Starlight And Mist

The Forest

It was a perfect summer day. The sunlight was pouring lazily across a large field of tall wild grass, peppered with puffs of dandelions and colorful wild flowers. Birds were singing, bugs were chirping and humming. In the distance, the cheerful bubbling of a brook could be heard. The whole world seemed as though it were at peace.
Everything, that is, except for her.
Eiris snorted to herself at the thought that everything was as it should be except for her.
Her skin felt too warm under her ill-fitting long sleeved tunic, the heavy leather fighting boots she wore slowing her down as she trudged across the large open field. Every once in a while, she'd trip over loose earth and curse under her breath, more frustrated as the day wore on.

The small silver dagger hanging from her belt thunked against her thigh with every step, adding to her growing irritation.
The trill of insects and the slight breeze against her sweat slicked skin were welcome distractions as her last conversation with her father played on a loop in her head, although she tried to shove it down.
Her father had been very frustrated with her, which was nothing new. She was always slipping up, not meeting his expectations. And frequently, it blew over by the next day, amd they continued their awkward attempts at pretending to be a family. But this time, she truly felt trapped, a lone rabbit caught in the snare of a ruthless hunter with no way out but to chew off her own leg.
Her stomach felt like it was full of acid as she thought about her predicament, swatting the air around her head as she walked through a small cloud of gnats.

She came to a stop by a scraggly looking bush, stopping to survey the world around her, thankful for a break in her monotonous journey.
The field sprawled out wide in every direction, a tree line visible to the west, and although not visible, she knew that a three days ride through this field to the east would bring you to the Valorician mountains. A mountain range that surrounded them on three sides, nestling the small Valorian kingdom between it's peaks and the ocean.
On the other side of the mountains were many civilizations that she had only read about and caught snippets of whispers about in her fathers court.

She was headed towards the woods in the west. As a child, she'd frequently heard fairytales of wolves that were half man, the tricky fae that were known for being word smiths and stealing small children in the middle of the night, the ethereal witches and mages that would lure men to their deaths through acts of love.
She smiled to herself as she remembered the tales from her youth and started towards the west again.
It was hard to imagine her forest to be full of such monsters. To her, it was the only home she had ever loved. Her anchor and safe place when she felt utterly alone. She smiled at the thought of the familiar trees, the mossy hills and small trails made by the animals of the forest. Foxes and raccoons and squirells. Deer and elk.
All the animals she had been taught to respect, to hunt, to be thankful for.

Another hour passed relatively uneventfully, with the exception of a few wild birds startling her. She had reached an out cropping of trees that were so tall that they looked as though they were dipping their top most branches into the cool blue pool of sky, stirring the sparse clouds, sending invisible ripples across the great blue expanse.
The familiar smell of pine needles and warm earth filled her nose as she stopped to check the horizon behind her. It was important for prey to always be alert, lest the predator catch them unaware. Satisfied that she had not somehow been tracked and followed, she traveled further into the thick trees.

She looked around her at the familiar white bark of the birch trees, the loamy ground thick with ferns and dropped limbs, dried leaves shivering in the slight breeze under her feet.
The low limbs of old maples, western larch and hemlock trees formed little arches throughout the forest.
As her eyes adjusted to the shady area, she could make out the thickets where the deer would sleep, the displaced leaves underfoot betraying to the trained eye where they wandered.
She noticed several fox tracks and smiled at the memory of tracking the majestic beasts, with their dull red coats and black socks, with her father as a young girl.
She released a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding as the trees began to thin, and a small cottage came into view.
It was a sad sight to behold. It was a small rounded stone building, the grey stones covered in moss and climbing ivy. The roof had been thatched and sealed with pitch by her father to keep it from leaking when it rained. The roof was riddled with small holes now where animals had dug through it to get shelter during the cold or rainy months. Dappled sunlight flicked through the holes with the swaying canopy of leaves abouve it.
The heavy front door was hand carved wood with a small stained glass circle window in it, and a large bent stick for a handle.
Her mother had hand painted a collection of leaves and vines and flowers onto the door once upon a time, but they had been all but washed away with time, as the paints had been made with ingredients she had found in the woods.
She smiled sadly to herself, rubbing her thumb over the familiar carved handle. This home was a love letter to her mother from her father. It broke her heart to see it left to the bugs and the elements, with only occasional visits from herself. It had been completely forgotten by her father.