The Song of Fern

Little Red Riding Hood's Trail

Fern quickly grew accustomed to their new lifestyle.

In the morning she awoke and laid the table with eight plates, eight cups, eight forks, eight knives, eight spoons and eight egg cups. She went outside to collect the eggs from the chickens they had bought and she boiled them over the stove. She cut the freshly baked bread into thick slices and she squeezed oranges. She put out ham and cheese, and vegetables and berries from their little garden.

They would eat together as a family and after breakfast, Maxen and Zeno would hunt for small game and Kayro and Avery would unleash their anger and disappointment on the woodlogs for firewood. Often, Senna and Lewis would bring Fern along to the nearest village, where both the princes and the princess attracted a lot of curious looks and tentative smiles.

The three of them would head into the tavern, where they sang and drank and danced. Sometimes they would go to the riverside, where they bought fish and shell food, and sometimes they would go to the miller for finely ground flour. On the week-ends there was a market in the square, where Fern sometimes traded goods.

Mortals and Fae roamed the town alike. Fern spotted the immortals from afar: they were often beautiful, with long, pointy ears and a fantastical glow about them. On a rare occasion they interacted with her, testing the waters, but she never played along. She had learned her lesson with the Frog King.

When the sun was at its highest, they would return to their cottage in the woods, where Fern cleaned and sang and prepared lunch. She would visit the chickens, whose cackling made her happy, and then she would visit Kayro and Avery, who were sweaty and calmed down. Sometimes she went along with them to the creek to wash her hair, sometimes her brothers went without her. It had been some time since she had a bath, and she longed for hot water.

Afterwards, she would start cooking a meal for dinner - often stew - and she would lay the table again, with eight plates, eight cups, eight knives, eight forks, eight spoons and eight egg cups. They would eat together as a family and then they would clean up together, after which they turned into their rooms.

Sometimes Fern tried to talk to Grimswald, sometimes she didn't. On a rare occasion, Grimswald responded in curt and quizzical sentences, that weren't even really sentences, but more often than not the princess was greeted with silence.

After four weeks the routine began to annoy her and she grew restless.

***

Fern woke up with the first light of day and she stretched her limbs. The restlessness that nestled in her muscles angered her. She got dressed and looked at the three little trinkets she had taken from her mother's vanity. She took a deep breath, her anger ebbing away a little.

Before her brothers were up, she left the cottage and walked towards the edge of the tree line. With Senna and Lewis she always followed the sun-speckled path to the village of Faye. However, ever since she woke up the very first morning, a darker path called to her. It bubbled with magic and the promise of adventure. 

She didn't know if she dared. 

Her feet carried her to the safe wood-chip path, but her eyes were locked on the narrow sand path, that curled around the bramble bushes before leading into the darker parts of the woods.

Fern steered her feet to the magic-filled path and started marching.

The first time she visited the village of Faye with Senna and Lewis, her father had warned them to always stay on the path. In the woods, off-track, was where the faery-rings were, and faery-rings were notorious ways of being trapped and tricked by the Folk. Although Fern deliberately chose the way that tickled her skin with glittering magic, she didn't dare to leave the sandy trail.