Shadow Moon Kissed

Chapter 1

The sun was streaming through the ivory curtains in my room causing me to wake up earlier than normal. I felt kind of weird this morning and I knew based on the feeling in the pit of my stomach that today wasn't going to be my day.

I rub my eyes as I shuffle into the kitchen and find my parents sitting at the kitchen table they had for the past fifteen years. I was surprised they still had the crappy table because the table was hanging on its last leg, literally, okay, not quite literally, but the table did have a broken leg.

I sit down at the kitchen table and look back and forth from my parents and down at the many scuffs and stains on the poor kitchen table.

"Rae, King Alexander sent out a royal decree to all families with daughters age fifteen to sixteen," my father said in his ominous, booming voice as he hands me a heavy looking cream piece of paper.

I grabbed the paper earnestly out of my father's hands and studied it briefly, noticing this paper was probably worth more than our family's monthly earnings. The heavy paper was cream with a beautiful golden script that read:

"By Royal Decree, we hereby declare all girls of the age fifteen to seventeen years old to report to their local government to be examined and tested. This decree is effective immediately."

The stupid decree was short and sweet, and left me wondering what type of examination and testing they wanted to do on us. I understood why they wanted to test and exam girls ages fifteen to sixteen.

Our nation is dying, no our world is dying. The world is losing its population and no one really knows why. As of fifteen years, the last female was born. Then, after the last female was born, it was hard for women to get pregnant and deliver a baby. The women who did get pregnant would either have a miscarriage or stillbirth. There were some lucky women who did deliver babies. But, only boy babies were being born.

I look over to my parents and study their aging faces. Mom's face was starting to get subtle wrinkles, but looking at her now with the worry set between her eyes, she really looked older than normal with her crow's feet and forehead wrinkles carved in deeply as she looked with her big green eyes between me, my father, and the stupid decree. My father, on the other hand, looked lost. His brown eyes looked empty as I looked in and he kept brushing back his dark brown, shaggy hair.

"So, I guess, I am going to have to go down to the local government building today?" I asked as I scraped invisible dirt from under my nails.

My mom's squeaky voice replied, "I'll take you down there later today. Your dad will run the bakery today, and maybe will find Peter to help today. I need you to go up to your room and get in a nice dress, and do something with the ratty of yours."

I looked down at my long, brown hair and noticed a few tangles here and there, but I did not agree with my mother that my hair was ratty. I looked over to my father and asked, "Do you think Peter will be okay with helping you out today?"

My dad shook his head and got up with his chair groaning, and walked outside. My father was a man of few words.

The chair creaks and groans as I arise out of the old, pale white chair. I look over to my mother and tell her that I am going upstairs to get ready and that I will be down when I finish. My mother shook her head as her light brown bob bobbed with her.

slowly walked up the dark, wooden stairs wishing my world had been like this. I wish the King and the Prince were not desperate to find a girl who could help cure this blight. I wished there were no more infertility problems in this world anymore, and that by some miracle; many women have many healthy girls and boys. But, it would take some sort of miracle for that to happen, and it would not be today or tomorrow, and maybe even never. We were all doomed and destined for our race to die out.