Luna's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Luna crouched behind the wildflowers and watched the storm-stallion drink from the falls. He was gray as thunderclouds, and the old riders swore he only carried someone with a calm heart. Luna wanted to be that rider. She had spent her life saving hurt animals and defending this valley's forests. But her heart was not calm. It was racing, and the stallion knew. Every time she crept closer, he lifted his head. His ears pinned back. He smelled the worry on her like smoke. She thought of the barn owl she had failed to save last winter. She thought of the loggers pushing at the valley's edge. Her mind would not stop. The stallion stamped and backed toward the rocks. A shadow fell across the flowers. Luna turned and found the old man standing behind her. He was huge and hunched, his brown skin cracked like dry riverbed. A stone pillar rode across his shoulders. She had seen him for years and never once seen him set it down. "You want the wild one," Bruce said. His voice was gravel. "But you carry too much." "I carry nothing," Luna said. He grunted. "You carry every hurt thing in this valley. The owl. The trees. Fear for all of them." He shifted the pillar. "I carry stone. You carry worse." Luna looked at the huge weight on his back. "Why don't you put it down?" "Because I chose it," he said. "You did not choose yours. It chose you. That is the difference." The words struck her still. She had never seen her worry as a thing she could hold or drop. It had always just been there, humming under everything. Bruce lowered himself onto a rock. The pillar stayed on his shoulders. "Name the thing you fear," he said. "Out loud. Say it, and it stops hiding." Luna's throat tightened. "I'm afraid I'll fail them," she whispered. "The animals. The valley. All of it." Her hands shook. "I'm afraid it doesn't matter how hard I try." The words left her, and something loosened in her chest. Her breathing slowed. She watched the water fall over the rocks, steady and endless. It did not rush. It did not worry. It only fell, and the flowers grew anyway. When she stood, her hands were still. Her heart beat slow and even. She stepped from the flowers into the open. The stallion lifted his head. His ears turned toward her. But this time he did not back away. He watched her with dark, wet eyes, and he held his ground. Luna took one step, then another. The stallion let her come. She stopped an arm's length away, close enough to feel his warm breath on her palm. Behind her, Bruce spoke low. "Now the hard part. He will test you."