Everyone, meet Freia
I feel like I’m getting better at drawing… What do you think? her hair needs work, and I need to figure out how to draw a neck yet... but her face looks nice!
The scene I picked out for you today is a classic Freia scene, from before she really comes into her own in the story. It’s from the beginning, so there’s very little chance of spoilers. Don’t worry. And it's also one of the more interesting scenes in the story, because it's where things are starting to take shape and come together.
Excerpt from Cedwig: People in the Vines by Rani Divine
©Copyright RAD Writing, 2016
It was hard to believe what I was doing, and yet it all seemed like the most normal thing in the world. Eirian held my hand, and we ran through the trees. We hadn’t stopped except for him to help me over obstacles and tell me where we were going next. He’d shown me some of the animals, those that used to live in the field but had been moved when my people entered the picture. He’d told me the names of many of the trees we passed, and explained their relation to each other. They were all of his people—the trees. I didn’t entirely understand, but I wanted to know everything that I could about these people, about their world. No, it wasn’t a want in my mind anymore. I needed to know everything about this place. In my heart, I already called it home.
Eirian smiled as we ran across the river, his hand holding tightly to mine to keep me steady on my feet. I couldn’t help but laugh at the sensation of the water between my toes, rushing over my feet, soaking the hem of my dress. I didn’t even know why, only that I wanted to laugh.
“What do you see?” Eirian asked when we reached the other side of the river and stared out into the night.
He stepped behind me, his hand still holding to mine, so that there would be nothing between myself and the forest. Before me were thousands of trees, more than I had ever imagined. We stood atop a hill, looking down over the forest my people had so recently made their home. The trees practically glowed in the moonlight, swaying gracefully in the gentle breeze. But it was more than that. I wasn’t sure if it was my mind playing tricks on me or if I actually saw the people sitting in the treetops. Some of them spoke with each other, others stared up at the sky, still others ran through the trees, creating the illusion of the breezes, smiles bright on their faces.
They all looked like Eirian: vines for hair, dark skin with black spots, they even had tails.
“Beautiful,” I whispered under my breath as I took a step forward.
“Careful,” Eirian said, tugging on my arm to pull me away from the brink.
We stood at the edge of a cliff, overlooking a valley, if I wasn’t mistaken. The cliff itself disappeared into the forest around me, most of it covered by vines and moss.
I moved back, and found myself leaning against my new friend. Never in my life had I been so close to a man who wasn’t of my family, and yet I felt no apprehension. Eirian was a friend—or maybe he was more than that, maybe he was like my family. One of his arms wrapped around my shoulders, and in his hold I felt safe. This new world was full of things my imagination could not have created, and it seemed to me that his arms would keep it all at bay, that they would allow me to take it all in at my own pace. They were not threatening to me, those arms. They were nothing more than a comfort, the touch of a father or a brother, and I did not want them to let go.
“What do you see?” Eirian whispered in my ear.
“Your people,” I replied.
“We are called Cedwig,” he said. “We are of Dewin, created of the Vartes.”
“What am I?” I laughed as I turned to look him in the eye.
“You are called human.” He smiled. “Created of the Vartes, to be in unity with the people of the Dewin.” He ran his fingers through my hair, his eyes marveling once again at the texture of the strands. I supposed that he had never seen anything like it, aside from the fur of the animals.
This was the first that any human had been in within the limits of the forest. My people had always stayed away before now, many believing the place to be haunted, I assumed, by the very creatures who now held a part of my heart. I did not see how such creatures could have been thought of as haunting, except perhaps in their beauty. Eirian was beautiful in every possible way. He had emotions, like us. He had feelings, fears, beliefs—just like a human. Not like the animals, not something to breed for labor or food. Eirian had a soul, one that belonged here in the forest. The way he looked at the trees, I knew this place was more than just his home. It was his life. The design of this place had him and his people in mind. His very life always tied to the forest, and vice versa.
The way that the others interacted with the trees was exactly the same. This place was more to them than just a home, a place to live. It was their very existence.
“Come,” Eirian said, gesturing to the horizon. “It will be dawn soon.”
