He couldn’t tell exactly what woke him up. It wasn’t as if he’d had one of his nightmares. Suddenly his eyes were simply open, and he found himself lying on the same exact place, under the bed.
The light in the room had grown dimmer, he immediately noticed, but it wasn’t completely dark, allowing him to easily see the world around him.
The sudden gentle sound of laughter startled him, paralyzing him, making him focus his attention. It sounded like a child, Snow thought, silently crawling on his stomach to see who had inadvertently entered his room.
The first thing he saw, however, was no child at all.
Freezing in place, Snow remained very still, staring at the mass of darkness bundled on the floor, against the wall right in front of him.
So he had been right, he thought, his heart beating faster. The monster had stayed to watch over him. He was probably sitting, he guessed since he couldn’t see the man inside the black shadows, but he couldn’t be sure if he was asleep or awake.
The giggling sound returned, making him look right, and a brush of white and gold quickly slipped out the door.
A small child, he was now sure, crawling from under the bed, wrapping himself on his blanket to keep the cold at bay. With a last glance towards the monster to make sure he remained unmoving, he walked silently to the door and peered into the adjoined room.
For a moment he just stood there, completely still, afraid he might scare her and that she might run away.
Wearing a plain, white dress, with long, wavy golden hair that reached the back of her knees, the little girl that had woken him kept jumping from one foot to the other, as if she were jumping from imaginary stone to imaginary stone, her bare feet completely soundless, leaving ripples of light every time they touched the white stone floor.
Taking her size in consideration, she looked to be no more than three years old, but the way she moved, the confidence behind her jumps as she played, were that of a much older child. Her overly long hair looked soft and light, waving and shimmering with her every move, and Snow finally understood what they’d meant by golden hair, not blond.
As if she had finally noticed his presence, she stopped jumping and looked at him, her equally golden eyes swirling as if they were made of liquid gold, and Snow couldn’t help hold his breath, waiting for her to scream, or cry, or something like that. Instead she gave him a warm, heart-melting smile, pure happiness taking over her small, doll-like face, and gestured him to follow her, before she quickly ran to the door that, he now realized, had been left open.
Running to the door to see where she was going, Snow halted again when he found her standing in the corridor, waiting for him. With another smile she gestured him to follow again, and turned around, happily skipping down the corridor.
“Wait!” he asked, a bit louder than his usual tone of voice, and peered back into the room.
From where he stood he could clearly see the mass of darkness in his bedroom. He’d probably be furious if he found out that he’d sneaked out in the middle of the night.
Looking at the corridor again he saw that the little girl was still waiting, gesturing for him to follow her with what now looked like a bit of impatience.
Quickly balancing one option and the other, Snow finally made up his mind and decided to go with her.
“Where are we going?” he whispered as he caught up with her but she merely smiled, holding a corner of his blanket and pulling it, showing him the way.
The fact that she wouldn’t talk to him didn’t bother him in the least. He was used to people not talking to him, even more used to not talking to other people. For a long time, whenever people decided to spare him some words, they had never been nice or pleasant ones. And so he had learned to appreciate the ones who came and went in silence.
Looking down at the little girl walking only one step ahead of him he couldn’t help smile a bit. She reminded him of the beautiful, very expensive dolls he used to like to look at, when he was a child. Back then all he had been able to do was to stand outside, peering through the window of the store. But he’d still do so, whenever he went into town. That little girl was just like them, with the difference that she was obviously a living child, and that her dress wasn’t as rich or as complex as the ones the dolls normally wore.
When he realized where they were going, she had led him all the way back to the Temple’s Prayer Hall, silently towing him inside.
Just like before, the large hall was completely empty, although some candles still burned. Unlike his bedroom, the light in there was as bright as before, with the difference that it now mainly radiated from the walls, the glass dome above his head showing a dark sky filled with little twinkling stars. The crystal stairway seemed to glow in shimmers of purple and blue, and the silence that immediately surrounded him was as inviting and relaxing as before.
When he noticed, the little girl had already released him, back to her play, jumping over the pillows, spreading ripples of golden light everywhere.
With a second thought Snow looked back, at the door and at the small, white room beyond it. He couldn’t help fearing that someone might come and find them, catching them red-handed doing something that, most likely, they were not supposed to be doing. Not to mention that he’d completely forgotten that he wasn’t supposed to be seen walking around with his head uncovered like that, he remembered, quickly pulling the blanket over his head. And yet it was kind of strange that they hadn’t found anyone so far. Back at the Fortress it would have been unthinkable to walk around in the middle of the night without being caught by someone. Sure, the Fortress had been taken by military men, and this was a sacred Temple. But still it was hard to believe they’d leave the whole place so unguarded.
“No one will come,” a woman’s voice told him and he immediately spun around, his heart drumming against his chest, ready to run away as fast as he could or, if that weren’t possible, to fight for his life. But what he saw stunned him even more than the unexpected presence of the little girl in his bedroom had.
jumping from one feet to the other
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