The cottage child--------

There was a face in the lake. Sandra was both excited and scared to look into it and see the flowing brown hair that she so recognized, set against the elegant little face she'd never seen before. She touched her face, and the figure in the water did the same. Was that really her? She tried to touch the face in the water, but her hand slipped threw, touching only cold wetness and disturbing the water figure in a rush of ripples.

She liked the feeling of the water on her fingers, so she ran her whole hand threw the water. It was like feeling the air, all cold and odd feeling. Sandra had never felt the lake water before, and it made her want to try other sensations, ones she'd been afraid to try. If the lake water felt good, what also might feel good? She got up, rubbing her dirty knees, and walked to the house. Her blue dress went Flap! Flap! in the air around her, making her laugh.

In the cottage there were all kinds of things to touch and feel. She put on her fathers jacket, and that felt good. It felt heavy and warm, and it smelled like her father. She picked up her mothers old shoe, and that felt bad. It was wet and sticky, and it smelled like mud. She put it back on the ground and rubbed her hands on her dress, trying to get the smell off of them.

She opened the back door and looked out at the garden mother had planted three months ago. It was all brown and dried up now, she went into it and the leaves went CRUNCH! under her feet. She liked the sound so much she picked up some leaves and started to crunch them in her hand. Everything was really brown and yellow, mother would be really sad when she got back. Mother liked everything to be green and golden.

It was strange that mother had been gone for so long. She'd never been gone for more than a day before, and now it'd been a week since Sandra saw her last. Sandra wasn't worried, because Sandra was never worried, but the food was getting to be a little low. Sandra thought about trying to pick some of the vegies mother had growing in the garden, but she didn't know which ones needed to be cooked before eating, and mother had told her ever since she was very small,

"Never eat the ones that need to be cooked uncooked! They'll kill you Sandra Ahoura Migel!"

Death was a scary word. It meant no longer being, no longer thinking, and no longer finding amazing things to look at. Sandra didn't like the word death, it made the whole garden feel dark and lonely, what with it just being her at the house. She went back inside and closed the door. Her blanket was in a corner of the house, tucked into her box. She went and got it out and spread it by the fireplace so she could sleep.

Shadows moved across the window as she lay there. The sun began to sink down from heavens, absorbed by the earth. Sandra often had nightmares that the sun would get stuck and not come up the next day, and everyone would have to go around with lanterns and people would stumble round and all the plants would die. It was a scarry thought, so Sandra put the blanket over her head she she wouldn't see the sun go down. Slowly she fell asleep, her eyes closed and her thoughts went away to the land of dreams.

The cold woke Sandra while it was still night. She felt it biting into her bones, like some horrible wild dog. She tried to pull the blanket around herself, to trap in all the warmth, but even under the covers her breath came in mists. Winter was starting to really get into gear. Sandra needed the fire, but Mother and Father hadn't come home yet. There was no one to build the fire, and Sandra didn't know how. Her shiverings forced her to action. She got up and found her fathers coat, putting it on again. She found some of her mothers warmest socks and put them on both her feet and her hands. She found a few rags, and she put them in the jacket, then she laid down again with the blanket over her. It was much warmer but she knew that soon it wouldn't be warm enough. Soon the snows would come, and fire was the only thing that kept you alive when the snow season hit.

For the first time thoughts crossed Sandra's mind that had never seemed possible before. Maybe Mother and Father weren't coming back this time. She had no idea why they wouldn't because they always had before. Then she thought about the garden, and death. Could her parents have died? No, that was impossible, they couldn't die. They were invincible, and stronger than mountains. They always knew what to do, and so they'd know not to die. Maybe they were lost? That thought scared Sandra deeply, because she got lost all the time and there was no reason she could think of that her parents wouldn't get lost.

There were only two options for Sandra to take. Either she could stay and hope her parents found their ways back home before the snow fell, or she could leave and try to get to town to tell people that her parents were lost. The people would have to help find them, but the town was a long way away and Sandra wasn't sure she could make it that far. But if she didn't, and her parents didn't come home soon the food would run out and the cold would get in, and she'd die. She would have to go to town. The thought did something nothing else had ever been able to do. It worried Sandra, down deep in her bones but there was no other option left.

The next morning the sun rose to Sandra's relief and spread its warmth threw the whole valley, but Sandra wasn't tricked. The cold would come back that night, and it would be slightly worse. Sandra really had no choice but to head to town. She took her fathers jacket and her mothers socks. She took the path her parents always took when they went to town. It was a good path, without many puddles, but the ground was hard and it hurt Sandra's feet.

