I opened my eyes to the second morning of my entire current life, blinking hazily as the sunlight seeped through the curtains drawn to the window next to the door. The window wasn't facing the direction the sun rose, so it wasn't shining in my eyes, but it was bright enough outside that the cottage was pleasantly lit.
I felt a weight on my chest, and my hand lifted to pet the furry creature. The fur was fluffy instead of short and coarse and there was no sign of wings on the animal's back, which meant that during the night Vesper had decided to come sleep on me again. It was likely this is where she usually slept, curled on top of Rosa, since she seemed to almost always be lounging on the bed. I yawned and considered the pros and cons of pushing the cat off me and sitting up, when the front door opened and Vesper made the decisions for me, jumping down and padding over to it.
"Oh, you're awake," said Rosa with a smile and pushed the door closed with her hip. She was carrying two buckets of water in her hands. The cold breeze that had come through the door washed over me and I pulled the covers closer against myself, shivering slightly. "It's a beautiful day out there, even if it's quite chilly," Rose continued, conversationally. "Granny went out before the sun rose, she has to get some herbs from the woods before the frost took them."
The woods..? I thought and then threw the covers aside and got up.
Rosa made a small squeak and turned quickly away, her cheeks flushed. I was very confused for a moment, before I remembered my state of undress and hurried to pull some pants on. The nightshirt I wore was lengthy enough to cover the most sensitive areas, but my legs were completely bare, and I really didn't know what kind of customs there were about nudity around these parts. Besides, the girl did live alone in the outskirts of the town with her grandma, and I had seen no signs of potential suitors, so... I stopped that train of thought and concentrated on dressing.
"I, uh," I said as I was buttoning a vest over my shirt. It was just as worn as the rest of my clothes, but at lease it made me feel a bit more... un-homeless. Rosa glanced back at me, her ears still red. "I was thinking about checking the forest myself, actually. I kinda want to see the place where I woke up."
"Oh, right, of course," said Rosa, and cleared her throat. "Can you find back to the place though? As I understand it, you were just wandering around until you found the edge, right?"
"What?" I said, confused. "No, I... I followed the lanterns."
"The... lanterns?" said Rosa, and now it was her turn to be confused. "What lanterns?"
"The lanterns along the path," I said. "I woke up on a clearing, saw a path that was lit by lanterns and started to follow it. That's how I ended up here. I thought... you were the ones keeping them lit..."
"Why would we keep a path of lit lanterns in the woods?" asked Rosa, crossing her arms. "And for the record, I visit the woods pretty often, and never have I seen a lantern lit path there, especially near our home."
"But then..." I said and swallowed. "What did I follow the day before yesterday? And why did I end up here?"
"Meera did too," Rosa said quietly, a hand flying to her mouth. "I mean, she never said anything about lanterns, so I assumed... but she was just like you, and she ended up right at our doorstep as well."
"Something led us both here, that's for sure," I said, nodding. "But what? And why?"
"I..." said Rosa, her eyes wide. "I don't know. I don't...."
"It's okay, I'm not expecting you to know," I told her and she swallowed. Her eyes seemed unfocused. "But I still need to check out the woods. Just in case there's something there after all."
"Of course, I understand," said Rosa, snapping back to reality. "I, uh, I can't come with you though, I have a lot of, uh, housework to do. You can take N with you. Or Vesp- oh, nope, she's sleeping again. But take N. Pennafoxes have an amazing sense of direction, and N seems like a really smart one, she'll help you home if you get lost."
"Thanks for the tip," I said. N was sitting on top of the fireplace again, staring down at us with intense eyes. She seemed to be almost aware that we were talking about her. "You wanna come with me, N? Wanna come to the woods, see if we can find some clues about your master?"
N's ears perked up and she hopped down, landing squarely on my head. I let out a yelp and she hopped to the floor, looking up at me expectantly. I glared at the fox, and shook my head, picked up my coat and scarf from the hook by the door and pulled them on. The cold outdoor air slammed into me the moment I opened the door.
"We're going," I said to Rosa, who waved us good bye, and then we left.
~x~
The thin layer of snow on the ground crunched under my boots as I walked around the house and towards the edge of the forest. N was flitting around my legs, rushing from one side to the other, sniffing at something in one place and pawing at the frozen ground in another. Sometimes she was left behind a bit, but the next minute she was several meters ahead of me, so I didn't bother to set my pace to her constant jumping.
