There was a very pretty prospect of the sea from the old kitchen door and our guest sat on the chair Emmi drug out for him and never moved from that spot all afternoon long. He didn't seem aware of time, of his injuries, or of the damp wind that buffeted that side of the cottage. Instead, he sat stone still and his eyes never left the ebb and flow of the wind-swept waters below.

Aunt Jaana, Emmi and I watched him on and off all afternoon long from the warmth of the kitchen hearth for we had not the heart to close the kitchen door on him. The damp sea breeze cooled our skin and made us shiver, but it didn't appear to affect him in the least. It was a mystery how the injured stranger could sit so, only wrapped in a quilt.

"What do you think of his fine clothes?" Aunt Emmi asked me as she brought them into the house after they'd been hung out to dry on the line all morning. Aunt Jaana came over and we all traced the exquisite stitching, embroidery and the supple material with our fingertips.

"Have you ever seen anything like it?" I asked both aunts as I picked up the cuff of his sleeve and ran my thumb along the gold threads there. "And what about the rings on his fingers and the gold bracelets on his wrists?" I asked absently as my eyes searched him out and I watched long strands of his silky black hair blow in this or that direction depending on the breeze. 

"What gold?" Emmi asked, her voice full of curiosity.

I looked back at her and laughed light-heartedly asking, "Have you confiscated his earthly treasures as payment for your hospitality dear aunt?"

But Emmi looked at me as if she truly did not know what I was on about. I looked to Jaana for help, but she looked as puzzled as Emmi.

"He has gold rings on nearly every finger," I told them. But, even as I said it I began to doubt myself. "And gold bands on his wrists. Some even have gems in them," I explained with a frown.

Jaana squinted her eyes at me before looking to the door. "I never saw such treasures," she told me frankly but not unkindly. "And you, Emmi?" she asked.

Emmi shook her head no as she came around the kitchen table to stand beside me. She gave my hand a little squeeze and looked up at me with a peculiar expression - an expression I had never seen before on her face. Then she and Jaana shared a look between them. A look I did not understand.

"Well, what about the gold threads in his clothes? Do you see that?" I asked hesitantly.

They both shook their heads in unison. I looked down at the cuff I had been holding. The threads used in the cuff and seams were shimmering under my fingers. I felt some relief. At least the gold threads were real. I held the cuff up for them to look at. Perhaps their sight was not what it once was and they only needed to look more closely.

"See how the threads glow when the light hits them?" I asked with a reassuring smile.

But, no matter how closely they looked over the strangers coat, trousers and his embroidered boots, neither of them was able to see the gold threads. They shared a puzzled look with each other as I sank into the nearest chair feeling quite bewildered by this knowledge that only I had seen these things.

"I'm not lying," I told them as tears threatened to fall. I had never lied to my aunts and I was not given to exaggeration. It would break my heart if they did not believe me and felt they could not trust me to tell the truth.

"No, no, of course not dear," Emmi was quick to say as she rubbed my back and kissed my cheek. "We believe you. We just don't understand why we can't see it too."

She and Jaana shared yet another look and I felt certain that they did not believe me. My heart sank. I had to show them I spoke the truth. This gave me an idea. Surely if I brought them one of the rings or one of the bracelets he wore, they would see that. Perhaps the threads were just too small for them to see given their advance age. The elderly were notorious for having poor eyesight. A sense of relief washed over me. I only needed to ask the stranger to show them his jewelry. Surely he would not refuse such an innocent request.  

I rose for my chair and and walked toward the kitchen door with a confident smile. "I'll get one of the rings and show you," I told them both as I smiled easily at them now that my confidence was restored.

Stepping outside, I approached our guest and cleared my throat a little nervously. The noise caught his attention and he looked up at me.

Reaching out my right hand toward him, as if I were getting ready to shake his hand, I asked, "May I show the aunts one of your rings? They say they have not seen them and are now curious about them."

Of course, I had no idea if he would understand my request. So I watched and waited. His eyes left my face and took in my outstretched hand. In response to my hand, or the request, or both, he unpacked himself from the quilts Jaana had draped over him and gently took hold of my proffered hand.

I smiled with great relief because, as he stretched out his own toward me, I saw I was not mistaken. Nearly every finger sported a ring and both his wrists were covered in gold bracelets of varying sizes.

I turned my head to tell Jaana and Emmi to come look. If they came to the door now, I wouldn't even have to take them a ring. They would be able to see for themselves that he was loaded down in gold jewelry. Only, when I turned my head I discovered that the cottage was gone.

Blinking rapidly, I looked again and again. Then I reached up with my free hand and rubbed my eyes. Where on earth had the cottage gone? Feeling alarmed, I looked down at the stranger for answers, but he was no longer sitting in the chair. He was standing before me, clasping my right hand and sliding a gem encrusted gold band over my fingers and onto my wrist.

"Where has everything gone?" I asked him in a frightened whisper as I looked all around us and saw nothing at all - no cottage, no yard filled with hens and geese, no apple tree loaded down with trinkets and bobbles from the beach, and no sea. We were surrounded by nothingness.

My heart constricted with fear and I stepped closer to him, who was the only familiar thing in all this nothingness. In that moment, as I stared up at him, hoping for answers, he looked into my eyes ever so tenderly and I felt torn. Part of me was pleased beyond comprehension to see him look at me so, and part of me was truly distressed that the aunts, the cottage, and the seaside had all disappeared right before my eyes and I never saw it happen.

