"Hope" by Jessica J Zimdars

The girl walked slowly through the woods, everything was still that winter night. Fresh snow dusted trees and the stony ground alike, with the full moon shining down through the bare branches everything had a quite mysterious appearance.

Her gown swept soundlessly over the ground as she made her way through the woods. She looked to be somewhere in her teens, yet this was the first time that she had ever seen the moon, or the woods, or even snow. So entranced by the wonders of the night that she did not even notice the cold biting into her bare arms.

Behind her, somewhere in the hill, the sound of music floated out to her ears, reminding her that if she was to escape tonight she must hurry.

Gathering her skirts, the girl hastened through the woods until the cold air made her chest hurt. Though she slowed she continued walking, even when her thin slippers were soaked and her feet hurt from the cold she kept walking. She was determined that she would never return to the Folk under the Hill.

The night wore on and the moon journeyed across the sky. The night remained still, saving the slender figure that moved soundlessly. Was she heading towards a place where other mortals lived? She hoped that she was, she was not so foolish as to think that she could survive out here in the woods. And what was more, she needed to find mortals before the Fair Folk came found her.

Thoughts of being taken back to the Hill spurred her to once again hurry. Snow was once again falling thickly around her, making her black hair glimmer like the jewels worn by the Folk that she had left.

No longer could she hear music behind her. No now there was the sound of the Folk moving through the woods. She had grown up hearing the Folk as they moved about in their world under the hills, learning what she did know from them. Because of this she could hear what no other mortal could, just as she moved more gracefully then any other mortal.

As she reached the edge of the forest she finally saw a sign that another mortal was near, a sign that she would soon be able to rest. Through the falling snow she could see a warm yellow light, a light like that from a fire or a candle. Of course, having grown up Under the Hill she didn’t know what this was, and yet she had a distant memory of a fire blazing warmly on a hearth as loving arms held her safe.

She stumbled forward through the snow, heading straight to the light. The sound of pursuit was nearer now, and the moon was now hidden behind the clouds. She prayed that the dark and the snow would be enough to hide her until she reached the light.

Sitting beside the fire in the small cabin was an elderly woman. Her husband had died long ago, and her only child had been stolen from her while it was still just a babe. Now she sat and crocheted while waiting for this, the longest night of the year, to come at last to an end.

Upon hearing a knock on the door she set her work aside, wrapped a shawl around her thin shoulders and slowly opened the door. There on her door step, covered in snow, and skin pale with cold, was a girl who could not possibly be any older then her own daughter would have been.

“Child! Come in!” the woman ordered, taking the girl’s cold hand and pulling her into the warm cabin and quickly closing the cold night out. “What in heaven’s name are you doing out there this of all nights? Do you not know who it is that walks this night?”

As the woman spoke she walked the girl to one of the chairs beside the fire, wrapped a blanket around her shoulders, and made her sit down.

The girl’s dark eyes followed the woman as she moved around the cabin, putting a pot of water over the fire and adding more logs, then setting a few bricks on the hearth.

The woman was aware of the girl watching her, when she sat down she studied the girl. Never had she seen a girl of her age with such a look of innocence.

“Where is your family?”

The girl only looked at her with those mysterious eyes. She wondered if the girl was touched.

“Do you have a home?”

Still the girl just watched her, gripping the blanket that was around her shoulders.

Giving up the old woman reached over and patted the girl’s shoulder, “When you wish to speak I know you will, Child. Until then you will stay here.”

The girl smiled ever so slightly and looked at the fire. Outside she could hear the Fair Folk calling to her, trying to call her back to the Hill. She pulled the blanket tighter around her and listened instead to the old woman talk about life here in the cabin. She would not go back with them, she decided.

She would stay here as long as she could. She would learn to communicate with this woman, and she would learn to live as a mortal. She would never return to the Hill.

“Child, do you have a name?” the old woman asked. After a slight pause she sighed, “I had hoped that you would be able to at least tell me that. Well, I guess I shall have to think of something to call you.”

“H-Hope.” The girl slowly whispered.