Breaking a tale

Luna - A safe place to shelter

Luna – A safe place to shelter

After a few hours of walking, I realised that I had probably gone the wrong way. It was dark and I had forgotten to bring a torch or a map, so I ended up completely lost. I was tempted to go back to the tower and try again tomorrow but I kept on hearing terrifying howls coming from the direction I had just came from, scaring me onwards, sending me deeper and deeper into the forest and I was getting even more lost. I had my black cloak wrapped tightly around me and was holding Wolfblade out in front of me in a feeble effort to protect myself from the monsters that roamed these forests at night. The further into the forest I went, the colder and darker it got until I could barely see the path in front of me. It must have been about midnight when I came to a crossroads. One path led further into the darkness, where monsters and beasts waited for me, a faint light in the distance lit up the other path, its warm glow calling out to me. I was so cold and tired, I didn't care what it was coming from, I just wanted to find somewhere to sleep.

I went down the path and soon came to a small cottage with lights on in the windows. There was smoke coming from the chimney and a dapple-grey horse tied up in a small stable off to the side of the cottage. There was a low wall surrounding the cottage and curious plants that I had never seen before were growing up the crumbling walls. The gate creaked a little when I opened it, sounding like it hadn't been oiled in a long time, the whole cottage gave me an uneasy feeling. I put away Wolfblade and was about to knock on the door when I stopped, I remembered what the coach driver had said about cottages in the woods being the home to witches, maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all, I was about to turn away when the door opened and I found myself facing a young man. He had blonde hair styled into a quiff and a peculiar turned up nose. He looked in his early twenties, maybe slightly older than Eda and had a warm smile.

"And what are you doing standing at my door, little girl?" He said in a posh voice, staring down at me, his arms crossed.

I was slightly taken aback, firstly because his language sounded like it belonged to an old man, not someone as young as he looked and secondly because he called me a little girl. I hadn't been called a little girl since I was ten, I didn't really like it back then. I told him that I was lost and just needed a place to sleep for the night, I tried to make myself look as helpless as possible in the hope that he would take pity on me, using the fact he called me a "little girl" to my advantage whilst desperately wishing that he wasn't going to kidnap me. The man looked me up and down for a few seconds before speaking.

"Fine, you can stay for the night but leave the knife outside, unfamiliar magical objects mess with my powers."

A spike of fear rushed over me, the man must be a witch, or maybe he was called a wizard, are male witches called wizards or are they still witches? I took Wolfblade cautiously from my cloak and placed it gently down on a stone next to the door, making a mental note of where it was just in case I needed to make a quick escape. The man turned to walk back into the house and I gasped. He had wings coming out of his back!

I stood there, staring in awe. Fear tingling down my spine. I had never seen anything like them. The wings were like a birds wings, covered in glossy black feathers that stuck out of his back where his shoulder blades should have been. He turned back and looked at me in confusion.

"Never seen a fairy before?" He asked, a frown on his face "Not from around here are you?"

He then strode inside leaving me to follow timidly behind. The cottage was much larger on the inside than it had looked on the outside and as I was led into the living room, I could see other corridors leading up and down stairways to who knows where. The living room was a large room and there was a crackling fire in the corner. Two large sofas faced the fire and there was a fluffy rug placed on the floor. The place looked like it could have been from the set of a designer catalogue, there were strange objects and ornaments scattered around the room on various shelves and tables. The man left the room to get us both a drink and I used the opportunity to look round the room, maybe learn a bit about the mysterious stranger who had welcomed me into his home.