Moon and Storm - Part Three

There is a strange boy in the forest, and a deer who's decided Moon is just the person the boy needs.

The next morning, Moon packed her bag with two lunches as usual, but she also threw in her binder and a history book. When her mother saw her heading for the door, the woman stopped her. “Where are you heading off to?”

 

“I was going to go to the library to do some studying.” She motioned to where the twins were, fighting with play swords and making a raucous. “I can’t focus here.”

 

Her mother seemed relieved and pleased. “Alright. Just stay away from the forest, and be back in time for dinner.”

 

“I promise, Mama!” She slipped out the door and headed off through the cul-de-sac, aiming for the library. She waited until she was well out of sight of her entire neighborhood before she turned to the forest. In the distance, she could already see Fox and Storm waiting for her, just at the edge of the woods, though she hadn’t told them where to find her. She smiled wide and ran for them, and the boy stepped back and opened his arms.

 

“You came!” he exclaimed as she ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck. He held her tightly, and it was only when the deer urged them both away from the forest’s edge that they released each other and let Fox lead them deeper into the woods.

 

“I did my best. My mother thinks I went to the library.”

 

“Will she be able to find out you lied…?”

 

Moon shook her head. “I don’t think so, not if I work it right.” She threaded her fingers through his. “Would you show me something, Storm?”

 

“Of course. Anything you’d like.” He smiled wide. “The whole forest is yours. Just say the word and I’ll take you there.”

 

But again, Moon’s face must have given her away, because after a moment his smile faded. “You want to go there, don’t you?”

 

“I think I do.”

 

He sighed heavily, but started to walk in a new direction now, and Moon was sure he was taking her where she wanted to go. She wanted to see where Cory Larson had supposedly drowned.

 

“I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with him,” Storm said. “You didn’t know him, you said so yourself. You just know of him.”

 

“Maybe. I don’t know how to explain it. I think that’s why Fox brought me out here - I think I’m supposed to help him in a way that you and she weren’t able.”

 

Storm looked at her with confusion. “But he’s dead. How can you help him?”

 

“I don’t know. Maybe his spirit isn’t at rest. Maybe it needs to be put to rest. Or maybe there’s something else I’m supposed to be doing. I just know that I need to see it with my own eyes.”

 

Grudgingly, the boy accepted this, and the rest of their trek was taken in near silence. At first, the boy would try to break the silence from time to time to explain something about the area to Moon, but the closer they got to the other side of the forest, the closer they got to Beaverton, the quieter he got, until eventually he stopped talking altogether. The last half hour they walked in complete silence, save for the rustle of the wind through the trees. Finally, they came upon the back end of the same stream he had shown her before. This was far away from where the frogs were playing, however, and this part of the forest felt darker somehow, almost tainted. She could feel the death in this place, and the trees themselves seemed to warn her to turn away while she still had the chance.

 

She almost did just that, and she even found herself reaching for Storm’s arm, to stop him in his tracks, but before she could open her mouth to suggest they abandon this foolish mission he stopped of his own accord and pointed with a shaking hand to a particularly wide part of the stream.

 

“That’s where I found his body,” Storm said.

 

Moon released his arm and stepped away from him, inching closer to where he pointed. The stream in this space was rockier than other parts, and a large boulder split the water down the middle.

 

“He had struck his head on the boulder. I don’t know if that was the hunter’s fault or if he fell, but the hunter held him underwater until he stopped struggling. When I got here, he was already dead. The whole stream had turned red with his blood.”

 

Moon looked around for any sign of a body, but there was nothing to even indicate that a death had occurred. “You said you released him back to the forest. Where did you do that?”

 

“Right here,” he said, pointing again to the stream. “I told the forest it was time to reclaim him, and his body fell to ashes and drifted away in the winds. He’s all around us, here. And he’s safe, and free now. All people and all creatures are free in the forest. We take care of our own, here.”

 

Moon knelt beside the stream and rested her palm on the thick boulder. A shockwave of pure fear coursed through her system, and she had to jerk away, her heart catching in her throat. “I can feel it,” she whispered.

 

“Feel what…?”

 

“What he felt before he died.” She stood, her face scrunched up, and Storm’s eyes widened as he saw the tears forming in hers.

 

“It’s okay…” he whispered, opening his arms for her. “He’s not in pain anymore.”

 

“Maybe not, but he was in so much pain when he died. There’s so much fear in this place. Terror. How can anyone live with that much fear?”

 

There was a pregnant pause, before the boy squeezed her tighter and buried his face in her neck. “You’d be surprised what a person can live with when they have no other choice.”

 

Moon shook her head. “Take me away from here.”

