Free Whispers of a Legend, Part One-Shadows of the Past by Carrie James Haynes

when I
exited. I squinted. The air was very bright and the sky clear.
Within the distance I could hear songs of the larks. The yard was
long, bordered against a foreboding line of trees. Across from the
small cottage sat a quaint shelter. I glanced around. I could still
hear the sound. It became clearer. Someone was crying.
    I turned the corner of the cottage. Sitting
against the wall, Gunilda held her head within her knees. She
wept.
    Leaning down, I brought my nurse within my
arms. "What is wrong, Gunilda? Where are we? Where is
everyone?"
    "Kela, what have you done? Why have we been
banished here?" Gunilda wailed, but she didn’t lift her head.
    "Gunilda, I know not of what you speak? The
last I remember is using my shield to help save the King. Surely he
could not be angry with me about such?"
    "Kela, I think not. All would have never
reacted in their way if such. The Royal Wings dragged me from my
bed. You lay motionless while they flew us within here. I didn't
even get to say farewell to Sareta. The poor child knows not where
I went. She must be frantic without me!"
    "What of us?" I cried suddenly overwrought.
I stood and turned around, glancing one way than another. "Where
are we, Gunilda? Can we leave? Where is Falco? Turstan would never
leave us such."
    “This I was told is the Forbidden Forest,"
Gunilda looked up at me. "It is our prison."
    The cottage sat in a clearing at the bottom
of a hill on the northern side of the Preda Mountain range in the
midst of a thick forest. A narrow lane led to a tapered gate in a
thick hedge which gave way to the entrance of the house. Nothing of
the house could be seen from within the forest until one came upon
in for it stood back…alone. To the east a winding stream bordered
the back of the house surrounded by ancient oak trees. The only
access lay from the sky which I soon comprehended was the intention
of King Edulf.
    Gunilda's words echoed within me. "There
were only two. The one that had hold of me I thought for sure he
was to drop me. I believe it was his intent. We flew for hours on
end. I know not exactly how long. We landed in the dark except with
only the moon's reflection to guide. They said not a word. I begged
them of what had happened. They gave no answer. All they uttered
that it was as a prison with no method of escape except from the
sky. And we would not be able to do so.
    " Do not venture into the forest for they are guarded by lost
souls. No one has ever returned once they have entered. One laughed.
    "I pleaded what had you done! Then the one
that laid you upon the filth of the bed turned to me.
    " I
know not, but I know of none other the King's wrath has been so
punished. I know we have been ordered to forget we brought you
forth. May the Great One look over you both. You will need
such! "
    Gunilda uttered the words, hung her head, and
wept.
     
    * * * *
     
    Dreams have come and gone since that day.
For weeks I stood within the back of our cottage and searched the
skies with a yearning to fly. I was alone and so totally lonely. I
called to my brother repeatedly. Each morning I searched the skies
for his arrival, but he did not come. I had long lost the sense of
time since we were placed in this valley, bordered by the Forbidden
Forest and the cliffs of the looming mountains surrounding our
small cottage.
    Poor Gunilda was worse than I. She fretted
terribly for Sareta. Not much time passed before my nurse that had
longed served my mother’s family became frail. The care quickly
reversed for Gunilda had taken to bed, the only bed we had.
    I slept upon dried grass and leaves I had
collected in the far corner of the room. To the best of my ability,
I had partitioned off an area for Gunilda to have an area to
herself. In all I had not time to contemplate our dire straits. Our
means of survival depended quickly upon me.
    Gone was a simple wish and all I needed
appeared. I no longer had my sister beside me. I hunted the edge of
the woods for any semblance of