In the days and weeks since Lagertha has adopted me, I have grown in confidence. She isn't an easy mother to please, but she allows me a lot of freedom to learn what I am capable of. I follow her every chance I get, eager to learn every bit of what she can teach me. I feel like a sponge soaking up cast amounts of knowledge I never knew existed. The paths of the Jungle have begun unraveling their tangled vines for me.
Still, it's easier for me to get lost than any of the Sisters. Sheepishly I try and backtrack the path I had taken earlier, but I am hopelessly lost. I wonder if my mother will scold me. The mountains I grew up in were never so complicated. Treachours in their own way, but not winding. But every day that life is fading, and I would have to struggle to remember.
But I do not. I was told not to, and I have obeyed.
My new world is vast, and exciting, and difficult, but I can't think of anything more wonderful.
I turn my attention back to the vines above my head, trying to sort out if any of them look familiar. Growing frustrated, I choose a direction and push forward heedlessly. Long moments pass and the jungle starts to grow wider, space opening up where flowers once were. A macaw screeches nearby and I wince. This is not the right way. I am young, not even a year old yet, and I would probably be safer by Lagertha's side but I thought I saw the black shadow again and so I slipped away.
I am about to give up and lie down when I notice a stallion. They are rare here in the jungle, and this one seems like he is waiting for something. And he doesn't look very happy about it. I move closer, my smoky black form materializing from the foliage.
“Are you lost, too?” I ask curiously, my brown eyes wide and my voice oh so serious.
the jungle princess