Glass Maker: A Fairy Tale

Chapter Eight

If there was any night meant to be plagued with nightmares, it was perhaps the one Katherine spent under the branches of the pine tree. However, when she blinked into the soft morning sunlight, filtering through sprill-filled branches and accompanied by the rustling of bird song, she woke to find her sleep had been undisturbed. She sat up against the tree trunk, the rough bark catching a little on the fabric of the mossy blanket still wrapped around her. Despite the chill in the air, nipping at her cheeks and nose, the blanket battled the cold even as she woke.

She closed her eyes against the sun and the unfamiliar scent of pine, earth, and an ever-present smell of dampness. Other than her walks to the cemetery, she'd never spent much time within the forest or even outside of the walls of Lakesedge. Despite its namesake, a forest-surrounded lake on the edges of the town, it lay nearly abandoned due to the same superstitions that kept the townsfolk from the forest. Katherine maybe didn't believe in lake monsters before, but she might after last night.

Against her eyelids, images of her swirling dance with the king drifted unbidden. Haunting silvers bled into thoughts of her flight with Samuel, her unexpected but not unwelcome hero. She was loathe to use the word, but it was true enough. Although, all the heroes she'd ever heard of never required anything in return. Wasn't that how it was in the bedtime tales? She scrunched her nose, her eyes still closed, before opening them with increasing curiosity.

Taking in the sight of the long-departed fire, its embers gray and blackened, and the rest of the small clearing they'd found refuge in, she squinted. The sun was higher in the sky than she expected, its bright rays giving off the appearance of midday more so than morning. After years of waking early to tend the glass shop hearth, run errands, and scamper to watch the baker's earliest works with her sister, she could feel the late hour in her bones.

Why hadn't Samuel woken her earlier?

As she looked around their makeshift campsite, the answer soon revealed itself and Katherine felt her stomach drop to her toes. Samuel was nowhere to be seen, and Katherine was entirely alone in the clearing, only the ashes of the fire, the fallen log, and the moss blanket remained to keep her company.

She surged to her feet, taking her covering with her as she went to where she last saw Samuel, by the edge of the fire. The place he'd claimed as his perch, the very end of the log, and as far as he could get from Katherine without falling off of the log entirely, lay abandoned. There wasn't even a single sign that he'd been there at all.

It wasn't that she expected it, but against her will she searched the bushes and the fallen leaves from the prior year's autumn for the tell-tale golden dust she'd now learned to expect to come with magic, fae, and all things unnatural. There was no sign of it, not a glitter, not a shimmer. The only thing magic was the memories of the night before and the gold hem of her day-old dress.

Spinning in a circle, Katherine took in the sight of the ancient pines and even older forest floor. If anything peered back at her, she could not tell, but she blinked against her rising panic. Had it all been a dream?

She looked down at the seams of her work dress, the trusty blue fabric, worn from years and years of use, and the sight of the gold dismayed and reminded her. No, it wasn't a dream.

But where had Samuel gone? Had he decided to abandon her to her journey and fate?

She shook her head, even as she continued to look, scanning the area behind the log and where she'd slept. No, he hadn't seemed like he'd abandon her. She still couldn't tell what his angle was, but she doubted he'd expend so much effort for a lost cause.

A shine of silver caught Katherine's eye as she bent over the log, and she crouched lower to rustle through the crackling leaves. She didn't have to search far. On top of the leaves, as if dropped there straight from the hand it had been on lay a silver ring.