Moonborn of Light

Chapter I

*

This is the tenth time she got lost on her dad's farm. She's one clumsy little girl, i can tell you that. She has been wandering around aimlessly for hours. Usually, uncle Pannidan finds her when he is patroling the farm, but he's nowhere to be found. Or, actually, she is nowhere to be found. She kept walking until she found a rotting log. She was tired, so she decided to rest for a little while. The little girl sighed and looked at the night sky. It was so dark and there were so many stars out there and she never managed to count all of them, which was disapointing for her. She then looked around at the tall grass around her. It was slowly dancing in the wind's soft blow. The child layed down on the soft, humid wood and closed her eyes. God, she was so tired. She felt so, so sleepy. Her mind started to slowly drift away into her little dream world, which she visits when the "real world self" is asleep. That's when her "dream self" awakens and starts roaming that wonderful world. It was always sunny, and the atmosphere was so warm and happy. But this time, it was colder. Her dream self, who she calls Rina could see her breath slowly floating and dissapearing. She looked down. No, she was still wearing the same clothes as usual: a long blue dress, and her blue hood. Soon, she started to hear something. It sounded like... distant footsteps on grass. She listened further and noticed the noise was getting clearer and clearer. Oh, she understood now. It was time for Colleen to wake up. She quickly found a soft spot on the ground, underneath a tree and closed her eyes. Then, her mind traveled into the real world. Colleen has woken up. The noise has stopped suddenly. She was a little scared, but that couldn't be anyone else except "duncle" Pan, right? She was waiting for him to appear from behind the bushes. He would put his hand on his heart and say :"God, stop scaring us like that, kid!", then he would carry her home and tuck her in bed. But this time, there was no uncle Pan. There was nobody there, actually. Weird. She could have sworn she heard something.
"Must've been the wind, i guess...",she tought.
She yawned as she got up and jumped off the log to continue her search for her home. She started walking in a tottaly random direction, hoping her trusty ol' uncle would finnaly find her. After a while she started hearing rusles behind her. She suddenly turned around with a small stick in her hand ready to fight anyone who was following her. But there was nobody except the wind. Why was she so scared suddenly? She got lost several times before and she was totally fine. She shook her head and started skipping. She was always feeling good when she was skipping so she tought this would help. And it did.
It passed half an hour and she was still lost. It was extremly quiet, it was quite unsettling. Suddenly, a branch cracked behind her so she turned around. She was more scared than ever. After a few seconds of silence, a tall, strong looking man jumped out of the grass. Colleen screamed and the man started laughing.
"Collee, it's me, ol's duncle Pan. Calm down there, lil' fella."
"Stop it, dunckie!", she said while softly punching his arm. "I was really scared and you scared me even more! Now I'm mad at you", she says and stomps the ground angrily.
"Aww come on, ye should've seen yer face".
Uncle Pan picks little Colleen up.
"Come on, pumpkin, let's go home."
"Okay, but I'm still mad at you."
"If I make ye' hot chocolate will ye' forgive me, pumpkin?", he asks smiling.
"Hmm, maybe."
"Heh, come on then."
The man turns around, turns on his lantern and he starts walkig towards their house with Colleen in his arms. The little child was feeling so warm and she was so sleepy, that she quietly fell asleep in her dear uncle's arms, but after not very long she was awakened by the wonderful smell, which we all love, of hot chocolate.
She slowly opened her eyes and looked around her. She was in her comfy bed. She jumped out of the bed, grabbed her little blanket and ran downstairs, where the kitchen was. Her uncle was just preparing to come to her room and give her the sweet drink.
"Good mornin', sleepy-head. You have a sharp nose, don't ya? Come on, go back in yer room, we're gonna drink it there."
"Okay, dunkie"
She runs back in her room and Pan follows her.
"Slow down, lil' girl, I ain't a young man anymore."
"Yes, you are, you are as strong as daddy!"
"That's true, but i ain't as fast as ye'", he says as he hands her the drink. "Careful, it's hot."
"Thans, dunkie!"
"Well, I guess I should leave now..."
"Whyyy?", she says with a whiny voice.
"Cuz I still need to patrol the farm, y'know. I gotta check the chikens, the sheep. I got lots a' things to do, pumpkin." He pets her head softly.
"Okay... Well, good luck with work!"
"Okay, sweetie, good night. And don't stay up for much longer, or yer dad's gonna kill me.", he laughs.
"I promise, I won't!"
"Okaay, now, g'bye!"
"Bye!"
Duncle Pan left the room, and left little Colleen alone in her room.
She slowly drank her hot chocolate and placed the cup on her desk. She jumped on her little chair from the desk and started writing in her diary. After thatshe looked out the window and saw her uncle wandering with a flashlight in the distance. She wondered if it was really him when she heard the noises the for the first time, when she fell asleep. She felt that there was somebody or something out there. She just knew it. She sighed and then she just got into her bed and covered herself in her comfy blankets. She looked at the ceiling for a few minutes and then her mind started drifting away. It travelled to her dream world.

