aid she flew

Now there is a tale of a woman in white who lead some lost children back home of a night. They'd been on a journey to visit their kin when in the thick forest a snowstorm set in. The light it was failing the snow piled deep and soon the hill-slope became ragged and steep. One by one they tumbled on down to its base with but a few scratches on hand-pad and face then huddled there freezing knew not what to do and that's when the maiden to their aid she flew. She came out of no-where from out of the night and cured them of worry and lessened their fright and draped them in robes that could have been her hair and led them forthwith to a mountaineer's lair. A fire was burning and much wood was stacked there in that wee shelter that wanderer's shack and rich stew was cooking and so was hot tea to which they responded with exhausted glee. Each ate to his liking each drank to her full and then settled down on soft beds of thick wool and woke in the morning to knocks on the door and heavy boots stamping on the outside floor. Some woodsmen had gathered and were shocked to find all children accounted for none left behind and asked how they'd come to the shelter although the paths through the forest were covered in snow. The children they mentioned the woman in white who had saved their hides on the previous night the woodsmen they nodded not one of them smiled and led then the children back out of the wild but paused to give thanks at some shrines on the way as they headed back to the brightness of day.

© americanifesto / 場黑麥