over the seas, which her grandmother had sat in the moonlight and
spun
again for her, which she had tempered in the rose-fire, and tied to her
opal ring, had left her--had gone where she could no longer follow
it--had brought her into a horrible cavern, and there left her! She was
forsaken indeed!
"When _shall_ I wake?" she said to herself in an agony, but the same
moment knew that it was no dream. She threw herself upon the heap,
and
began to cry. It was well she did not know what creatures, one of them
with stone shoes on her feet, were lying in the next cave. But neither
did she know who was on the other side of the slab.
At length the thought struck her, that at least she could follow the
thread backward, and thus get out of the mountain, and home. She
rose at
once, and found the thread. But the instant she tried to feel it
backward, it vanished from her touch. Forward, it led her hand up to
the
heap of stones--backward, it seemed nowhere. Neither could she see it
as
before in the light of the fire. She burst into a wailing cry, and again
threw herself down on the stones.
Madhuri Noah
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