Moonthread— START HERE

Prelude— NALA HAS A DAYMARE

Nov 11, 2024

Prelude

Once upon a moonful night,
There was a girl who was an orc.
She had gold slitted eyes, and dark green skin.
Her black hair, when light touched it, drank it in,
And when she turned eleven, she
Began to have True Dreams…

Hhhh...
The circle turns.
Hhhh...
The circle turns.
Hhhh…
The circle turns again.

Hhhhalf dreaming, half awake, she sees a boy.
He’s racing in between tall birches. She—
No, she thinks.
Not sees.
She is.
She is the boy, like always. Dry twigs crunch.
His eyes are colorblind, and hers are not.

She feels his heart thump in her ears. Hhhh...
Another true dream, shhhe can feel the pull,
The painful tug of each…
quick…
breath
He breathes. Hhhhe’s… Hungry. He… hunts..
Tonight, hhhhe’s playing Hunter.

He grips his bone dagger so tightly,
It hurts. But still, it’s better than letting it slip
Out of his sweaty, slick grip. The thing
And what’s within the bone both agree.
He sprints. Dry birches flit, until
He comes upon the creek. He stops, and....
Hhhh....
…listens for it.
Hhhh…
Hhhh…

Shhhuka-shuka-shhhh!

A rustle in the brush. His eyes pursue it.
Nnnn! hisses the dagger, and (wincing) he
Goes after, into bramble. Dry thorns prick.
His shins sing when stung, but still, he runs.
It’s not much use. He’s quick, but not as quick
As what he hunts. Not even close.
Not even close.
It’s gone.

Not fast enough, she hears him think.
He gives a groan, and then the dagger hisses,
Hhhhh!
Harmonizing with the chill spring wind,
Mmmm!
Hhhh!
Nnnn…
But the dagger’s hiss insists.

He sighs, but grudgingly obliges it.
He has holes in both his boots. She feels
The wetness of the grayscale grass poke through
With each and every hungry step he takes.
It glows. It glows. The bone dagger glows,
As red as quenched Revenge.
She feels the red, but then—

Slip!

Careless. He turns too fast. There goes his footing.
Slow motion fall. He seems to hang
Suspended in the air, until the ground
Slams into him.
He lands hard on big braided roots,
She feels the breath get (HHH) knocked out of him.
Only then does she feel his pain bloom.

Hhhh! the angry dagger hisses.
“I know it did!” he wants to scream. “I know!”
But he can’t even speak yet, and if he could,
Who would hear? (I would, she dreams.) He writhes,
And leers up at Mount Wraithwood.
(Hey, she thinks,
I know that place! How did I/us/he
Get all the way to—?)
“Stop!” he thinks aloud. He gets up, groaning,
And rubs his sternum. Not a good pain.
The hand that holds the dagger squeezes,
But the dagger (hhh?) can’t heal (hhh…) until it drinks.
(Hehhh hehe…)

“Fine!” the boy shouts.

The spirit grins. The girl goes hollow.
The second time, he says it quiet.
“Fine.”
(No, thinks Nala)
Defeated now,
He lets (Please, she thinks)
The spirit (Don’t)
In.

HhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhHHH!

He moves with new speed, so fast he gets lightheaded, and so does the dreamer. The world leans red. Each shadow seems to recoil away from red day’s touch. Within a dozen

Hateful, hobbled breaths, he
(No, she thinks again) He
Pins down some furry
(Don’t do it)
Howling creature
(Please)
And as the dagger flays the fl—

* * * * / * * * *

Nala’s eyes snapped open.

She blinked the bleariness away.

She lay there in the dark, safe on her back, in bed.

Her heart was thumping in her ears, but all around her, the day was peaceful.

Day, she thought. It had been day in her dream. Her daymare.

She shook it off and clenched her eyes shut.

Just a dream, thought Nala.

The last thing she had seen was the doomed creature’s eyes, and it had been… Its eyes were…

Just a dream.

Her tusks were finally beginning to come in, which was more painful than she’d expected it to be. Her gums were always sore.

But at least now, they were more like tusks. Before, they’d just been long, thin teeth. Like cat fangs— wimpy, at least in her case.

She listened to her heart thump as she looked at the ceiling. Watched slivers of light flutter through shadows, slicing in through heavy closed curtains.

Nala’s black hair fanned out all around her, like tendrils of a dark halo, like bottomless shadows, keeping her safe from sun and suffering and daylight and bad dreams.

Hhhh…!

The warm wind rolled off of Mount Wraithwood, buffeting Nala’s window.

The heavy curtains billowed, just a little, just enough to let rays of light dance over the empty beds all around her.

Day.

The sleeping hut was mostly empty, because her family was away. It was just Nala, and her grandma, and her grandma’s small snoring.

Hungry day pried at the edges of the cottage’s tall windows, but the meat of day’s harshness was held at bay by three huge curtains, old curtains, almost as old as she was.

Nala had always loved those curtains, and the symbol stitched onto each one.

In the safety of the darkness, Nala half remembered, half made up a memory.

In this memory, she was watching Mama and Gran embroider those curtains together, long ago, long ago… She must have been a baby.

She watched them spend three long, slow evenings, embroidering those curtains by hand.

Nala wondered why they did things by hand when they could do magic.

The symbol was their family’s symbol, the symbol of the Dagmurs— Sister Moons, one full and one empty, side by side but not touching.

For the empty moon, they used black thread. It was the blackest thread they had, but even that was not as black as Nala’s hair was. Nala’s hair drank in all the light that tried to touch it.

But for the full moon,
They used
Moonthread.

Moonthread was only made in Orcshire. It was colorless grey in the day, but when the moon touched it, the thread glowed, and cycled through every color.

Sometimes, the colors went slowly. Sometimes, fast, like a hovering hummingbird.

But that was only when the moon touched it. It was day, so it was gray, and Nala’s heart could not stop racing.

Just a dream, Nala thought.

Mmmm, hummed her shadow, as if to say, You’re safe. Breathe deep.

Nala tried to, but the breath came out all rattle-y.

Mmmm…

The curtains kept the shadow sinking, and kept the young girl safe.

Nala closed her eyes.
Hhhh, the wind kept hissing.
But it was all so distant now.
Mmmm…
The wind and all the hunger…
Hhhh…
The day, and even Gran.
Mmmm…
Nala breathed in deep.
Just a dream…
and let herself get heavy…
Just a…
and hoped she wouldn’t…
…dream…