The Woman smiled at her beautifully. “You will teach her all that I have taught you. You will tell her what is to come, and then she will follow you when the time is right. You will be together again. We will all be together.” The Woman gestured towards the stand of Ash that lived up the hill a ways. “There are secrets here that I have not shown you; cannot show you while you live in this form. But I can give you another form, and with those new eyes you will see what I can see. You will live like I can live.”
The Girl could see that Freddy wanted to say yes, but there was a hesitation yet.
Freddy licked her lips. “My mother’s book was lost in the woods. Do you know where it can be found?” Her voice was hopeful.
“Yes, child,” the Girl knew well where the book now resided. “When you join me, you’ll be able to study the book anytime you like.” The Girl hoped this answer would be enough. She did not want to relinquish the book. It was her only comfort in the night.
She reached both hands back to Freddy and turned her palms up as she held her breath. A moment passed, and another. And then Freddy placed her hands in hers.
********
She strode into her cave excitedly. There were chipmunks searching her quarters for crumbs, and they scampered at her sudden entry. She was only stopping for a moment to scoop up the gift for the trees. A symbolic gift only, of course. Their true gift would come in the form of Freddy. She felt a twinge of guilt, but then she pushed it away.
There was so much to do. She had years before Freddy would join her, but that hardly seemed like enough to prepare. There would be the binding rituals with the Ash, which would take time. There were still things she needed to show Freddy so that she would be able to pass them along to Rebecca. After all of that, she would need to sleep again for a time to conserve her energy.
With the trees’ small token of appreciation wrapped in spiderweb and tucked under her arm, she left the darkness of the cave to join the sunlight again. The sensation of guilt twinged again, and she let it linger this time. She had left out a small detail about what was required when she had offered Freddy her choice.
“What are the chances that it will matter,” she scoffed at herself.
________
Chapter: Freddy
She had persuaded Rebecca that she would tell her all that had happened to her later. Her mind was still jumbled from her encounter with the Woman, and her heart raced at the thought of what awaited her someday. Not so soon that she couldn’t prepare. Not so soon that she wouldn’t have time to complete Rebecca’s training.
She would have to make arrangements for her husband, although part of her knew that he would return to his family in town. He had never warmed to their life on the hill as she had hoped. Perhaps that was partly to do with Freddy herself. He had not been her first choice, and he knew it.
Maybe if Jehan had agreed to stay with her, she would have refused the Woman’s offer. Maybe she would not have been able to bear leaving her beloved. Maybe Freddy should feel uneasy about the agreement she had made only a few hours ago, but she did not. She felt free.
She breathed air that smelled sweeter. She walked with a step that was lighter. The feeling stayed with her all the way back to the cabin where her husband was waiting. The feeling lingered through several more days, and then she realized that another little one was on the way.
********
“There’s time,” she thought and tried to quell another swell of panic. She held her swollen belly and picked her way carefully through the fallen leaves. “Plenty of time for all of it,” she continued talking to the red and orange colors of autumn. “There are many years of preparation yet anyway. I can do it all and still take care of the babe.” Freddy held out an arm to rest against a sturdy trunk while she caught her breath. “Rebecca will help me.” She took another deep breath and then pushed away from the tree. These days, a little momentum was necessary.
She didn’t recall her first pregnancy being this difficult. She hadn’t been quite so easily tired nor wanted to sleep all the time. The panic she felt was because of this constant fatigue. She was worried the Woman would see her current ragged state and rescind her offer. More than anything, even more than her children, she wanted what the Woman of the Woods had promised her. Her desire was so great, that she had almost taken the herbs to get rid of the child. At the last moment, after all her preparations, she couldn’t bear to drink the concoction.
Freddy passed the old oak and then the handful of birch trees that clung together in a tight circle. She was making her way home after gathering the herbs she needed to replenish vacant supplies. She could have sent Rebecca, but Freddy was anxious to get away from the house. Her husband was so excited that there was finally another child coming that it felt as if he hovered over her every move. Other women would call it a blessing to have such an attentive man, but to Freddy it was stifling. She missed her birds and her quiet walks and her chances to encounter the fantastical moments that had always surrounded the cabin on the hill. She would only have them when she was alone. Never when anyone else was around not even Rebecca.
Her basket grew suddenly heavy, and Freddy bent to set it on the ground. She straightened, and there in front of her was the Woman. Freddy stared at her with quiet resignation. In a way, she had been hiding from the Woman. She had been afraid that the pregnancy would disappoint her, and then the Woman would disappear from her life. The Woman’s offer would disappear with her, and then she would spend the rest of her life grieving her lost opportunity.
Here was that moment she had been dreading, but she was too exhausted to run from it. She stood across from the Woman, her belly obvious even beneath her layered clothes.
The Woman had a small smile on her beautiful, dark features. Somehow, the smile made her seem more sinister. She stepped forward to close the distance between them until she stood directly in front of Freddy. Freddy had to tilt her head up a little, and the Woman moved her head down closer so that their noses almost touched. This was the closest Freddy had ever been to her. A smell of green bark wafted off the Woman’s skin, and her breath smelled like the wild roses that grew along the Eastern edge of the forest. The scent of her made Freddy wish for Spring.
