Winter's Embrace
Chapter 1
By Aer Snow96
***Author's Note
This is a story I did a while back, but I never did know how it felt so I'm posting it here for feedback. As for my other stories, I'm still drafting the chapters for those and plotting how they'll end, which is why I haven't posted in a while. I'll be back soon once I figure out how to end them.
Thank you for the feedback and support!
All characters engaged in sexual activity are above the age of consent.
***
They came in the early hours, when the sun had barely crested on the frozen peaks of the east, when the rooster had naught a chance to signal the coming dawn.
The winter winds never settled on Grünisveil, always moving and shifting. Yet Greta watched as the riders strode out of the winding path towards her home. They were astride mounts that could weather the worst of the winter season. Their size complemented their riders, who stood head and shoulders higher against the tallest Grünisveil native. Laden with heavy furs, weapons sheathed at their side, they were giants among men. Behind them trailed a cart pulled by a wooly yak, whose horns swerved majestically long.
Lonesome was her abode, the nearest neighbor had long since abandoned their own farm years past. What became of them, she does not know. Her constant company on these days where the constant whispers of the wind.
She tucked her furs closer, she breathed into her cold hands the moisture in the air clear and crisp. It was not winter at its peak and already the steady gust that wrought their small village could freeze a waterdrop before it even hits the ground.
Such was the cold here, hard and unforgiving.
She had only passed word the day before and was not expecting at all. She kept her gaze to the mounted riders, perhaps she could meet them halfway and be done with this.
What would be a better fate?
To die of hunger, with some measure of dignity and honor intact?
The empty house beckoned her inside. To go to bed. Sleep. Dream of times when she was not alone, when the fireplace was constantly alight not only by fire but of life. Dream of the days of warmth and family....
A strong gust broke her from her reverie.
Not that it would make any difference. She ran out of firewood three days past. It was nothing short of a miracle as to how she survived to this point. The moth eaten fur blanket was all that was of any value or use, that and the very clothes on her back. Everything else, she burned to keep the coldness at bay. Oh how she wished she could pry her eyes away from the riders, no one in the village ever wished for their coming. Even the memory of her sending word to them was like a dream. Watching outside of her own body. Even now, it was watching from somebody else's eyes, a dream that she could wake out of at any time. A beautiful delusion of control.
When the riders have finally crested the top of the knoll, she took whatever meager belonging she has, and strode out to meet them.
At least the breeze weakened within the porch of her abode. Five steps into the snow, the cold seeped from every direction. Each step was a struggle, for she swayed to and fro as if a mere gust could bring her down. The riders where somewhat surprised even in the thickest of their clothing she could make out their brows, frozen with ice as they were shot up and broke the collecting frost. She could only imagine how she looked, the look of someone so desperate to eat boiled leather just to go on.
She unceremoniously got up through the back of the cart, the driver watched her all the way silent his eyes betraying no emotion nor thought. Sacks and baskets of this year's harvest laid within. She gripped the cart, more for self-control for her mouth watered at the mere scent of smoked meat that laid within the great number of offerings.
One rider looked towards his companion, he replied with a shrug. And without a word they rode out, Greta did not look back to the lonesome house atop the knoll, that place had been long dead and whatever warmth within had turned to ash.
They made their way into town, the carter giving her a heavy fur cloak, a long winding piece. Greta zealously took it and wrapped it into her shoulders. It was so long that trails of it covered the surrounding seats beside her. She noticed others tucked beneath the seat in front of her. These were meant to be shared. The though sent a pang that she had to share such warmth. It was of better make and the warmth much lasting.
They stopped by the house of the baker.
Outside Greta could see shadows within for even in this winter morning deep inside their houses it might as well be the cover of darkness, some shouting an argument of sorts.
The rider was about to get down when the door burst open, the scent of baked bread made her stomach growl so loud that the driver had to turn around over the din of the howling wind. Greta meet his gaze and shrugged.
A tall girl, a good head and a half taller than Greta, strode out eyes puffy from what seemed to be a night of tears and morning as well, Her mother a comely woman with a girth to match watched from the door, Her father drooped down and had dried tears as well; The rider got down and took the girl by the arm there was some hesitation in the father. A hard stare from both riders made him reluctantly let go of the girl's arm. She climbed the cart and sat beside Greta.
Kaja her name was if Greta remembered correctly, Greta covered her shoulders with the fur blanket, noticing that her dress was more likely five times more expensive and five times more likely to keep her warm.
They both made no attempts at conversation. As the hooves clattered once more Greta watched as the father stood still on the driveway watching as her daughter was being taken away from her like some ghost of a distant past, unable to move on.
The last house was the one that might bring the most trouble. Greta breathed in deep. For this was not going to end well she knew.
For this was the house of the swineherder. It had been months since she last laid eyes on Wendelgard but the fiery red head, no matter the cold would not be cooled off.
"No matter what happens, do not add to the problem," was the first words she uttered to Kaja.
"W-what?" The girl stuttered, snot leaking down her nose, either from the cold or the crying she could not be certain. Her soft blue eyes were tinged red in the edges.