It was indeed a nice day, like Rosa had said. With a coat on, even if it wasn't terribly thick, the cold air was bearable and the sun that shone... not from high in the sky, but it shone nonetheless, and it was bright and made the white blanket the world was wrapped in sparkle beautifully. It was actually starting to feel like winter.
We got to the edge of the woods and I stopped to look back. The house looked as it had the night I'd woken up, which meant that this was the direction the path had been. And I had seen the house from the path, so it couldn't be too far away. It might be a bit hard to see, what with all the snow, but in the cover of the trees there wasn't as much of it, as some of it had stayed up on the branches of the spruces. I walked for a minute or two, looking back every now and again to see it the cottage was still visible. It was.
N's yapping caught my attention, and I looked down to see her a little bit further away from me. She was staring at something to the right, and then she turned back and yapped again. That's when I noticed that where she was standing I could easily distinguish a clear parting in the trees, like a path running between them. I turned to the left and saw that it continued that way too. A grin spread on my lips.
N had lead me along the path through the woods for some time, rushing ahead and then stopping again to wait for me. I wasn't quite running, but I was walking very fast,my heartbeat loud in my ear as I passed trees and bushes, keeping my eyes glued to the black-tipped end of the fox's tail.
A voice in my head was screaming about the familiarity of the situation, but I pressed down that voice and focused on walking. Surely I'll find out something when I get to the clearing, I have to, there's gotta be something, anything...
N came to a halt and started to sniff the ground, going around in a circle. I walked up to her, panting slightly and then looked around. We'd made it to the clearing.
Something felt... different. I was pretty sure it was the clearing I'd woken up on, the trees looked familiar, as did their arrangement, but still....
A sudden chill ran through my body and I whipped my head around. Nothing was there.
N growled, low in her throat and then barked at me. She pushed at my leg, towards the way we'd come and I moved. I didn't want to stay there, even though the rational part of my mind was saying that I should investigate, I should look for something, there was nothing wrong, but I couldn't listen to it. I turned on my heel, and followed my footprints back to the forest.
~x~
We walked back the way we'd come from, until I could see the cottage again. I sighed in relief when I did. The chill in the air had taken its toll, my fingers cold and slightly numb in my pockets and my nose and cheeks no doubt red from the cold bite of the wind. I hurried the last few meters and basically flung myself into the warmth of the cottage.
As the heat started to fill me up again, I leaned against the door and took a deep breath.
"Rosa?" I yelled as I pushed away from the door and started to take off my scarf. "Rosa, you in here?"
There was no response. I frowned. Hadn't she said she had housework to do? Maybe she had to step outside for a moment. I checked the coat hook. Her coat wasn't there.
My stomach growled loudly and I decided to leave Rosa to her own business and walked over to the pantry. I felt a little bad about going through someone else's cupboards, but I had skipped breakfast and I had no idea when either of the women were coming back, so I figured that I could take a sit of bread or something to help with the worst hunger.
As I opened the cabinet door to get myself a plate, a bowl fell from the upper shelf. I tried to catch it, but my hands were still numb from the cold and it dropped to the floor, where N snatched it in her teeth.
"H-hey, wait!" I yelled after her, but she'd already ran off into the other room. I hurried after her. My eyes widened slightly when I got there. N was standing in front of the door with the lock, and looked back at me.
It was open. The other door was open.
N slipped in from through the cracked door and I stared at it for a moment.
Should I...? I probably shouldn't...
Curiousity raised its head again, and I took a step towards the door.
I really, really shouldn't.
I took another step.
Clearly there was something in that room that Ulula and Rosa didn't like people snooping on, and as a grateful guest in their house it would be incredibly rude of me to take advantage of both of their absence to explore it. It would be very rude. I would be breaking their trust.
Another step. My trembling hand extended almost without my permission. The metal handle was hard against my fingers.
No, this was wrong. I was trespassing. This was clearly a breach of social protocol even to me and I couldn't remember anything. They would surely kick me out, they wouldn't want to help me anymore, not if I went through that door.
I pulled the door open and walked into the room.
I... wasn't sure what to think of the what lay in front of me. My imagination had supplied me with a lot of different kinds of possibilities of what lay behind the locked door, but I have to admit this wasn't one of them.
