Chapter 3

Lilia was cold, well that wasn’t an unusual feeling this was winter after all and this is what life in this village was like for most of the year. Even without the wind, the temperatures outside could kill you if you weren’t careful and the total whiteout was enough to confuse even people born in the area. Lilia’s task was to collect icy water from the not-already-frozen stream for the family. The rest of the family were in the house staying in the house and getting warm.

She fills the short slow trudge through the thick snow with thoughts of getting back to the warm fire and thick blankets. At the stream, she finds that the river already has a thin layer of ice covering the top of it. This tiny setback makes her swear internally while she takes out a small knife and kneels at the bank of the river before beginning to chip away at the ice with it. Just as she’s about to dip her bucket into the small hole in the river she notices a presence observing her from somewhere and pauses to look at her surroundings but doesn’t notice anyone so after a final look around she fills her bucket before standing up and turning towards the village for the journey back home.

On her way back at a much slower pace now due to the added weight of the water and this added instability also causes her to keep her eyes glued to the path and her concentration more on the heavy bucket. This lack of concentration causes her to miss the figure walking behind her until she is just a few paces from the village and happens to see a glimpse of the man following her the shock causes her to lose her footing and fall backward spilling the water over the thick snow and onto her clothes. The fall knocks the wind out of her and by the time she opens her eyes the man is now standing above her looking down at her with the bright sky behind her cloaking him in shadow.

“You okay there love?” the man says to her in a calm and gentle voice, “sorry if I spooked you there, it wasn’t my intention.”

Lilia tries to place the man’s voice on the men of the village but realizes that she does not recognize it. ‘Who is this man? A trader?’ She asks herself while trying to get a good look at the man’s face which is still hidden from her.

“Do you feel okay? That fall was pretty nasty can you stand up for me please love?” the man says to her while extending an arm towards her.

As if slightly hypnotized by the man’s voice, Lilia reaches out and holds the man’s hand, and lets herself get lifted from the ground, ‘he’s very strong’. Now that she’s face to face with the man she can see his very young-looking face and notices how well-formed his jaw is and how dark his eyes are all of it creating a very handsome face.

“What’s your name love?” the young man asks still holding onto her hand.

“I’m fine. Don’t jump out at people like that!” Lilia snaps after snapping out of her daze though she still also continues holding his hand. “My name is Lilia,” she answers after a second of staring into the young man’s eyes a little longer.

“That’s a nice name you got there, a pretty name for a pretty girl.” The young man says while giving Lilia a toothy grin and subtly pulling her closer to him by her hand.

“What’s your name mister?” she says back now completely captivated by his eyes and ignoring his body’s closeness.

“That’s fair I guess, my old friends used to call me Andrew so I’ll let you do the same love.” He replies while pulling her closer to him. “Now, Lilia why are you walking around when it’s this cold outside?”

“I was getting water for the family-. “Lilia starts to say before seeming to remember that the contents of the bucket of water were either on the ground with the rest of it covering her pants. “Fuck! Mum is gonna pitch a fit if I don’t get this water back to her in time.” Lilia says in an exasperated tone while extracting herself from him and bending down to pick up the now empty bucket.

Lilia starts to head back towards the river but before she can move away far enough Andrew grabs the bucket from her hand and starts walking towards the river himself. “It’s my fault that you lost your water so let me get it for you,” he says while walking effortlessly through the thick snow while Lilia trudges after him.

“You don’t have to do that for me, Andrew, I can get it on my own.”

“Nonsense, everyone has to make amends for their mistakes. That’s the personal code that I work under and besides, something this simple ain’t enough to make me change my own rules that’d be like asking me to deny who I am.” Andrew answers and now both of them are at the stream and he leans down towards its frozen surface.

“Let me give you my knife then,” Lilia says while trying to pull out her knife but before she can even take it out, Andrew taps the surface of the ice with the knuckles of his right hand, and then cracks spread out from the point of impact before the ice completely breaks away leaving a hole in the stream.

“How’d you do that?”

“It’s an old magic trick of mine. Wanna know how it works?”

Before Lilia can respond, Andrew finishes filling the bucket and stands back up holding the filled bucket one-handedly in a seemingly easy way and turning towards the village path again.

“Come on, let’s get you home before your mum comes calling.”

Lilia follows behind him without much pushback but during the entire journey back to the village she remains silent and it appears as if Andrew is content to remain silent as well.

