Chapter 19

By the time they reached what Folly had called her chalet, Meri's feet and hands were numb with cold and she was covered in goose bumps. It was a rather small building nestled in amongst a forest of evergreen trees and to Meri's fascination, was built out of large logs.

Folly ushered her in ahead of him, stomping his boots on the threshold as he did so to knock the snow from his boots. "Here we are!" he said cheerfully and then moved to the heating unit that sat against the wall.

Meri wandered around the small room, taking in her surroundings with growing irritation. It would seem her Master's theory was to stick her in the middle of nowhere so she wouldn't get in any trouble. She sighed and yanked the tight cap off her head, letting her long hair escape from its confinement.

Collapsing onto the small bed near the window, she ran a hand through her hair, glancing towards Folly as she did so. He was still fooling with the heating unit and so her gaze roamed the rest of the small room. One thing was glaringly clear to her. Who'd ever built the place certainly hadn't meant to actually *stay* in it. She scowled.

Folly chose that moment to turn around and taking one look at her face, grinned widely. "Now that's a pretty face...," he trailed off, a startled look on his face. "I forgot to ask your name!" he exclaimed loudly. "Can't go around calling you paddlhwand, now can I?"

"It's Padawan, and I'd prefer you call me Meri," she corrected, smiling slightly at yet another new variation of the word.

"Well, Meri," Folly said as he moved to sit in a chair. "What's with the frown? It's enough to scare a snow panther off!"

She sighed and waved a hand around to indicate the room. "It's...small and in the middle of nowhere. What does he expect me to do all day and why am I telling you this...," she trailed off.

Folly cocked his head and grinned. "Because I'm so charming?" Pointing to his cheeks, he poked them with a forefinger. "See? I've got dimples even."

Meri tried not to, but couldn't help the smile growing on her face. "They've never worked on me," she admitted. //Now blue eyes are another matter,// she thought.

"Oh? Well dreck!" he said with a laugh. Suddenly his face expression changed and for a moment Meri though he might actually get serious, but then his eyes began twinkling again.

"Did you two have a fight? I didn't know Master Jedi's had fights with their paddlegons, and I know it's not my business, but I was wondering why a Master Jedi would put his apprentice so far from him."

"Is he really that far?" she questioned, ignoring Folly's inquiry about them fighting.

"A good ways," he said simply. "You saw the meeting house and he's been taken near there."

Yes, she'd seen that dreadful place. How could she ever forget?

Suddenly Folly stood to his feet. "Well, Meri, I have to go now, before it gets dark. It gets awful cold out at night so I best start back before then. The things the Master Jedi requested are there, by the bed, and the food is over there," he pointed to the far wall, near the heating unit.

Meri stood to her feet and thanked him. No matter how strange Folly was, she was still under his guidance and would treat him as she'd been taught. After he'd left with promises of returning in a few days to bring more supplies, she stepped to the window and watched as snow cascaded down in the falling twilight. The sight was beautiful and ethereal--the large white flakes falling lazily from the sky to cover the ground and trees in their crystal white coats. Yet never had Meri felt more alone.

***

As one day rolled into the next, Meri began to form a tedious--and rather boring in her opinion--schedule. She didn't bother to rise at the crack of dawn, for there was nothing to do anyway and so started trying to sleep as much as she could. However, after a few days she found she couldn't sleep that much and decided staring out the window was preferable to tossing and turning in bed.

It wasn't the second day before she had dressed in the heavy winter garments provided and was exploring the area around the chalet. And it wasn't the end of the week before she knew every inch of it and had even explored quite a distance beyond in her boredom. No doubt her Master would disapprove, but at this point she was beyond caring. He'd stuck her out in the middle of a frozen forest without even a goodbye. At this point she wasn't sure if she was more angry with him or hurt by his actions.

Folly came every few days, she supposed to check on her, for sometimes he didn't bring food, but just pestered her. She found herself actually looking forward to his visits for he provided the only company she had. Besides that, her daily routine included practicing katas and meditating. The rest of the day she didn't know what to do with herself and in all that free thinking time, tried so hard not to worry about her Master. She ranged from being so mad at him she could slap him, to wanting to see him so bad she thought she would go crazy. How was she to know he was safe? He hadn't even contacted her!

After two long weeks, Meri was ready to harass Folly into checking out for her. By the time she came to this conclusion, she knew she was going to have to wait, for he had just come the day before.

Early the next morning she rose and looking out the window found an icy wonderland. Everything was covered in ice, the trees drooping from their heavy burden and everything sparkling like so many jewels.

She decided then and there she would stay inside that day. Though she had been keeping Alex's order to hide her hair away--either by braid or under that torturous hat--she had finally decided to let it down. It was insane to assume anyone would see her and what would it matter if they did. She was just a girl stuck out in the middle of a forest. What was so strange about that?

//What's so strange indeed,// Meri huffed. Having let down her now wavy and almost curly hair from the braid, she took the time to braid a crown around her head to keep it out of her face. Then, just for the fun of it and to pass the time, she braided a few more strands to intermingle with the rest of her hair. A benefit to it was that it made her padawan braid look insignificant with all the others hanging down her back. For the first time since she arrived, she felt like a girl again. Wearing boy's clothes all the time and pinning up her hair made her feel ugly. Though she couldn't really do anything about wearing the boy's clothes, she did improvise and left the overly large tunic top untucked.

The day passed unusually slow and she almost changed her mind about going outside. However, she was so tired of the cold and hated the fact that every time she did go out, she ended up wet somehow. Finally the day began to wind down and Meri wondered how many more days of this she could take.

Sitting down with a thump on the stool she had placed by the window, Meri began her nightly ritual of watching twilight fall in the forest outside. Sometimes she caught glimpses of wild life moving around and remembered Folly mentioning something called a snow panther.

Yet that night she was so lost in thought she didn't see the shadow gliding through the trees. The soft click of the latch on the door alerted her that someone was trying to get in and as the door began opening she saw succeeding. Briefly, she wondered how on earth the person had opened the door. It had been locked, she was sure of it. Standing up quickly she turned to face the intruder and almost cried in relief when she saw who it was.

"Master!"