The horses pulling their cart were starting to get tired. It was a long trip from Stockler to Edenorth and they left their old cottage early in the morning in hopes they would reach their new one before it got too dark. They decided to move right away while it was still summer and the daylight hours were still long. They had packed as much of their goods for trading as they could into their moving carriage with their personal belongings. Rudolff was relieved to be finally getting close to their new home. Allegedly they had a merchant's guild there and Katherine should be experienced enough to get into a merchant's guild even in these troubled economic times. There were still women in guilds but the number of them accepted as members officially were getting smaller and smaller by the decade. Not to mention the other prejudices they could potentially face. Rudolff might still be turned away for being Jewish and Katherine was once accused of witchcraft.
Rudolff glanced at his wife nodding off in the seat beside him, the fingers in in her left hand in splints from her injuries caused by the torturer's thumbscrews. His heart ached. It was a close call but luckily they made friends with a passionate Catholic missionary with principles of religious tolerance. Father Karl got to know his family the summer before and just happened to be passing through Stockler again when he heard about poor Katherine. He knew Rudolph's family didn't even practice minor folk magic and he also knew a thing or two about moving a court.
Still not all of their neighbors in Stockler were convinced. It was only a matter of time before someone feeling resentful of the trial's outcome would make a new accusation. But they were not tied to the land so the couple decided it was time for a fresh start. Hopefully the Hanseatic League still having a foothold the this place was true or they would be out of luck. Rudolff didn't want his family to stay in Stockler and risk encountering the likes of Balthesar von Dernbach again, but he also didn't want his family to become serfs. Taxes are higher in Edenorth but the locals and it's Prince are uncharacteristically tolerant in this day and age like Father Karl. There are even rumors that in this part of the country the peasants still openly practice folk magic.
These were superstitious times and Rudolff was no different. He liked fairy tales and Edenorth's picturesque forest inspired many stories. There was one about an angel falling from heaven like a shooting star into the surrounding forest and now protecting the children who get lost in it. The villagers are said to even believe that Snow White is a real person and that she is actually still sleeping in her glass coffin waiting for someone to wake her up.
A sound like a loud crack of thunder impossibly close suddenly made everything in his body jolt. He and his wife were suddenly wide awake and he screaming as the spooked horses bolted in fright. They didn't get far off the path before the horses slowed down. It would have been much worse if the horses weren't already tired from an entire day pulling the carriage.
Rudolff looked at the sky. Not a single fat cloud. What was that? Was an imp or evil spirit playing a trick on them? Maybe this place wasn't as safe as it seemed.
They would need to rest the horses first thing when they arrive because now they had to hurry. The sky was starting to get dark and soon they would need to worry about wolves and staying on the path. The horses strayed off the road but it should be easy to find again.
Rudolf looked at the sky again scanning for clues but got nothing. Just a lone cloud oddly stringy like a line drawn on the sky. Katherine noticed it too and remarked that she hadn't seen a cloud like it before but neither of them thought much of it. After all how often does a cloud ever look like one you seen before?
And then they found princess Snow White in her glass coffin.
Author's note: Wow. WOW. I am really bad at this. Still I will not be ashamed. Sometimes shyness is the cowards form of vanity and I am not vain. Please leave suggestions in the comments on how I can improve my writing and what I should call the first chapter. Hell leave ideas for what I could put in future chapters. I already have some ideas of my own but I'm curious to hear what people would like to see with this setup. Snow White is actually Gwen btw as if that's not obvious. She's in a sci-fi hypersleep pod.