Author's Notes: This started as a short writing prompt over on my tumblr ( ) and has morphed into a fully fleshed out fantasy AU. I heart Apritello in any universes :0) Hope you like it!
Part One
The green wizard's cabin sat far from the village. An ancient structure built deep within the woods with only the trees to bear witness to its daily existence. No one knows who placed it there all those years ago. Some say the wizard was its original owner, laying the bricks and timber beams with magic. Others claim the cabin built itself, growing up from the forest floor back when the ground moved like waves upon an ocean and trees wandering on limbs as tall as oaks. Neither explanation rang true to her ears. She was certain there must be a far more mundane story lurking behind the rumors. No one could live forever, not even wizards, and trees did not uproot and cross the land at their leisure.
The rumors concerning the wizard's cabin were tame in comparison to what was whispered of the wizard himself. There were those who spoke of him in hushed reverence; spinning tales of a benevolent spirit of the woods who protected the village against harm. There were others however who called him demon and insisted he did more harm than good. No matter where the villagers settled on an opinion of the wizard they all held fear in their hushed words and furtive glances towards the trees on the horizon.
Even as a child she proclaimed disbelief in the tales of the green wizard. She would wave them off as myth and exaggerations of small truths. She would not admit fear. Her stubbornness carried this trait along into adulthood and was the sole reason she now found herself traipsing through the woods in search of the green wizard. Scribbled on a soft piece of deer hide, her map did little more than point in a general direction with very few markers to guide her through the trees.
She left the village shortly after the break of dawn. The air was crisp and cold with the gentle breeze of a late autumn day; mercifully free of clouds. Once beneath the cover of the trees the breeze died out, creaking through the branches overhead. Fear was something she denied for years on end, denied it up until the very moment the village chose her to search out the wizard. She denied it even to herself when she stepped into the trees, but that steely resolve, that brash stubbornness, chipped away with each move forward. When the squat, round cabin came into view fear drummed unavoidable in her ears and deep within her chest.
She wouldn't let that stop her. The green wizard was just a man; a rumored grotesque and unearthly man, but a man none the less. Never in the past had she let a man frighten her and she was determined not to let it happen now. Holding her head high she walked down the stone-paved path towards the cabin's front door. It was taller than she expected, made of heavy oak and clunky metal hinges. Waves and other sea creatures encircled one another on the carved surface while the door knob was cast in the shape of a turtle.
She took a deep breath and pounded her fist on the wooden surface. The dull sound echoed throughout the quiet woods, fading away unanswered. She frowned and knocked out a more urgent rhythm on the door, pressing her ear to the surface to listen for any sign of movement inside. A small window to the right of the door only affirmed her assumption that the cabin was empty. With a huff she gazed around the surrounding gardens with her hand on her hip. Every available space was full of herbs and seasonable vegetables. A rutting and snorting pig moved about in the small pen along the eastern side of the house; her piglets squealing in protest as she moved out of range for them to nurse.
"Where are you?" she murmured, casting a wary eye towards the sky.
The sun sat beneath the height of day, already starting its decent towards the horizon. She did not want to remain in the woods after sundown. She could not wait for him to return. She would have to find him. The clearing that made up his cabin and surrounding gardens was flanked on all sides by trees. She circled the tree-line, looking for any sign of a commonly used path. After a second circumvention with no obvious path to take, worry started to squirm and wriggle in her belly. She had to find him. She could not return to the village without the potion she was sent to retrieve. She could not let the village down. She could not fail.
"In Banbridge town in the county Down one morning last July,from a boreen green came a sweet colleen and smiled as she passed me by."
The sudden lilting voice made her jump in surprise, her hand raised instantly to her heart to feel the steady rhythm beneath her breast. The wind carried the song to her ears, a sweet and steady tenor that brought a smile to her face and enticed her to hear more. Her feet moved of their own accord through the trees, following the warm voice until she saw its maker atop a break in the trees.
"She looked so sweet from her two bare feet, to the sheen of her nut brown hair. Such a coaxing elf, sure I shook myself for to see I was really there."
He sang on, oblivious or uninterested in his sudden audience. His voice settled warm and comforting in her chest, somehow new and familiar in the same space. The words fluttered out to the valley below and she wondered if she had indeed heard them before. Perhaps on some cold, clear day alone in the pasture with nothing but her family's cattle and the lilt of a far off song from deep within the woods. She understood now why they called him wizard, for his song was something born of magic.
A finely woven basket sat beside him on the ground, near to overflowing with mushrooms and other plants harvested from the forest floor. The sight of him should have brought fear rushing back. He was as monstrous as the stories told. His skin the color of spring leaves with a bold head and large, three-fingered hands. His face curved forward into a rounded beak with little more than slits for both ears and nose. The large shell attached to his back dipped and grooved in the delicate patterns of river turtles with splashes of color when it caught the sun. She should have been afraid. Fear did not come however; it never reared its ugly head. She had no use for fear, she only wanted to hear him sing.