All his life, Terry lived in that long, white house next to the village called Baskethill. The cozy home was built half a century ago by the boy's grandfather, a Cesanitian peasant who got fed up with his petty lord, and decided to move to the free-spirited Republic of Midridge with his family, to try his luck. Things worked out pretty well for them here: the former peasant and his wife both got a job in the household of a rich merchant, and they were able to save up a decent amount of money in a few years. Then they made friends with some folks from Baskethill, one of whom suggested this spot for them. Terry's grandfather built the sturdy, well crafted house with the help of some of the villagers, and with that, he finally achieved independence. The soil in these parts was great, the woods all around were free for chopping, and the people of Baskethill quickly accepted them too. Both of Terry's grandparents died when he was young, and so the house was inherited by his dad, Benson.

The lanky, freckled Terry was always a laid-back, quiet boy, a little slow, but hard working and reliable. Even as a toddler, he rarely made a ruckus, his mother often said he is a true gentleman. From a young age, he was pretty close with his first sister, Elma, who was two years his junior. The girl had a similar chill temper to him, although she had more of a curious nature beneath her relaxed demeanor. It was with the birth of their two lively younger sisters, Daisy and Rosie, when their home slowly turned more chaotic – in a way, the little girls balanced things out with the more reserved older siblings.

Life was simple and peaceful here, and as a kid, Terry was never really concerned about his future. What he was going to do when he grew up was obvious to him: he would of course just continue living here, and eventually take things over, just like his father once did. They were keeping animals, usually chickens and pigs, and they also had a small separated garden, where they grew vegetables. They often went out to chop trees too, a lot of which they sold at the capital. The boy got a good sense of all of this at a young age. He liked helping his parents out as much as he could, and he used to fantasize about being the “lord of the house” himself. He knew that eventually, the day would come.

Unsurprisingly, things got a little more complicated around the time he went through puberty. He already had a liking of this girl, Paige, who was his own age, and the daughter of the village chief. She was pretty, tan-skinned like her father, but blonde like her mother, and she usually wore her hair in twintails. Her, Terry and Elma used to hang out quite a bit when they were young, as they were the only kids in the village that were of a similar age. Paige was sort of like the leader of their trio, she was a very enthusiastic and energetic girl. But as they got closer to adolescence, and as Terry started to feel a new sense of excitement upon catching a glimpse of those yellow twintails, Paige started to drift away from them. Around this time, her parents began to talk a lot about her future, her marriage prospects, and they wanted her to be well educated too. The new priest in the village, a knowledgable young man, became her private teacher, and suddenly she spent much more time at her home. Even when she was out and about, Terry felt like she was more distant and sort of more awkward with him than she used to be. To be fair, that was definitely the case the other way around too, which was because the boy saw her as stunningly beautiful. His feelings made it hard to act casual around her.

And so the questions started to arise: what do girls like in a man? Could he, Terry, propose to someone like Paige? Would the village chief's daughter even be allowed to marry him, and would she be happy with that?

The boy was fourteen years old when he overheard Paige say something that really stuck with him. It was a sunny summer day, him and Elma were pulling weeds from the garden of an old widow, who usually rewarded their efforts with some sweet fruits. Suddenly, Paige and her cousins walked by. The two slightly older girls weren't from here, they were only visiting Baskethill, and they were in the middle of teasingly interrogating the blonde about her romantic preferences. Terry jerked his head up when he recognized their voices, but he decided not to reveal himself. He and his sister were crouching behind a low-wooden fence to begin with, which hid them from those walking on the road. Elma glanced at her brother, she stopped uprooting too, and they both listened curiously.

“Like your teacher?!” they heard one of the cousins, while the other was laughing. “Isn't he a priest?”

“He is,” Paige replied. “Of course he can't marry, I know that! I said someone like him, not him exactly!”

“So what kind of someone would that be?” asked the other cousin.

“Someone... intelligent. And fun. And handsome. Someone who travelled the world, and knows about all sorts of things.”

“Uuuh, he sounds nice!”

As the chatting girls were getting farther away from them, Terry sat down on the ground with a blank expression. Elma patted him on the back.

“I think you're kinda handsome. At least not ugly.”

“Thanks...”

“Come on now, brother! We gotta finish this.”

