Chapter 8 Children of the Moon

Chapter 8

Children of the Moon

  Feeling frustrated she could not lift Kia’s spirits; Kress decided she needed a break from the gloomy confines of Kia’s house. Having studied the cloud patterns and wind quality, she was quite certain her foray to the great Forest Sea would not only be a refreshing change, but a perfectly safe respite.

  Sprites were unaccustomed to grief. In spite of their fragility, their lifespans were quite long. Death and loss were something pitied from afar not like this. This was too close. Kia’s sadness was suffocating to her. As much as she wanted to help her, it was clear older wiser hands would have to take up the task of helping Kia regain at least a bit of her joy.

 The sad new creature simply sucked every modicum of light and life out of her home, so much so Kress felt she could no longer bear another moment in Kia’s airless dark world.  The young Sprite could think of no better place to combat suffocation and gloom than the open sea and the wide -blue sky.

  She would explore, look for Penny; maybe visit the captain but mostly just fly soak up the sun and marvel at the grace and power of the mighty restless sea. And yes eventually return to Kia and hopefully find her in better state, if not she would stay to help as long as she could bear. Kia was her friend. That would never change.

  After a delicious breakfast of honeysuckle and dew -drop she wound her way through cool boughs toward the sea. A gentle breeze combed through her long white hair as she darted from beneath Wayferra’s protective green canopy. Catching it like sail, she tacked and looped around it using it to catapult her tiny body far over the rolling waves.

  Predators no longer stained Chimera’s gentle face. Even the western wilds lay quiet as a graveyard, for indeed that is exactly what it was now.

   Kress sailed unmolested careless if not carefree. After all, there was nothing to fear but Kia’s heartbreak, and she could do nothing to alleviate that. She was still just a child and with the death of Myra the crimson curse that chained her to Kia was no more. She was free again, an unfettered innocent.

  Children should play, not bear the brutal load of adulthood. She had almost lost that. Now she unapologetically reclaimed it. The day was hers to squeeze and that is exactly what she did until she had squeezed most of the light out of it.  

  Shimmering bands of gold and silver undulated far below as Kress watched the sun sink toward the horizon. It was getting late. Her parents would be cross if she stayed away past sunset. Time to go, disappointed she had not spotted Penny or the captain’s ship she scanned the sea one last time. Too late for a visit, she thought she might at least get a glimpse of them before leaving.

   Something silver suddenly flashed just above the southern skyline. It was too far away to make out its shape, but it was in the sky. Maybe it this just was a light skip; a mirage, no she did not think so. There were no silver Avys, and she should know she was one. No, this was something different. It was just then she just made out the mast of Captain Marks ship. It was just below and right in front of the strange silver nameless thing.

   Curiosity numbed her reason, her parents warnings faded in the distance as she sliced southward to get a better look, never considering the possibility that something new had just entered her world, something much worse than Myra and her brood of demons.