Moon Light

Moonlight

Abby knew the forest. It had been her husband and Aurora's father for years. It nourished and protected them both, and Abby wished that she would never have to let Aurora leave it’s protection. It had carried her through those first incredibly hard months of her exile, given her spirit, strengthened her will, and taught her much. It was surely the closest family she had ever had. She was thankful for it, and thankful for both the treasures it gave away and the secrets it kept.
That night, she had sensed her daughter's preoccupation and had lain awake into the night, her head filled with thoughts of Aurora. When Aurora had risen and gone into the night, Abby decided to follow her and talk to her, to find out what was on her mind. She rose and followed far enough behind Aurora not to be seen, but close enough to see her daughter well. It wasn't hard to stay hidden, because Aurora's mind seemed miles away. Abby didn't want to admit it, but she was hoping to find out what was the cause of her daughter's distress by following her.

     The moon glowed off of her daughter's silvery-blonde hair, lightened by hours spent out doors. She did not have the voluptuous figure that was so in style at the time that Abby had gone into her exile into the woods, but rather she was thin and willowy. Abby once again reflected on her daughter’s intense beauty and supple strength that had come from almost constant activity. Her hair hung to her waist now, as she had taken it from it's usual braid for the night, and it shimmered as Aurora moved silently through the moonlit forest. Abby felt a longing for a normal life for she and her daughter, but realized that this life was much better than any she had lived before.
     She remembered those first months, when she struggled to survive, and fingered the scars on her face. Sometimes she forgot about her accident for days, but then she would touch her face and it would all come back to her. She always thanked God for her fortune and wondered why she had been spared. She had been able to dwell on it for hours and hours as Aurora grew, but she had not come to a conclusion. All she could think of was to bring Aurora up a wonderful person, uncorrupted by the outside world, at least until she was old enough not to be affected by it.
     And she believed she had succeeded. She watched her beautiful daughter move with the utmost grace through the forest and knew that Aurora's personality matched her outer beauty and her innocence was unparalleled. She was proud of the daughter that God had helped her raise, and she hoped that she would never change. She also prayed that her daughter's source of distress hadn’t come from the outside world, but she knew that there was no way to avoid it forever. If tonight was the night that her daughter would become an adult, Abby wished to be there to protect her to the best of her ability.

     Abby was jerked back to the present as Aurora stepped into a clearing and halted. The clearing was full of wildflowers and bathed in the unearthly silver moon glow. Shadows were everywhere, and they held all of the color that the flowers held in the sunlight. Aurora looked almost as if she were an ancient goddess of Roman mythology, as she tilted her face toward the moon and closed her eyes. She raised her hands above her head and cupped them as if to catch the falling moonlight.
     A man stepped out of the woods into the clearing and stood in the shadows looking at Aurora. Abby, under the spell of the moonlight, at first thought that the man was a peasant, come to gaze at the beautiful princess, and indeed, the man stood there for long moments, as if transfixed by the beauty of the scene. He then stepped into the moonlight, toward Aurora and Abby thought for a moment that he was not a peasant, but another god.
     But as the man stepped into full moonlight, the spell was broken for Abby, and she almost gasped aloud, giving herself away. It was as if a face had come back from the past to haunt her, and as the two were drawn towards each other, they didn't even hear her stumble back the way she had come, full of wonder, excitement, and terror.

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