About a week after that incident, Terry brought himself to visit Baskethill's priest, the handsome Father Thomas. It was not a matter of rivalry – the boy really believed that Paige did not have a liking of the man, and as she said, she only wanted someone similar to him. That meant he is probably a good guy to turn to. Even though Terry's family was not super religious (they usually only went to church once a year, at new year's day), Terry had some brief interactions with Thomas before. He seemed like a good man, he was definitely knowledgable, spoke in more of a sophisticated manner than the villagers, but he wasn't vain, he was rather friendly. Pretty much everyone liked him. Still, asking him for advice directly was too embarrassing for the boy, he did not want to reveal his crush to anyone. What he wanted was to learn to read. Commoners like him usually couldn't read, that was nothing out of the ordinary – neither of his parents could for example, nor his sister – but he knew that Paige was taught how to. He figured that at least he could try to catch up to the girl in this.

Father Thomas was surprised by his request, but he agreed to it. “An appetite for knowledge shall always be honored”, he said. From then on, once a week, the boy sneaked up to the priest's modest little house built behind the small temple in the village, and he trained with him in secret. He wanted to hide what he was doing from his family, partly because he knew they would think it's unusual (they didn't even have books), but mainly because it was all attached to his secret feelings and fantasies, of which he was kind of ashamed of, and wanted to keep to himself. Elma was quick to figure out what he was doing anyway: she once followed him to the priest's place, and eavesdropped them through the open window. She later told his brother that she knows, even guessing that he is doing it because of his crush, but she also promised him that she will keep it all a secret, so that was all good. Terry trusted her more than anyone.

The boy's endeavour did not last very long though. A month in, he was still struggling with the very basics, having trouble remembering which letter is which. Truth be told, whenever he covertly set out for the father's tidy home, he switched into “I'm doing this for Paige” mode. On these occasions, his heart was filled with naive excitement, and his mind was full of fantasies about how he is going to win Paige over. Perhaps if he really did want to learn to read, he would have done better, but that was not the case. And so one day, Father Thomas had enough, and he told the boy to either take this seriously, or move on. As Terry realised that he inconvenienced the very person who was doing him a favor, he quickly apologized to him, and left. That was the end of their acquaintanceship.

After that, Terry just gave up, trying to return to his regular way of life. It was hard at first – he was so melancholic that his parents thought he might have some sort of a sickness. He also had to actively avoid going to the village, at least as much as possible, to make sure he won't catch a glimpse of Paige. The few times that happened during this period, it was so unbearable, he could barely think straight. But slowly, overtime, he more or less overcame his heartbreak, and he once again found peace in the thought of living the rest of his life in this familiar home just outside Baskethill. He really loved this place. He has visited the busy capital a few times with his father before, which was always an exciting event, but overall, he definitely preferred the tranquillity of rural areas. Being close to nature as a self-sustaining villager and enjoying the small things was going to be enough.

About a year after his secret studies, Elma carefully asked him how he feels about Paige. They were outside, feeding the pigs at dawn.

“I just don't think about her much anymore,” Terry shrugged. It was a half-truth: he still fantasized about the girl from time to time, he just tried not to. But at least he didn't have to actively avoid her now. Her beauty still made his hearth ache, but the pain was not quite so severe.

“So ya never even tried asking her out?” Elma inquired.

“I don't think she sees me like that.”

“You can't know for sure!”

“It's okay, sister. Once I'm a bit older, I might just find myself another girl.”

“If ya say so.”

Time went on. Daisy and Rosie were growing into quite the mischievous duo, Terry enjoyed teaching them this or that, filling the role of the stable, reliable older brother. Their youngest sibling was born, a boy, fifth in line of the siblings. They adopted a small, stray dog which the young sisters found nearby, but it ran away after a few weeks. All the pigs in the village got infested by something, which eventually reached their ones too: about half of them died, their meat turned bad as well. They got some new ones. Time went on.

And then Chio happened. For the second time, the boy's life was turned upside down, and in a way even more so than before. His secret fantasies, unsure ideas of how sex was going to go, him pleasuring himself at night under his blanket as he was thinking about girls, all the while being vaguely aware that some folks would say that's somehow sinful, this whole package of embarrassing longing was stirred up by this eastern girl who barged into his life out of nowhere, and then left just as quick. She confirmed that Terry's wildest dreams were indeed possible, and more. It was like a taste of heaven.

One agonizing day after Chio and her redhead friend left their home, Terry woke up quite early. The skyline was still mostly dark, with just a hint of lighter blue on the horizon. The rooster haven't crowed yet either. The boy got dressed, reached under his bed, pulled out the bundle he put together the previous night, and nervously, quietly sneaked out of the house. He stopped and stared at the dark woods in which the road disappeared, then looked back at their home, hesitating. Once again, he was going on a secret adventure, one that he didn't really want to tell his family about... but he knew they would worry about him if he disappeared without a word. No, he can't exactly do that.

