Beyond the Mist and Trees

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Snow crunched beneath my padded feet, and as if in answer, the icy wind gushed through the trees of the forest, and then through the mist, sucking smoky blanket of white before it laced itself back in shape; like water would after the water nymphs jumped into its surface. The tiny opening rendered the village on the other side vulnerable, and in a blink, it was safe from us again.

The little stone cottages stood close together, like the humans who built them would whenever the cold got too much, drinking from their steaming cups.

I did not know the language they spoke, but I knew enough of unspoken things to understand a few. I knew the girl with short hair was tired as she shoveled snow, her movement growing slower and sluggish as time passed. In the many years I watched her and her friends, I knew whenever she was happy because she laughed like how Ivy would. And I knew her anger when she stormed to the mist weeks ago after a day of plowing snow and shouted at me with tears spilling from her eyes.

It took courage for a human to seek out the Guardian of the Mist and scream at him. I did not understand her words, but I read the unspoken signs...the fury. It was in the tears that spilled, in the shaking of her voice and flesh.

I might feel the same if I were her. I would feel betrayed and as equally furious if my own people elected my sister to walk through the mist and be gone forever to be the next bride of the Snow King, the all-powerful ruler of the forest at the other side of the mist that everyone feared.

But what was she saying as she shouted at me? Did she want to see the Snow King? Did she want me to help her? But how could I? I did not know where to find the Snow King. He lived deep in the forest, in a realm I and many other creatures could not find nor see unless he willed it.

The young woman was dragged away by her equally distraught father when she confronted me. They shouted at each other, but then they comforted each other, shaking in each other's arms before they disappeared back into the safety of the village. Back to their family.

Unlike that woman, I never knew my parents. My mother left me in the care of Otto, the Guardian of the Mist. I never had questions until I saw Ivy's friends with their mothers, and the animals with theirs. Until I saw the humans with theirs.

"Everyone does things differently, Wren. Some parents cannot fend for their young so they leave them to those who can," Otto once told me. And that's what he did. He cared for me. And although he did not have to, he went beyond that. He became my father because I wanted one, my friend because I needed one, and my mentor because the mist needed a constant guardian.

He taught me everything about the mist, why it was there, and how to control it. In time, as I grew older, the mist became my pride. As its guardian, I alone could control it. Otto also made certain I understood the rule: no lifting of the mist until the day I had to, or if the Snow King showed himself and ordered me to.

But it had been years since the king did that. Epochs, as a matter-of-fact. He never showed himself. Perhaps he never found the need to. His subjects obeyed his rules, even the humans. They, after all, always delivered the brides on time. Always on the first day of summer—the only summer after fifty years.

Fresh snow had long buried the marks of the woman's footsteps and that of her father. It was a wise move to retreat from the mist because if she had stepped closer, I would have had no choice. I would have had to punish her.

She would have a few more months to prepare for her sister's departure. She looked lifeless since that day she came to the mist. I could only hope she would stay away until her sister had to go.

For centuries, everyone did their part. I know I would when the time came, and as a mere human who feared the Snow King, she should, too.

Night had fallen and I stepped away from the mist after making sure no human was nearby. Many of Otto's teachings were about them and their tendencies—how they could be unpredictable and impetuous. How they would disregard rules.