The Sorceress Queen is Rinsed Clean
A shudder vibrated up the wooden spine of the dragon. For a moment Eurina could feel the tree beneath her wavering back and forth as if searching for where it would lay itself out to rest. And all at once the branches and leaves fell away from beneath her. She fell with the foliage, her wet clothes feeling suddenly lighter so that she almost had to hold on to keep up with the falling tree. Chandra looked up into the tree and Eurina saw she was falling straight for her child. For a moment they looked into each others eyes. Chandra breathed out a word that Eurina could not hear. But she could read the word on her child’s lips.
“Mama!”
The rocks that made up Chandra’s cave rushed up to meet the woman as she fell. Eurina shut her eyes. She could not face the end of this game with any sort of fearlessness.
Something slid around her waist, moving with the flexibility of an arm. Eurina imagined she could almost feel the muscles of that arm tightening around her and lifting her from the branch she was riding. The arm slid to the backs of her knees as another arm circled her shoulders. She felt herself hanging in midair held-up like a child who had fallen asleep and was being taken home again to bed. There was a body pressed against her. She could feel a chest breathing against her shoulder. That body shielded her from the rain and it sent a warmth through her that filled her chest and her stomach and rushed out to the tips of her fingers and her toes. She could almost feel that warmth coursing through each strand of hair, drying away the rainwater hidden there. Instinctively she turned in to the embrace and felt the tears on her face smear across a shirt. Just when she felt completely wrapped up in those arms one of the hands reached behind her left ear and teased a secret ticklish spot. Only one other person in the whole world had known she was ticklish there.
Eurina’s eyes snapped open. She found herself curled up in the mud of the forest floor. The broken tree lay in pieces around her. Chandra was wrapped up tight in her arms and Eurina felt herself squeezing the child gently as if they had laid together like that in the rain for a long while. Underneath them both was Beruka crushed under their combined weight. Her button eyes bugged out as all the water was squeezed up into the stuffing of her head.
“Mama. I’m glad you’re alright now.” Chandra said as her mother sat up with her child still wrapped up in her lap.
“That was an incredible game that we played. Are your adventures always so exciting?”
“No. This one was special. Mama?”
“Mmm?”
“Can we go home now? I’m cold and I’m hungry.”
“Yes. I have some june-berry tarts I’ve been saving. And we can have hot tea.”
“Do I have to take a bath before bed?”
“Goodness no little June-berry. I’ve had my fill of washing for awhile.”
Eurina’s hands wandered over her daughter searching for broken tender spots and picking branches and leaves off. Satisfied that her child was whole she lifted Chandra to her feet and then turned so the child could jump up on her back. Holding tight to Chandra’s legs and bent down under the weight of the girl Eurina began to walk towards home, her bare feet thankful for the mud that covered over the sharper stones and roots. Chandra held Berukka in one hand so that it dangled over Eurina’s shoulder and over her chest. As they went along out of the corner of her eye Eurina could see the ragdoll hanging there starring up at her with unblinking button eyes. But Beruka no longer had anything to say. They all returned home together in silence.
At home Eurina built up a fire in the fireplace and spread all their wet clothes around the room to catch the warmth of it. Chandra sat in a stool nearby wrapped up in a towel and with a towel spun up around her head like a turban to draw off the rainwater from her hair. She held Beruka on her knees, the saturated ragdoll still bleeding out water whenever she was touched.
“Mama. I want to put Beruka near the fire so she can warm up. She’s all wet.”
“Let me see her.” Eurina held out her hand and the doll plopped into her open palm. Water oozed from Beruka’s skin and through the holes of her button eyes like tears. The water spilled over Eurina’s fingers and pattered to the floor. “Eww. She’s soaked.” Eurina said with a quiet laugh. Sitting down on a stool herself Eurina balanced the ragdoll on one knee. She examined the slouched over doll, squinting one eye and touching a thumb to her lip as she studied the contours of the toy.
“We can’t just leave her to dry. Her stuffing will get moldy.” Lifting the doll again Eurina set it down near the fire. Beruka flopped forwards, bowing to the flame. Searching through a basket at her side Eurina drew out a pair of scissors with blades sharp and clean and shimmering in the firelight. Tucking the tips of the scissors into Beruka’s seems Eurina began to gently pull apart the doll’s skin. When she had worked open a large enough hole Eurina pushed her fingers in and began to draw out the filling one pinch at a time. When Beruka was half emptied Eurine’s fingers tapped against something hard in the middle of the dolls chest.
“What’s this?” Eurina pulled out a button from the doll and held it out in her palm so Chandra could see it too. “Do you see this? I remember this.”
“What is it? Why was there a button inside?” Sliding off her stool Chandra jumped to her mother’s side and peered down at the button.
“Do you see what is there in the button holes?”
“Yes. Its… a little thread.”
“It’s a hair.”
“A hair?”
“Yes. It was a hair from your father’s head. I took it right off his head one day and threaded it round and round through this button. I wanted him…” Eurina’s voice caught in her throat. She swallowed and continued on. “I wanted him to be near you. To be near you no matter where you went so that you would be safe.”
“Oh.” Chandra said. She knelt down at her mother’s side and her hands cupped around Eurina’s hands as the child leaned in close to the button. Her eyes followed the hair as it made its way through one of the holes of the button and back again into another, back and through and back and through so it was wound tightly at the heart of the button.
“Here. You take care of this until Beruka dries out. Then we can sew it back into her again.”
“Okay.” The button dropped into Chandra’s open hand and she sat by the fire a long while looking it over and asking questions about her father. Eurina could only answer some of those questions. The rest she had to leave in silence. The weight of those memories and the weight of the day overwhelmed her at last and Eurina fell asleep right there on her stool. Chandra tip-toed to her room and took the blanket off her bed and draped it over the shoulders of her mother. She sat down on the floor and hid herself in the blanket as well. And so they passed the night together as the fire faded away to embers.
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A Note from the Author:
This story was a real pleasure to write. It incorporated many feelings from my own childhood in ways that were surprising to me even as I wrote. Although this story was originally meant to be a more straight-forward fairytale story it evolved into something a little different. Still, from the beginning I wanted it to feel like a picture book even though there are no illustrations and I do think I managed to capture that feeling. One day I would love to gather some illustrations for this book and make a real picture book out of it all. Until then I hope you enjoyed reading!
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Just Enough Ink
https://www.gregoryk.net/
Credits
Cover photo and cover design by Kate Koprowski.
Cover font ‘Witka’ by Karen Wit.
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