 

“I thought you needed to help him somehow?”

 

“I do, but I’ve done all I can do here. Now I need to get out of here. Please.”

 

The boy nodded without hesitation and grabbed her hand, leading her away without so much as a single glance behind them.

 

~*~

 

It was late afternoon by the time they reached the forest’s edge once more, and darkness was fast approaching. Moon found herself reluctant to leave. She knew she had to get back home, but she had the most awful feeling that something was happening that would change the course of both of their lives forever.

 

Storm seemed to feel it, too, because he held tightly to her and wouldn’t let go. “Do you have to leave?” he asked, his body shaking slightly and his eyes a little wider than they should be.

 

“I have to get back to my mother or I could get in trouble. I’ll come back tomorrow, I promise.”

 

But Storm shook his head. “No, you won’t. The forest never lies. I won’t see you tomorrow.”

 

Moon stepped away, and the boy wrapped his arms around himself and eyed the forest floor.

 

“What do you mean?” she asked.

 

“Tonight is the last night I’ll see you in these woods.”

 

“No,” she protested, but beside them Fox pawed at the ground, and Moon knew he spoke the truth.

 

“I think we’ll see each other again,” he continued. “But by then, everything will be different.”

 

She closed the distance between them once again and wrapped her arms around his neck, and did something she had not yet done before. She kissed him, deeply, her lips connecting with his in a manner fitting of the most elaborate of fairy tale love stories. He held her tight and kissed her in return, his fingers running up and down the spine of her back, but when he finally pulled away, she could see the sadness she was leaving behind in his eyes.

 

“I love you,” she whispered. “King of the Forest.”

 

“I love you too, girl of the Moon.”

 

Fox stepped forward and nudged Moon away, nodding her head in the direction of the houses, and reluctantly, Moon started the long trudge home. She realized when she was halfway across the forest that she’d forgotten to eat her lunch, and hadn’t given the boy his. But when she turned back to the line of trees, he was gone, and so was Fox. Moon was alone, the empty forest to one side, and the lonely houses to the other. She sighed heavily and continued her walk home. At least at home she could curl up in her bed and come up with a plan for her next steps. Hopefully.

 

Moon’s mother was quiet as Moon slipped in the back door and put her bookbag down on the kitchen chair. The woman was tinkering around the kitchen, finishing off what smelled like a large pot of spaghetti, and Moon slipped into another chair and watched her work for a few minutes.

 

Finally, Moon’s mother broke the silence.

 

“How was the library?” she asked.

 

Instantly, Moon felt that something was wrong, but she swallowed hard and answered anyway. “It was alright. It was quiet.”

 

“Was it?” her mother asked. “That’s strange. It wasn’t so quiet when I was there earlier today. I’d say around noon? They had a big book fair happening. I think it was the loudest I’ve ever heard it…your brothers had a blast.”

 

Moon swallowed hard and sank a little in her seat. “Mama…”

 

“Save it, Moon. I know where you were. I don’t like it when you lie to me.”

 

“Mama, you don’t understand, I was--”

 

“Do you know what else happened today, Moon?” Her mother turned and faced her for the first time, meeting her eyes with disappointed anger. “There was a special on the news. It was just an hour ago, actually. Cory Larson, that boy I was talking to you about?”

 

Moon paled and clenched her hands in her lap. She felt incredibly small all of a sudden. “Did they find his body…?”

 

But her mother simply shook her head. “No, they didn’t. But you already know that, don’t you Moony?”

 

Even the use of her most hated nickname didn’t seem to strike her this time. The awful feeling in the pit of her stomach was growing twisted and knotted, and everything felt like it was closing in on her. “Mama?”

 

“They had his school picture up, Moony. And do you know what he looks like? He looks like the boy I saw you kissing in the forest just now. You knew where he was this whole time and you repeatedly lied to me!”

 

“I didn’t! I swear I didn’t!”

 

Her mother shook her head and turned away. “Go to your room, Moon. You’re grounded.”

 

“Mama, what did you do!? Did you tell anyone? You can’t have!”

 

“I called the police, is what I did. If we’re all very lucky, they’ll find him tonight.” She lowered her voice, speaking almost to herself. “I can’t believe you, Moon. I can’t believe you’d do a thing like this.”

 

Moon jumped to her feet and ran to the back door, shoving the sliding glass open before her mother could stop her. She flew off the back deck and ran through the field behind her house, her heart pumping in her chest, the blood rushing in her ears. She could hear her mother running after her, the panicked woman’s voice calling to her, but there was only one thing on Moon’s mind: she had to get to Storm.

 

She had to get to him before the police found him.

