Mina, Edvard, and Yuila settle in for a warm night with a kind woman and her children.
If you’re just joining this story, you may want to start from the beginning.
♫♪Suggested Music: from Peaceful Journey on AudioNetwork
Supper was of the roasted chicken the woman had seasoned with tarragon and a lemony-basil and boiled potatoes. Edvard allowed Yuila to share a few sticks of molasses candy they had brought from the village with the twin girls and young boy after the meal. The children hunkered in a corner by the fireplace, sucking on the sticky treat, all quiet at once. The woman took the dishes as Mina cleared them from the table and put them in a large wooden tub of hot water. Edvard went outside to bring in wood to stock the fireplace rack, declining the boy's help when he offered. It was all Mina could do not to say something about their quarters for the night when she was alone with the woman in the kitchen corner of the house.
Outside a window she could see the wind had gained speed, and the woman closed the shutter and locked it. Mina looked to Yuila and the other children, wondering how the Crone would respond when Edvard was not present.
"What's that man doing with you girls?" the woman said suddenly. "He selling you?"
Mina was surprised at the query, but she shook her head. "No. We were lost and he's taking us home."
The woman's gaze rested on her for a long time. "Where you from?"
Mina wasn't sure how to respond. "The coast."
"The coast is a big place."
Mina nodded.
"You old enough to be out by yourselves?"
"Yes."
The woman dried her hands on her frayed apron. "You're both strange-looking things, that little one and you."
Mina didn't know what to do but nod.
"Girls never seen anything like you. Gerit neither."
Mina assumed Gerit was the boy. "I appreciate you letting us board tonight," she said carefully.
The woman nodded, then looked to the door as Edvard came in with another load of firewood. "You can stay, too," the woman told him.
Edvard's eyes flicked to Mina, but she shook her head. "I'm grateful, ma'am."
"Bring in another bucket of water, too," the woman said, adding more wood to the fire as Gerit stacked the wood near it.
Edvard stocked the house of wood and water, and brought in a few sticks of cinnamon for the woman before she bolted the door for the night. Mina didn't realize how late it was until the door closed for the final time. Although it was late summer in the grassland, on the mountain it was more like fall, and the early sunset in the woods seemed especially strange.
Yuila played string games and a form of jacks with the twins and Gerit until the woman called them to bed, and then she settled by the fire and unrolled her blankets near Mina's.
"Not too close to the fire," Edvard warned as the Crone scooted her blankets to a warm spot. "And no meditating tonight."
"But I have to," she said, looking to the woman from beneath her hood.
"Then you'll have to do it here, and without anyone noticing," he said.
Yuila looked to Mina as the older girl nodded in agreement. "Then I can't."
"Turn around and I'll comb your hair," Mina said as a pout formed at the girl's mouth. "Just keep your face to the wall."
Edvard sat back at the log wall, sighing that they'd found shelter in the growing ill-weather. Mina had just parted Yuila's hair into four sections as he looked to the older woman across the room, when the nightgown-clad twin girls leaped across him.
"Me next!" one cried, scrambling over him.
"Then me!" said the second.
Edvard tried to get out the way, but only succeeded in dodging the worst of the activity. One was already perched on his legs, her eyes on Mina as she braided. The other was on all fours, looking around Yuila to see her better.
"Girls!" the woman called.
Gerit stood at Edvard's side, frowning.
"Over here," the woman demanded.
The twins looked to their mother, then Mina.
"I don't mind," Mina said. "Can I braid their hair?"
The woman apprised the six of them for a moment, then nodded her consent, continuing with the dry beans she was shelling by candlelight at the table. Both girls settled by Mina.
Gerit slowly dropped to his knees beside Edvard, his somber expression estimating the older boy. "Girls like to have their hair braided."
Edvard nodded in agreement. "They sure do."
One of the girls crawled closer to Yuila. "Mama, she's got eyes like a flower color."
It was too late to cover her head, so Yuila turned to look at Mina.
"You have pretty eyes, too," Mina said to the girl. "Like the sky."
"Mine are like the sky, too," the other chimed in. She moved closer to the older girl and squinted at her.
Edvard pulled Mina's hood back.
She looked to him quickly.
"I think it's all right here," he said.
"Your eyes are like night," the twin said. "Are they black or brown?"
