Blood Moon Mate

The Blood Moon Mate

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Prologue

I stepped upon the crisp, fresh fallen snow lying among the border of the forest. Observing it would give the imprint of any other forest, with bare tree trunks till nothing but darkness could be seen. The ground capped in white snow simpler to my village. You could hear the crows chirping as they flew through the trees flying overhead to the village.

What made this forest different from others was the beast lying within. It's been told the beast has piercing yellow eyes and sharp pointy fangs that can rip you from limb to limb. Those who claim to have seen it are the girls a part of the blood moon sacrifice. Each one said the beast shows itself in a wolf form, but of larger proportion. The only thing different in their story was the beast appeared to be a different color each time. 

The Blood Moon Sacrifice happens every thirteen years. Girls that have come of age and are of virgin rank travel to this village, with their family. At the rise of the blood moon, the girls sacrifice themselves to the beast in hopes to become his mate, to bring peace to their village. I'm still unaware why the moon turns red once every thirteen years and why the beast picks a mate during this time. It's alleged during the blood moon some of the girls try to hide from the beast, so they can return to their family the next morning. If the beast does find you, then you pray you're its mate, but since one girl is often picked the other opposition leads to a precocious death.   

Recollecting on the Blood Moon Sacrifice brought me back to the last one, when my cousin Penelope had to join with all the other girls. The Blood Moon was to rise on my fifth birthday, but I had been too young to understand the meaning of this. I had just thought the neighboring village came together to celebrate my birthday, not understanding the truth of that day. 

A group of kids and I were playing hind-n'-seek in the Hunters Forest on the other side of the village, where the adults were talking while keeping an eye on us. It was great having other kids from the neighboring villages play with us beside the normal kids from the village. I didn't make out how some of the younger women had a sense of sadness about them as they watched us play with smiles on our faces. Some of them play with us, which they end up being the harder ones to find. I considered maybe they had a thing for hiding, not knowing they would be doing this same thing tonight to save their life. 

I had been hiding behind a tree covering my giggles with my hand, so Peter the boy who was it wouldn't be able find me. Peeking around the tree I could see that he was getting closer as he had found one of the girls from a different village. As I watched him I felt a large hand land upon my shoulder making me scream.

"Shh, Laiya it's just me." I overheard my cousin's voice. I looked up into her sky blue eyes, like mine, but she had the sun-kiss blond hair behind the red hood, were my hair was raven black. When I looked into her eyes, I sense the worry floating about in them as she started looking around at all the other kids. At one point she shooed Peter away with her hand when he tries to tag me. "Come, I have something for you." She said as she turned with her red cape floating as she walked deeper into the woods.

This forest never really scared me because unlike the other one on the opposite side of my village that always had a sense of death, this would always be luscious green with song birds chirping overhead in the warm weather. Even with the cold air swimming around us, and the leaves fallen along the ground, it still had a brightness to it. If you exam closely you would catch a glimpse of a deer or some other kind of wild life, given it the name hunter forest.

Penelope kept walking till there was silent around us finally sitting down next to a bare tree trunk as her red cape covered up her body like a blanket. She patted the spot next to her signaling me to sit down next to her.