Transient Relief

Chapter 1

Goldilocks slowly sits up in her hammock. She dangles her legs off to the side before pushing off. She gathers her boots but doesn't put them on, the pads of her feet keeping her much quieter. Papa's and Baby's snoring are the dominant sounds in the cabin, but she still tries to keep her own noise to a minimum.

She picks up the lantern that sits on the windowsill. With it being right by where her head lays, it has made it more preferable to read while lying down than to fall asleep at the table. Next is the staff that is propped up at the other end of the hammock. And lastly, she makes sure to snag her canteen from the kitchen cabinet, having already filled it up with water that evening.

Every other step taken towards the door is a peek to the side at the three beds, glancing more at Mama, knowing she's the lightest sleeper out of them. Goldi pulls back on the branch handle, allowing a gentle breeze in. Once it's wide enough to let herslip through, she takes one last glimpse back at her family, who are all still sound asleep.

After throwing on her boots outside, she begins walking. The flame from the candle is just bright enough to light three steps in front of her. The luminescence from the stars is mostly covered by the leaves and limbs of the oak. Grass soon turns to dirt, and her silent steps grow crunchy under her shoes.

It doesn't take her long to reach the small stream with an opening in the trees, lighting up her surroundings more. Goldi lays her stuff down to the side and sits at the edge. She then pulls off her boots before letting her feet dip into the cold water. A chill darts up her spine, but she doesn't pull out. The gentle current and the streambed's mixture of rock and sand feel pleasing against her feet and ankles. Propping her chin in her hands, she looks out across the stream, but not at anything in particular.

Then everything that had been bubbling up since the day they got back wobbles, and silent tears begin streaming down her face.

She wanted to scream, to let it all out until she physically couldn't make any more noise. But that would be stupid; she didn't know who all was wandering around in the dark woods, so she refrained. But it was all still building up; the teardrops weren't sufficient. They weren't easing her enough.

So she begins to ponder. Anything to help soothe her. What pops into her head is waking up in the cabin she had broken into, and who she had woken up to: three bears. Mama and Papa took a liking to her from the get-go, the female bear especially.

Surprisingly to her, the homeowners displayed no indignation towards her demolition; she was even offered more food and the option to sleep there if she had wanted. Which she reluctantly accepted, still wary. But the child couldn't keep it up for too long, as their treatment of her began wearing down her demeanor. Her treatment of...well, like she was gold.

But she didn't receive that from everyone.

Baby wasn't exactly fond of her when she showed up. It was his belongings that suffered the most from her small, grabby hands. But that hadn't been the prime reason for his distaste for her. Looking back on it, stealing his parents away was worse than any amount of damage she could have done to his stuff.

Mama always scolded him for whatever he would mutter under his breath that had her name in it, and Papa would smack him over the head just by looking at her wrong. But even then, he wanted nothing to do with her. And he downright refused to refer to her as anything that resembled "sister."

Which was fine. She didn't exactly see him as her sibling for quite a while either. But then it just kind of happened out of the blue one day. They weren't but a few minutes into eating lunch before they were arguing. She couldn't remember what it was about, which probably meant that it was about something stupid, but she remembered how she felt when Baby called her a "porridge-stealing orphan."