She took another deep breath while the Woman reached out her hand to Freddy’s belly. Still smiling, the Woman said, “Girl.”
________
Chapter: Rebecca
She looked through the book she had started keeping a decade ago. There was her childish looping script at the beginning, the handwriting of a child. Somewhere near the middle, the marks drew straighter, more even. This latest entry had a quick, messy slant to the cursive. At her age, there was much to do in a day besides record the teachings. As much as she had to make certain she understood how to assist her mother, there was also the practicality of what she would be responsible for after Freddy left. She would need to care for her sister and her father. She would be the one to run the household in a few short months.
Quickly finishing her latest scribbles, she closed the book with a forceful thud as she rose from the table. She needed both hands to lift the weight of it from the table so she could replace it on the high shelf. She made sure to conceal it behind jars of herbs, ever mindful of the story of when the original Swavely family book was lost.
“Not that it will matter,” Rebecca thought as she moved a final jar of roots. “That book disappeared, after all.”
She pulled her apron from the back of her chair and grabbed her basket from the porch on her way down the stairs. She wouldn’t need the basket for her chores this afternoon, but the ruse made it easier to conceal her true duties from her father. She would cut some mullein as a cover so the basket would be full when she returned.
Not for the first time, she wondered if her father ever suspected what his wife and daughter did in the woods? Then again, her parents seemed to leave each other alone most of the time.
Rebecca knew she would need to find a husband who could do the
same. She knew the fate that awaited her, and she looked towards it with eagerness. Even so, there were things she wanted to experience before that time arrived.
She wanted a child of her own to teach all of the forest’s marvelous secrets. She wanted to go to the Ash when it was her time knowing that her daughter would join her some day.
These wishes required a husband. As much as Rebecca tried, she could not make a spell that would give her children without one.
The husband was required, but Rebecca’s attachment was not. She walked through the wildflower meadow and trailed her hands through the petals. She wondered if Freddy had felt the same way many years ago. Maybe that was the reason for the distance between her parents.
Regardless, there wasn’t a ritual in the book about how to capture a man. She had certainly looked for one. When she had asked her mother how she had found Father, Freddy had blushed. “He was a relative of my friend Jehan. I went into town for her wedding, and he asked me to dance. I thought he was as good as any.”
The answer was simple. It should have appeased Rebecca’s curiosity, but she could sense her mother’s sadness. Being able to read other people’s feelings and intentions was a skill she had been born with. The side effect of this gift seemed to be that Rebecca herself was always detached from people. To say that she didn’t care would be too strong a statement. She was simply disinterested. If Rebecca had been more interested in emotions, at that moment she would have been able to register that what Freddy was feeling was more than sadness. There was heartbreak and longing. There was a wish for a different life than the one she had. The wish was fleeting, and Rebecca could feel it being replaced with the joy her mother felt whenever she was around Rebecca or her sister.
She passed the stand of the four strong Ash and stopped in front of them. She raised her hands to begin her greeting and then paused. “I bet if we still had Mother Swavely’s book it would tell how to ask you for a favor,” she said to them with a smile. They waggled their lower branches at her, but she couldn’t tell if they were agreeing or declining. Not for the first time, Rebecca mourned the loss of knowledge. Freddy had memorized as much as she could, but Rebecca was certain that the family had lost pieces that were important. Freddy said her own mother had told amazing stories about her family. Stories of the sacred groves of their homeland and how they spoke to the trees. How they had called down lightning from the sky, and they could see the other creatures that dwelled in the forests when no other tribe could. The wondrous experiences they had had while roaming all over their far away land and then crossing the ocean.
“I wish I could do all that my ancestors could do,” Rebecca said to the Ash as her hands completed the gestures of greeting. Somewhere small and unexpected, a glow of orange emitted from one of the Ash, and its limbs swayed lower than the others. Rebecca held her breath, and her whole body felt frozen. She heard a voice inside her ears that sounded rasping and hollow.
“We can show you,” the trees answered, “when your time is ready.”
________
Chapter: Jacob and Rebecca
The summer Freddy Stranger disappeared into the forest, Samson had to send someone up the hill to let her husband and daughters know the search had come to an end. The hill was a daunting climb at his age, so he sent one of his own sons.
"Of course, of course," Ernest had murmured absently, pulling the little one at his side closer. Young Autumn looked up at him with big eyes, but neither she nor her father seemed surprised.
Ernest offered him cool water. He welcomed the drink after the long hike up, but the act of sitting there with the family in their oddly silent grief unnerved him. He gulped the last half of the cup in three swallows.
The walk down the well-worn path should have been easier, but Jacob kept hearing sounds following him. It was darker under the canopy of trees than it should have been. No birds, no breeze. Maybe the hill was mourning Freddy, too.
"Will you still look for her?"
Jacob turned sharply at the girlish voice. Green eyes stared out of a darkly tanned face through the frame of a snowberry shrub about three feet away from him. Her proximity startled him even more, and he stumbled over his own feet. The girl laughed as he crashed to the forest floor and stepped out onto the path. Hair rose from her head like spun sugar. Skin so smooth it shone like glass.
