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Many thanks to Linda62953 to help me to present this story better.
Chapter 7: Retrieving Clothes
Charlotte stood on the street planning what to do next. She wanted to visit the maiden that had taken most of her other set of clothes and wanted to visit the town leader who supposedly knew her mother. She did not want to bother her best contacts in town, so she walked along the street to look for someone to talk with.
There was one building along the street that had a stonewall and chimney. She could guess that this town even had a blacksmith. Coming near the building, she could hear the banging of metal on metal. There was an older boy in front of the shop, cleaning stones that had spaces in them with the form of horseshoes. He was brushing bits of leftover metal from them.
"Hello, good day, do you know where the head of the village lives?"
The boy looked up from his job. "He lives at the end of the second street, but he's currently helping here in the smithy. He often works here, the last few years, doesn't want to sit at home alone all day after his wife passed away."
"What is his name? I heard Dan Parker mentioning him but only as the head of the village."
"He's called James Cunningham. Just enter the smithy. He is the older one of the two men inside."
That name, at least the first name, did ring a bell with Charlotte. It had been mentioned in different conversations of her mother with guests during her youth.
"Thank you for your help, I will do that." Then, Charlotte stepped towards the heavy door and entered a dark room with a dull red glow on the side with the stonewall. Inside the room, she could see two men working, one was handling the bellows, and the other was holding a newly made horseshoe into the heat of a stone oven. She waited for the men to finish the heating, and the younger smith continued with hammering on it with a metal peg to create the holes in it to fasten it to a horse later.
The older man waved to the smith that he would leave and moved towards Charlotte. He took her arm and let her out of the smithy. It was far too noisy in there to be able to talk easily.
"Hello, Charlotte, welcome into our village, I hope your stay has been very nice so far." Charlotte nodded. "My name is James, and I know your mother from the time she lived here."
Not knowing how to respond directly to this man, that knew her clearly more than she did him, Charlotte just agreed, "Yes, I feel welcome here. Dan made a lovely home for me."
"That is good to hear, Dan is a fantastic carpenter, and he was working quite enthusiastically on it." He was looking at Charlotte with some intent. "I hope I am not imprudent but may I ask your age, I know witches differ from us a bit that way, so I will probably guess wrong if I did."
"That's not a problem for me, I am 30 years old." James did look surprised by it even though he had assumed that he would guess wrong.
"Bianca did not bother to inform me about it, but it could be highly likely that I am your father," Said the man with a thoughtful look on his face. "I did marry since she left us and my children are independent now. I lost my wife again. Almost a full life for me has passed but here is a young daughter I did not know I had."
Charlotte looked closely at the man; he had grey streaks in his dark, slightly curling hair. She had darker hair and more curls than her mother; it would not be so unlikely this could be her father. "What had happened that she went away, 30 years ago?"
James did not answer her directly. "Please walk with me to my home. We can talk there easier. Just give me a minute to say 'bye' to Ralph. Sorry Paul, I am afraid you will have to handle the bellows for some time now." The boy stood up at that and walked with James into the smithy. A moment later, James came out again.
"I like to make myself useful here, I can do some jobs myself but mostly just help Ralph," said James while walking down the street with Charlotte. "He will probably take Paul as an apprentice when he builds enough strength, but until that time, I can help him. I left my farm to my eldest boy Peter, and lived in town since. Nevertheless, you asked about your mother, so I have to begin my story far earlier.
"For as long as I can remember, a young witch had been seen on the other side of the river. She probably lived further away, but she walked the fields close to town now and then. We did not have a bridge at that time, so it was a very long day's walk to go there unless you wanted to sleep in a shepherds hut. As youngsters, we often fantasized among ourselves about this witch. She looked stunning, in our eyes.
"One day at noon a raven pecked at my window. I lived on my farm then, though it was still the property of my parents. It's one of the closest buildings to the river, a bit north of town. I walked outside, and it flew toward me crying something that sounded like 'help'. When I saw it was intelligent in its movement, I decided to help it. It flew to my shoulder and showed me an image in my mind of the witch lying with her legs in a wire trap. I got some tools and the raven showed me the water crossing south of town. It would be a long walk, so I packed food, too.
Charlotte remarked then, "That would probably be a fairy in disguise, but also trapped in raven form; otherwise it could change and talk normally."
"That would explain it, yes. For me, it just was a mystical raven." James continued with, "I walked to the ford in the river, and there the raven was waiting on me. I asked if I should go north, near the farm. It nodded and flew off. It was probably busy helping Bianca because I saw it again, when I was already close to her. She had fallen and hurt herself. She had a badly broken leg and had probably knocked herself unconscious, against a tree. Pretty lethal for a person on her own. I used tools to cut the wire and lifted her onto my shoulder. The raven flew to a small hut where some of her things were. She awoke when I moved her, but she was still delirious.
"I helped her as much as I could for two days. She healed rapidly and returned to herself, rather quickly. The raven had probably used some type of power to heal her. I made an improvised splint, and with it, got into town with her. The raven was gone as soon as she could move. Bianca stayed on the farm rather than in town and used some magic to correctly connect her broken bone again. After two weeks, she wanted to leave again. I insisted on traveling with her. Moreover, the fool that I was, by that time, I had fallen deeply in love with her.
"Bianca accepted my help, and we travelled through the mountains to a small house there. Then she told me to go home. We had sexual intercourse during our time together. She still had that mystical aura I remembered from my childhood and I was quite heartbroken. She gave me a small flute that I could call her with, if I really needed some assistance in the future. Then I left."
Charlotte added, "She needed things to have a balance, you helped her a lot, probably saving her life. We help people back and return the favor after such things happen. But, she clearly also wanted a daughter at that moment. There are very few men deep in the mountains. She had chosen you as my father, so it is nice to meet you." That moment, they entered James's house.
"Would you like to stay for lunch, Charlotte? I need some time to come to terms with the fact that as an old man, I suddenly have a very young looking daughter visiting me."
Charlotte laughed, "Of course, I want to visit you a bit longer. I knew there would be a man somewhere that was my father, but I did not realize you'd live in this village."
They then talked about life on the farm compared to life in the mountains, getting to know each other better. After that Charlotte asked about Bianca's visit last year. "I heard about you via Dan, when he told me about my mother's visit last year. Did she stay here?"
"Yes, she stayed here, but we did not have a long talk. She was already tired when she arrived, due to her amazingly fast traveling. Then, she immediately began with the healing. I had to carry her to my bed to sleep. She slept for 3 days, only being awake to eat a little bit. That magic had really worn her down. After that, she had been away from her home longer than she had planned. I understand that she had animals around her house that could handle themselves for some time, but eventually needed care.