 

She could hear when the sirens arrived, and knew there wasn’t much time to get to him, but for that period of time everything seemed to slow, to calm. Her focus became clear, and she somehow knew that she could do it. She could reach the basin, reach Storm’s alcove, before the cops would find them.

 

And then, they would run. Together.

 

~*~

 

Dark clouds had rolled in, covering the forest in a blanket of rain as thunder crashed through the trees. Moon lost her footing more than once in the dense forest floor, but her dread urged her onward. When she reached the top of the hill, she could see Storm curled up in his little den, watching the sky, but Fox was nowhere in sight. He shoved himself to his feet when Moon called his name, and there was a note of fear on his face as he caught her at the bottom of the basin, before she could slip on the wet earth.

 

“My mother saw you,” she started, but the boy inhaled sharply before she could continue and he lost his balance, nearly falling to the side. Moon grabbed his arms to keep him upright, and he met her eyes.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“She said she recognized you, that you were on some news show. She called the cops…they’re coming to find you and take you home.”

 

His eyes shot open wider and a whimper escaped from high in his throat. “They can’t. They can’t.”

 

“Where’s Fox? We have to get out of here before they get to you!”

 

“Fox left me…she said it was time for me to leave the forest…” His voice wavered as his gaze drifted to the side, and she could see him starting to slip further into his own mind as the panic took over.

 

Moon grabbed both of Storm’s hands and forced him to look at her. “Storm, the police are coming, and the king of the forest needs to make a decision. What are we going to do? Where are we going?”

 

The words spurred him to action, and he took her hand and ran through the forest, away from the direction of Moon’s house. The officers were close behind them, and she could hear the call of the police dogs, but with her heart beating so fast in her chest there was little time to think of their pursuers. It would only paralyze them with fear. When the boy stumbled, Moon helped lift him to his feet, and when she tripped, he paused to heft her upright again. It wasn’t long before Moon was horribly lost, and even the boy himself didn’t seem to recognize this part of the forest, but they didn’t stop running. Not even to catch their breath.

 

When they could go no further, their legs like jellied eels refusing to carry them even one more step, Moon finally let herself collapse to her knees.

 

“Do you think we lost them?” the boy asked, his voice suspended in the air, barely audible over the din of the stormy night. But Moon could only shake her head.

 

“I don’t know.”

 

Another stifled whimper came from somewhere high in the boy’s throat, and she turned then to catch his eyes. “Storm, I have to know…what happened to Cory Larson?”

 

The boy shook his head violently. “He drowned in the stream, murdered by his own kind.”

 

“And where did you come from?”

 

He took one shaking breath and lowered his head until his forehead was pressed against the earth. “I rose from the same waters. Fox called to me, and I came. She said the forest needed a protector.”

 

The crunch of leaves nearby drew both of their attentions, and Moon expected to see the police surrounding them, but it was only the deer. Even in the dark of the night, Moon could see her clearly, her tawny fur seeming to glow with the brightness of the summer sun, and Moon had to avert her eyes so she wouldn’t be blinded.

 

“Fox,” the boy whispered, but the deer seemed nearly to laugh gently at the both of them.

 

Your time in this forest has come to an end, she said, her voice flowing to them on the breezes of the wind.

 

Storm must have heard this message as well, because he looked up with widened eyes. “But the forest needs protection!”

 

The forest has protected itself for thousands of years, and will protect itself for thousands more. It is time you step down from your throne, little king, and let the forest protect you, as it has always tried to.

 

Moon could hear the approach of voices, and she reached over and threaded her fingers through the boy’s, holding tightly to him. “Fox, what do we do? The police will take him out of here.”

 

Let them. It’s time for the human child to return to his people, and so it is time for you, as well.

 

Moon looked up, but the deer was gone, disappearing with a gust of wind in the same manner in which she’d arrived, and all Moon could do was cling to Storm as the voices grew even nearer. “I think I see something! Through here!”

 

Moon grasped the boy around the shoulders and pulled him up until he was resting on his knees. At first, he would not meet her eyes, but when the police began pouring out of the trees he finally looked up, caught her gaze, and whispered his first words to her that came not from Storm, but from Cory. “Don’t let them give me back to my dad.”

 

The police descended on the two of them, arms wrapping around Moon from behind as another cop took hold of Cory, and he let out an ear-piercing shriek of terror. “Moon! Moon! Don’t let them give me back to him, Moon! MOON!”

 

~*~

 

The two teens were separated and marched out of the forest, back in the direction they’d come from. After his mild panic attack, Cory had gone silent, and he didn’t struggle even as they walked through his basin clearing, past his alcove of rocks. He seemed to shiver slightly in the cold, any power he’d had over the storm and the forest stripped from him the moment Fox turned him away, but he didn’t resist their captors, save for putting up the barest of fights as they dragged him past the line of the trees and out into the clearing.

