MOONLASH

urned agai

sh of the waking forest beyond the compound fences. The rooster had not crowd yet, but the

ped scar on the inside of her wrist. It pulsed faintly beneath her skin,

ist, and smoke curled into the pale morning sky. Elara listened to the village stirring-pots

did

beneath everything

, so far away she could pretend it was only the

eyes, trying

g to the smell of burning flesh, to the light of the moon painting silver lines across the dirt floor, to her mother screami

oo close during the stories by the fire. The children who once played with her found reasons to leave when she came near. She learned to walk sof

y, leaning in through the doorway with her

ing from her mind for a mom

ed on her wrist before s

the compound toward the small pile of firewood stacked by the fence. The forest stood just beyond the low mud walls, vast and deep, a sea of

he rubbed it, looking up to find a pair of

og. Then it stepped forward, and

e way it moved wrong-smooth, p

, twice, before disap

la

d by the fence, the wind lifting the edges of his dark cl

hed, pressing a h

ders pause when he entered a room. His hair was tied back with a strip of cloth, a

't you?" he asked

don't know what yo

scar she still tried to hide under t

, I d

urgent, cutting through the dawn stillne

. Elara glanced at the forest, remembering the eyes in the dar

ing," she

ghtened. "It'

ood against her chest, pretending th

," she said, almost too

, leaving only the whisper of lea

. The drums of the evening gathering echoed from the fire circle, but Elara sat alo

rest, of the stories she heard whispered w

he marked. The mar

orest-a low, mournful h

her skin, and took a single step

scent of earth, of wet leaves,

s, the moonlight bleeding silver through the leaves. The

the darkness, b

ot, and Elara fell to her knees, clu

o

it filled her mind, wrapping around

o

w eyes locked onto hers, and in them, she saw herself reflected-not as she was, but as s

la

d her hea

clearing, his eyes no longer

ng forward, the moonlight catching on some

forest came al

in took her was the moon, impossibly brigh