He turned around and entered the house again, tiptoeing all the way to the last room, Elma's one. He walked in quietly, and gently shook her up.

“Wow!” she yelled, sitting up at once.

“Shhh!” Terry shushed her.

“What are ya doing? You scared the daylight out of me!” the girl whispered.

“Sorry! I just... I wanna let ya know that I'm leaving.”

Elma rubbed her eyes, yawned, then she stared up at her brother. “What?”

“I'm leaving. Not sure for how long.”

“Is it because of that girl, Chio?”

How come she always knows? “Yes. You can tell our parents about it when they wake up, I'm just not sure what mum would say, so...”

“How are you gonna find them? You don't know where they went, do you?”

“They went to Plankwelle.”

“You know how big that city is. And I'm pretty sure they ain't gonna stay there for long, they wanted to go back where they came from. Did they even tell us where that is?”

The boy gulped. “I know it's gonna be difficult, but I gotta at least try to find them.”

“You barely even know her!”

“But we... we talked. And I really liked her. Seriously, she's a great person, I'm sure of it.”

“Did she like you too?”

“Uhm... I think so.”

“You think so...”

“I can't know for sure until I ask her, right? I have to do it, Elma. I'm not gonna just give up this time.”

Elma sighed, stood up, and hugged her brother. “In that case, you really should have asked her yesterday.”

“Yea...”

After what Chio did to him, how warmly she treated him, Terry wanted to believe that she fancied him... but then again, she left. It was all so sudden, all so confusing. It would have definitely been better to talk to her when she was still here, but the boy was just too shy and indecisive. He felt foolish about that now, but what happened, happened. He made up his mind.

“Be careful out there!” Elma said.

“I will be.”

“Wait! Do you remember that strange woman we met in Plankwelle many years ago?”

“Oh, yea.”

“If you don't know where to go, maybe try finding her. I know that she was weird, but if anyone, she may be able to help you.”

“Thanks, sister!”

They hugged once more, and Terry went outside, beginning his long walk to Plankwelle.

The strange woman Elma mentioned was none other than Thora. When they met her, Terry was ten years old, and his sister was eight. It was one of the rare occasions of them accompanying their father on their donkey-drawn wagon: they were going to sell wood in the capital. They spent half a day there, mostly at a marketplace where their dad parked the cart, and used it as a stand.

One of the neighbouring vendors had a son of his own, who eventually approached Terry and Elma. They played some games together, a bunch of other kids joined them too, then the gang wandered to the docks, showing the two newcomers around. Coming across the rather out of place wooden shack, Terry asked the vendor's son about it.

“That's Thora's shop. She's a witch!” the boy said.

“She's no witch! Just a grumpy old woman,” a girl who joined them argued.

“She is a witch, I'm telling you! She cursed old Billy, made him stupider.”

“Old Billy was always a drunkard, my dad says I shouldn't listen to a word he says. You are just afraid of Thora, aren't you?”

“I'm not!”

After a bit more of a back and forth, the vendor's son somehow ended up arguing the opposite of what he initially said, that Thora is just a regular woman and that he is not afraid of her at all. That cheeky girl kept teasing him though, saying she doesn't believe him, and so the boy decided to prove it once and for all. He said he will go in there, as long as at least one other kid is willing to accompany him. All the other children refused to do so, but Terry volunteered for the quest. With all this talk about this mysterious woman, he was just kind of curious to see her.

The vendor's son looked disappointed, he did not expect anyone willingly going with him, but he kept his word. The two boys approached the small house, then Elma suddenly joined them too – unlike her unassuming brother, she had a bad feeling about this, so she wanted to be by his side.

Cramped, dark room, slightly bad smell, several small tables by the walls with a variety of items on them. Behind the table opposite from the entrance, a black curtain was hanging, blocking off the backroom. All of a sudden, a middle aged, unattractive woman appeared from behind it. For a few moments, she just stared at the kids with an annoyed expression, then she grimaced and hissed at them. The vendor's son screamed and ran outside at once, Elma was about to leave too, she grabbed his brother's hand, but Terry was not moving. While he did have a reserved nature, and he later turned out to be quite shy about liking girls in particular, he was actually really not a scaredy type when it came to stuff like this.

“Why did you do that, ma'am?” he asked with just a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

“Why, oh why. You children certainly haven't come in here to do business, or have you?”

The boy shook his head.

“Of course not. You are here for your own amusement, for a cheap thrill, to take a look at scary old Thora and then brag about it to your little friends. Don't waste my time, snotty-nosed brats!”

