ONE

 

The weather had worsened. Spring was nearing, yet winter was holding on with violent desperation as the winds howled in protest to their being replaced by the softer, warmer breezes that heralded the coming of summer. She looked up into the sky, pulling her hood tighter about her face to fend off the sleety rains. She loathed the heat, much preferring the cool, but the chill cold that had crept into her bones was pushing her appreciation a little too far.

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‘We can shelter over there!’ Muffled by the howling winds, her voice was soft, but discernible, as she pointed to a craggy rock-face.

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‘You think there’s a cave?’ her brother shouted back as his hand rose to shield his eyes from the rain, dappled with snow.

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Nodding, she sensed her brother’s urgency to escape the chill as he agreed they should take a closer look.

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The fissure was slight but there was a possibility it would lead to something larger. The rocks in the foothills often did. Her only worry was that any cave should already be occupied. Bear or troll, either was likely and neither would welcome company. If they were quiet and didn’t venture too deeply in they might remain undetected; but it would be a risk.

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Lifting her feet, clad in boots made heavy from sodden mud, she began trudging towards the rocks with her brother gripping her cloak as he walked along behind her. He was older and taller, and stronger in general, but not nearly as smart or observant as she was. She smiled in spite of the conditions as she thought that he at least had the good sense to follow her.

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With her keen eyes fixed firmly on the small opening ahead, she tried to focus beyond the weather. To get lost in the drifts of snow that were threatening to white out the entire region would be catastrophic.

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‘Laana!’ her brother called to her, pulling on her cloak to force her to a halt before they had even come close to the rock face. ‘Look!’ It was his turn to point and when Laana turned and followed his arm, she set her eyes on an unnatural light in the distance. Her frown deepened as a pit opened up in her stomach at the sight.

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‘We should check for the cave first!’ she called back, showing her reluctance to interact with whoever had created the light in such an isolated and untraveled place. They were in the wilds of the foothills, the odds of stumbling upon another traveler in the middle of winter struck Laana as being extremely unlikely; not to mention she didn’t much care for strangers.

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Sighing, her brother nodded. He understood her aversion to people, but Laana knew he would much prefer to be welcomed as a guest around a fire that was already lit, and clearly thriving, than to sit in a cold cave to wait out the storm, too afraid to light their own fire in the event that they were not alone in the darkness.

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The fissure she had spied was nothing more than a deep crack in the rock face that was too narrow for any one person of normal size, like her brother, to shelter in. Laana however was not of normal size and she could have sheltered there—albeit uncomfortably—to wait out the storm. Feeling foolish for continuing on a path that led them nowhere, Laana sighed and turned. They would have to try their luck with the light.

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Fixing her eyes on the beacon that her brother had discovered, she noticed that it was fading rapidly in the distance as the weather thickened around them. It had glowed so brightly and yet it was quite far away. A homestead? Windows would explain the diffusion of the light and while it was not impossible for there to be a cottage in that area, she couldn’t help but doubt that she and her brother would be fortunate enough to stumble upon a woodcutter’s dwelling. Inhaling deeply, she said a quick prayer to Paleos, “The Father” God of Guidance and Wisdom, to beg that their path would carry them into the arms of friends rather than foes.

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‘It’s getting worse!’ her brother shouted to her as Laana steeled herself against meeting the occupants of the small home, but his observation and the urgent tone in his voice spurred her into action.

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Nodding assertively, she took hold of his breeches and reached for her spare bowstring. Pulling him closer, she tied the string around his belt fixing the other end to her own belt before they set out at a slow, laboring run. Twice she fell, pulling her brother to a halt as her weight dragged at the tether, but he helped her to her feet, his long legs giving him the advantage of easier movements in the claggy mud. After her second tumble, she began to view his height with envy. At only five feet and one inch, she hoped that by the time she was grown, she would be almost as tall as he was now at almost six feet. To torture her more, he was still growing and no matter how desperately she wished for more inches, she knew she would never catch him, it was likely she’d never even come close.

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Righted once more, she inhaled deeply as she began to plough though the terrain, and she let her mind wander. She was thirteen summers old, her brother almost seventeen. Absently she wondered how many other thirteen year old girls were ever likely to find themselves outside in that kind weather but she already knew the answer would have to be none, especially not in that region.

