*Edited*
"Mother." Grace announced her arrival home in a softly, melodic voice as she opened the cracked and broken wooden door to the two roomed shack that they lived in. She pulled down her hood, releasing her flame hair and placed her basket onto the ground before she began to untie her cloak and hang it on a small hanging stone that protruded from the moldy stone wall.
" Ah, my dear child. How fair was the market?" She asked in a weak and frail voice as she sat on her bed of hay. Grace walked in with a small bounce in her dainty step. She gracefully dropped to her knees next to the small stove that sat at the far end of the house, to the right of her mother's bed and began piling small piece of wood onto of the cold cinders.
" The same as always, mother." She informed her and smiled a kind, soft as she finished building the fire. Grace stood up and straightened her dress; wiping her dirty hands on a cloth; in an attempt to clean them as she reached into the basket. Grace took hold of the bread and walked back around to her smiling mother. She handed the bread to her tenderly with a saddened smile.
"Here, I am afraid this was all I could get. Money is small as of late, seeing that people are no longer want our healing." Grace told her as she tiled her head softly to the side. Her mother took the bread and pulled a slither from the golden loaf; She gingerly placed the piece into her mouth and smiled at the melting taste.
" Well, it is better than naught." Her mother smiling gently to her daughter as she placed the bread onto a plate that sat upon a glory box next to the make shift bed. Grace released a soft sighed as she lifted herself back up to her feet.
" I am going to go out and collect herbs and berries for dinner." Grace chimed as she bent down and placed a easy kiss on her mothers leathery forehead and floated gently back to the door of their broken house. She grabbed her cloak and opened the protesting door before looking back to her mother.
" I will be back soon to light the fire." She whispered as she walked out and closed the door behind her. As she walked away from her shack and brought her cloak up and around her shoulders, skillfully tying it around her neck. Grace took step after step over the rotten forest floor. Grace left her hair loss to fly within the gusts of soft spring wind like a fire ravaging dry bush. Her blue eyes searched the greenery below her feet for rip and ready to eat berries along with any herbs she could use for dinner as well as medicine.
Grace smiled as she stepped gently through the high knee length green and gold grass twisted with meadow flowers of all colours. She sang a soft happy tune in the native Gaelic tongue of her homeland as she skipped and twisted around smiling happily, letting all her worries disappear for just this short period of time; before she had to face her reality once again.
The setting sun's ray shone softly down onto her green dress and her smiling face, giving her it's gentle spring heat. She picked up the front of her dress, holding it tightly in her hands and ran forward out of the forest lining. The trees whirled pasted her as her old shoes covered her feet. She continued to run and sing, with several twists in her steps as if she was dancing with the forest as her partner.
She finally stepped out of the forest and onto a cliff which looked out and over stretches of undiscovered sea. The sound of the waves jumping up onto the rocky cliff meters below her. Grace calmly walked over to the edge, allowing the salty wind to wipe through her hair. Her eyes closed as the feeling of peace washed over her gently. With her hands out to the side of her, she felt -for a moment- that she was flying like a sparrow flying swiftly through the breeze. After a moment she sighed and relaxed before she spun around on her right foot and walked back into the forest weaving in between the tree as she continued to sang her gentle folk song, feeling the world fall away leaving her in the forest. She stopped and gently finished her singing as she held onto a thick tree, resting the right side of her forehead onto the bark with a faint smile. She let her mind wonder to a life of comfort and happiness; one that she could never obtain in her life.
YOU ARE READING
Red Haired Beauty (wattys2016)
Historical Fiction" You would refuse something that you cannot afford and was graciously bought for you?" The man asked clearly annoyed at her refusal of his kindness. " I may not have money to afford such delicacies but I am not a charity case, nor will I accept thi...
