Part Four

After eating, I headed out again. My bow and arrows had already been returned to the blacksmith, yet I visited him nonetheless. Jeremiah Smith is his name, which is ironic, and everyone just calls him Smith, except me. He is quite popular and thus has many connections, some even reaching far outside the kingdom. If there is anything you’d like to know or materials you’d like to have, he is your man. 

“Theodore”, he called out, seeing me standing behind the pair he was helping. “What is it?”

Anna and Deren turned around and immediately took a few steps aside when they noticed who I was. In return, I stepped forward and nodded to the blacksmith as a greeting.

“Have you seen a girl with brown hair in the lux forest?”, I ask. All three look at me oddly. To be fair, it was a peculiar question. Women typically don’t wander off far into that part of the woods, no one really does, and I believed them to also be somewhat wary of me having picked someone. An irrational fear I never quite understood. I wasn’t interested in marriage, nor would I be allowed a romantic affair while in the castle. 

“Looking for someone, eh?”, the blacksmith responded. He leaned forward on the wooden table and looked up at me, his clear blue eyes piercing through me. I sometimes wondered whether he might have been blind. 

“You need a better description in that case. Many girls have brown hair. Not many walk into the forest.”

-”Yes, I know. Short brown hair, long flowy white dress. And brown eyes. She’s shorter than me.”

“Isn’t everyone”, he laughed. 

Anna and Deren chuckled too, to be polite, I assumed. I hadn’t been that tall, the blacksmith himself was barely shorter than me. But before I could give a more exact height of the girl, he already answered my question.

“Listen, Theodore, the girl you saw was either an imagination or some snobby girl from the north. No one here would walk in the forest wearing anything white, nor does any woman I know even own a flowery white dress.”

“Flowy”, I corrected him. That didn’t seem to please him. He built himself up again and looked to where Anna and Deren had stood, but they had already walked off.

“My bad, guess your little flower thing there got me confused.”

-”What flower thing?”

“The crown on your head there. Didn’t know you were into flowers, Theodore. You might be a good match for my daughter after all.”

He broke out into laughter. I touched the top of my head and felt the petite petals under my grasp. 

I had forgotten it was there.