Waving as she left the pharmacy where she worked, Sophie let out a sigh and checked to make sure her cell phone was off. It was the beginning of two weeks vacation and she had warned them she wouldn't be taking any phone calls. There were plenty of other pharmacists they could call in case of an emergency, though typically the only issues they ever had was getting the correct information from the doctors who sent the scripts over.
She walked the six blocks to her apartment and took the elevator to the fourth floor. She had just moved in a few months earlier and she still had a few pieces of furniture she wanted to order, but the place was starting to finally look and feel like home to her. Life was finally starting to be just how she'd always imagined.
The first thing she wanted to do when she stepped inside was to change into something more comfortable, but that would have to wait. Her best friend was getting married the following weekend and had sent over a dress for her to try on. She pulled it out of the entryway closet and held it up. There wasn't much shape to it and she stared at it for a moment before realizing there was a note pinned to the shoulder.
'Sophie, I know it looks plain, but you have to try it on and we'll get it altered on Saturday if it needs it!' Lisa had written in her scrawling handwriting. 'There are more pieces to it, they're just being custom made. Don't freak out!'
"Don't freak out?" Sophie laughed softly. "I never freak out!" She walked to the bathroom and changed into the dress, managing to tie the laces across the back, though they were a little crooked.
Walking out into the hallway where a full length mirror hung on the wall, she stared blankly at her reflection. "What on earth are you thinking, Lisa?" she mumbled. The dress was a soft green color, but looked like something out of a historical film, just without all the accessories. It was, simply put, very plain.
The phone rang and she walked into the living room to pick it up. "Hi Lisa, I was just trying on the dress." she said.
"Okay, so don't judge me, okay?" Lisa said. "There are more layers to it, I just needed to know if it was totally huge on you, or if it was too small. I totally guessed on the size."
"It's a little loose all over," Sophie replied. "But it's not huge. What on earth are you planning? Because this is not the typical bridesmaid dress. At all. Not even close."
Lisa laughed softly. "Promise you won't laugh at me?"
"I promise. Well, no, I take that back. I might laugh. But it's your wedding, so you do what you want to do."
"I'm having a theme wedding."
"A theme wedding? Like, what kind of theme?"
"Fourteenth century."
Sophie thought for a moment. "Like a renaissance theme?"
"Yes! I'm so excited!"
"That is not what I was expecting, at all!" Sophie said. "What made you want to go with that?"
"Because Todd is my knight in shining armor," Lisa said. "So, he's going to be dressed as a knight, and I'll be dressed like a princess!"
When Sophie finally hung up the phone, she let out a long sigh and flopped down on the couch. She was trying her best to imagine how the dress would look with another skirt over it, plus a corset but she just couldn't picture it. Lisa's seamstress was going to have to perform a miracle to get such a plain dress to look suitable for a bridesmaid.
Laying back on the couch, she knew she needed to start dinner, but it was the start of her vacation and she didn't feel like doing anything. She had a week before she had to fly out on the following Friday and she'd be staying with Lisa until the wedding on Sunday. They had just a couple of days to make sure the dress fit properly, but she had a feeling that if everything was going to lace up how Lisa had described, it wouldn't matter much if it didn't fit perfectly. She already had a pair of brown boots just like the picture Lisa had sent over weeks ago, and she'd been practicing how to french braid her hair. There wasn't really anything else to do but relax and enjoy the next few days. Besides, she was tired and she closed her eyes. "Just for a minute," she murmured.
Sophie groaned when she hit the floor. She hadn't fallen out of bed since she was a little girl, and she let out a long sigh, trying to remember if she'd been dreaming or perhaps just tossing and turning in her sleep. And when had she gotten up off the couch and gone to bed?
The hallway light must have burned out sometime during the night, because there was no light shining underneath the door and she was certain she hadn't turned it off after trying on the dress. In fact, she couldn't recall it ever being so dark in her bedroom that she couldn't at least make out the shape of her dresser near the wall.
The carpet felt strange when she pushed herself up off the floor, and she ran her hands over it, wondering if she was hallucinating. It felt like grass and it was cold and slightly wet, as if she was outside.
Getting to her feet, she felt around and realized that she was nowhere near her bed. It shouldn't have been more than a few feet away, but she couldn't find it. She turned around to feel for her dresser, or a wall, or the door to her bedroom, but she walked for several yards and found nothing. Wondering if someone was playing a prank of her, she happened to look up and realized she was standing underneath stars. Only they weren't stars she recognized.
"What the bloody hell," she muttered. "Hello!" she called, hoping there was someone nearby. And hoping they could explain what was going on.
No answer.
She heard a sound like static behind her and turned just as a blue flickering light faded and fizzled out with one last spark. Now she was convinced there was something strange going on.
She let out a long sigh. There was no sense just standing there in the cold grass. She may as well start walking, but no matter which direction she went, it was a gamble. She decided that she would walk for an hour. And if she didn't find any signs of civilization, she would decide then if she should keep going, or wait till morning light.
