Right now I sit beneath the arms of a great oak tree, just a short way into the forest. Flame is leaping in the ferns; he keeps poking his nose into the leaves then bounding away as though he’s playing chase with an invisible friend. It warms my heart in this moment. The next time I write to you, dear reader, I know I will be with a small group of others deep in the forest. Though only Lorenz and I fully know all the particulars of how this journey began, Mrs. Hume, Alexander, and Baron Rhodes himself will help us to see it to its end, whatever that may be as I now wonder.
Perhaps it will be another stone giant, or a great treasure that the key can open, or, after what Mary said today, maybe even the Green Sister herself! I went to the Hume’s shop to buy some goods, only to find that Davy, Elise, and Mary were already there speaking to Mr. and Mrs. Hume. While Mr. Hume kindly helped me get the things on my list, Mrs. Hume told the others about her expectations of the forest. She spoke of how she hoped to see faeries and magic and said “My dreams I think are a good omen of that.” — Dreams? So Mrs. Hume was having them as well? She continued on, telling us all of a green faery sitting at a spinning wheel. Mary smiled and said “Ah, the Green Sister’s been spinning you a vision.” She looked around at our little group and realized there was more than one confused face looking back at her… So she explained that in the stories from her town, Woolden, the Green Sister is… well, actually green. She has green skin, and the folks say she spins people’s dreams and such, sometimes even spinning their fate with threads that grow longer and longer like a vine. Oh goodness, even with all my knowledge of folklore, I’d never heard such a thing! My face must have looked rather funny, because poor Mary asked if she’d said something to offend me. But no, I assured her that all was quite well; she had just given me a lot to think about.
And thought about it I have. Mary’s version of the Green Sister, one who is actually green like me and Lorenz’s ancestors… it seems to fit the dreams. Perhaps it is the Green Sister we have been seeing. She is also on the key we found... her on one side and the twisting vines on the other… like the markings on the stone giants and the magic mirror... they all seem tied together… haha, perhaps like braided threads? I wonder what Lorenz will make of all this, and I wonder why the tales I know don’t describe the Green Sister as actually being green. The name was always tied to the color of the plants and the forest for me. It seems such an important detail of her myth to be lost, but I do like imagining her this new way, as a spinner of dreams and fate. I envision the vines she grows weaving across more than just the forest floor, each flower bud holding the creative spark of some dream until its ready to bloom. It’s a rather pretty picture in my mind.
And what if it is really the Green Sister waiting for us at the end of this journey, drawing us to come find her in the forest? I’ve never thought of her as a real figure, just a lovely story from legend to help explain the seasons. But that green lady I see in my dreams… spinning at her wheel, weaving new threads, her eyes always closed… like a strange reflection of myself… she seems to be much closer now than ever before.