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Only twenty feet remained between them and the house, but still Laana could see very little of it. The snow in the sloping valley had been thick and had blanketed the whole area. As she placed her feet on it, she said goodbye to the mud that had coated the hillside, giving way to a field of purest white. She studied the structure. Its walls were caked in the powdery ice and, were it not for the light within, it could have easily been mistaken for a small earthen or rock mound in the foothills. Laana tilted her head. They could have continued stumbling blindly for days in search of the small building and never found it; were it not for the light. Three windows paned in glass—their small frames covered in thick, heavy, white powder that threatened to close the portals entirely—emitted the golden glow of the fire within; but it was the presence of glass in the windows that had Laana intrigued. Glass was a luxury, even in the great cities of Lanacoby, reserved for the wealthy and powerful. Whoever lived there must have had means, which sparked her curiosity. Why would anyone with such a fortune choose to live out there?

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‘Is anyone home?’ her brother called as he located the heavy, oak door and pounded on it with his fist, examining the construct as he peeled off his tattered mittens and blew into his hands.

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Laana’s own hands were busy adjusting her hood as her brother called to the occupants of the home, clearing her throat self-consciously at the possibility of being scrutinized by strangers. The augmenting fear and breathtaking anxiety was a familiar experience for her, but not a welcomed one.

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She’d not looked closely at her reflection in years, but Laana knew she was hideous. How could she not be? She’d suffered terrible injuries when she was a child. Her home and her family, aside from her brother, had perished in a devastating fire that had maimed her and should have rightly claimed her life but she, like her brother, had survived the inferno and the both of them had been forever marked by it.

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People didn’t understand. Wherever she went, they started at her, some even went so far as to call her names or throw things. Her heart had been broken every time but she had come to expect such behavior. Her skin was papery and as smooth as the finest silk in places, shining with the purest silver, while in others it was crinkly—like bark—and red. Her nose had all but disappeared, fusing to her cheeks with naught but small, pinched nostrils that gave her hell when she had a cold, and her lips were pulled tight and drawn downward all the time; how could people not think she was a monster? Swallowing hard, she tugged at her hood once more, trying to ensure this would not be such an occasion.

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She thought of home to distract herself. The small village was her only sanctuary. There she associated with people who had known her forever and never judged her. Her only other respite was found out in the woods or mountains. Anywhere men and women seldom went. Beyond society, neither the animals nor trees judged her and she felt peace and acceptance, things that she never experienced in the presence of strangers.

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Hearing movement inside the abode, Laana’s stomach churned in anticipation of meeting whoever dwelled there; but when the door opened, she exhaled with relief. An older woman, easily having seen half a century or more, welcomed the pair with wide eyes.

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‘What are you younglings doing out in this weather?’ she asked of them, her blue eyes widening as she quickly guided them into her small home.

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‘We were passing through and the weather soured too quickly for us to find shelter,’ Laana’s brother explained, bestowing his most radiant smile on the woman. ‘My sister thought she spied a cave up on the ridge but it proved to be nothing more than a shadow in the rocks.’

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‘You poor things, quickly now, off with those boots and cloaks,’ she said. ‘Go sit by the fire while old Treechie fixes you a cup of tea. When did you last eat?’

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Laana smiled at the woman’s fussing. Her blue eyes were sincere and any worry Laana had felt that their presence would be seen as suspicious disappeared as Treechie moved about her kitchen, quizzing them, her long, matted, gray hair bobbing behind her loosely.

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‘This morning.’ Flipping his cloak from his shoulders, Laana’s brother hung it off one of four wooden pegs that were situated in the wall. Laana always left him to speak with strangers, opting to remain silent herself in an attempt to avoid drawing unwanted attention. ‘My sister snatched a couple of eggs from a pheasant’s nest.’

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‘I’ll reheat my stew. There wasn’t much left over,’ Treechie apologized, ‘but it’s better than nothing.’

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‘Thank you, Treechie.’

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Laana and her brother both removed their boots and unshouldered their packs before moving towards the warmth of Treechie’s hearth but Laana kept her distance from the flames, permitting only the far radiance of the fire to keep her warm...

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