My heart sank. I didn’t want to go back to the clearing, to the people who had filled my life up to this point. I didn’t want to work alongside Carol, to wash clothes and cook dinners and take care of the men. I wanted to stay here, with Eirian. I wanted to learn about the Cedwig, about the Dewin and the Vartes. My mind spun with all my imaginings about these people, all the questions I held about them. I needed answers, and I knew that I wouldn’t get them when I went back to papa.
If it were up to him and the others, I would never have left the clearing in the first place. But deep in my heart, I knew that it would be best to return. If I were to stay, my people would fear for my life. They would search the woods, and they would tear down everything in their paths in an effort to find me. I knew Jonas well enough to know that. If anyone went missing, even me, he would search the woods until he found them.
I nodded, and Eirian released all but my hand.
“Let me show you something,” he said.
He helped me up onto his back, my arms grasping around his shoulders and my legs holding tight to his waist, and he ran. Just like I had seen the others do in the tops of the trees, Eirian ran. His feet landed lightly everywhere they found purchase, propelling him at a speed faster than humanly possible. Wind breezed through my hair, over my skin, the sensation like nothing I’d experienced prior. He climbed up into the highest branches at the same rate, his tail helping to balance us along the way. Even with me on his back, he was fully capable of traversing the whole of the woods at this pace, so that the cliff disappeared behind us at a nearly alarming rate.
My eyes scanned over everything we passed, over the tops of the trees, the animals resting in the vines, the moonlight bouncing off the leaves and shimmering in the night sky—all of it a blur, and yet my eyes were able to pick out even minute details of the things we passed.
We even moved close to another Cedwig, sitting at the top of a tree, staring up at the moonlight. The woman glanced at us and smiled, and Eirian said something to her in his language, words that I doubted I would ever understand. He’d only spoken it to me once before, and even then it had sounded impossible to decipher.
Within moments, we stood in the trees just beyond the clearing my people now possessed. From where we stood I saw them, still sleeping in their circle. Even the guards were still unconscious, unaware of the fact that I’d left them during the night.
The sky began to lighten. There was no point in hoping that my people would sleep through the first few hours of day. Jonas insisted that everyone be up at dawn and that they work until the light had faded from the sky. After all, it was the only way that we would have homes built before winter set in. No one knew how cold that time of year would be.
“I should go,” I whispered under my breath, my arms still holding tight around Eirian’s shoulders.
He nodded and slowly climbed down through the branches, dropping to his feet in what looked like the exact place he’d found me.
I slid down off his back, and he turned to face me. “Thank you,” I breathed, smiling sadly up at him. My brow furrowed as his skin lightened in the ever-brightening light.
Eirian reached up and pulled a flower from one of the vines. He wrapped the stem tightly around and around something else he’d found in the trees, and fastened the bracelet around my wrist. “I will return, young one,” he told me. “Remember.” He smiled.
My eyes were fixed on the bracelet that now adorned my wrist. “It’s beautiful,” I said.
He laughed lightly and ran his fingers through my hair. “Go back,” he said. “I will return.”
I looked up at him and smiled brightly. “When?” My brows rose.
“Soon,” he replied. “I will give you a sign.” He lifted my hand and played with his homemade jewelry, his eyes still staring straight into mine. “Go,” he breathed.
I nodded slowly and stepped away from him, my heart tearing as I did so. The trees were more home to me than this clearing would ever be. They were safety, shelter, security. They were home. Even without Eirian, I had always felt at home within the trees, entrapped by the vines and tangles of branches. Nothing could reach me, when I was deep enough in the trees. Not even Jonas’s rules could find me when I was there.
My feet deftly carried me back over the tops of my people, until I settled back in beside Carol.
Almost as soon as I laid my head down and closed my eyes, the guards stirred. They wouldn’t tell Jonas they’d fallen asleep.
I slipped Eirian’s bracelet from my wrist and placed it in the pocket of my dress. No one could know where I had been. I didn’t know what would happen if they found out, and I didn’t want to test it. For now, it was safer for everyone to think that I had been here, beside Carol, all night long. But in my heart, I knew where I was meant to be. The forest called to me from all around, begging me to return to its arms.
“Soon,” I whispered under my breath.
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