The woman, Alice, left like she was being chased by wolves. Aurum sat at the table with her mug of tea cooling in her hands, her confusion growing the more she thought about the last twenty-four hours. The woman clearly had never heard of her before, since she hadn’t shown any recognition even though Aurum had been foolish enough to use her real name. She seemed to be living alone in these woods, so perhaps she was just too isolated to pay much attention to the details of the royal family politics and members. However, forgetting the name of a crown princess was hardly a small detail. And then there were the bizarre clothes, and the woman’s – Alice’s – general inability to hold a normal conversation. It was one thing for a person to dress so oddly, and quite another for her to claim not to have any other clothes to spare.

Maybe she was just embarrassed by her clothes, thought Aurum, Maybe she doesn’t have normal clothes, so she didn’t want to show me her other weird ones, and just lied. Not a very good lie, though.  She had been quite awkward, so maybe Alice just hadn’t realized how outlandish her lie was. It seemed more likely she was just a weirdo than that she was somehow the witch in disguise or a spy. What spy would be so bad at blending in? And if she were the witch, Aurum knew she would probably already be dead or worse. Still, the weirdness of the situation made her nervous.

It was also possible, if unlikely, that Alice was not human. She certainly did not seem to know how to act like a normal human. Perhaps she was one of the fairy folk? These woods were isolated enough for a sighting, and there were stories of the folk masquerading as humans. In most of those stories, though, the fairies did so to trick and embarrass the humans they encountered – generally fairly benign tricks, like having them do something embarrassing in front of their crush or lose something important to them over and over again. But still, benign or not, it was not something Aurum was eager to experience.  In any case, Alice did not seem good enough at pretending to be human to be a fairy.  Aurum would just have to keep observing her and see if there were any signs of magic in the cottage. In the meantime, this seemed like a safe place, and Alice seemed easy to fool.

Feeling cautiously optimistic in her ability to convince Alice to let her stay for the time being, Aurum decided to explore the cottage. She felt so much better than she had the night before, rested and well-fed – even if only on mediocre porridge. The last week had been the most traumatic she had ever experienced, but she was energized now that she felt safe.

I’m a princess. I’ve been trained to lead and solve problems since I was a toddler. I can make a plan. I can do this. Taking a shaky breath, she stood up and wandered the living space, looking at the shabby but cozy armchair, the worn quilt, and the small, soot-stained fireplace. “It’s so small,” she mumbled, thinking of her rooms back at the palace. She jumped as a window shutter slammed, as though in a gust of strong wind, but when she looked out the window there was no sign of even a breeze. The bushes and grass in the garden were standing still in the unmoving air. Weirder and weirder, she thought to herself, moving more carefully now as she kept exploring, but there was no other sign of anything odd, except that there were no signs of any other clothing in the entire house. She knew it was rude to look through her hostess’s things, but she rationalized that she needed to know for her safety. These were extreme circumstances, and she did not want to risk being kidnapped or worse by a minion of the witch just because she felt bad about snooping.

Finally, she had nowhere left to explore except the bookshelf. Scanning the titles, she was surprised to find A Beginner’s Guide to Basic Etiquette, Manners for the Mannerless, and Hospitality: How to Honor Your Host. Equally odd, there were also books on fairies and myths, like Demystifying the Fae and Facts about Fairy Folk. It was as though the bookshelf was a direct reflection of the theorizing she had just done.

“Does this mean she is a fairy?” she couldn’t help but ask out loud, “Who needs so much help learning how to act like a normal human?” Thinking about it more, she shook her head. “A fairy wouldn’t need facts about fairies, though, right? Is she actually a human pretending to be a fairy? Or maybe she’s just crazy?” As she kept muttering to herself, the quilt on the armchair by the fireplace slid to the ground as though someone had knocked it down. She paused. That was strange, but hardly evidence of any magic; it might just have been set precariously and fallen down slowly.  

The sunlight was warm and golden in the late afternoon. Without much else to do – she had nothing left to explore in the cottage, and no real plan beyond getting through today – Aurum decided to pick a book. Demystifying the Fae seemed the most interesting, so she grabbed it and settled into the armchair.

The book was surprisingly interesting, and Aurum read until it became too dark. The sun had almost completely set; it had been a long time since Alice had left. The fire was out, and she got up to light it before she realized she wasn’t exactly confident in doing so. She knew how to start a fire, in theory – she had learned on the same nature walks she’d had to take with the rangers – but she had never had to do so by herself. She stood in front of the fireplace, feeling clumsy and foolish.

Thunk.

A book had fallen from the bookshelf. Properly spooked now by all the strange incidents, Aurum jumped and turned to look. It as a small, paper-bound booklet titled Wilderness Skills for Morons.

Well. The house was clearly not normal, and it also did not seem to think very much of her. It hasn’t done anything to hurt me, though, she thought, trying to calm her racing heart. It might even be trying to help me…

Aurum tried to stay calm as she picked up the book and started to flip through to find a section on campfires. It seemed like it more or less applied to a fireplace as well, so she set about starting up the fire, feeling more confident and in control once she got it started. Based on the booklet, it actually had started up unreasonably quickly, but she rationalized that she might just be that good. Fire crackling merrily, she sat down again and started thinking out loud.

“So you are a magic house, then?”

The fire flared a bit, and Aurum imagined it looked offended. Shaking her head, she kept on speaking to it.

“Alright, fair enough, but you aren’t normal, at least. And that means your resident probably isn’t normal either – ”

This earned her another offended flare from the fire.

“Fine, sorry. I guess those books about manners were actually for my benefit, then?”

The fireplace lit up with a warm glow, which Aurum took as an affirmative.

“Rude, but okay. Point taken. So, tell me this: is your resident going to harm me?”

 Sparks flew angrily.

“That’s comforting… Although maybe I shouldn’t believe you.” The house seemed to have nothing to say in response to that, and Aurum sighed. It was exhausting, having no one to trust. “I don’t really have a choice but to stay, though.”

The fire flickered grudgingly, and Aurum fell into quiet reflection. She really should run away. This was all too strange. But it seemed so safe, despite how strange it was. She was falling asleep when there was a crash from the kitchen. Jumping up, Aurum saw one of the mugs had fallen and shattered.

“What? What’s wrong?” Aurum demanded, looking to the windows and wishing she had a weapon. Was the witch here? One of her minions?

The fire roared briefly, and the window shutters swung insistently. It was late now, well into the night, and Alice had not come back. Aurum went to the door and opened it, looking down the path. There was no sign of her. The shutters slammed.

“I don’t know where she is!” she responded, exasperated and defensive. “Maybe she just stayed in town! You are a real worrywart, aren’t you?”

The air went cold around her for a moment, like an invisible bucket of water was dumped over her head.

“I can’t go! Me going into town would be stupid! I’m on the run, you know!” It occurred to her then that the house actually did not know. It seemed like it could read her mind, but that didn’t mean it understood her situation.

“I’m in danger,” she said more calmly. “I have to stay in hiding.” She heard something fall behind her, and turned around to see the book Hospitality: How to Honor Your Host on the ground. She groaned. Walked in a small circle. Shook her head. Sighed.

“Fine.”