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Hey, everyone! An idea popped into my head for a story and I spent some time writing the beginning of it. I would greatly appreciate thoughts and critiques. 😀

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“Fire moon, burning bright, give me what I seek tonight,” Zillah chanted, gazing at the rising summer moon emblazoned against the pitch-black sky. Around it, the stars were a haphazard sprinkling of orange and red and white. Below, the marshland stretched as far as her eye could see.

She straddled the limb of an old swampwood tree, her legs dangling out over empty space and her back pressed against the gnarled trunk. If only she could stay here forever, with nothing but the trees and the swamp rats for company. That was what she sought on the night of the fire moon. Freedom. To never have to return to the city in the swam. To never again live under the threat of eternal binding.

A blanket of clouds rolled over the moon, stifling her hope. Why had she thought this year would be any different? That the moon would somehow favor her over all the others who had lifted up their petitions this night? Who was she but a lowly bandit’s daughter? No wonder the moon had passed her by.

She climbed down the tree, her hands and feet moving with practiced ease. The path at its base snaked through the trees and joined a myriad of others, weaving a twisted pattern that Zillah knew by heart.

She was met on the path by a tall, skinny boy of about fifteen whose mop of unruly blond hair stuck out at odd angles from his head. Zillah had always likened it to the quills of a porcupine. She snagged the hilt of her knife and drew it out, then placed the flat of the blade against her forehead in the customary salute. He did the same.

“What did the moon say?” he asked, a spark of mirth in his eyes.

“The moon said nothing. You were right, Elias.” She lowered her head, letting her long bangs shadow her face.

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t need your pity,” she spat.

“Then don’t take it. I’m only saying I know how much you wanted this. I know what you wanted.”

“You don’t know anything about me.”

She could almost hear the grin in Elias’s next words. “I know more about you than most.”

“Something which I increasingly regret.”

“Ah, lighten up, Zillah. Tonight’s the one night of the year when we don’t need to be out hunting or gathering or trading insults.”

She looked up at him from beneath her hair. “And also the one night when the clan members insist upon making utter fools of themselves.”

“Keep your voice down,” he hissed with a quick glance around.

“No one’s out here but us, you know that.”

“Your father has stationed guards at the outposts against a thunderbird attack.”

“We’re nowhere near the outposts, and the guards will be too drunk to care about us.”

Elias let out a long breath and closed his eyes. “Let’s at least walk out to the border stones.”

“And if I don’t want to go?”

“Then you don’t have to,” he said with a shrug. “I just thought you might want to talk.”

Zillah smoothed the tuft of orange-dyed feathers which hung at the end of her long braid, turning over his words in her mind. She glared up at him again, and he bore her scrutiny without shrinking.

“Don’t tell me you don’t trust me after all these years,” Elias said in disbelief.

“I don’t trust anyone.”

“You have more reason to trust me than most. I have sworn not to harm you or your family.”

“You don’t need to keep reminding me,” she muttered.

“I think I do. You seem to forget what a promise means for a Bandit of Clan Hawk.”

She scoffed to herself. “It means the same as it does for a Warden, Magistrate, Director, or Liege.”

“Eternal binding,” he said. “I know that’s what you fear, Zillah.”

“I fear nothing.”

“So you say.”

She bit the inside of her lip, then tipped her chin up. “To the border stones, then.” Turning on her heel, she started down the pathway at a brisk pace. They walked in silence for the length of the winding trail, stopping only when the line of white stones came into view. The ring surrounded the territory of Clan Hawk and all clan members were forbidden to cross it unless their chief gave them leave.

“Why do you come out here every year?” Elias asked, stopping about five paces from the border.

Zillah went up to the stones and placed the heel of her boot against one, trying to dislodge it. She was unsuccessful. Strong as she had become, she could still not move the stones.

She envisioned herself struggling to move the stones as the pale child of years past, with her mane of raven hair and eyes like wells of indigo night. Everyone said she looked like her father, whose appearance had earned him the name of Cassius Nighthawk.

“I want freedom,” she finally replied.

“Then go. You are the only one of us who can cross the border on your own.”

“I would be hunted down like a rabid wolf.”

“But wouldn’t it be better than being threatened with eternal binding? You have shown your loyalty well enough, but your father may decide that kinship won’t keep you as effectively as binding.”

Zillah looked down at the smooth stone, following the veins of gray which webbed the milky white quartz. “I will never be bound to him.”

“Then you are in even more danger.”

She raised her face to look at the fire moon, cursing it and the false hope that accompanied its appearing.

“If you still believe that the moon will hear you, it won’t,” Elias said firmly. “It’s as lifeless as that stone beneath your foot. If you really want a chance of being heard, turn to the thunderbirds or the god of the Wardens. Anything would be better than praying to the moon.”

“Every child looks to the moon at some time or another.”

“But you are not a child any longer.”

She glanced over her shoulder at him. “My childhood was stolen from me years ago.”

Elias threw up his hands in exasperation and said, “Then why do you still seek the favor of the moon?”

“I don’t.”

“Why didn’t you say so? I just wasted a minute of my life trying to convince you to do that,” he grumbled.

Zillah only shrugged and began walking away from the border of white stones. “The moon will never give me what I seek. I know that now.”

“What will you do, then?”

“If the threat of binding becomes too great, I’ll risk escape.”

He nodded and said nothing.

Zillah gazed at the fire moon again, her eyes glimmering in the darkness like gemstones.

—

Okay! There it is. Let’s see, who to tag?

 

@cassie-hartfinh @steward-of-the-pen @j-a-penrose @silverclaw-bonnetfolly @evelyn @wishingwell13

 

(Also, this is my third time trying to make this topic. I’m not sure what went wrong. O.o)