Guido stifled a whistle as he strode merrily over hill and dale. Who wouldn’t be glad on such a bright summer’s day? Even the birds sounded more light hearted than usual. He turned to shade his eyes from the sun and saw that the grungy old castle was no longer in sight. Whew, what a relief not to be in there any more! He hated working there, but had no choice. Orphans don’t have many options. Well, it’s time to get on my fancy garb. He walked slower now, more cautiously as he searched for any suspicious movement or sound. Everything seemed normal and just ahead and off to the right was the secret cave that he would soon be diving into.
After one more cautious look around, he ducked into the cave, shrugged off his knapsack, and reappeared looking like a demure peasant woman with her face mostly concealed beneath a dark, ragged shawl.
Just a little further on was a quiet pool. Without throwing caution to the wind, he plodded slowly, feebly over to it, and examined his new reflection. It was hard for Guido not to laugh out loud when he saw the transformation. Oh that poor, pathetically dressed ’widow’! Surely the hardest heart would be melted at the sight of her! He bent down to fill his leather water bag then looked at the sky.
Those clouds that the General had hinted at were scurrying closer. Better be hurrying along. Then he remembered; I can’t be hurrying; not any more.
He quickly discovered that plodding slowly, and ’painfully’ was actually more tiring then striding briskly with a song in his heart.
Mostly he had the trail to himself. Once some rowdy boys taunted him and threw sticks and stones and he clutched his shoulder 'moaning pitifully'. Finally they got weary of their ’game’ and ran away, but by then Guido noticed that the clouds were gathering thick and fast and he had far to go. He was getting rather hungry by then, so got out a chunk of rye bread and some cheese which he munched on while walking.
He kept a leery eye on the gathering clouds and started to hurry although he had been cautioned not to. Surely everyone will be out of the weather by now!
There was no escaping the drenching, and Guido was thoroughly soaked by the time the Glass Castle came into view. He marveled at how warmly it glowed and almost wished he didn’t have to enter in as a deceiver.
Enter in? H’m, how am I ever to do that? As he drew closer his halting footsteps slowed even more, and he ‘developed’ a serious limp. It was obvious that the cliff banks were rain slicked. Even as a lithe, athletic soldier he would have had much difficulty scaling that steep an incline, but as an ailing peasant girl...
Guido leaned heavily on his staff then eventually thought of covering his face with the shawl and pretended to sob.
It worked! Soon the watchman called out to him “Do you need help?”
Guido nodded mutely and a conveyance was lowered by means of ropes and pulleys.
Guido couldn’t believe it would be so easy. He slowly, painfully crept into the lift and within minutes was at the Castles immense doors.
Two powerfully built guards towered like pillars on either side of the portal.
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