“We wouldn't brag about it, ma'am!” Elma swore, and his brother nodded.

Some long, awkward seconds passed. The siblings just stood there, looking at the strange woman with wide eyes, as if they were frozen in time.

“Oh, what the hell!” Thora blurted. “You two have some guts, so I might as well give you a little something. You are sibling, aren't you?”

“Yea,” said Terry.

“Surely from the backwoods too. Like a pair of lost sheep, you are standing there. So spit in this, the both of you!” she offered them a wooden cup. Terry hesitantly took it, and exchanged a look with his sister.

“Spit in it?” he repeated.

“If you want me to tell your fortune,” Thora clarified.

“You can tell the future?” Elma asked.

“Maybe, or maybe not. Only time can prove that to you. No more questions now! Do it, or leave.”

They of course did it. The woman took back the cup, stared into it for a bit while gently shaking it around, then she said this: “You'll run into an issue tonight. When that happens, walk up the hill and see the farm on the other side. They will help you there. That's all.”

As the siblings left the shack, the group of kids immediately surrounded them, asking them what happened, what took them so long. They barely had enough time to reply when they heard their father's voice calling their names. As it turned out, the owner of a tavern purchased the majority of their wood, so they were ready to go home already.

On the cart ride back to Baskethill, Terry and Elma were in a strange mood, still very much under the effect of that unusual experience. They left Plankwelle at sunset, and they were gonna go on all night, reaching back home early next morning – Benson thought there was no point wasting their hard earned money by sleeping in some inn. The issue happened around midnight, when the capital city was way behind them already. Going over a bigger bump on the road, one of the back wheels of the cart suddenly came off. Benson tried putting it back on while his children watched him, but it broke in a pretty bad way, and there was nothing the man could do about it. He cursed, then concluded that they have no choice but to walk back and leave the wagon here for now.

Elma did a little jump as she noticed the only hill around this flat area, it was to their left. “Father, let's go up there!”

“Why?”

“We might get lucky if we do.”

“I think so too,” Terry said as he caught on.

Benson scratched his head, but for some reason, he complied with his kid's idea. It was exactly as Thora said. In the moonlight, they saw a long house similar to theirs on the other side of the hill. The dad of that family turned out to be rather helpful and friendly, even though they had to wake him up at such a late hour. He just so happened to have a spare wheel of his own, and he found it amusing that they needed exactly that. He even walked back to the cart with them, and helped them put it on – for the compensation of a bit of money, of course.

“How did you know we will find luck up there?” Benson asked once they continued going.

The siblings finally told him their experience with that strange woman.

“Now that is funny, ain't it?”

“What ya think father, was she a witch?” asked Elma.

“Who knows? Some folks really do have a sense of hidden forces, that's for sure.”

Terry recalled this story over and over during his lonely walk to Plankwelle. For the last stretch of the journey, he came across another villager from Baskethill who was going to the capital with his own donkey-drawn wagon, and he picked the boy up. Terry arrived at Thora's shop at night, exactly one day after Chio and Arabella was there.

The woman was not very keen on giving him advice at first, pretending that she doesn't know him (in reality, she recognized him immediately). The determined Terry had to be very insistent, while trying to be as polite as he could be, begging Thora to help him out. At last, she gave in, and told him that the girl he is looking for is going to go on a voyage next morning.

“It's a large ship with purple sails, its named Annabelle. If you go there and ask them for work as tenaciously as you begged me just now, they might take you with them.”

Terry never was on a voyage before, and the idea of getting so far away from home made his heart ache, but if he came this far, if it meant he really could meet with Chio again, he had to do it. He spent a few hours in the stable of a tavern, barely getting any sleep, then he went to find that ship in the middle of the night, just to be sure. He sat on the dock until the crew and the captain came around at dawn. Luckily for him, one less sailors turned up than the number that was agreed upon, and so the captain, who was a grey cat-man, agreed to take the boy with them as a substitute.

He was mostly cleaning, scrubbing the floors of the hull, and helping the chief cook throughout the first two days. When he had some free time, he wandered around, trying to spot the eastern girl, and when he did, he admired her from afar, being too afraid to reveal himself to her. The journey was gonna take at least two weeks, so he still had time... but he knew that eventually, he has to face her.

It happened unexpectedly, on the second night of the voyage. Walking out of the aftercastle where he helped cleaning up in the lounge room, he almost bumped into Chio. They stared at each other wide-eyed: the two of them were about equally shocked, embarrassed and excited.