Sage's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Sage pressed her fingers to the antlers rising from her red curls and asked the question Gaia could never answer. "What am I?" She stood at the top of the moss-wrapped tower where she had grown up, in the wild woods of Wyldmere. Below, the forest stretched green in every direction. Somewhere out there was the truth about her kind. In here, there was only Gaia, and Gaia had run out of answers. Gaia climbed the tower stairs slowly. Ivy trailed from her flowered gown, and small blossoms opened in her dark hair as she moved. She was the only mother Sage had ever known. She had found this tower, raised Sage inside it, and loved her without fail. But her pale green face tightened whenever Sage touched her antlers. "You are my daughter," Gaia said. "That has always been enough." "It isn't enough for me." Sage turned from the window. "You call me Faun. Forest Spirit. But you say the words like you're guessing. Nobody else in Wyldmere has these." She tapped one antler. "Not the elves. Not the Fae, and not even the hunters. Just me." Gaia sat on the stone bench and folded her hands. For a long moment she said nothing. Then she reached beneath her gown and drew out something wrapped in dried leaves. "I found this the day I found you," she said. "I knew the day would come you’d want it so I saved it." Sage crossed the room and knelt. Gaia peeled back the leaves. Inside lay a necklace inside the gem lay green wood, its edges shaped like tiny antler tines. It was cold, and it hummed faintly against Sage's palm. "Where did it come from?" Sage asked. "It was around your neck. There were others like you once, far to the north, past the black river. I never went there. I was afraid of what I'd learn." Gaia's voice cracked. "But you deserve to know who you are." Sage closed her fingers around the necklace. The hum grew stronger, pulling faintly, like a thread drawn tight toward the north. "Then that's where I'm going," Sage said. Gaia's eyes filled, but she did not argue. She had raised a girl who always wanted more, and she had always known this day would come. She pressed her palm to Sage's cheek. "The black river is a week’s walk," she said. "The woods past it are not mine. I cannot protect you there." Sage stood. She understood. She pulled on her hide boots and smoothed her emerald gown. The tower had been her whole world for eighteen years. Now it felt small. "You gave me a home," Sage said. "You raised me as your own but I must go find out who I am." Sage would spend one last night with Gaia and at dawn she would set out on her adventure.