her nice soft bed with her husband\'s warm, strong arms around her.  She wanted their life to be different.  There would be no foolish deal and they would be preparing to have a baby of their own.

As she cried Delaney didn\'t notice a creature step out of the woods and move towards her.  She wasn\'t alert as her husband would have been so she didn\'t hear the sounds of it moving.  Vincent also never would have sat down and closed his eyes if he was exposed out in the forest.  Delaney didn\'t know the creature was upon her until she felt warm breath against her cheek.

Jerking upright, Delaney\'s eyes flew open and she let out a choked scream.  Her heart felt as if it would burst out of her chest from fear and her blood rushed until she could almost hear it in her ears.  She tried to scramble backward but felt her back slam into the tree trunk she had forgotten she was sitting against.

Breathing hard, she took in the sight of the animal in front of her, and slowly her mind began to process what was there.

"F-Frost," she whispered at last, "Oh my god Frost you scared me!  I think my heart nearly stopped."

Using the tree to support herself she got to her feet and looked him over once more.

"You... You came back," she whispered as the realization dawned on her, "You didn\'t leave me behind.  Oh, Frost!"

She threw her arms around the half-unicorns thick neck, giving him a hug.  Relief washed over her like a warm wave.  Maybe she wouldn\'t be lost out here forever after all.  Maybe she would get out of the woods in one piece.

Patting the beast, she walked to his side and wondered how she would get back into the saddle.  Frost was taller than most horses and there was no one around to help her.  Glancing behind her, she saw the split tree and got an idea.  She led Frost to stand beside it.  She then stepped up into the middle of the split in the tree.  It was just tall enough to allow her to climb up into her saddle.

"Alright you wonderful boy," she whispered, "Please take us home."

Delaney gently nudged the creature to start walking and eased up on the reins so he could go where he wanted.  She just had to hope that was back to the stables and not deeper into the woods in search of his father.  Looking around, she still recognized nothing.

-

Not too far away now, the dark shadow had stopped when Delaney\'s scream echoed through the air.  Its owner paused and seemed to be listening for more.  After a moment it dove forward along the trail.  It was gaining on the ones it was after.

-

Delaney rode along on Frost and was now so relieved she was smiling.  Lost in happy thoughts, she didn\'t notice when a dark figure appeared on the trail ahead of them.  She didn\'t notice when the figure stepped forward, staring at them while the moonlight flashed in the eyes.

Seeing the woman and the beast walking slowly forward, the shadowy figure shot towards them.  Frost slowed to a stop and Delaney turned in confusion to see what was going on.  As soon as her eyes landed on what was hurtling towards them though, she took a deep breath.

There was no running from what was going to happen.