The Girl in the River

Chapter 1

Sage bunched the hem of her skirt into a handful and gave it an experimental jostle. Her waistband tugged under the weight but all the roots she'd gathered stayed safely in the makeshift basket, so she scrambled to her feet. She had been hunting and digging in the forest floor all morning and her muscles ached. Still, she found her feet carried her across the shady ground with the same lightness they'd had that morning; the same way they had all week. She was in a good mood.

Very quietly so, Sage was not one to show much emotion - even when she was alone like this. She still walked with her head bent, as if avoiding eye contact with the trees and shrubs, and kept her own counsel. Despite appearances, this was where she felt the most at home. Well, except home, of course. Her end of the bench at the hearth in her family's little cottage was the only place that compared in comfort to the way she felt when she wandered alone among the trees like this. It almost made up for the irritating labour of root gathering.

Everything was particularly lovely that day; it was as if the woods knew of the upcoming festivities and had put on their best for the occasion. Little clusters of late summer flowers bloomed between tree roots in droves. That variety was having an unusually abundant year, and Sage was delighted.

Coming up on the stream, she paused. It was so pretty! Sunlight came through the gap in the trees in beams, lighting up mossy rocks and making the ripples sparkle. This part of the river was more of a stream really, it was only a few feet deep in the middle and some of the rocks were so large that it had never been necessary to build a bridge. Especially since no one ever came that way except to hunt.

Giving into a whim, Sage hopped onto one of the rocks. Here at the bank they were mossy, but others towards the middle were smooth and probably warm. She stepped carefully from one stone to another until she was in the sun. A smile tugged at her lips. The gentle touch of warmth on her face and hair felt like a caress, and the gurgle of the water was as soothing as her mother's voice. Looking down, a sandy section of riverbed caught her eye. She stepped into it quickly, before she had time to change her mind or remember that the river was always cold.

Cold! She gasped and curled her toes in the sand. Water pressed against and rushed past her ankles, goosebumps raised on her skin. Sage's smile grew. She looked up at the sky in front of her, up the river and at its varying banks. Two blue butterflies fluttered into view. They swooped around each other and, carried on a breeze, brushed past her face and swirled around her head. She sucked in a delighted breath as they came near and watched as the wind pulled them up, up above her and into the sunlight.

A laugh bubbled out of her. The rare kind, that felt like the good mood itself, building up inside and then breaking free without effort. She laughed again, just to hang on to the joy.

Then she started; something in the corner of her vision caught her eye and she realised with a cold shock that she was not alone. The sudden panic loosened her tired fingers and the skirt fell out of her hand. Roots tumbled down into the water as well as at least two inches of hem. With a cry she squatted down to grab for them, skirt billowing around her.

"I'm sorry!" The person who had been standing on a high part of the opposite bank jumped down onto the rocks and rushed to help her.

Sage's eyes smarted. With embarrassment mostly, but also disappointment. Roots she had searched and struggled for were floating away with the current, a whole morning's effort was bobbing around her ankles and getting caught against rocks in their escape.

Her observer was splashing around her now, scrambling and soaking just like she was.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to startle you! I wasn't there for long, I promise - I should have said something. Would you believe I hesitated because I didn't want to scare you?" He said, talking quickly "Oh, there's more all the way over there! Don't worry, I'll get them!"

She gathered sopping roots into her soaking skirt and clambered up onto the rock again. He was someone she knew; everyone knew him, and it made her cheeks painfully hot. To think this boy had seen her giggling over some butterflies.

He was Brooks, the chief's son, who had gone off to get engaged this summer in a neighbouring village. That was where he was supposed to be, not in the woods witnessing private moments. He came wading back to her with an armload of damp roots and a smile.

"I'm really sorry. Do you think we got them all?"

Sage ducked her head as he awkwardly dumped them into her outstretched skirt.

"I don't know. You didn't do anything wrong, I just wasn't careful." It came out as a whisper.

"Pardon me?" He bent his head too. "I can help you look longer, they can't have gotten far."

"Oh! No thank you, this is fine, it can't be helped. I -" She looked up and right into his eyes.

That was almost as bad a shock as the first one. Sage gripped the wet fabric in her hands tightly and jumped backwards.

"I'm sorry too! Don't worry about it, I have to go!"

"I'll walk you back, can I carry them for you somehow?"

"Oh, no, please go back to what you were doing, I'll be fine!" She was positively scurrying by then, terrified he'd insist on walking with her.

He didn't, she was alone soon enough. She had lost at least a third of her findings and most of her dignity. Grieving both, she walked home as quickly as she could on the wide dusty path that turned into the village's main road.

*

That's chapter one! This is my first time posting anything I've written online, so if you're here thank you so much :)

-Laura