Mina smiled. "Brown."
"Like Wooley," the boy said.
The girls looked to him, then giggled.
Edvard cleared his throat. "Wooley is the cow they have in the barn. Sorry, Mina. I don't think they meant it as an insult."
She smiled a little more, both flattered and offended at the comparison.
One of the girls pulled at the corner of her eyes. "How can you make your eyes do that for so long?"
Mina sighed. "Practice." She had to laugh as both Edvard and Yuila looked to her. "I'm joking."
One of the girls looked at Edvard for a long moment. "You have eyes the color of a dark sky."
Edvard nodded slowly.
Mina finished Yuila's hair, and the Crone felt along the four braids, smiling. One of the twins settled onto Mina's lap, her head poised for attention.
"Do you have a few pieces of string to tie them off?" Mina asked.
Gerit hopped to his feet and returned with the string. He looked to Edvard. "I'll need your knife for a moment."
Edvard gave him the hunting knife. "Certainly."
"How many pieces?"
"Eight," said one of his sisters.
The boy carefully measured out the string and cut it, then handed back Edvard's knife. After a moment, he asked quietly, "What color are my eyes?"
Mina looked to Edvard, then Gerit. She tilted the boy's chin to let the firelight shine on him. "About the same color as Edvard's."
"How many braids do you want?" Yuila asked the girl before Mina.
"Four."
Four was a popular number for braids. Mina braided the girls' hair, then watched them admire each other for a while.
"Doesn't your mama braid?" Yuila asked one of them.
"Her hands hurt," the twin said.
"Braiding is for girls," Gerit said.
"Of course it is," Yuila said. "Boys don't have long hair."
Edvard glanced to where the older woman sat at the table, still shelling beans. "Do you trap around here?" he asked the boy.
This led to a twenty minute conversation about raccoons and foxes. Edvard nodded at the appropriate times and asked a few questions until the woman stood up and set aside the bowl of beans.
"That's enough," she said tiredly. "You let our travelers sleep now."
The twins and Gerit slowly got to their feet and left Edvard, Mina, and Yuila by the fire. Mina watched the younger children crawl into one of the two straw-filled mattresses pushed into a corner across the room. The woman blew out the candle, and the only light came from the fireplace.
Yuila lay down nearer to the hearth than she did to Mina this time, and the older girl pulled her braids farther back from the stone ledge. The Crone closed her eyes, sighing and snuggling into her blankets.
Mina got comfortable in her own blankets, satisfied with the warmth of the night. It was far better than the frozen ground they had had last night, although she had to admit she wasn't as cold as she thought she would have been while sleeping outside. Beside her Edvard moved about in the semi-darkness, a little farther away than usual. A moment later the room was silent except for the sounds of the fire crackling.
Mina looked to where she knew the woman to be, able to discern only a vague outline of the mattress and woman. She could well understand the woman's misgivings about strangers in her house.
"She's not a widow," Edvard said lowly from her side.
Mina looked to him.
"Her husband's hunting."
"I didn't think she was a widow," she whispered back.
"I thought you may be thinking that."
She turned a little in her blankets. "You think you can read minds, too?"
He shook his head, grinning. "Gerit told me his papa was hunting and would be back soon."
"He's a protective boy."
"He had quite a bit to say, actually."
"He liked you asking him about trapping," she said after a moment. "Do your brothers trap?"
"Some of them do. Some hunt or fish."
"With you?"
"They're not old enough to leave overnight yet."
She saw him glance to where the young boy was mumbling to his sisters in the bed. "Will you take them then?"
"Sure. Del can go next year."
She sighed. "I promised you I wouldn't say anything to the woman, Edvard, and I didn't."
"She just changed her mind?" He tried to see her better in the poor lighting. "Really, Mina?"
"Yes. She asked a few questions about where we were going, and I said the coast, and I guess she changed her mind. She didn't tell me she had." She closed her eyes against the firelight. "I'm glad she did."
"Me, too."
PG13, saga; teen, fantasy, fantasy world travel, teen romance, clean romance, realm, magical realism, shadow world, school/new school, high school, fiction, serial. #ReadFree with free signup. ♫♪
Thanks for reading Sombra Mundus at Claire’s Fiction Updates! Let other readers know this chapter is out.
Thanks to P.G. Waters for the use of her story!