Glass Maker: A Fairy Tale

Chapter Four

Katherine heard the festival before she saw it, and the sounds of revelry and celebration bounced off the cobblestones. The glow of torchlight and the faraway bonfire reached the adjoining alleys that opened up into the town green, and Katherine could've followed the music and the crackle of fire instead of the golden dust. Either way, the alley spit her out into the crowd, immediately putting her elbow to elbow with others in the crowd.

The men, women, and children closest to her all had red cheeks and sparkling eyes as they sang and jostled to the fiddles in the festival center. A glimmer of twinkling lights caught Katherine's eye and a smile went to her lips, unbidden. Dancing by the fire, several girls had delicate flowers, birds, and vines of glass wrapped in their elaborate hair styling and plaits. Every single strand of glass, delicately crafted and balancing gently had been created with her own two hands. The glass radiated yellow and orange hues as the bonfire reflected their smooth surfaces.

In front of her, they created a tapestry of lights, mirroring the night sky above them and the stars surrounding the full moons. Unbidden, Katherine wondered if this was what the fae looked like while they danced. Maybe she could craft some magic into her glass, maybe her father hadn't been far off.

She shook her head, even as she continued to watch the dips and jigs of the dancers. No, nothing good would come of such thinking. Her glasswork may look like magic, but that's all it was. It just looked like something it wasn't. 

 The glass struck a stark contrast to their living, breathing, whirling owners. The dancers didn't stop, not for a moment. Katherine had never seen something so vividly alive. Had all of the festivals looked quite so heated? She must not have noticed.

Searching the ground and the mob for some sign of the gold trail she'd followed earlier, Katherine held her head high, eyeing everything from the trodden grass to the flower garlands strewn from tree to tree. Beyond the flickers and sparks from the fire, nothing caught her eye, and Katherine squinted.

Had she been wrong?

She let the crush jostle her, going along with the movements of the townsfolk. Her gaze traveled the length of the park, looking for familiar faces. Neither of her parents was anywhere to be found, but she had no doubt they were present. Not that they expected her to attend— that would surprise them. It wasn't that she didn't like celebrations; it was more that they'd never bothered to ask if she was going at all. Her mother would be with the society ladies she grew up with. Her father would either be in the barrel or back at the tavern she'd rescued him from the night before.

Neither had checked on her throughout the day and for the thousandth time in her life, Katherine wondered what it would be like to have parents that weren't so self-absorbed. If her daughter accidentally summoned a fae-ish being, she'd want to know immediately, but Katherine had no daughters, and she hoped she got the chance to instill in them the good sense to not look for trouble.

Not that such notions did her any good.

Katherine found herself pushed towards the crowd edge, closer to the dancing couples, and not for the first time, she wondered if the fae were truly among them. The dancers now pranced a galliard, keeping time with the music. The dainty feet of the women fluttered quickly through the steps, each jump over before it truly began, but matching their partners beat for beat. They circled each other, and Katherine's eyes widened as the swishing of one woman's skirts revealed what she'd been looking for.

There, sparkling and lying in wait, the trail of gold continued, but it disappeared from her line of sight before she got a chance to see where it led. There was no way through without breaking up the dance, and she would draw attention to herself immediately if she ran out into the dance without a partner.