The Forest: Part 3
She leaned back in the chair, resting a hand on a her full stomach. Her eyes roved over the people at the table. Their eyes were a deep green like her parents. As she stared at them, she could see some resemblance to her own mother in the woman that had spoken in the common tongue to her. They could have been sisters, maybe they were. Her parents had said they left their home before she was born. They had wanted to explore the world and when she was born, they stopped in that village and settled there.
“There are many people that want to meet you, child,” the mother said interrupting the girl’s thoughts.
“Why?”
“Because you are important to our people,” she said picked up the empty plates.
“Why would I be important?”
“Every child of our people is important, especially those that have been gone for a long time. You are a child that was born in the world outside and your homecoming is a time for celebration.”
“And who are these people?”
“Do you not know who we are, what we are?”
“My parents never speak of their home, only that they left it before I was born.”
The mother sighed and turned towards the girl.
“Well, you will learn now that you are here. First, let us get you properly dressed.”
The girl looked down at the human clothes and ran a hand through her plain hair. She must look strange to them in these clothes. They fit, but hung loosely around her slender frame. It was so unlike the clothes they wore. The deer hide clothing fit snugly to their bodies. Some even looked like they had living plants wrapped around them.
“Come child,” the mother said as she ushered the girl toward some stairs.
The girl followed her. A hand running along the smooth grain of the wood as she ascended the stairs she had not seen the night before.
“What is the name your parents have given you?” the woman asked as she picked up pale green linen dress and handed it to the girl.
“Anaba, Anaba Fieldthorn,” she said as she shrugged out of her clothes and slipped the dress over her undergarments.
“Fieldthorn?” the woman asked as she handed over a deerskin vest
“Yes, is that not their real name?” Anaba asked as she laced up the vest
“It was not the name your parents had when they left, but our names change. It is the way of our people. You will always be Anaba, but you will not always be Anaba Fieldthorn. They have called you the Spiritwalker for many years. We have seen your spirit in our forest. You walked among the trees, but never among our people. I expect you will be called Anaba Spiritwalker by those you will soon meet,” the mother said as she began to braid Anaba’s hair.
“What do you mean by my spirit walked in the forest?”
“There are those among our people who can travel places without their body. Their spirit can float free and travel the world. Some people can move their body from one place to another, but their spirit cannot separate from their body. Others can do neither, and still a few can do both. You are one of those that can do both, though, for a long time we thought you were just a spiritwalker.”
“And my parents?”
“They must use their feet to travel,” the mother said as she began to expertly weave leaves into the braids.
“Will they know where I have gone? Do they know what I can do?”
“They probably have had some idea that you were a Spiritwalker. And the other spirit walkers of the village have been searching for them so that they might know where you have gone, though they will probably figure it out on their own.”
“Perhaps I should go back and tell them? They will wonder where I have gone. I am their only child and they worry over me. Even if they try not to let me see it,” Anaba said as she fidgeted with the string on the vest.
“If there is one thing I know about your parents, it is that they are some of the brightest elves there are. They will figure it out and they will pick up their feet and travel back home.”
3analyses…
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