The Lady of Waterleaf and Wire

Fifteen Years Later

Fifteen years had come and gone since Johnathan Cooper's near-fatal hunting trip. His father had passed years ago, his mother aged, but sustained off of her lands, and his sister had moved east for an exciting city life, although John thought his world in the west was plenty exciting. Rose Cooper's mother and father were both gone to the realms of angels, as she said. But she'd forever be glad that they'd both made the wedding, which had been one of the most lavish Cadwell had ever seen. Rose's dress flowed a mile behind her, the townsfolk said. Her bouquet was as beautiful as Eden itself and the wedding arch could've been a bridge to heaven.

The couple was still childless after all their years. The rumor in town was that Rose was barren. Whether or not it was true, neither partner seemed to care. They lived together on the edge of the southern woods together where, the townsfolk said at least, Rose would don her father's old hunting gear and march off into the woods with her husband in tow. Even in fifteen years, Johnathan had not returned to the forest at the western edge of town. Superstition, they called it, and Johnathan agreed.

Today, however, Johnathan had forgotten to be superstitious or perhaps his countrymen had convinced him to return to the woods that had nearly claimed his life as a boy. With a cartload of his belongings and his Rose in hand, he'd return, this time permanently, to the woods. A group of men and their wives from the east joined him. They'd traveled by covered wagon for months for the opportunity to settle the frontier. Johnathan had never bumped along trails in a wagon, but he felt he'd made his own trek from a poor farm boy, foolish and naive to the husband of Rose Cooper, the most beautiful woman in the world. Still, he and Rose had grown bored of domestic life, and like so many others, adventure seemed just a wagon's ride away. At the opportunity, John had agreed to accompany the party, as an excellent hunter and forager, so long as he too could create his home in the woods. An adventure! A wild life! He told his wife, and finally, she'd agreed to leave behind their home for a new world.