In Which Sophie learns the Truth, Meets the Real World, and Trips over a Cat

8 YEARS LATER

Chapter 2

I really didn’t see the cat. Which was quite understandable; I was carrying a 4-foot-high pile of pots and pans at the time. Nevertheless, the fact still remained that I tripped over the cat, dropped everything I was carrying, and gave myself a couple of nasty bruises in the process.

Lisette came calmly in, walking with a much smaller stack. “Sophie,” she started in exasperation.

“Not you too! Mother’s going to scold me something dreadful, and as for your mother, she’ll kill me!”

“Well, next time, don’t carry as much. And watch out for the cat,” Lisette added, a twinkle in her eye.

“Got it,” I muttered. I suppose I was a little restless today�"but who could blame me? Today, Mother would finally take me to see the town! I didn’t dream of going to school with Lissy anymore, but of meeting new friends…and maybe a special boy.

And today I could do that.

The cat let out a pained wail, just as I realized I was standing on its tail.

“Ah! I’m sorry, Patch!” The cat gave me a scornful look and went to wash himself in the corner.

Even the cat thinks I’m ridiculous here.

I gave up on the pots and pans, and headed to the library. I was too nerve-wracked to do any kind of cleaning�"I needed the comforting solace of a fairy tale or myth.

When I was little, I used to believe that all the stories had happened once upon a time. Now, of course, older and wiser, I knew better.

I ran my hands over the old mahogany shelf that held the fairy tales. I’d read nearly all of them�"but wait.

My hands suddenly shot to a ragged old book that I’d never seen before. The color was the kind of faded gray that comes after years of existence.

Sitting down on an armchair nearby, I opened it, and instantly recognized my mother’s handwriting.

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, there lived a farmer with seven children…

My eyes grew wide as wheels. This was the story that Mother had begun to tell me when I was seven! She’d never finished telling me, and I’d been trying to annoy it out of her until I was too old for that. But I’d never forgotten it, and some nights I’d lain awake trying to puzzle out an ending. None of the endings I created, however, quite satisfied me.

I skimmed over the part I already knew�"the farmer, his children, the sick daughter, the girl named North who went with the bear.

North rode him for what seemed like forever. Finally, however, they came to a castle in the wilderness.

“Do whatever you wish,” said the bear. “There are only a few conditions: Don’t go outside without me, do not lose your way inside the palace, and retire to your bedroom by the time the sun has set. Apart from that, you are free to do whatever your heart desires. Now, the sun has long set, and you should be getting to bed.”

North was too tired to disagree. She slept deeply that night.

The next day she spent with the bear in the library, learning of myths and stories, and simply talking. But once she went to bed, she discovered something startling.

A man slept in the bed beside her. He made no move when she tensed up, but as she relaxed, he hesitantly held her. He whispered a lullaby in North’s ear, and all her homesickness mounted up and crashed over her. She cried into his arms, and though he said nothing save the lullaby, when she woke up, she felt more peaceful than she had in a long, long while.

Things continued this way for a long while. Her days she spent with the bear, whose name, she’d found, was Raden. Her nights were spent with the unnamed man�" though after a while, they began to kiss, and a while after that, more.

Still, homesickness began to boil in North’s stomach. The bear eventually assented to let her visit home for two weeks, only warning her, “Be careful what you say, and to whom.”

She was overjoyed to see that the farm was prosperous and that her sister was healthy, and it was beautiful to be with them again�"beautiful but for one thing. Her mother continued to nag her about her life there. Finally, she broke down and told her mother of the man who slept in her bed at night.

Right before she left, her mother gave her a candle. “It will light under any circumstance. See for yourself the face of your lover, half of the child you carry within your body.”

North knew she should not. But curiosity overcame her. That night, when the man had come to bed and lay sleeping, she lit the candle, and gasped, for the most handsome man in the world was sleeping before her.

His hair was a light, light blond, his face tanned and freckled. And as a drop of wax fell on him, his eyelids fluttered, revealing orbs of blue that made you think of diamonds, of crisp, cold lakes, of shadows on snow.

His eyes met hers in horror. And before he could say anything, the palace began melting away before her very eyes.

“North. Beautiful, loving North. Just one day more, and it would have been enough…” The man looked like he was about to cry.

“What is it? What have I done?”

“I am he called Raden. I was the both the bear and the man who slept beside you. A troll-princess cast a spell upon me, so that I would stay an ice bear forever until a girl would sleep at my side, night after night, not knowing my name. If you had waited one more night, the spell would have broken. Now the troll-princess shall take me her prisoner, to a castle that lies east of the sun and west of the moon.”

And indeed, a silver sleigh was swooping down from the sky. The man�"Raden�"looked at her with love and sadness.

“Goodbye, my love. I doubt we will meet again.”

“No! Raden, I�"” But her words came too late. Two burly trolls ran and picked up Raden, who made no show of resisting. And the sled disappeared once more into the black sky.

