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Two Paths in the Forest Toulemonde [MultiFormat]
eBook by William Shunn
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$0.69 |
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$0.59 |
eBook Category: Fantasy
eBook Description: Childhood sweethearts Étienne and Marie wandered one day into the dark and magical forest near their village and were never heard from again. But there are two paths through the forest Toulemonde, and if they're careful Étienne and Marie might at least find each other again.
eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Science Fiction Age, 1994
Fictionwise Release Date: May 2006
Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [31 KB]
, ePub (EPUB) [35 KB]
, Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [16 KB]
, Portable Document Format (PDF) [198 KB]
, Palm Doc (PDB) [17 KB]
, Microsoft Reader (LIT) [78 KB]
, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [89 KB]
, hiebook (KML) [97 KB]
, Sony Reader (LRF) [42 KB]
, iSilo (PDB) [14 KB]
, Mobipocket (PRC) [19 KB]
, Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [46 KB]
, OEBFF Format (IMP) [27 KB]
Words: 5380
Reading time: 15-21 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Portable Document Format (PDF) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED
 
On the outskirts of the great forest Toulemonde, less than an hour's walk from the village of Endroit Ordinaire, begin two narrow paths. Now, these paths are only two among the countless that enter Toulemonde from all around its vast perimeter, but these are the two which bear directly on our tale, for these are the Paths of True Love.
A boy and a girl on the verge of their adulthood--Étienne and Marie by name--chanced upon these paths one morning as they danced through the sun-bright fields at Toulemonde's verge. Each had ventured out alone, reveling in the early advent of spring, but their carefree capering stopped as each caught sight of the other. Étienne raised his hand in greeting, for their families had been friends since their grandfathers' grandfathers had first come to the village, and Marie smiled back so radiantly that even the sun must have felt warmed at the sight.
"Will you walk with me, lady?" said Étienne, feeling strange emotions break the soil of his heart.
"It would be my honor," said Marie, with a demureness that balanced the spring of joy cascading through her.
The outskirts of the great forest--the borders of which, it is said, enclose an area greater than the mathematics allow--lay only a hatchet's throw away. He gave her his arm, and they strolled along comfortably, parallel to the treeline, through the warm breezes that frolicked like eager puppies. Though Étienne and Marie had never been close, the ties between their families had allowed each to watch the other growing into maturity, and they had nurtured secret desires for each other, never believing these hopes could be fulfilled. As they walked and talked that morning, discovering an affinity unsuspected all those years, it seemed as if they drifted through the landscape of a dream, where the flowers were a tiny bit brighter, the new grass a trifle more fragrant, and the birdsongs a touch more joyous than in the world they normally inhabited.
With their shadows almost directly underfoot, Étienne and Marie realized that they had wandered close to the shade of Toulemonde's outermost ranks of hawthorns. Marie shivered and gripped Étienne's arm more tightly. "We're close enough to the forest to touch it," she said.
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