sakon76

Have arrived in Cambridge, am at Serge and Morag´s new place; have written this piece for her. ^_^

*points up again* I´ve given up trying to guess how long this is going to be. Apologies for any typos; Im working on a keyboard with a few quirks, and the screen has a very tiny font. Enjoy!

Cygnus
by K. Stonham
prereleased 3rd January 2008

The woods weren't as dark as Hakuchou had expected. Silvered by the abundant moonlight, the dappled moss and rocks and brooks were nearly as clear as day as she moved between the trees, heading away from the castle. From Gold Krone. From the only home she'd known all her life.

She paused and looked back, at the lit windows in the spire of the towers, then turned away again and moved on. She was probably being stupid, she thought as she continued resolutely tromping on. Rabe was probably right. She was only a girl, and a student, and not a very good dancer. Other than being able to talk with birds, she didn't really have any qualifications for finding nine swans in the big wide world out there, let alone any idea of where to begin looking.

Sir Kay, of course, would scoff at her saying she wasn't good enough, and Papa would agree.

Papa would say she had as good a chance as anyone, and maybe better than most.

Oddly cheered by that thought, Hakuchou continued on, a smile on her face as she marched through the darkness.

Eventually she grew tired, of course, and found a green mossy bed in the lee of a tree near a brook. She picked the stones and twigs off the moss and lay down on it, taking off her shoes and tucking them as well as herself under the red wool of her cloak, covering herself from crown to toe, and falling soundly asleep.

So deeply asleep, Hakuchou never noticed the wolf that came sniffing around at her before dawn, then stopped as if warned off by a higher power, and fled from the red-cloaked girl as though the hounds of hell themselves were on his tail.

*

Hakuchou woke not long after dawn, shedding the cloak and stretching for a moment before shivering in the cold air and hurriedly wrapping the covering around herself again. She fished out her packet of food and tore free a chunk of bread, nibbling on it as she looked at the forest around her and wondered what to do next. Which way to go.

Involved in her ponderings, she almost didn't notice the slip of paper that fell out of the cloak's pocket, except for the cold heaviness of the amulet that went with it.

She froze, bread in her mouth, as she stared at the necklace her mother had always worn.

Turning the note over, she read in her father's elegant handwriting, "Hakuchou, wear this. It will connect you with your mother, and maybe be of use. Remember that we love you, that nothing is truly impossible (or impassible), and that all rivers lead to the sea."

"Papa," Hakuchou said, surprised that he'd known her plan but let her go anyway--but then, she reflected, perhaps she shouldn't have been. She smiled, finished her bread, and slipped the note back in her pocket. Fastening the repaired locket around her neck, she wandered over to the stream to wash her hands. As she was doing so, one after the other like ducklings following their mother, nine white feathers came drifting lazily down the waterway. She watched them for just a moment, eyes wide then snatched them each out of the water, examining them. She couldn't tell for sure if they belonged with her mother and siblings... but they kind of felt like it.

Drying her hands off on her skirt, Hakuchou tucked the white feathers into the pocket of her red cloak and stood. Her eyes were fast on the stream. "All rivers run to the sea, Papa?" she asked curiously. A grin quirked up one side of her mouth. "Isn't that kind of cheating?" she asked aloud, then pulled off her socks. She tucked them into her shoes, ignoring how her toes were already starting to freeze, knotted the shoes' laces together, and pulled the cloak around her shoulders.

Carrying her shoes and satchel in one hand, and using the other for balance, Hakuchou made her way downstream.

*

"She does have a point, Oniisan," Rue said, setting the sheet of paper atop the stack of others.

"Hints aren't cheating," Fakir opined.

*

By the time she reached the sea, Hakuchou's feet were tough and brown, her braid had gotten progressively messier with each redoing, as she'd forgotten to pack a comb, and her food was long gone and she'd gotten thinner from foraging for nuts and winter berries.

The sea was vast and cold and heartless and she sat on the beach, staring out at the water for a long time. She no longer knew where to go.

The crying of the gulls kept her company as she thought of foraging up and down the shore for mussels or perhaps oysters... or perhaps she could find a branch in the forest she'd left behind, and unravel thread from her skirt to make a line and go fishing.

Then she looked up and realized the crying she heard was not of gulls or geese, and that the white forms circling high above her, arrowing down, were none other than nine white swans.

They landed in a cluster about her, and laughing and crying, she lost herself in kisses and sweet wild embraces with her siblings for a few moments. Then the crowd cleared, and her mother stepped forward, as graceful a bird as she'd ever been a ballerina. A gentle brush of white pinions against a healing cut on Hakuchou's cheek was as good as a question, and she immediately fell to stammering an explanation: "It's nothing-- just a branch cut-- it's almost all better, Mama--"

Gentle, proud, wise eyes silenced her babbling as she rubbed awkwardly at the welt. "We fly south, across the sea," her mother told her. "It takes two days. Will you fly with us?"

"Papa said I'm not a swan," Hakuchou replied in a rush. "I can't fly, Mama. I'm just a duck with no wings."

Her mother shrugged, an elegant ripple of feathers. "As was I once. If needs be, you will find a way."

Hakuchou took a breath. And another. Trying not to cry.

She wasn't graceful or beautiful or clever. The only skill she had was with her hands, and how could that help her fly?

Her eyes focused on the roiling surf beyond the bodies of her family. On the brown seaweed tumbling there. She blinked and stood up, stepping forward. They moved out of the way for her. Moving onto the wet sand, she picked up a length of the seaweed in her hands, testing it.

It held fast. It was strong.

She looked up and down the beach. The seaweed was everywhere, all along its length.

Turning back to her family, she sought out her mother's eyes. "If I wove a net," Hakuchou asked, "could you all carry me?"