Patchwork Universe

Lady Violetta Kingsley · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2004 5:20 pm Post subject: In which our heroine rides out

"Right. Time to get this whole thing sorted out, then." said Violetta as she finished packing her saddlebags. It was probably too much to expect that daddy and mama would be able to see the fog or mist, or whatever it was. After all, they never seemed to notice anything that went on around Aldersley. Never mind, anyway. It's rather exciting to be a solitary explorer off questing. It's not even as if her parents let her travel with them to London, and now she, Violetta, was going to explore uncharted territory. It was almost like something Mr. Verne might have written.

Yesterday she'd poked sticks into the mist. They didn't seem to mind much, or disappear or anything like that. Stones could be hurled into it, but of course she couldn't see what happened to them after that. But it clearly wasn't a barrier to travel. In fact, it seemed most likely to be some sort of trick. In fact she fully expected crossing the mist to reveal the rest of the wood, but it never hurt to be prepared, anyway, did it? What if it was magical mist that transported you to the moon? A picnic on the moon would be rather fun, really.

So, she'd packed the saddlebags carefully, with food, obviously. and a few pounds she'd coaxed out of daddy, who had seemed quite curious as to why she'd wanted it. She'd told him it was for a new balldress from the sempstress in the village. He seemed to have already forgotten that the village was outside the mist, but daddy was like that - absent-minded. He'd probably even forget having given her the money in the first place. Which was probably just as well. To this, she'd added one of daddy's revolvers, because one never knew did one, and it seemed like a heroic sort of thing to take. Violetta wondered if it was hard to use at all. Still, if she waved it convincingly enough, it might get her out of a scrape or two.

Her gear was complemented by a rather large ship's compass that she'd found in the library, and various little trinkets of jewelery that she had become bored of - after all - if she did get transported to the moon - they would probably use different money or maybe no money at all, like the savages she'd read about. In truth she felt a little unprepared, because it really wasn't going to be possible to prepare for all eventualities. Still, it wouldn't be much of an adventure if it was, would it? She patted down her comfortable old red riding dress and adjusted her hat as if for reassurance, mounted, and moved Blackie off at a brisk trot towards the west. Hills, Violetta felt, she could probably cope with. With a reassuring "don't worry, I'll be back soon" addressed to the peacock on the back lawn, she trotted off down the hill to meet her destiny.