Chapter One
“Love and empathy are a matter of perspective and time. As time passes and perspectives change, we grow together like the tree and the vine, our destinies and lives intertwining in such a way that, if separated from each other, both will certainly perish.”
Legon was drowning in an icy abyss.
He tried to hurl himself upward and pain exploded in his head. He opened his eyes to find himself sitting up in bed with his head against the rafter of the slanted roof next to him. Groggily, he rubbed his head and looked around his room. There was an open window in the wall behind him with a hint of pre-dawn light shining through, a blank wooden wall in front of him, and to his left was a door that opened to the stairway that led down to the rest of the house.
His view of the door was obscured by a girl with a mischievous smile on her face. Her dark brown curly hair came down past her shoulders, framing a soft face with bright blue eyes, long dark eyelashes, a petite nose, and full red lips. She was wearing a light brown dress with a white lace collar. Over the dress was her signature pale blue apron. She wore no jewelry or makeup. She was standing next to the bed holding an empty bucket in her hands, and the smile on her face was now growing into a grin.
“Sasha! What did you do that for!” he barked.
“What?” asked Sasha, who was clearly trying not to laugh. “You told me to wake you by whatever means necessary.” She tried to look put out, as if he was the one who had just done something wrong.
Rubbing his throbbing head again, he looked up into the twinkling eyes that looked down on him. He growled, “And you thought that a bucket of cold water was necessary?”
A mock look of deep contemplation came over Sasha’s face. “You see, I couldn’t find a bucket of warm water and well… I suppose I could have been a bit less… oh, what’s the word I’m looking for… rude? But then I suppose I would not have been so apt to rudeness if someone hadn’t put a beetle in my soup two nights ago.”
Legon’s anger subsided a bit. He had put a beetle in her soup two nights ago and she did owe him for it. He took a moment to think about that night, reminiscing about bean soup flying across the dining room and Sasha screaming… Ah, it’s the little things in life, he thought. He’d worried about what she would do for revenge ever since.
Now that he was drenched and boasted a spectacular pain growing in his head, he didn’t have to worry anymore. He should have known better, though, when she had invited him on a breakfast picnic. Legon and Sasha would often go on picnics together, and despite the fact that they liked to play jokes on one another, they were closer than twins. Sasha had brought the idea up to him last night, egging him on by questioning if he could get up in time. And like the idiot I am I gave her an opportunity.
Sasha smiled, glanced over her handiwork, gave a small giggle, and left the room with a slight skip in her step. Legon took a moment to get out of bed, then went to the dresser in the corner of the room and got out some dry clothes. He pulled on a pair of grey woolen pants, an off-white button-up shirt, and a pair of dingy socks. Lastly, he put on a pair of brown leather boots and went into the hall connecting his room with the rest of the house.
To his right was a railing and open space that looked down on the lower floor. To his left were closed doors that lead to different rooms in the house. The first he passed was Sasha’s and then his parents. The hallway was lit by the light coming from the kitchen below. He came to the staircase and made his way down the creaky wooden stairs into the kitchen. As he went down the stairs he smelled food cooking. He picked up his pace at once. Getting up would normally be a lengthy project this early in the morning, but one benefit of Sasha’s little prank was that he felt like he had already been awake for a few hours.
He walked into the large open room that was their kitchen, dining, and family room. A heavy wood table stood in the center of the room and in the corner opposite the front door was a counter and cast iron stove at which Sasha was standing. To the left of the stove and counter was the back door and next to it on the wall was a small mirror with a copper frame. Legon stepped up to the mirror to make sure that he didn’t look too beastly. Staring back at him was a teenage boy with short brown hair, dark green eyes, and a firm jaw line. His skin was unusually smooth. He inspected his face with a look of disappointment, hoping to find the small pricks of a beard. I’m like a girl! I couldn’t grow a proper beard if my whole family’s life depended on it!
Sasha noticed him inspecting his face and chimed in, “I like it that way, Legon. Your face reminds me of a little baby.”
He could see her smirking in the mirror. “You’re on a roll this morning aren’t you?”
She shrugged and went on packing for the picnic. Legon went to a cabinet under the staircase and got some blankets and two long buckskin tubes containing their hunting bows, along with some arrows. Sasha was no hunter, but she was a fine shot and they enjoyed practicing archery, shooting into the hillsides of the mountains.
She wrapped four pocket pies that she had made into a red and white checked cloth, put the cloth into a wicker basket lined with a wool towel blanket, and wrapped the towel around the cloth. She then procured a dark green bottle of cedar from a cabinet that was built into the lower part of the counter and turned to Legon.
Legon looked down at the package wrapped tight in the towel. “Why did you wrap them in the towel and the cloth?”
“It’s chilly this morning. I don’t want the pies to be cold by the time we get up to the top of the hill,” she replied conversationally.
“Oh, good thinking Sash. Let me grab your cloak and we can be off.”
Legon went to the wall next to the front door where four black traveling cloaks rested on hooks. He put on his own, then walked up to Sasha and wrapped hers around her. Prepared for their outing, they stepped out of the back door of the house and began to walk to the woods. The back of their house faced directly into the woods at the edge of town. As they walked out they could see to their right the fenced-in paddock and an assortment of sheep, pigs, cattle, and the family’s horses. Other than the horses, the animals were mostly livestock that townsfolk had brought to be slaughtered in the family butcher shop. In the corner of the paddock was the shed where Legon and his father slaughtered and cleaned the animals. In most butcher shops the shed would be attached to the main building, but Legon’s mother had complained about the smell. One of the benefits of building a separate shed was that they were able to turn the old space where they used to slaughter the animals into a smoker and a large ice box. This gave them the ability to cure meat for people and keep their stock of meat fresh for longer periods of time.
The morning air was crisp and sweet-perfect for a hike. They were able to walk straight into the woods, since the town of Salmont had no town wall. Instead, the city was surrounded by a beautiful view of the woods and mountains.
They walked together into the woods and soon they were completely surrounded by trees as they ascended a steep hill with tree roots jutting up here and there. The pines were small on this hill, but still far above their heads. Sticky sap ran from some of them, giving the forest a pungent smell that they could taste on their tongues. This hike would be difficult for most people in the predawn darkness, but Legon and Sasha had spent their whole lives playing in these woods, so the faint moonlight was more than enough for them to walk in. After about a half hour they reached the top of a hill that overlooked the valley where they lived. The sun was just beginning to make itself known to the world as they rolled out a grey blanket on the soft turf and sat down. They took off their cloaks and put them across their laps, and Legon took a blue blanket and placed it around their shoulders. He uncorked the bottle of cedar as Sasha began unwrapping the pocket pies.