Branches scratched at her arms and snagged on her dress as she stumbled through the dark. It was cold and damp and the bottom hem of her dress was getting muddy and wet. She willed herself to keep going, if for no other reason than to stay warm.
It seemed like she had stepped out into a clearing and she heard something. She breathed a sigh of relief, thinking it must be traffic, but after walking for another ten minutes and not seeing so much as a headlight, she realized the sound was too steady to be traffic. She slowly took a few more steps through the dark and suddenly found herself up to her knees in water. The swiftly moving current pulled her off her feet and she was swept several yards downstream before she could regain her footing and pull herself out onto the bank.
Gasping, she crawled until she felt grass, and she lay there for several long minutes, trying to catch her breath. It was so cold, that the moment she'd gone under, it had taken her breath away and now she was shivering uncontrollably. She had considered that she was in a dream, but this was turning into a nightmare and she wondered if she was going to die.
"Is she dead?"
"Poke her with this," the second boy handed the first one a long stick, which he used to nudge her leg.
"I think she's dead."
"No, I think she moved."
"She didn't move. I just poked her with a stick."
"No, she moved! I swear,"
"What are you two doing?" a woman called as she walked towards them.
"We found a lady!" the older boy called.
"She's dead," the younger one shook his head.
The woman quickened her pace and called to someone over her shoulder. A moment later a man appeared and they both hurried over to take a look.
"She's breathing, but barely," the woman said. "She's wet and her skin is cold. She must have fallen into the river."
Her husband pulled off the thick cloak he was wearing and wrapped it around her. He lifted her in his arms and carried her back to the village. "Come on, boys," he called over his shoulder. "You can help your mother."
"I told you she was still alive," the older boy whispered.
"I wonder why she was in the river," the other said. "It's too cold to go swimming."
"I doubt she did it on purpose."
"Well, maybe she was just thirsty and she fell in by accident."
"Maybe."
Sophie opened one eye. She could hear someone talking nearby, though they kept their voice low. Across the room from her was a large fireplace with a blazing fire and what looked like a whole leg of lamb roasting over it.
Her stomach must have grumbled louder than she realized, for suddenly a small boy was leaning over her. "She's alive!" he exclaimed.
"Don't frighten her!" his mother shooed him away and knelt beside her on the pile of furs she was lying on. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine. Thank you," Sophie replied hoarsely.
"My husband thinks you must have become lost in the woods."
"Yes."
"Where are you from?"
"Bakersfield."
"Is that part of England?"
"What? England? No,"
"Well, it's no matter."
"Where am I now?" Sophie asked.
"This is Nilfhelm." the woman replied, as if she would recognize the name.
"Oh," Sophie murmured.
"You don't know where that is, do you?" she smiled.
"No, I'm afraid not."
"Well, you're welcome to stay as long as you like," the woman glanced over her shoulder at the boys as they roughhoused on the floor behind her. "I'm going to be in need of some help with the children in the near future, if you wouldn't mind staying with us, we'd be happy to have you."
Sophie realized the woman was pregnant, and probably very close to giving birth. "Yes, I can stay," she replied. "I haven't anywhere else to go just now anyway."
"I'm Svanhild and this is my husband Sigurd. The boys found you down at the river two days ago. They thought you were dead. The older one is Torstein and the younger one is Leif."
The boys must have heard their names and stopped playing long enough to walk over and say hello. The older one stared at her.
"What is it, Torstein?" his mother laughed.
"Her hair. It's like gold!"
Sophie noticed that they all had darker hair and she wondered if anyone else in the village was blonde. The boy was staring at her as if he'd never seen anything so strange in all of his eight years.
"Go play," Svanhild said. Then she turned back to Sophie. "I'm sorry. We don't see many people with hair the color of yours. It's very beautiful."
"Thank you."
"Even so," she sighed. "You'll probably want to keep it covered."
"Covered?" Sophie asked.
"I'll explain after the boys are asleep,"
"Of course,"
That night, Svanhild and Sigurd told her the story of an ancient prophesy of a woman with a halo of gold that was thought to be hair the color of Sophie's. The woman was said to come from a foreign land to save the royal family of Svangard.
"There are spies in the area all the time," Svanhild sighed. "If they see your hair they will assume you are the one from the prophesy and they will take you, willingly or not. It's happened before and the woman they took was eventually found to not be the woman from the prophesy and she was killed. I would hate for that to happen to you. It's not unusual for women in our village to keep their hair covered, although it's not necessary, so no one will think anything of it.
Sophie nodded. Things were just getting weirder and weirder.
Svanhild gave birth to a baby girl just a few weeks later. Sophie helped keep the boys rounded up, all the while keeping a lookout for the swirling blue vortex. She wasn't sure if it was the way home or not, but it was best to be ready, just in case.