There was snow on the ground, the birds away for the winter and no song to greet her in the morning. Yako was living out in the woods alone, the people that normally lived with her gone to trade with the townsfolk for goods that would be needed in the colder winter months.
The young girl opened a window to let the crisp air in while she went to work, preparing herself a simple breakfast. It had been 12 years now that she had lived out here, far from the home she had been born too after being found wandering the woods as a child. The blonde haired youth didn't remember much before her life here, having only been 5 when she had been found. She had been lucky that the family of brothers had taken her in at all, with times as hard as they were for the working class. Yako had earned her keep though, cleaning the house and cooking the meals. Mending clothes and working in the small garden they used in the warmer months to grow their own vegetables.
Things had been good the way they were, and Yako had even had chances to earn herself some money doing such things, allowing her to buy things she didn't really need, but enjoyed all the same. Her most recent of these purchases had been a set of hair-clips. The girl wasn't sure how often she would get to wear them, but she'd gotten them all the same, a gift to herself on her 17th birthday.
After her breakfast, the now fed Yako set about gathering the bedding, taking it outside to beat out the dirt and bugs before the cold grew to such that she would no longer be able to do this. The girl wore a simple garment while completing her chores, a dress of faded blue and yellow that kept her warm, despite it's years, as she worked. The brothers she lived with weren't expected back for days yet, and that would give her time finish everything that needed to be done.
The brown eyed girl was so engrossed in her work, that when a man came out from the trees, dressed in all black with a long cape that never seemed to touch the ground, seeming to study the cabin, that she didn't even notice him. Not until he passed in front of her, circling the building as if deeming whether or not it was worth his time. The stunned girl stared at the man, surprised she hadn't heard his steps on the fresh snow and even more so that he was looking at her home, but completely ignoring her presence. It was only after he seemed finished looking over the building that he turned to look at her, giving her a once over before smiling and muttering something. After that he took back to the woods, leaving the girl to wonder if she had even seen something real, or if it had been a spirit.
It wouldn't be for a few more days, on the brothers' return, that she would learn that an old castle that was just a few miles from their little home had been cleaned out and renovated, and that some secluded count had taken to living there.
It would be months before Yako saw the strange man again.