A World of Magic

Strong hands dragged her out of the water and laid her onto snow-covered ground. Shaking with the cold she looked around her, nothing seemed familiar. There was not a river anywhere near her home, and the country around the river seemed remote.

She looked to the figure that had helped her out of the river, and felt a new fear. She was unable to get a clear view of him due to the heavy snow, but her helper looked to be a large man, well over 6 feet tall. His face was partially covered with furs, and a hood. Which drew her attention to his clothing, he was wearing animal furs, with leather boots that looked, to her, to be handmade.

A deep voice asked if she was hurt. Ann looked into the hood seeing only dark eyes staring back.

"I said are you hurt" his tone was sharper.

"No, just cold" she answered, through chattering teeth.

"Well a dip in a freezing river would make you feel cold, felt like a swim did you?"

Not sure how to respond she felt it best just to shrug and look dumb, which wasn’t too hard, as she was feeling a bit confused as it was.

"You can come to my cabin to get warm, I don’t suppose I can leave you here in this state".

Roughly, the big male picked Ann off the ground and set off to carry her to his cabin. Ann tried to get a view of her surroundings; all she could make through the blizzard were trees, weighed down with snow. Her teeth rattled together and she shock with cold. It took a couple of hours before Ann arrived at the man’s cabin. The cabin was situated in a clearing that appeared in the wood. It was a modest affair, small windows, with smoke billowing from the small chimney. Ann noticed it also had a thatched roof, and wondered if the man had built this place himself. The man dropped Ann at the doorway and hustled her in. The large fire was a welcome site to a very cold Ann. She knew she needed to get out of her wet clothes but what was she to put on and could she strip off in front of this stranger.

"You best get out of those clothes or you will get frost bite"

Ann made no move to comply; now she was frozen with shock. "You can’t expect me to undress with you here".

The man didn’t reply but moved off into another room and brought back a large woven blanket. "Put this round you when your done" he snapped. Then left Ann alone in the cabin.

Quickly she undressed placing her coat and clothes in front of the fire. Then she snuggled into the blanket, which was pleasantly soft, and sat on the floor watching the fire.

Jumbled thoughts crowed her mind. Where was she? Who was this strange man? The cabin door opened and the man stepped in. "Good to see you came to your senses", He said. Scabinting the door behind him, he then walked across the room and removed his furs. Even without the furs he was a formidable looking man, strong built obviously due to strenuous work. When he turned Ann got her first look at his face and was surprised to see he was not as stern looking as he sounded. When he drew closer she realised he had kind eyes, with a strong nose and full mouth. His hair was very short but looked to be dark (almost black) in colour.