**

Rina slowly opened her blue eyes and she looked around. She wasn't under the tree anymore. She was sitting on grass and gravel, right next to a blue lake. It was night time here, so she could see the moon's reflexion in the lake. It was gorgeous. And there were little shiny stars as well. How fascinating! She reached out her hand to tpuch the surface of the lake. The moment her hand made with the water small circular waves started to grow bigger and bigger until they dissapeared. The girl was feeling tirsty, so she filled her small palms with water and drank it slowly, savoring the cold liquid. She noticed a small firefly passing by. How adorable. Then she saw another one, and another one, until she turned around only to find a field covered with the little glowing crearures. She smiled widely and ran right in the middle of the field, making hundreds of fireflyes to fly around her. She laughed and ran around touching the grass, and more and more little shiny insects rose from the grass. It was such a wonderful sight. After every firefly left the field she sat down, tired, on the grass. She looked at the dark lake and... there was someone... or something there. She stood up and slowly walked towards it. She stopped when she was a few feet away from it though. It was extremely dark, so she couldn't see who or what it was. It seems that it was touching the lake.
"H-hello?... May I ask.. um.. who are you, mister?"
Her voice was shaky. She has never met another person in this world. She only saw people in the mirrors or in the clouds that would show her future events or past events, so of course she was a quite shocked and scared.
The creature flinched when it heard her voice. It slowly turned its head around and when they made eye contact, it quickly rose and started to back up slowly. She was absolutely shocked. It was a huge creature. She still couldn't see its face, but she could see its muscular, yet thin body. It was at leat two meters and a half tall, with long, powerful, yet slender arms and its long, muscular legs and a sinewy abdomen and chest. Its back was bent and its long tail was whipping the ground nervously. The creature started growling agressively when the little girl tried to approach it.
"What... what are you?... How are you here? Nobody can get in here..."
She started to shake and her eyes were getting teary.
"I am Colleen's dream self, so I can't die... Right?", she tought panicked.
She slowly took a step back, then another one, then she started running away with tears falling down her cheeks. She was still running when she looked back to see if the creature was following her, but it was still watching her from the lake. It's body seemed more relaxed and in a few seconds it also ran away into the woods next to the lake.
She stopped to catch her breath and looked around for a safe place to sleep. She saw a giant tree that looked hollow, so she walked towards it. She was right, it was hollow. Plus, she was so small that she could fit in perfectly and take a comfortable nap in there after Collen would wake up. She entered the tree's trunk, found a comfortable position and waited. She waited until her eyelids started to fell heavy, and even if she wanted to let Colleen sleep a little longer, she couldn't resist the urge to close them and fall asleep.

                               ***

Now, it was Colleen's turn to rise and shine. When she opened her eyes, light was flooding the room. She yawned and streched her frail body, then she widely opened the window and took a deep breath, the fresh air filling her lungs. Her eyes were looking for her father's car. He should have made it home today. He's a hunter, and also a lumberjack, so he was really busy. Colleen loved her father and uncle. Her father, Hector, was a tall, solid man, with green eyes, a goatee, short chestnut hair and he always wears a smile on his face. Her uncle, uncle Pannidan, was Hector's older brother. They looked similar, but Pan's eyes where bigger, and they were chestnut. He always envied Colleen and Hector for their green eyes. He had long, golden hair, and he kept it tied up in a ponytail. He was energetic and he always had some bad puns up his sleeves and unlike Hector, Colleen actually enjoyed them.
What's that? Oh, right, right.
Ahem, anyways. Colleen was looking after her dad's car. She noticed something green somewhere far away.
She gasped.
"Daddy's here!", she exclaimed as she ran down the stairs, nearly tripped, but made it to the front door. She opened it and her father was waiting for somebody to open the bloody door, since he forgot his keys, as always. The moment she saw him, she started jumping around happily and jumped into Hector's arms as he laughed. They hugged tightly, then Colleen jumped down and ran to her uncle's room so she could tell him the news.
"Uncle! Daddy's here! Daddy came home!", she yelled as she jumped on her uncle's bed, landing right on his stomach. It hurt quite a lot, I can tell you that.
After Pan has suffered a mini-heart attack and after everything calmed down, the two brothers hugged each other and everything returned to normal. At least temporarly...
Neither of the two brothers knew there was a creature out there. Nobody except Colleen knew but she was sure of it. And today she was hoping that she would discover the truth.