The Girl With Silvered Water

Chapter 4

Welcome back! Shout out to VolutionChronicles for voting for my story! Thank you so much for your support! Now please enjoy chapter 4!

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Finally, the weekend arrived with a bubble of warmer weather. Colorful flowers and sharp stalks of grass sprouted up everywhere beckoned by the warm spring breezes. The Ransford villagers also answered the breezes' call. People flooded the village streets in throngs, making it easy for one who'd acquired the art of slipping through the shadows to leave the village undetected. It had been a bit over a week since the last time Kalara was able to sneak away to the forest.

Several times after work, she'd tried unsuccessfully to slip away but every time she was hounded by her fellow employees or her old classmates who were determined to make sure she didn't forget her miserable existence. But thanks to the masses of people milling around in the streets, Kalara was able to sneak out of the village and escape to Elswich Forest.

Upon reaching Elswich, Kalara explored the fringes of the forest for a new spot to call her own. Her old spot was scarred with painful memories of Leah's latest attack and it was likely being guarded by that cold-eyed elf, Raia, who seemed determine to make sure she never set foot in the forest again. Kalara wouldn't let that happen. Elswich Forest had been her refuge since she moved here after her mother's death. She'd been able to escape here undisturbed for the past sixteen years, no way she'd let a single frosty elf destroy her sanctuary. The war was going to do that soon enough anyways.

Maybe it would have been wiser to abandon the forest since, for the first time, an elf was alerted to her presence and war would probably start before the year end. Still, Kalara couldn't bear the thought of never coming back to Elswich. Escaping to a new world through reading wasn't enough; she needed the security of a physical release from her daily burdens. The forest was exactly that. No judging eyes watching her every movement. No mean smiles and degrading whispers. In Elswich she could be free from the suffocating village and the constant ridicule. Rules didn't bind her every movement and her father's tired look of disappointment didn't reach through the trees. That's why she would keep coming back to the forest until war made it impossible.

After twenty minutes of searching, Kalara successfully found a new spot. It was much smaller than her old one, barely five feet across from the base of the great oak on one side to the tangled wall of bracken and saplings on the other. The Ransford River was near enough Kalara could hear the gurgling of the water softly in the background and the spot was close enough to the edge of the forest she could faintly see the wide expanses of the swaying shoots in the fields beyond Elswich. Still, the thick undergrowth and splattering of trees provided enough cover to conceal her from view. Unlike her old clearing where the tree coverage was very dense, light was able to slip through the leaves here and dapple the mossy forest floor with little splotches of sunlight. Kalara thought it a very cozy and cheery little place.

Tucking the edge of her brown cotton skirt under her, Kalara deftly fluffed her bangs out of her eyes with a swipe of her hand and re-tucked her lightly pleated white cotton blouse into the skirt's high waist. Kalara nuzzled against the base of the big oak and pulled a book from her satchel. It wasn't long before Kalara was lost in the story, not noticing the muted footfalls approaching her.

A shadow swallowed the black text on her page. "What do you think you're doing, you little trespasser?" Little icy tendrils froze her heart and Kalara jerked her head up to find herself staring into the cold unmovable eyes of Raia.

Kalara faltered, "H-hello..."

Raia frowned down at her, "I thought I made it clear to stay out of the forest? Can your puny human mind not understand such a simple order?"