CHAPTER TWO
The WERELIGHT (& other spells)
“Beautiful night,” her Gran Akha said.
“Uh huh,” Nala said, half hearing, not listening.
At night, light doesn't come from the sky; not much of it. So light has to come from other places.
“Supper’s done!” Gran said.
Nala looked.
There was red light from the warm cookfire. Its cauldron bubbled. Gran scooped it out with a ladle, into a fat mug with two handles, made explicitly for soup.
“Here you go!” Gran said, handing it over. “Let’s eat as we walk. Come on.”
“Can’t we just wait?” Nala whined.
“No,” Gran said, as she finished slopping some into her own mug. “Let’s hit the road. If I’m gonna do this, I wanna get it over with, and I definitely don’t wanna be late doing it! Come on.”
Nala didn’t try hard to hide her disappointment. She didn’t like being rushed.
But once they were walking, it didn’t take long for the soup to be cool enough to eat. And once she had eaten, her mood softened a little, as did her focus.
“Better?” Gran Akha said, smiling.
“Huh?” Nala said, mouth full.
“You seemed kinda hangry.”
Nala smiled, and shrugged. Rather than answer, she took a bite and put a little hop in her step.
There was yellow light too, from the moon, descending, sauntering from the moon, to the clouds, to the edges of all things.
Nala imagined that she could feel the moon’s light, illuminating each of her own shape’s edges. The moon was her favorite of all the goddesses, in all the old stories.
The stars were out, but those endless pale twinkles gave no light at all. Not really. What light did come down was a whisper of blue, a distant note beneath a tapestry of purple and gold.
“So bright,” Gran Akha said, “we may not even need werelights!”
Nala chose her words. “But… I like the werelights.”
Gran laughed. “I know you do.”
So they stopped, and Gran Akha did the little spell.
She put her palm on Nala’s forehead.
“Close your eyes,” she said.
Nala did.
“Alright,” Gran said. “9 breaths, if you would.”
Nala began, but Gran stopped her.
“Too fast; back to 1. Close your eyes I said. It’ll go quicker if you listen.”
Nala huffed, then started over.
One…
Two…
Three…
A swell of (mmm) something swelled up from the ground.
Four…
Something rang inside of Nala the way a bell’s ringing can ring another bell.
Five…
Six…
Swelling…
Seven…
Blooming…
Eight…
Gran’s hand came away, but the energy still bridged them. And on Nine…
Nala opened her eyes.
The werelight was lit, hovering in front of Nala’s head, and a little above her. It was a floating ball of heatless flame, an aurora of strange light that followed Nala’s will.
It was the color of moonthread. When the werelight was touched by the moon, the mellow flame flew through every color on its way to the end of the air.
Nala smiled. Her skin was a canvas of opposites, and for a moment she was free from the nightmare, and happy.
“I hope I can do that one day,” Nala said.
“You will,” said Gran. “Patience, Nala.”
“I don’t wanna be patient,” Nala didn’t say.
But it was like Gran could read her mind. “Patience pays.”
“Not always,” Nala said.
Gran Akha thought about that. As they walked, the moon bobbed, ducking behind trees, and stealing brief peeks of the scene.
A crow cawed, and a cacophany answered before the murder took flight. Bats screeched overhead, too, stippling the moon on their way to northern crags.
Gran looked at Nala as they walked, and smiled.
“You’re gonna get your magic,” she said. “You’ll see.”
Then she took a big gulp from her mug.
Nala followed suit, and finished her soup.
“That was good.”
“Mhmm.”
“Can I take that?”
Nala handed her mug over, and Gran Akha put both dirty dishes into a special net on her backpack. The light from Nala’s werelight went toward town.
“Not long now,” Nala said.
They went on.
* * * * / * * * *
AUTHOR’S NOTE— Thank you so much for reading! Here is the next chapter, which is a sweet chapter called…
Share this post