Luna Brightwood's Arc

Chapter 19 of 22

The pines closed around them ten steps past the treeline. Luna kept the eight small unicorns bunched at her knees. The silver-and-gold wyrm circled low above the canopy. The white wyrm slid ahead through the roots, marking a path. Silvain walked at her shoulder, sword banked to a dull glow so it would not throw their shapes on the trunks. The camera hung against Luna's chest on its narrow strap, lens forward, unprotected. A unicorn spooked at a snapping branch and bolted sideways. Luna lunged after it. The camera swung out and cracked against a pine. She caught the strap, spun the body back, and thumbed the lens cap. A hairline scratch ran across the glass. Not through it. She let out a breath. "That won't hold," Silvain said. "You need both hands. They'll scatter." "I know." Luna looked at the bag on her hip. It was cloth. One shoulder strap. Made for a memory card and a lunch, not a body and a lens. She pulled the camera off her neck and tried to fit it inside. The lens hood caught on the flap. If she forced it, she'd bend the ring. If she left it out, the next branch would take the glass. A soft light bloomed between two trunks ahead. The purple fairy stepped out of the air onto a low branch, wings folded. Beside her, taller than the fairy by a head, stood an elf in white robes, gold chains crossed at her brow. She held a flat leather case against her chest. "Lumina Dewsparkle sent me," the elf said. "I am Silvana Aurelith. She said your hands were full." She held the case out. "Padded. Strap crosses the chest. It will not swing." Luna took it. The case was stiff, lined with dark cloth, cut exactly for a camera body and one spare lens. She slid the camera in. The lid clicked. She looped the strap over her head and one arm. The weight settled flat against her back. Both hands free. She flexed her fingers and reached for the nearest unicorn's mane. "Why you?" Silvain said to the elf. "I was given something to read," Silvana said. "The wrong people know I have it. Lumina asked me to move while I still could. I brought the case on the way." She did not explain more. The fairy above her nodded once and rose into the branches. Silvain pointed down the slope. Luna clicked her tongue and the eight unicorns moved. Her hands closed around two manes at once. The camera rode her spine, out of the way, safe. Behind her, Silvana Aurelith kept pace with the herd, the leather case at her own hip now holding only what she had come with. Ahead, the white wyrm's tail lit the roots. Luna walked into the trees with both hands on her animals for the first time since the hut.