The walls were lined with more shelves, stocked full of thick, leather bound books, bottles full of colorful liquids, some of which seemed to glow in the dim light of the room, and glass jars full of herbs, plants, and various other... things - one jar had something that looked like lizard tails in it. There was a second fireplace on the inner wall, over which was a cast iron cauldron which wasn't full of bubbling liquid but sure looked like it should have been. There was a large table against the outer wall, which had a large book open on it, a quill resting on it. It looked like someone had been writing something into it recently.
My eyes fell on N, who was still holding the bowl in her teeth, sitting in a chair in the back of the room, looking very pleased with herself.
"N," I hissed, and stepped forward. "Get back here!"
There was a gasp, a thunk, and the sound of water splashing over the floor, and I turned slowly around. Rosa's eyes were wide, her hands over her mouth, and we stared at each other for a long, tense minute. N pattered between my legs, and out of the room.
We started to talk at the same time. We fell silent again.
"You... you saw the room," she said quietly. I nodded.
"I'm sorry," I said, just as quietly. "I didn't mean to... to intrude, I just..."
"No, no, I understand," she hurried to say, which was weird because she was supposed to be mad at me, wasn't she? "I knew you'd be curious about it... I wasn't... expecting you back so soon, and I was away for just a minute, I didn't think I'd have to..."
She fell silent, and her gaze fell to the floor. I waited.
"Um," I finally said as the silence dragged on. "Can I... What is that room?"
She looked up at me, surprised again. Then she laughed, breathy.
"Right, you have amnesia, you wouldn't... know, necessarily," she said and rubbed her neck. She suddenly seemed to realize she was standing in a puddle and hurried over to the cupboard to get a towel. "I, well... I'm a witch. Granny is too."
I looked back to the room, and it clicked into place so easily.
"We're not evil witches, mind!" Rosa hurried to say when I didn't comment. "Only white magic, healing potions, and the such. I wouldn't know how to hex someone if I wanted to."
"So... it's a... secret?" I said slowly. "Is witchcraft... not allowed?"
"Oh, no, nothing like that," she laughed, wringing the towel over the bucket she'd been holding before. "It's very legal, it's just... generally disapproved of. For various reasons. So we don't really, you know, shout it out much."
"You do know I have no idea what's socially acceptable and what's not," I said, a soft smile tugging at my lips. "It literally makes no difference to me. If anything, I think it's kinda cool." Rosa huffed out a laugh and looked up at me with a smile.
"I know you wouldn't have judged, but I'm so used to hiding it," she admitted. "And it's not like it came up or anything."
"What about yesterday?" I asked. Her brow furrowed as she thought back. "That shop you went to? The one I couldn't come with you?"
"Oh!" she said and flushed bright red again. "That's not, really, I mean..." she tried and then cleared her throat. "That wasn't witchy stuff. That was for... women stuff."
"What?" I said.
"Never mind!" she said. She finished drying up the water and picked up the bucket. "Anyway, now you know our little secret."
"I guess so," I said. There was a short silence.
"So, how did it go in the woods?" asked Rosa, setting the bucket on the table next to the wash basin. We went back to the main room. "Did you find the place?"
"I did, actually. There were no lanterns though," I said. "And the clearing felt... different. Somehow."
Rosa hummed, thoughtful.
"The woods is different," she said. "In the night. Or so they say. I'm not really sure about what it's about, but apparently many people who go there say they feel some kind of, like, presence, or something."
"A presence?" I asked. That did feel familiar, somehow.
"Yeah, although I've never felt it myself," she said with a shrug. "It's probably people scaring themselves in the dark. Probably."
"Right..." I said and then my stomach growled loudly. Rosa looked at me and snorted.
"Hungry, I gather?" she said, walking over to the pantry.
"Haha, yeah," I admitted. "I was going to eat something, but then I got distracted when N stole a bowl and escaped into the third room."
"Don't worry, I'll fix you something to eat," she said happily. A gentle warmth filled my heart.
"Thank you, I'd like that."
__________________________________________________________
Isn't that sweet? I've yet to decide if I ship these two tho... We'll see where this goes huehue
Things are happening, I think. I don't yet know what they mean, and I don't know what exactly will happen and how this all will affect stuff but I forgot where I was going with this. Uhh. Things!
Your topic iss, "Wheel"
Pie out.
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