Just as the two are about to reach the village Andrew turns around and faces Lilia, “Where’s your house from here?”

“Just over there, the second one on the left from the village entrance.”

“I see. Then I can let you get the rest of the way yourself.” He says while handing her the bucket.

“Okay,” Lilia says as she receives the bucket with both hands and struggles to hold the weight.

“Don’t you worry yourself, love, I’ll be hanging around the village for a while so I’ll be seeing you shortly.” He says after noticing the slightly lower mood she was in.

“Oh. I never asked but what are you doing in this village anyway? You’re not exactly a local and I don’t think you’re a wandering trader or something like that.”

Andrew looks at Lilia and tilts his head a bit before answering, “I came to check up on some old friends of mine you could say.” He says finishing off with a smile.

“Now, best be getting home before this snow gets worse.” He says as he begins walking further away which makes Lilia realize that it had started snowing and that Andrew has gotten further away from her and soon he disappears down another path in the village.

Shaking off the vision of him, Lilia walks up to her family’s house and enters through the door in the back straight to the family’s kitchen area. Her mother is already rebuilding the fire and looks up as Lilia enters.

“About time you got back, any longer and I’d have sent the village after you. What happened did you forget where the stream was or were you staring at squirrels again?” she asks even before Lilia can set down the bucket of water.

“I met a man at the edge of the village,” Lilia says without thinking before immediately regretting it.

“Met a man at the edge of the village eh? Lilia!” her mother explosively replies while aggressively poking the burning embers.

“It ain’t like you think it is mum. He helped me with the bucket and then left.” Lilia hurriedly tries to explain the situation to her now agitated mother.

“And just who was this most chivalrous man, certainly no one I’ve ever met in this village before because I just couldn’t bear to have more daughter being called a husband-snatching whore.” Her mother says in an even angrier.

“Mother I’d never do something like that!” Lilia answers in a semi-hurt voice, “Besides, he wasn’t even one of the villagers.”

“It doesn’t matter what your intentions were, the rest of the village isn’t going to care.”

“But he isn’t from the village.”

“So you stood around with a wanderer for the entire village to see, that’s worse.” Her mother offers in rebuttal.

Lilia stands there with a dejected look on her face and tears almost coming out from her eyes and feeling as if the world is spinning beneath her feet when a shadow falls upon the room.

“What’s all this noise I keep hearing, Lilia what did you do to upset your mother?” her father who is standing at the kitchen door asks.

“Nothing too important dear,” her mother answers before Lilia can collect her thoughts.

Her father is a big man with an even bigger voice that always terrifies her when angry, his face is covered with a thick beard that’s the same vibrant red as his hair and his body is hardened after a lifetime of hunting and lumber work. Despite his looks though, he has a soft spot for his family and hates conflict between any of them.

“Now Grisha, if it wasn’t important then you wouldn’t be raising your voice enough for the neighbors to hear. Tell me what happened Lilia.”

“Mum said I was a whore `cause I let a man help me at the river.” Lilia answers without any hesitation.

“Lilia!” her mother fires back angrily, “don’t go twisting my words to get your father to take your side.”

“Grisha, what did you say to Lilia,” her father asks already regretting joining the argument.

“I simply pointed out that it ain’t proper for a young unwed girl to be flirting around with strange men in full view of the village.”

“We weren’t flirting! And you wouldn’t have known about it if I hadn’t told you about it, please don’t believe her father.”

“OH! So you were planning on keeping it a secret from us, I ought to bend you over my knee and teach you what manners are, insolent child!” Her mother flares up now completely angry.

“I’d like to see you try!” Lilia shouts.

“Why you little,” Grisha says rising from her position with a piece of firewood in her hands.

“ENOUGH YOU TWO!” their father says while holding up his hands to stop the two from getting any closer to one another.

“I’m sorry Jonathan,” Grisha says while visibly trying to calm herself down, “I took things too far there my dear.’

“Forgive me too Father,” Lilia apologizes too while slightly bowing down.

“Just tell me what happened and this time don’t exaggerate again,” her father, Jonathan says in a much lower voice than before.

“Ok,” Lilia says and explains everything that happened at the river but subconsciously omits details like how much skin contact she shared with Andrew or how she felt about separating from him.

“That’s all that happened father but mother thinks I was flirting with some stranger and called me a whore.” Lilia finishes her explanation with one last jab at her mother.

“I didn’t call you a whore, I said you should stop behaving like one.” Grisha throws back.

