Of Spinning Gold and Song

| Thirty Three | The End

There was something satisfying about going home, just the three of us. Prince Lawrence had been generous to gift us with Creel, and the horse did seem to be quickly becoming Rosie's best friend. Even if we weren't riding him--we'd all had more than enough horseback riding for a lifetime--I was glad she could have those few moments of happiness. And our feet stayed blissfully on the ground; my throat was safe from the parchment.

The three of us were really how it had all been. We had grown up together and gone adventuring in the woods. And now we were going home.

Home. For that was really what it was. I had always longed to get out, to get out of my family of horrors and into the real world. I wasn't sure I wanted that anymore. Maybe again in the future. Maybe a long, long time away. But that was not for now.

It took us a couple of weeks to get back going at our slow rate. The dirt road we took, different from the path that cut straight through the Craggled Mountains, curved around, and we passed by a few towns where we spent our nights as inns.

I had had my fair share of nights spent lying on the cold, hard ground.

We had been welcomed rather jovially back to Betane. The five men that had originally accompanied Augustin out were eager to see us back, and to trade stories. I was just eager to go home. And so it came to be that I was back at home, back to the place of so many mixed memories and feelings, staring at the woman I'd never understood better than now.

"Mam?" I asked.

She was staring intently at the ceiling. This time, Rosie was in the room with me too. Usually I tried to keep her away from that unpleasantness, but I realized now that I could handle anything.

"Mam," I said softly. "It's Sparrow and Rosie. We're back. And we're sorry."

For once, her gaze seemed to lower, and the intensity of her grey eyes startled me. For once I thought she was actually looking at me, not looking through me.

"Sorry? Whatever for?"

"For not believing you," I said quietly. "We know now. About everything, about you being a princess. And thank you for telling me that the wind would protect me. It really did. It saved my life."

This time she looked just as startled as I did. "Princess..." she said softly. "I'm a princess. Princess Isolde. No--wait! Princess Adara. Or, that is, I am..."

"It's okay," I said, bending down to kiss her forehead. "We get it."

"You do?" she asked, sounding bewildered.

"Yes," said Rosie. "We're all princesses here."

"Oh. Well. If that's so."

It was strange going back to our normal routine. Of getting up, making breakfast in the house, tending to the stew in the pot, gathering food in the forest, and so on. But there was one change and that was that I would never have to spin again.

That was what the prince had insisted, anyways. He had given us a more than generous amount of money for the journey home, of which we hadn't even used half. He had insisted that it was our birthright, or rather, Mam's, and now ours.

And after that? There was always the dragon's hoard. Prince Lawrence promised that nobody else would go for it, and I believed him.

I still wasn't sure what would happen to Pap. I knew that most people wouldn't understand; his death was more than enough proof of that. And furthermore, if people knew about how Rosie had spoken with him, how she could speak with animals, then they might decipher back to the whole princess thing, a thing that we had promised the king would stay secret forever.

But that was okay with me. Because while Mam may have always been a princess at heart, I was anything but. I wasn't one to wither away behind the fortress walls of a palace, hiding secrets from my people. I was a country girl, a girl from Betane, a daughter, a friend, a sister.

The cheerful days of spring gave way to the longer days of summer and I was taken back to a childlike state of wonder. We spent long days in the sun, especially now there was no school for Rosie. And the routine my life started to settle into became beautiful.

Jon had promised to come see us as soon as he could. He told us that it would probably be a while--at least until the fall, for he had to get his affairs taken care of. And he still wasn't sure if he wanted to continue living in the city, or move out here with us. There was the matter of his wife, and the fact that the two of them had their life together in the capital. He didn't know what was going to happen. But there was one thing for sure, and that was that he wanted to properly meet his sister in law, Mam, and his nieces, me and Rosie. And whenever he did come, later on, I knew I would be forever grateful for that.

One day in the middle of summer Bradyn and I were sitting on a large rock in the middle of the deep woods. The two of us had gone out there in the morning, a basket with a couple of rolls from home and berries we picked earlier by our side for when we got hungry. Rosie was with a friend of her own and the two of us had decided to go out like we used to. We had all been doing a lot of that lately.

"It's nice out here," he said.

"Yeah."

We had just been sitting in silence. But of course it wasn't really silent; the birds were singing and the wind was rushing and the whole forest was alive with music.

"Have you been thinking of what you're going to do from here?" he asked presently. It was the first time he'd actually asked the question since we had gotten back, though we both knew it was constant on our minds all the time. "Now that you don't have to spin, and things have started to settle down."

"I don't know; you?"

"I have to admit that I don't know, either. But I just like being here now, you know?"

"Yeah."

We sat there a little longer, both lost in our thoughts, but comforted by the presence of each other. And then when his hand found mine, it was too natural for me to protest. So I took it in mine and squeezed.

Presently he started to sing, to join in with the melodious songs of all the woodland birds. And although I hadn't sung in months after the cruel memories plagued me, I joined in.

I wasn't trying to fly, or create a storm or anything, and that didn't happen. Just a gentle breeze, stirring my hair and creating the perfect ambient for the birds to join in. And although I didn't know what would happen in the future, I was happy with my now.

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Thank you all so much for reading Of Spinning Gold and Song!! I've grown so much as a writer through this story, and I'm so happy that you were all able to go on this journey with me. Additionally, an extra special thanks because, if you didn't know, this book made it to the #WATTYS2018 LONGLIST!!! That's right--it was in the top 800 out of 150,000 works!!! I have no words to express my gratitude to all of you for supporting me and encouraging me to write more, from the most active commenter, to the silent reader. I appreciate you all.

Thank you

Love, 

Wisteria <3