The Forest Princess

The Lost Children

In the middle of their sixth winter in the forest, Peregrin got very ill. He had a high fever and a bad cough. He couldn't get out of bed, and Larimar looked after him. She made herbal teas and hot water bottles. She put some snow between towels and wrapped them around his legs to lower the fever.

One day, Larimar was sitting at her husband's bedside reading him a story, when he interrupted her. "Shhh..." he turned his head towards the window and listened. "There's a snowstorm coming."

Then he added, "the children are very quiet, you better check what they're doing."

Larimar went into the kitchen, but the children weren't there. She looked in their bedrooms, nothing. She opened the front door and called their names: "TILIA! CARNELIAN!"

The howling wind swallowed the sound of her voice. There was no reply.

"They must have gone to the village," she said to Peregrin. This was not unusual. The children often went to play with their friends in the village. But on that day it made her very agitated. Peregrin could see the worry on her face, it was gripping his heart too.

"They shouldn't be out in this weather," he said and started to cough.

"I better go and find them," Larimar replied and slipped into her coat and boots. "I won't be long." She kissed her husband's forehead and tried to look cheerful.

Just before leaving the house she remembered to take the smartbox and stuffed it into her pocket. Larimar ran down the track to the village. The wind was whipping downhill from behind, her feet were barely touching the snow.

She knocked on one door after another, doors of houses where her children's friends lived, and asked for them. Nobody had seen the woodcutter's children.

Some men offered to help look for them. Larimar pulled the smartbox out of her pocket and stared into the polished stone. What she saw made her heart freeze, and her face turned as pale as snow.

"It's no good," she mumbled. "The Ice King has them."

The search was called off and people gathered in the village pub. They offered Larimar some tea, she accepted with a feeble smile but couldn't drink it.

"You say you're looking for two children?" An old woman asked her.

Larimar nodded. The villagers felt her agony and grief. Many families had lost children to the Ice King over the years.

"But the Ice King never takes more than one child from one mother," the old woman told her. "You must go to him and claim one back!"

Larimar looked at the woman and flung her arms around her. A spark of hope lit up in her eyes. Some men offered to help and go with her, but the princess declined. "This is a path I must take alone," she said firmly.