North spent six months searching for her love. But by the end of that time, she had to return to the castle to bear her child. Once the child was old enough, she could go on short expeditions, but she could not travel far or long enough to find the land that lay east of the sun and west of the moon.

I set the book down and frowned, somewhat. The story had been quite good, as fairy tales go, but the ending wasn’t right. Something made me want to help this girl, this North. It wasn’t fair to leave her or Raden hanging. Even if it was just a myth, something should be done about it!

“Sophie!” My mother’s voice.

“Hello, dear,” she said, entering the library. “Excited for your first day out?”

“Am I!” I exclaimed.

“And we will go soon. But first, you must know something…”

Her voice trailed off, and I noticed she was staring in horror at the book in my hands.

“Where did you find that?” she asked quietly.

“On the shelf, with the other fairy tales. Mother, what’s wrong?” I was scared. Mother had dropped into the armchair opposite me, her head in her hands. Suddenly, she looked old indeed.

“Sophie, listen to me, and listen well. That story is not just another fairy tale. It’s true. It happened. And, in a way, it is still happening.”

“Mother, what�"”

“Darling…I am the girl called North.”

The world seemed to spin around me. “But�"but�"my father�"you�"”

“Yes. It was my fault that your father was taken prisoner by the trolls. I am sorry. Sophie…can you ever forgive me?”

“Mother, there is nothing to forgive,” I said, looking at my mother�"my strong, wise, beautiful, broken mother. “You were curious�"I freely admit to the same crime. And you don’t need to worry anymore. I’ll go and rescue Father.”

“No.” Now I could the strong woman who had raised me. She took my hands in hers and shook her head. “Never will I let my child go to the frozen land beyond the sun and moon. Never. So don’t even try, Sophie.”

“But, Mother�"”

“That’s enough, Sophie. Now that you’re fifteen, I will allow you to go anywhere you wish�"anywhere but there. I’ve lost Raden�"must I lose you too, my darling girl?”

I looked at her, understanding. “Yes, Mother. Now…may I go out and see the world?”

The smile came back to her face. “Yes. And it’s been long overdue.”

+++

Mother walked behind me as I nervously crept out of the woods, and gasped in amazement.

Beyond the woods, there was a bustling, beautiful village full of people.

“Oh…” My hand flew to my mouth involuntarily. Mother laughed.

“Go on, dear.”

I nearly flew down that hill!

Most people looked at me strangely, but a few smiled at this clumsy, bumbling, happy girl.

“Whoops!” I just avoided knocking into a girl, about my age. I laughed. “Sorry�"I’m so clumsy! Just this morning I tripped over my cat!”

She raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow and looked me over. I suddenly became aware that my hair was a curly, tangled mess, and my clothes were stained after working in the kitchen.

“And who might you be?” she asked.

“I�"I’m called Sophie.”

“Sophie. A mousy little name for a mousy little girl.”

My eyes narrowed. “I didn’t do anything to you.”

“You were born beneath me. I am Lady Marianne Matilda Evelynne Janeta Greene, daughter of a lord and descendant of royalty. You, however, are the daughter of the w***e that hides out in my father’s woods.”

So. That’s what they think of us, then. “They were my father’s woods long before they belonged to your family. And my mother is no w***e.”

“What happened to your father, then?” I gritted my teeth. There was no way that I was telling her the story of my father.

“He died before I was born.”

She laughed. “A likely excuse. My father says he got your mother with child and ran off.”

“And if you believe every word your father says, you’re twice the idiot I thought you were.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You little wretch. You dare insult me?”

“Hey now, hey now, what’s all the fuss?”

The most handsome man I’d ever seen had come over and put an arm around the snob’s waist.

She sniffed, and I realized after an incredulous moment that she was crying. “I did nothing! This w***e-child came up to me and began accosting me! Tell her to leave me alone!”

I stared at her with frank shock. “My mother is no w***e. I told you�"I bumped into you by accident. And if you want me to go, why don’t you stop lying and being cruel?”

The man raised an eyebrow at me. “Is this the daughter of that nasty w***e-of- the-woods?” he asked the girl. She nodded tearfully.

“Well, I suppose I should show her what we do to w****s around here.” He smiled a cruel, terrible smile, and I was struck dumb but for the words, How can two people be so cruel?

Before they could do or say anything else, I slapped the man. I truly don’t know how it happened�"my hand just raised, and then, whap! right across his face.

I am ashamed to say that I turned tail and fled, back to the castle I’d known all my life.

Reviews

[Eyme]

I really like the plot! It really does remind me of Beauty and the Beast, but with an ending that wasn't so happy quite yet.
Although, the grammar isn't that great. Sometimes I had to go back and reread so I could get a flow of what happened, but other than that it's great! I'm excited to see what will happen next!
Tip: Try spacing out things out a bit more so it looks neater compared to a jumbled mess. C: