North of Maya is just trees, the Warigan Woods. Deep, dark forests that the townsfolk never went into 'cept when they were desperate and fools. So of course the beaten path is wide and well-worn. She wakes and slips past the gate out of town and walks up into the thick tangle of twisted trees. Morning sunlight coming down through the canopy. It could almost be a fairytale. The road north winds and bends, runs into bushes and over boulders. Those woods are Old and alive. She doesn't think much of them though. Too many smooth branches, and she likes branches. She breaks her blind pilgrimage more than once to climb and swing. Rodhides watch her from the dark corners under the brush, but none make a move. They didn't expect to see any more folk coming through the Woods. One comes close, out into the light, and takes a closer look. Girl laughs and waves. Guess she's still young after all. She just keeps swinging, not a care in the sky. She knows she's at home swinging, hanging on to lines and vines, ropes and riggings. She knows she'll have to have a ship before she gets off this rock. She keeps walking, finding the road, losing the path, finding her way. Girl starts making a list in that silly head. Everything she'll need, everything she'll want for her next trip. Just as if she were doing inventory back home in her folks' shop. She gets to the edge of the Woods and looks back with a smile dancing on the corners of her lips. Maya'd tell stories about her for years if they could have seen her, smiling and making her way. No one's ever gotten through the Woods alone and untouched in one go. No one. Not one.
YOU ARE READING
A Simple Story
Fantasy~ A Skies of Fortuna Tale ~ "It's a simple enough story to start, and it starts like so many do. It starts with a storm." So begins the account of a lost girl exploring a dangerous, secret mountain in the sky. Shipwrecked and abandoned, she begins t...
