The Girl with Auburn Hair.

Mamma always said you have to look back into your past to find happiness, and avoid looking to the future. She said that we all have a little time of peace in our lives and we may not realize it at the time, but looking back, we would be able to hone that peace into our nows. Now I need it more than ever.

When I was fifteen, there was nothing other than the sun, the clouds, and the soft soil beneath and in between my toes. I was not a woman, and yet I was a child no more. It was a neutral time in the village I had grown up in, nestled in the mountain side. The men still hunted deep in the forests and the women still made bread in the kitchen and gossiped with each other about the people who lived on the edges of Morsanda. They gossiped about how there were witches, and laughed about the stories their own mothers had told them. I could hear the words, “And she always said never to look in the mirror too long or my soul may be stole from the witch inside the mirror….”, as I passed by a neighboring cottage to my own. Mamma had sent me out to the butcher to buy a slice or two of pig, and I held the coins she had handed me close to my heart. I must admit I had deep pride in being trusted to such a sum of money.

The sky above my curly brown hair had turned a deep purple awarring me that twilight was soon approaching. I remember smiling at the children playing on the sides of the cobblestone street as I passed, not noticing the pale yellow the sun began to cast on the buildings. Sometimes, when the sun hit just right, the windows would set ablaze in color. I used to wonder if you touched that beautiful gold, maybe your whole body would turn to pure fire and blaze for all the nation to either adore or fear.

I arrived at the butcher’s shop just before closing and sighed with relief that there was still pig left beneath the stone counter. My eyes wandered away from Ezeikal, the store owner, as he cut the pig. I really did not care for Ezeikal, he was brutal and large with deep-set black eyes. He spoke little and had a raw smell to him. At any moment, I could imagine two large boar tusks growing from his cheeks. My body shivered at the thought. Outside the men were beginning to come back from hunting, three were carrying a whole deer and they stopped beside the shop to rest. They laughed and one of them drank something from a flask. It seemed as if they exerted masculinity, their brows held a sheen of sweat, and their bodies were well proportioned. No doubt they would go home to their wives and children and be met with happy faces.

“Laurel. Laurel?” I heard Ezeikal say from a distance.

I was brought back from my thoughts and I paid the Ezeikal for the pig, almost all the money mamma had given me. I smiled warmly at his large face before I hurried out of the store. The three men entered the butcher shop right after I left, they tried to fit the large deer through the door, it was quite awkward, and it took them a couple tries before the haunches went through.

My walk home was quicker due to the cold air from the mountains beginning to move in, I longed for the sweater mamma had knit for me and hugged the bag of meat and money to my chest.

I reached home before the first star came out. Mamma was inside busy tending to the fire yet when I walked in, she smiled widely. She rushed towards me and gathered me in her arms. I sighed at the familiar smell of her clothes.

“Here Mamma.” I said as I gave her the meat and the left over money.

“Laurel, go get into your fine clothes, we have a guest coming!” Mamma said her gaping smile never ending.

I did as she said, entering my room and pulling on a soft silk white top and a long flowing white skirt that reached the floor. It was innocence at its finest I must say. When I got back to the main room, I was surprised to see an Official of Morsanda waiting for me. He was clothed in a dark brown suit and on his head sat a flat black hat. That is when peace ended.

The first star touched the dark purple haze of the sky.

(I'm not quite sure what this small passage of writing will turn into. I'm new to this site, but I joined because I want to get feedback and learn about what I should improve in my writing, I figure this might turn into a fantasy sort of novel, I imagined the setting to be in a village among the mountains)