She stopped every now and then to look at the flowers and stand in the high grass that was on both sides of the path. The grass felt good on her feet, but she couldn't stop for long. There was still a long way to town.

As she walked she began to notice things following her, on her path. They looked like shadows, if she tilted her head one way, but became things is she tilted her head the other. They scared her and she began to move faster, hoping that the town was not far away. As she moved faster the shadows seemed to disapate and fall back, as though they couldn't quite managde speed. Sandra began to run, and the shadows faded compleatly but she dared not stop.

She ran down the path, twisting her frail body to get around sharp turns, every now and then running into trees and occasionally falling down. The fear that had gripped her while the shadows were present seemed to become a tangable thing, following her. She could sence that it was behind, for now, but did not trust it to stay there.

Soon she gasped and gasped, and started to walk for she could run no more. The sun was high overhead and her feet felt like they'd been banged in a bog roll. She'd been running for a long time and none of the trees around her looked familier. They were different than the trees she had at home, those comforting shade pools. These ones were thing and high, but with almost no branches. They let the sun fall down and burn Sandra's face and they got in her eyes and made them sting.

The path had also taken a turn for the worse. No longer were their patches of grass lining the trail, they had been replaced by hard dirt. The wind blew threw the dress ominously, and Sandra imagined she could hear voices in the wind, calling out to her, but when she turned nothing was there. After she got her breath back she ran again, this time a much more sedate run, one she hoped to keep up till she reached town.

The further into the woods she got, the worse the woods began to feel. It was as though the trees themselves cried out to her, with harsh voices, and tried to trip her up. And always behind her she felt the presence, watching her run. Pulling fate in order to bring her harm.

The sun began to fall again, and Sandra staggered, exausted, but did not stop. For some reason the idea of spending the night in these woods frightened her. As the sun fell Sandra noticed that shadows began to fall unto the ground from behind her. They would cut her off! She quickened her pace, knowing that it was hopeless, the shadows would soon cover the world in night. She raced around a bend and found a bush in her path. Crying out in fear she pushed as hard as she could past it, cutting her hands deeply, and amerged into a clearing with lights hanging on trees. Her feet felt comfortable grass, and she sank down to her kneese in thanks. Tears fell from her face, and when she tried to wipe them away blood smeared her cheecks.

As she got her bearing a noise came from her left, much like that which an animal might make. It made Sandra laugh, it was so deep and funny sounding. It came again, this time from much forther away from her, and that was odd because she hadn't thought that anything could move quite that fast.

The bush behind her shook and when she turned there was a man there. She looked up at him, but he was different from her. His features were hard and grown, as her fathers had been. This both puzzled Sandra and made her happy, because she thought this man might be related to her father, and know where he was. The man in turn seemed just as startled to see Sandra. He raised his hand and said something that Sandra could not understand.

"Ji'eh noA atah?" He said again, and Sandra shook her head. This seemed to anger the man and he reapeated for a third time. "Ji'eh noA atah?" And now Sandra was scared, because she could tell he wanted an answer, but she did not know how to answer. She closed her eyes and did the only thing that had ever worked when her parents wanted her to talk. She opened her mouth and released her song.

It spread out from her, quite slowly at first, then faster and faster, picking up volume and power as it went, till it filled the whole clearing and began to fade, to become part of the background, to merge with the world. And as her song spread out, knowledge spread in, seeping into Sandra's mind.

words took shape in her head, thoughts made clear by sudden dazzling insight. She raised her head, and her eyes were a little older for with the words came other knowledges. she looked on the man, and knew that he was different from her. His words entered her mind, and changed to thoughts.

"Where did you come from?"

And with that her song ended. She opened her mouth and for the first time Sandra spoke words as her father had done.

"I, do not know." Then she sank down and lay on the cold, soft grass. Her eyes closed and her thoughts went to the land of dreams.


The elders were arguing Sandra's fate. Most of the men were for chucking her out back into the woods. They said the last thing they needed in times like these were more, strange, mouths to feed. Some of the men were for keeping her, for who could turn anyone away into the woods so full of strange dangers?

It was the womans vote however that decided the issue. When old Gran Hifry stood up and said she'd leave the village herself if they ever did such a horrible thing, everyone backed down. It was decided Sandra could stay, as long as she was constantly watched. And she slept on, as though she hadn't for years.