The Call of the Woodland Spirit

Chapter 5

I gaped in awe, typically for no reason as a tall man with blond hair walked past us, giving me a strange look as I was staring at him so much.

Arashi and I were walking through the simple yet tidy paths that the little town had, my dream. As silly as it may seem, I had never gotten a chance to ever look inside a town, forget about walk in one. The town resided in a little dip, surrounded by the mountains Arashi and I had walked down (me clinging to his arm in fright like a baby) to get here in the first place. The place was on flat ground, beautiful snow-sparkling evergreen trees were hanging on the sides of the surrounding mountains like gorgeous decorations, especially beautiful as the snow caught the sun's radiance.

The town wasn't as small on the inside as it seemed on the outside, however. The second I stepped over the path I felt suddenly entitled, a good feeling, to have seen this sight I have been longing to see. And Arashi had been more than happy to take me. The slopes of Alaska isn't always never ending snow.

This town was pleasant, it was very neat, very beautiful, and the townspeople were just lovely. There was small shops, businesses, whatever they were along the sides of the path we were walking. There was a young man with dark hair selling snowboards on the left of us, in a small, half-open cabin-like house made of wood logs. He was wearing a winter hat and giant coat, and currently tending to a lady with graying hair.

On our left, I eagerly turned to see, was a middle-aged woman with big brown eyes selling Alaskan wolf meat. (I almost barfed up that pie I had two hours ago). Another woman was in a similar looking cabin, this one only different with fur coats, wolf or dog, I think, hanging from the roof of her little shop.

And many other people, many other shops, and perhaps in those shops were the living spaces of the residents. It made me wonder why Arashi lived so far away when he could be near everyone else.

I turned curiously and excitedly to look up at Arashi. He was once again wearing his light, olive green jacket and dark trousers and nothing more - even if everyone else at the town was wearing the largest coats they could find. In earnest, he had graciously given me a spare coat he had bought a few years ago from a man named Kavik yet never used. My own coat from the orphanage had been gently reprimanded by Arashi, as he had said it was much too old and nearly did nothing against the wind. The lended coat he had given me had a few stitches here and there and a few loose ends even, but it was warm and kept me safe from the cold. Not much need, to be honest, as the winter harshness had died down quite a bit, now icicles were beginning to form and drip under the small shop counters.

Arashi wasn't fitfully happy yet he didn't look downhearted either, all he had was a blank gaze. His brown hair was combed and draped down his shoulders while his leaf-green eyes darted to and fro, taking in their surroundings. Occasionally, he would give a small smile and even wave whenever someone he knew would cross our path. A group of four middle-aged men wearing fur coats waved, all smiles to him, and so did a pair of women wearing thick winter boots. Some of them even waved to me, for some reason. And it filled me simply with delight. No one at the orphanage seemed to care whenever I crossed paths with them, my own classmates would give me (and each other, to be honest) looks of disgust and sheer loathing.

But I was with someone who cared about me now, even if it was until I could get back on my feet.

"Oh, hey Arashi!"

I turned abruptly to look to my left, and so did Arashi. There, coming out of a small wooden log house with glass panes for the door and windows was a woman. She wasn't young or old, middle-aged and hugging herself into a large gray fur coat. With wavy, shoulder-length honey brown hair and blue-gray eyes, she had such a nice face—no wrinkles, no pinched frustration, just a nice clean complexion. She reminded me of something, someone, yet I couldn't recall who.