Moon and Storm

Part One

Deep in the heart of the land, many hundreds of miles from the sea, there stands an old and venerable forest. It has stood for hundreds of years, the branches of its trees stretching out to shelter the wildlife that thrives within its bosom. Not far from this forest, there stands a small town. Those who live there dare not venture too deep into the forest, for fear of getting lost or swallowed whole by the old growth itself, but their fear is unfounded, for the forest is harmless to those who do not mean harm. As far as the forest is concerned, even humans belong under its protection.

It was early October when Moon first learned of the forest's true priorities. She could not have expected life to change so drastically for her when she awoke that Monday—did not, in fact, expect anything but the drab and dreadful week that lay ahead of her. And yet, that is the wonderfully surprising thing about forests: they always choose the most innocent of times to strike, for better or worse...

~*~

The morning had always been Moon's least favorite time of day. The alarm would go off, ripping her from her wild dreams, a shrill and cantankerous call forcing her back to the mundanity of the week. Some days it would take two snoozes and a full orchestral band blaring from her phone just to wake her up, but others were like today: her eyes jolted open the instant the alarm went off, and immediately she set about fighting with it, smashing at all the buttons with her flailing hand. Her victory complete, she collapsed against her mountain of pillows and stared at the ceiling, her heart pounding within her chest as she tried in vain to remember the dream she'd awoken from. A voice had been calling her name, the sound of drums were thumping in the distance, and the hearty scent of an autumn rain had filled the air, but she could recall no details other than these.

Sighing heavily, she stood, as her three siblings ran past her bedroom door. As the eldest, Moon often helped her mother with the younger children. Her mother worked early hours, leaving the house well before five in the morning, and it was Moon's duty to wrangle her siblings into their day clothes and herd them out the door for school. She preferred the calm of the weekend, when everyone could sleep in and there were no alarms, but the weekend always came to an end and Monday morning always returned. It was time to get to business.

The boys zipped through the hallway again, Stone calling to Echo, and Echo calling for their sister Star. Moon shook her head and grumbled to herself about their overabundance of energy as she dressed for school, but there was something different in their voices as they whispered in the hallways. When the soft knock came on Moon's door, a wave of anticipation rolled through her whole body, as if she'd been waiting for this knock since waking.

Standing on the other side of the door was Moon's nine-year-old sister, Star. The girl had her long hair pulled into two braids on either side of her face, tied off with bright yellow bows, and like Moon, she still had a touch of sleep in her eyes, but there's was something deeper there as well, a peacefulness that Moon found intriguing.

"What is it?" Moon asked, and Star broke into a wide grin.

"There's a deer in our backyard!"

With that, she turned on her heel and went skipping after the twins.

This was, of course, completely unheard of. Deer never wandered this far from the woods. Occasionally Moon would spot a rabbit on the road to the bus stop, or spy a hawk high in the sky, but they never saw any deer. Curiously, Moon descended the stairs, following the excited sounds of her siblings as they crowded around the sliding glass door in the kitchen, ignoring the stacks of maple syrup corn cakes on the table behind them as they waved at the unusual sight before them.

Moon stepped closer, her long body towering over the two eleven-year-olds and the nine-year-old, and sure enough, there was a deer in yard. A doe, to be exact, lying in the grass and watching the house with mild interest.