"Please," I begged him. Instinct told me he knew what was going on here, that he could do something about it.

He pulled my right hand, the one he held, up to his cheek and pressed it there for a moment before turning his head slightly and placing a chaste kiss on my palm. My heart melted for him then and there, and yet, I also felt anxious. He didn't seem to understand how important it was that I be reunited with my aunts, the cottage and the seashore. I didn't want to stay in this nothingness a moment more. It unsettled me tremendously.

"Please take me home," I begged him as my trepidation grew.

I couldn't explain it but, in this strange nothingness we were surrounded by, I felt like I was suffocating. It was becoming harder and harder to take a breath. I believed whole heartedly that I needed to get back to the aunts in order to breath.

Just as I was about to panic, he pulled me into his arms and pressed his lips to mine. At first I struggled. This was not what I wanted. But then, the pressure on my chest lifted and I found I could breath again. He pulled his lips from mine and searched my eyes most lovingly.

I took in several deep breaths and relaxed against his frame when I realized I was not about to suffocate anymore. He gently drew my head to his chest and I rested my cheek there. Now that my panic had subsided, I was not in a hurry to leave. I felt sure I could take a moment or two to rest my eyes and catch my breath.

Despite how wonderfully comfortable I felt in his arms, I soon realized that I could not stay there. I heard Mother's voice in my head telling me not to fall in love with him. The thought did occur to me that it might be too late for that. However, even if my heart had fallen for him, it did not mean I needed to act on those feelings. The thought of disappointing my mother, after I had promised her, was enough to release me from the spell I seemed to be under while in his arms.

I pushed hard on his chest and broke completely from his embrace. "I  must return," I told him with renewed vigor and determination.

I was resolute. I would not remain a minute longer in this unaccountable place than I had to, and looked all around for a way of escape. Seeing none, I simply started out in the hopes that something would change the moment I moved away from the stranger. However, no matter where I tread or how many steps I took, the nothingness did not alter in any way.

It wasn't long before I was feeling frightened again and a little angry at this man whom we'd rescued from death. He was toying with me for surely he brought me here and he could take me back. Of this I was quite inexplicably convinced.

With tears in my eyes I turned back to him and demanded, "How can you be so cruel? Do you not see my distress? Will you keep me here against my will?"

I wiped at the tears that rushed my cheeks and then blushed deeply the very next moment. It seemed I might never be able to cry again without thinking of him drinking up my tears in his fevered state. Anxious that he might be brazen enough to repeat the same thing now that I was quite at his mercy, I backed away from him the instant he reached for me.

"Don't even think of touching me," I commanded him in my frustration and distress. "Take me home," I cried out as I swung around and began to look for another way out of all this nothingness.

But, as I swung around, I dashed right off into his arms. Somehow, he was directly before me, though I was certain I had just spun away from him. He caught me up and tried to kiss me, but I was wise to him now. He kissed me to calm me. He kissed me to muddle my mind. He kissed me to make me forget that I didn't belong here - that I needed to go home.

He was no gentleman but a charlatan, I thought with indignation as I squirmed all the more in his grasp. No wonder my mother had told me not to fall in love with him, I reasoned as I stomped on his foot and tried to elbow him in the stomach to get free of him. My temper was rising and, if he forced me, I would resort to biting if need be to get him to release me. Why, I felt quite wild in that moment.

But, I was no match for him. No trick, no matter how clever or juvenile, was going to help me. He twisted me this way and that until my arms were pinned behind me and my back was pinned to his chest. The only saving grace about this arrangement was that I was no longer facing him and he could not kiss me even if he still wished to.

I huffed and puffed, exhausted by my struggle, and sagged against him for a time. I half hoped he would think he'd beat me and loosen his grip. If he did, I would renew all my efforts to get away from him. But, he never once loosened his hold.

By the time I had recovered my breath, I had one last plan. It was subtle and may do absolutely nothing, but it was worth a try. I stealthily pulled from my wrist the gold and gem encrusted bracelet he'd slipped on it when I first realized everything I knew was gone. My hope was that loosing the ornament from my arm would in some way loose me from his grasp, or from the nothingness, or both.

I shut my eyes tight as I dropped it from my fingers.

When next I opened my eyes I was drowning in a dark sea of icy cold salt water. It was as if my nightmare from my late morning slumber had come to pass. I thrust my arms out and kicked my feet in an attempt to reach the light, which I saw above. I assumed it must be the sun shinning on the surface of the sea. It seemed impossibly far away as my lungs had already begun to burn in me. But, I was determined not to drown.

Something grabbed my leg and began to pull me down into the darkness with great force. I kicked at the thing as I looked down briefly to see what had caught me. It was a giant squid and its eyes were as large as watermelons. I was truly terrified and certain that nothing would save me now.

In an instant I realized that drowning was preferable to being eaten alive by this colossal squid, which must have measured 13 meters or more in length.  There was just no way I could get free of it before it stuffed me into its beaked mouth and tore me in half. Feeling sick at the thought of being eaten alive, I cursed the stranger as I opened my mouth and willingly drank the sea into my lungs.