Meadow's Arc

Chapter 1 of 5

On the morning Meadow turned eighteen, Meadow lay still, listening to the birds. She had grown up inside this ivy-wrapped tower, learning magic from the woman who raised her. Six years ago, at twelve, she stitched life into a scarecrow topped with a jack-o'-lantern that was the first time she learned she could heal and create life force. That was Vesper, her first spell and her only friend outside these walls. She meant to grow strong enough to protect the woods that ringed her home. All her life she had lived in these woods, she knew she was different but Astrid her mother never said anything about it. Astrid knocked at the door she entered and set a tray filled with fresh honey bread and orange juice. Astrid was older now then when she was when the forest spirits brought her Meadow. Astrid now had a white streak cutting through her black hair. She wore her dark gown and the soft slippers that made no sound on stone. She had never once brought breakfast up the stairs. She had always lived downstairs. Meadow sat up. A fern-furred cat uncurled at her feet, moss and ivy trailing from its green coat. It watched Astrid with flat, careful eyes. "Drink the juice," Astrid said. "You'll need your strength." "You never come up here Ma," Meadow said. She did not touch the bread. Astrid sat on the edge of the bed. "I kept you in this tower to keep you safe. But safe is finished now." She folded her hands. "A dark thing has woken beyond the trees. It rots the roots and drinks the green." Meadow looked at the arched window. The birdsong had thinned to almost nothing. "I am not your mother by blood," Astrid said. "Nature answers you because you belong to it." Meadow's chest tightened. She thought of Vesper below, standing guard at the door as he had for six years. She thought of every tree she could see from her window. "Why tell me now?" she asked. "Because it is your destiny." Astrid stood. Meadow rose and crossed to the window. At the tower's base, Vesper turned his carved face up toward her, root hands lifted. Meadow set her palm against the cold stone. The birds had stopped. She had wanted to grow strong enough to guard the forest. "Then I must go," she said. Astrid caught her wrist. "Not before you know all of the truth."