Bunny's Arc

Chapter 1 of 4

Bunny pressed her palm to the triangle of light in her chest and waited for it to tell her where to go. The light burned, as it did every day. She was mortal, dark-bodied, and the only one who had ever tried to earn her way back to the shining ones. No mortal had been welcomed into their realm since the first age. She meant to be the first. But the light gave her no direction now. It only hurt. She had walked Betrinia for days. The shining ones did not speak to mortals, so she read the light instead. Bright meant she neared her goal. Dim meant she strayed. For three days the light had stayed flat and sullen. She had a memory of the realm, soft as a dream: a high place, snow, cold air that tasted clean. That was all. She did not know which way to turn. She climbed a slope of loose stone and stopped. A spider sat in her path. It was white, with wide butterfly wings and a cluster of round black eyes. It did not run. It lifted two legs and pointed uphill, then waited. Bunny's chest flared. The light brightened so fast it stole her breath. She gasped and clutched her ribs. When the pain settled, she understood. The light answered the spider's direction. This creature knew the way. "You," she said. "You're taking me home." The spider turned and climbed. Bunny followed. Each time it pointed, the light swelled, and she chased that brightness up the mountain. Snow began to crust the rocks. The air grew thin and cold and clean, exactly as she remembered. Her legs shook, but she kept the spider in sight. At dusk they reached a wooden lodge built against the peak. Antlers crowned its roof. A carved mask stared from the door. Thick fur lined the windowsills, and snow banked the stone steps. The spider stopped at the threshold and would go no farther. Bunny stepped inside, certain she had arrived. She had not. The lodge was only a lodge, warm and empty of the shining ones. But in the back room steam rose from a great round basin. Its water swirled with stars, with spinning wheels of light, like a piece of the night sky poured into stone. She had seen that sky before, in her dream of the realm. She leaned over the edge. The light in her chest blazed brighter than it ever had. The heat in her ribs turned sharp, almost unbearable. She understood then why the spider had led her here. This was no destination. It was a door. The spider had brought her to the water. Now she had to decide whether to go into it. Bunny set one hand on the cold stone rim and looked down into the swirling stars.