Haven Moonwater's Arc

Chapter 1 of 4

Haven Moonwater jolted awake in her small wooden cabin, the fire low, her sheets soaked through. The dream clung to her again. A stranger with dark hair and grey eyes. His hand reaching for hers. She woke just before their fingers touched. She wanted real love, not the easy lies people offered her face. But this man felt like neither. He felt like a question. She reached for the leather journal beside her bed and pressed it to her chest. The embossed cover felt cool against her skin. She had filled half its pages with his face, trying to name him. Trying to prove he was only a trick of her tired mind. Haven pushed open the cabin door and stepped into the night air. Tiny lights danced above the flowers near the path. The little fairies hovered close, their wings humming soft words she could almost understand. Follow. Follow. They drifted toward the trees, glancing back as if waiting. Her bare feet found the worn trail without thinking. She knew where it led. The quiet river with its gentle waterfall, where she came when sleep refused her. The fairies scattered into the dark as the water came into view, silver under the moon. He was standing at the river's edge. Dark hair. Grey eyes lifting to meet hers. The man from her dream, breathing, real, watching her as if he had been waiting a long time. Haven stopped on the wet stones. The dream was over. Something else had just begun.