bedtime stories

Miriam and the Moon

"All set, Miriam?" Clover says, beckoning her sister forwards with her hands.

"Yes, sister." Miriam replies briskly and takes the large backpack from her sister's hands. She slings the straps over her shoulders swiftly and the great weight heaves her back into a bent position.

Clover sighs. "Would you like me to take something heavy out of the bag?"

Miriam nods and unclasps the backpack from her back, straightening up and feeling free.

Miriam watches as her sister zips the bag open and slides out the silver sword her sister had previously packed for her journey. Clover carefully extracts the blade and puts it on the hut table, then zips the back shut, tightly.

Miriam grunts as the bag slings back over her shoulders again, but a little bit lighter and easier to move around with. Clover smiles and brings her sister in for a hug.

"Bye, I hope to so you soon." Clover whispers in her sister's ear and pulls back, her eyes blurry with sad tears. She forces a smile and Miriam grins ear to ear, excited for her very first and maybe last adventure.

Miriam wipes her sister's tears away. She walks out the door with a spring in her step and waves goodbye to the village folk happily. They look at her with pity as she skips off, her black hair waving in the wind weakly, like the villagers hands.

Miriam was happy that she was gone, away from stability, and strictness. She walked in the sun for miles and she was reminded of her mission continuously. To make her way across the flat world and bring some type of darkness to her lands, some kind of sleep, some kind of darkness that wasn't shade.

> - <

Her straying eyes drift from the snowy forest ground she stood on and the pretty flower forest in front of her. Miriam face weaves itself into a perplexed expression as she glances back at the world map her sister packed for her.

In the middle of the map was her village, to the north of that - the opposite way that Miriam had gone - was a big body of water, and no one had explored past that. And that was the north, an ocean.

To the left of the village was the way Miriam headed, the south. No one had ever ventured here, because, what was the point? Miriam had decided this way, because she was a curious girl, unlike the people in her village, who longed for comfort and stability.

Miriam looked at the map once more before taking a hesitant step forwards into unventured land.

> - <

After hours of walking in the sun in the flower forest, Miriam noticed the sky changing colours. She took in a sharp breath, hoping this was what she was looking for. She admired the colours and took a seat down.

First the blue sky turned a red colour, and then turned into a pink colour that Miram fancied in particular. Then it changed to a purple colour and darkened until revealing the universe's true colours, and turned black.

Miriam got dizzy and close to fainting when a big silver circle started floating in the sky and lit up the dark light of her surroundings.

Miriam sighs, this was it. She took off her backpack and reached in it, looking for the balloons and rope her sister had packed.

She used the balloons to float her up to the circles height, and then she got out the rope.

"Sorry silver circle." She whispered before wrapping a string of rope around the ball.

"Stop!" The circle shouts and Miriam flinches back.

"You're alive!" She exclaims and see's that the circle has eyes and a mouth.

"Well really?" The silver thing drawls out and Miriam scowls, "stop using that on me!" The circle shouts again and rolls its eyes towards Miriam's rope.

"Uh okay." She says and unties her grip on the silver orb.

"Thank you." The orb heaves, "I am the moon. What do you want?"

Miriam sighs, "I need you to come bring your darkness to my lands, where it is forever light." She says and the moon rolls it's eyes.

"Took you long enough to come find me. Sure I'll come, this forest is getting pretty boring, anyways." The moon says and Miriam grins at the orb.

"Come on then!" Miriam smile and off they go, to bring darkness and envelop Miriam's village with it.