"Will you still look for her?"
Jacob realized he was still sitting in the moss, gaping up at her. He swallowed and made himself stammer, "Who?" He watched her place her hands on her knees as she leaned down towards him. He still wasn't sure if she was real. There were lots of stories told about things that happen on the hill.
He wasn't certain until she said, "My mother."
This must be Rebecca, the eldest. "Do - do you want me to keep looking?"
She straightened and looked out into the forest. "I know where she's gone," she said softly, then turned back to him. "But if I asked you to keep looking, would you do it?"
Jacob realized that his chest felt hot. As he stared at her, the warmth spread down his arms and up to his scalp. He knew she was waiting for an answer. Without understanding what was happening to him, his mouth opened, and he had no idea what would come out of it. "Yes," he heard himself say.
Her smile was small through her sadness. "I knew you were the one for me, Jacob Eichel. Come back to Ever’s burg when you’re ready."
She walked away from him. He was left to pick himself up and stumble down the rest of the hill, wondering how she knew his name. He had never been to the hill before. He had never been past the stream at its base. He crossed the stream again now and walked the two other miles home.
His mother was in the yard when he came through the gate. She stopped her task and stared at him. "What happened to you?" she asked him with a strange look on her face.
The question stopped him as he was entering the house. "Me?" He thought a moment. "I met a girl in Eversburg."
"Where?"
"The place up on the hill."
********
After he came down from the hill, Jacob had the same dream every night. Still, he would not go back. Part of him wanted to run to the girl he had seen once in the flesh and every night since behind his closed eyes. The other half of him was still a boy, was fearful of these visions he did not completely understand, and hid from whatever meaning was behind them.
In the dreams, Rebecca waited for him at the top of the path. There was a breeze that caused her hair to float around her head, but he couldn’t feel it. The steps he took seemed more like bounds. He could rise up the path to her in six long strides. He liked the sensation of hovering high above the ground before he touched back to the earth. As he descended from his last step, he would find himself about ten feet away from her. Even though he had climbed a mountain so easily, he could not seem to move his legs the last little bit to reach her.
The image of Rebecca would simply stand there, watching him, for what felt like eons. Finally, she would open her mouth, and a stream of swifts would funnel out of her. Thousands of birds would sweep past him, and he would wake in his bed as he had been in the dream. His arms curled protectively around his head.
In the daylight, he would help his father as usual. He ate evening meal with his family as if everything was the same; as if he didn’t live his days waiting for the time he could close his eyes to see Rebecca standing in front of him again.
One night, when the black cloud of wings rose out of the girl, he didn’t cower behind his shield of upraised arms. He simply stood across from Rebecca and allowed the flutter of their feathers to graze his face and neck and chest. He watched them until the last few birds straggled out of her. When they were gone, he spoke her name, and the sound it made inside his head woke him that night. Lying in the bed, his arms were at his sides. His skin was cool, not feverish as it had been for weeks. He knew what he was about to do, but he waited quietly in the early morning darkness for several hours. Trying to memorize everything abo
ut the room he slept in with his brothers so he would not forget. When he was sure, he stole from the bed, packed a bag with the few items in the world that were his, and left the only home he had ever known.
If he wavered in his belief that Rebecca truly waited for him, he never showed it in his stride. Across fields and through the forest, he walked with conviction and never looked back. When he reached the top, Rebecca was standing there. Blessedly, no birds flew out of her. Instead, it was her arms that closed around his chest, her hands that brushed the hair from his face, and her breath that fluttered against his neck as he held her quietly among the trees.
********
His wife would wander off into the woods from time to time, and Jacob learned to put worries about her safety aside. After their first little one was born, he thought Rebecca’s excursions would cease. He was mistaken and found himself alone for weeks at a time. She simply took the babe with her when she went.
When Jacob asked if their Salome scared away the game with her cries, Rebecca answered, “No. She’s still and quiet. Like me.” Rebecca smiled at him, and he learned not to fret about his daughter as well.
“We’ll have another one soon,” he consoled himself. “That will keep her home.” The years passed. Salome grew older and taller, but no sibling came to join her. Jacob’s mother had borne five sons, and Jacob thought he would have three of his own by now. Seven years passed before Rebecca gave him another girl. Salome was the most excited he had ever seen her. Her sister was born on her own birthday. Four months later, he returned from visiting his parents to find the house empty. A small basket full of summer berries was the only thing waiting for him, and he ate them all as a consolation for how lonely he felt. Even Rebecca’s father had left with his younger child for a place in town after Jacob had arrived. He licked the juice from his fingers and resigned himself to a life often spent on his own.
He was wrong, though. When their younger girl was three, Rebecca left her at home with him and only took Salome away. Jacob and Hazel explored the forest and stream together. Once Hazel was old enough, they rambled over their hill from dawn to dusk. Jacob grew to love his younger child fiercely. More than Salome, greater even than the love for his wife. She and his eldest girl were almost strangers to him. Every time Rebecca left, the length of their time away sometimes stretched into months.
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