With the Wind (long snippet)

A longer snippet of the very start of With the Wind. Where our MC, who has lived in the mountains her entire life and never actually spoken to another human besides her grandfather, begins to make her way down to the town at the foot of the mountain to start a new life.

As one does.

PART ONE

In Which Our Story Begins With a Broken Promise

Chloe: "Sorry, Grandfather. I'm afraid...I'm going to have to break my promise this time."

"I stopped to look back up the mountain path. The cabin - or what was left of it after the landslide had taken part - was already out of sight."

"I sighed and, unable to waste more time, began to walk again."

"It would take most of the day to get to the village and I'd already wasted a good part of my morning arguing with myself on whether I should go down at all." 

"I said no. Then yes...then no again...as I packed what meagre things could be salvaged from the cabin."

"To be honest, I really should simply be grateful I wasn't in the cabin when the wall of mud hit it. I'd have been buried alive for sure. And no one knew I lived there. So no one would have found me."

"It was all this rain we'd been getting, of course. It happened every so often - a wet spring with endless storms and showers." 

"There had been several landslides through the years - one had gotten part of the garden wall a few years before Grandfather passed away."

"This one had taken out half the house - though, to be fair, it had fallen into a bit of disrepair over the last few years. I'd done my best to maintain the cabin but it was so much harder when it was just myself."

"And now, there was nothing for it."

"For two days I'd huddled in the wet and leaking ruins of the cabin fretting over what to do. I couldn't repair it on my own. And I certainly couldn't continue to live in a place where a family of frogs had taken up residence in the muddy, soggy fireplace."

"If not because I couldn't cook, then because their croaking through the night was going to drive me mad with sleep deprivation!"

"So I was breaking my promise and heading to the village at the foot of the mountains.”

“Well, it was really more of a town than a village these days. The last time I'd really gotten a good look at it was around five years ago - before Grandfather died."

"But I'd seen it from afar plenty of times - watching it grow from huts to houses, to winding stone streets and chimneys full of smoke."

"Even in the two years since Grandfather was gone, I'd gone no further than the highest ridge far above it."

"I saw hunters in the forests sometimes. I'd nearly been caught on more than one occasion. But no one ever actually saw me..."

"As far as I knew, anyway."

"I could run fast - and I knew all the best places to hide."

"And, of course, the animals would help to hide me if I asked. Though I hated to do it - after all, who would knowingly pit a poor animal against hunters armed with crossbows?"

"Not to mention those new...things. Those loud weapons that spat smoke and fire. And round metal balls that had felled many an unsuspecting deer or fox."

"None of that really mattered at this point. After years of hiding, I could hide no longer. Not if I wanted to live. Which, I did."

"Which was why I was making the long, difficult trek down the worn mountain path to the town that was so strange and yet so familiar to me."

"I had long since passed the highest ridge and was now nearly the place that marked the lowest I'd ever been."

"I crested the hill and looked with amazement at the town that sprawled below."

Chloe: "It's grown even more since the last time I looked." 

"It circled outward from a densely packed inner district - houses of brick and wood with chimney stacks that billowed clouds of black into the sky."

"I couldn't help but wrinkle my nose at that."

"There was a clock tower in the centre. The last time I'd looked down, it had been a mess of scaffolding as they worked on it. Now it was complete, standing proudly at the centre of the town with cobbled streets spiralling outward."

"The edges of the town were messy - houses thinned to huts and farms and unpaved streets shared by carriages, sheep, and cows alike." 

"As I started down the hill toward that strange place, I couldn't help but wonder if it was going to be any easier to survive there than it would if I had just stayed on the mountain alone."

Chloe: "Even so, there's nothing for it. I'll have to try it out and see what happens."

"That was all I could do."

"I was beginning to worry about where I'd stay the night by the time I reached the town. It was certainly growing late - the sky was tinged pink and purple, but low clouds were gathering. And it was going to rain again."

"Or so the sparrows shouted out as they flew overhead to find a place to roost for the night."

"And sparrows didn't usually lie."

"Now crows? Crows, you couldn't believe a damn thing they said. They'd lie through their beaks, then laugh at you for believing them, the cretins."

"But sparrows could usually be believed."

"(I guess if worse comes to worst, I'll find a nice stable to sleep in.)"

"It probably be warm enough and I didn't think the horses or cows would rat me out. Probably."

"The rats, though. Well, there was a reason for the saying, wasn't there?"

"There was a twinge of apprehension when I first set foot on the beginnings of the actual road that led into town. But it was too late to turn back now. I could only press onward and hope for the best."

"A flock of geese were lazily swimming about a muddy pond nearby and I comforted myself with the thought that if anyone tried to harm me, I could probably get them to come and help."

"Geese were pretty much always up for a good fight."

"In any case, I was glad the outskirts were comprised of little shacks and a few spread out farms. It was unintimidating. Quaint."

"And the first person I saw was a muddy child that let out a blood curdling scream and darted down the road saying the White Woman of the Woods had come to take him away."

"So there was also that."

Chloe: "...Well..."

"I blew a strand of my decidedly white hair out my eyes."

Chloe: "That's either an unfortunate coincidence, or I was seen a few more times than I realised the last couple of years..."

"I clasped my hands in front of me and dutifully shut my eyes."

Chloe: "Dear Grandfather. I fear I may have been more careless than I thought. I apologise. Your loving Granddaughter, Chloe."