A New Beginning

[Jirai]

Myrken Wood.

She sat atop a hill, looking at the walled town just visible in the distance.

Myrken Wood.

The name rolled experimentally off her tongue in a voice made harsh by disuse. She'd had the name from a group of merchants who stopped for their nooning not thirty feet from where she had been resting. Myrken Wood, they had said, and it was as well for one such as she would not, could not be reading words on a sign.

Perhaps this would be the place. Far enough, perhaps, that she might stop running. The winter had been harsh - some of her memories were vague, particularly of snowstorms that should by rights have ended her. Her pack was thin and light, with but a change of clothes slightly less tattered than those she wore and a limp sack nearly empty of the grain it had once held. But the winter was over now, spring was at hand.

Spring. A time of new beginnings.

Myrken Wood.

She stood and shouldered her pack.

[Jirai]

She'd found the cabin by fortunate happenstance. Doubled low to the ground, she'd been chasing a rabbit, so focused on her hunt that she'd nearly run into the greenery-obscured wall. There was a flash of anger as a moment's hesitation allowed her prey to escape. With some effort, she beat back the fury.

A closer look showed that the cabin (really, it was more of a shack) was clearly uninhabited. Vines crawled up the wall closest to her, and a fallen tree had damaged the roof. To her, though, it was a treasure trove.

She ducked carefully through the door, disturbing the layer of dust that lay on the floor. There wasn't much left in the shack - a roughly built table with a decided tilt and a chair to match. A few shelves that had been so poorly nailed to the walls that they had fallen. But the fireplace was clear, and the thick blanket folded in one corner was just dusty and dirty. The best treasure, though, was the large metal pot on the hearth.

This will do, the young woman thought, hands on her hips as she surveyed the unprepossessing premises. This will do nicely.