“Okay, I think I get the gist of things now.” Her father answers trying to avoid another flare-up between mother and daughter.

“Here’s what I think, Grisha your daughter did not behave in any way that you’d call her a whore so please don’t and Lilia this is your mother and you will respect her no matter how angry or right you are. And lastly, stop talking to strange men this world ain’t kind enough to allow naiveté like that to go uncorrupted. This conversation is over, is that clear.”

“Yes, sir.” Both mother and daughter reply simultaneously.

“Now, Lilia go wake your brother up for breakfast,” John says and Lilia leaves the kitchen to enter the room she shares with her brother.

“Dear, I admire your wisdom but I do think that you are too soft on the girl, she needs to learn how to properly behave as a young lady or she’ll never get married,” Grisha says while tending to the pot that she’s placed onto the stove.

“She’s our only daughter Grisha, I don’t want her to start avoiding us once she gets a home of her own, we’ve done that before and it hasn’t ended well for us,” John says with a pained look on his face.

“You have to stop blaming yourself for that, he’ll come around in time,” Grisha says while turning to look at her husband with a much softer look on her face than she’s had all morning,

“Mmmm I’ll take your word for it then but for now the thing that worries me is this Andrew character. According to our dear child, he said he came here to meet some old friends which is surprising since anybody who knows these mountains wouldn’t make a trip like these just to visit a friend during winter.”

“Hmm now that you mention it, that is a strange thing for someone to do. Maybe this Andrew character isn’t as benevolent as our daughter thinks.”

“I’ll ask around the village if anyone knows who he is, maybe he’s just another wanderer or a crook can’t know till we ask.”

“I guess that’s that for now, but you should think about disciplining our daughter more.”

“I hear you, but I’m too soft on her already. If I suddenly become strict with her she’ll start rebelling.”

“So you want me to be the enemy.”

“Keep up the good work Grisha,” John says and hugs his wife from behind.

“Don’t start getting any ideas now old man, I’m quite angry with you for taking her side.” Grisha says while slapping his hands away from her sides, “Now leave, I need to make breakfast for everyone and I can’t do that with you grabbing at me.”

Jonathan opens his mouth to argue but not wanting to agitate her any further he leaves the room and Grisha is left on her own in the kitchen tending to the soup pot.

‘What’s gonna happen now, I wonder?’ Grisha wonders to herself while stirring the pot. She’s the only one who noticed how her daughter spoke about the stranger and realized that it’s the same way she used to speak about her husband when they met for the first time.

Meanwhile in the village

‘She was cute,’ Andrew says to himself while walking towards another house in the village, this one a lot closer to the rest of the houses. The occupant or occupants of this house seem to have already woken up since there’s a telltale smoke plume coming out of the house’s smoke stack.

He approaches the door of the house and knocks on it softly three times before stepping back from it confidently. The door is opened a small crack and the face of an older man appears in the crack.

“Who’re you,” the man asks in a semi-annoyed voice.

“Ah, you must be Janis, the name’s Andrew.” He answers and then in a movement too fast for the old man to notice presses his index finger to the man’s forehead, “Remember? I’m your long-lost friend’s son from the Old mining town.”

Janis’ expression contorts slightly before softening up and he smiles a toothy grin before opening the door wide, “Of course, how have you been young man? How’s your father been doing?” He asks now in a completely different tone than the one he used when opening the door.

“I’ve been fine but my father passed away a short while ago,” Andrew says in a slightly sad voice and tone.

“Oh, I’m sorry about that. He was a difficult old bastard but he lived his life.”

“He knew his time was up and didn’t fight it at all, went away smiling like an idiot.”

“That’s how it oughta be, none of this coughing and wheezing nonsense you see lotta old folks get put through.” Janis agrees solemnly and nods his head. “That aside, what made you climb up here, surely it wasn’t to tell some old geezer about his friend’s passing.”

“Well that was part of my reason but it was an excuse, what I wanted was a change of pace,” Andrew says while looking around the village and observing all the houses.

“Ah, please come in. It’s cold outside and the rest of the village might see you standing out here and start whispering and once those bastards start they’ll never stop.”

Andrew smiles at the old man’s words and heads inside the house allowing Janis to close the door behind him.

Inside the small house is a living area with a stove in the corner and in another room is what appears to be a bed, there are small wooden stools encircling the fireplace, and the floor is covered in a layer of dry straw. The other notable thing in the room is the woman diligently working at the stove preparing what appears to be soup.