The Origins
The wind bit against his skin, so cold he swore he could feel frost sticking to his cheek. He pulled the scarf tighter around his face. Even with that and all the other layers around him he could feel the cold seeping into his body. This weather was not for him: he preferred the warmth of sunny days. Yet here he stood enduring the freezing air and thick snow.
August craned his neck upward to get a better look at them. They were so distant, enigmatic in their stillness. If only bronze could speak. There were so many questions he wanted to ask them. He lifted a hand to run his fingers over their names. If only they knew just how powerful their words would become.
"Would you like a picture with them?" an accented voice asked him in English. August turned to see a man holding up a camera. It was one of those older models that printed exposures immediately.
"No, thank you," August responded, surprising the other man with his command of the German language. He always was very good with words.
"Not a fan, sir?"
"Oh, I am. More than you know. I just have a very good memory." He turned his attention back to the statues.
He thought of Emma, beautiful and so lost because he wasn't brave enough. Seeing her again after all those years only made him more afraid. How could he face her now after all these years? He couldn't, at least not yet. Seeing Emma made him decide to finally stop running and start over again from the beginning.
And as far as this world was concerned, these two men were the beginning. All these two men wanted was to put into writing the oral folktales popular in villages. The words spread all over the world, across generations and centuries. They sparked the imagination and made the subjects such a comforting presence they were like family. August couldn't help but wonder if these two were magical.
But no. They were just men who changed the world with words.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.
Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to the two hundredth anniversary of the Grimm Brothers' Fairy Tales. Happy anniversary!