Rebecca of the Faeries - chapter 1
Rebecca stood a the edge of the wood, yearning yet fearing to pass beneath its trees. She stooped and picked up stones, tossing them one at a time into the thick underbrush and watching a cloud of white moths rise and fall. It would be so easy to leave the sunlight behind, to tunnel into the cool foliage. But she felt the eyes that watched her, no matter what the grown-ups said.
"There are monsters in the forest," she told her mother one day. The woman cuffed her and said not to tell stories. She got a similar response from everyone she tried to tell.
So Rebecca watched the wood day after day, slipping away from the hovel easily at an age when most girls were learning to keep house. She watched the darkness under the branches as avidly as she had once watched the road for a glimpse of her father, Sir Chaucy. She had been proud then, to be the daughter of a knight. Until the day she met him.
He was dressed in green, rather than the armor Rebecca had first seen him wear when her mother pointed him out. But he was just as powerful, proud and bold as he had been at the joust. As he and a companion rode along the road below her house. Rebecca caught sight of the unforgettable figure.
'I shall tell him who I am,' she thought. She imagined his shock and joy at finding he had a daughter. Perhaps he would take her and her mother to his home. Perhaps he lived in a castle!
With such colorful thoughts fluttering behind her eyes, Rebecca raced down the hill and approached the huge horse Sir Chaucy rode.
"Hello, sir! Hello!" He glanced at her, then continued his conversation with his friend. "Please sir, I have to tell you who I am."
"Who are you, then?" Sir Chaucy asked, without slowing. "Some lost foreign princess who needs rescuing?" He and his companion laughed.
"Surely you remember my mother, Sir. Margaret of the tavern? You were friends once, ten years ago... so, you see?
The knight glanced at the little girl running beside him, his dark eyes dangerously hooded. Rebecca wondered if he knew who she was now.
"I know no Margaret, and I am not friends with tavern wenches. Be off!"
As gruff as the command had been, Rebecca thought he must not have understood her. She laid a hand on his boot.
"Please, sir. I really am your daughter. lsn't it wonderful?"
He kicked her hand viciously. "Get away, brat!" Chaucy shouted.
Rebecca stepped back, clutching her hand and biting back tears. "Don't you remember? Ten years ago..." She stayed away from his boot as she ran alongside him again. "Sir Chaucy - Father, please!
The great knight's companion laughed. "Another by-blow of Chaucy the Plentiful!" They spurred their horses to a canter and were soon out of sight.
Since that day, Rebecca didn't put much stock in fathers. But she knew monsters when she saw them.
