𝙰 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚍 𝙴𝚖𝚋𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚎 (wlw)

Chapter One

The squawking in the nearby trees drew her attention causing her dark head to swivel around. Curious eyes found their way to the direction from whence the abrupt sound reverberated. A flock of birds leapt into the late afternoon sky of orange and yellow thereafter, furiously flapping away from the cluster of trees.

Ignoring the suddenness in which they left, the woman turned her attention back to the damp ground. Her indurated hands threw several pieces of chopped wood into the bucket at her feet which she bustled off with to the building that stood like an archaic treasure nestled between the wood and mountains.

The cold breeze that fanned over the ridges swept through the thinning coat she wore and rattled her so severely that her bones trembled and begged for shelter from its ferocity. The wind also caused the door to the house to slam shut upon her arrival, this didn't faze her though for the warmth of the home instantly smoothed over her worries.

Sighing a breath of relief that she'd made it in from the nipping breeze, the woman moved over to throw the wood down near the others. It was going to be a chilly night. The way the wind behaved was testimony to the coming cold. It was a cold she was glad to finally be away from and a cold she was prepared for, hence the freshly chopped wood and the incessant fire she kept at the grate.

Allowing herself a moment to rest after an arduous day of being away in the market square most of the day, even though she was still standing in the day's clothing and sweat, the woman, after wiping her cold hands in the stained apron tied around her waist, went over to the humming child on the floor who ardently played with a wooden toy horse.

With a hand rustling through his dark curls, a smile curled on her lips at the sight of how happy and oblivious the boy was. Admiring him for a moment longer, she eventually turned her back to him to focus on starting a fire in the stone oven.

Dinner was about to be made: a hot bowl of boiled potatoes and some stewed beans from their lunch earlier that day. Their dinner wasn't lavish like that of the meals served to the Lords, Ladies and other noble members within the province and country but it was enough to sustain both of them, it had to.

Sauntering about the small kitchen, the outside world grew to the point where the woman could no longer see the different shades of leaves on the trees nor the breadth of the mountains, darkness cascaded instead. Still, the distant squawking of the birds continued but they echoed from afar, and as she listened to their fleeting shrieks it evoked an unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Turning her attention to the young boy for a second time, she watched him as he played with abject oblivion, something she envied. To live without fear or worry of what happened or what was to come was something she longed for again. She longed for the time when she too was just as carefree and without responsibilities but growing up happened: life was forced upon her, death occurred, turning her world upside down and although she had an unspoken desire to be free from the restraints that came with living, there was an overall appreciation for the very things that confined her.

Indirectly she'd become a mother to the boy who she realized after some time was a gift from the heavens. He was the only family she had left to her knowledge, and he kept her grounded. He brought so much joy and comfort into her life for the time he'd been alive.

Along with the struggles of being responsible for another life and her own, there was the penury they'd lived in. Life was hard in its own way, but living in poverty without certainty was even harder because at any time, whether it be the wind blew too hard or the rain fell for days, what little security they'd had could be snuffed away. And it was taken away, leaving the woman to become the breadwinner for herself and a young child she'd never planned for.