 

Ahead, Moon could see her mother, concern on the woman’s face, and for the first time it looked to Moon as though her mother was beginning to age. She’d always seemed ethereal, halted in time by some mystical force that motherhood had bestowed upon the woman, but the thick creases from worry left in the corners of her eyes and across her forehead had broken that spell, and Moon could see the woman’s true mortality.

 

The officers who held Cory took a detour around the side of Moon’s house, but the man who led Moon forward took her straight to her mother’s arms. “She’s just fine,” he said, but whether Moon’s mother even heard his words was a complete tossup. She wrapped her arms tightly around Moon’s neck and cried against her daughter’s shoulder, whispering breathily through her sobs about her fears, how worried Moon had made her. Empty threats of grounding were thrown around, but Moon didn’t care about them. She held her mother in return and gave the woman everything she thought might be comforting.

 

When her mother had finally composed herself enough to pull away and sniffle, Moon turned to the officer.

 

“I think Cory’s father tried to kill him. That’s why he was hiding in the woods. You can’t send him back there.”

 

A concerned frown crossed the middle-aged man’s face, and he nodded once. “We’ll make sure your friend is safe.”

 

“You have to promise you won’t send him back to that man!”

 

He hesitated for too long, before nodding. “We’ll do our best,” he said, and then he turned and walked off. Moon wanted to run after him, to shake him until he agreed to protect Cory, but she knew it would do no good. She had to lay her trust in the forest that it had made the right decision. And if it hadn’t…then she’d find Cory again, and this time nobody would ever be able to drag them home.

 

She looked to the left, just over her shoulder, deep into the heart of the trees in the distance. She could see the deer standing just at the edge of the tree line, and she pulled away from her mother. The woman followed, grasping for her daughter’s wrist, but Moon was focused solely on the deer.

 

“He better be safe!” she called. “He better not get hurt! Or it’s on your head, for turning him away!”

 

Moon’s mother smoothed a hand over her daughter’s hair. “Moon, you’re yelling at a deer.”

 

“Fox knows what I’m saying.” With that, she turned toward the house and let her mother bring her inside.

 

~*~

 

Days passed, and slowly turned into weeks, and Moon watched the news carefully for any word of Cory Larson. There were headlines about the lost boy who’d been found after more than a month of living in the forest, and then the papers turned sour. Stories of abuse began to surface. An esteemed officer of the Beaverton Police Department was arrested for attempted filicide. Cory Larson, the papers said, would be living with a maternal aunt from now on.

 

It was a long while before he was ready for visitors, but when his aunt called Moon’s mother, neither of them hesitated. Moon packed a sandwich, despite the confused look on her mother’s face, and eagerly climbed into the passenger side of the car. She was too excited for small talk, and eventually her mother gave up and turned on some music. The drive around the forest to Beaverton was a long one, a good forty-five minutes of straight highway, the trees to one side and open pastures to the other, but finally, they arrived.

 

Cory’s aunt lived on a farm just outside of Beaverton. Moon could see the houses and gas stations and the spire of a church building just up the road, but they turned well before they reached the town limits, onto a dusty driveway that led up to a two story farmhouse in need of a fresh coat of paint. A woman with sun-spotted skin, a bright smile, and a thick drawl met them on the porch, taking first Moon’s mother’s hand in both of her own and then Moon’s.

 

“And you must be the girl who found him. He’s been mighty excited to meet y’all, I must say!”

 

But the ghostly face that appeared behind the screen door didn’t look all that excited, and Moon nearly stepped back a foot. Cory let his eyes fall to the ground as he pushed the screen door open and shuffled out. He was somehow both taller and smaller than Moon remembered, or maybe that was just the way he held himself, hands tucked deep into his jean pockets and shoulders slumped inward. His aunt held out an arm and he allowed himself to be pulled close, but he still didn’t look up to meet Moon’s eyes.

 

“No need to be shy now, Cory. They came all this way to see you. Why don’t you say hello?”

 

Slowly, Cory raised his head, until his gaze finally caught Moon’s, and he managed a small, nervous smile. “Hello…”

 

Moon gave him a soft smile in return and reached for him, and his hand twitched a little before taking hers. “Hey there, forest king.”

 

Cory blushed, letting his eyes drop to the porch once more. “I’m no king.”

 

The silence hung in the air for a moment, before Cory’s aunt clapped her hands together, causing both of them to jump. Moon could feel the shaking in Cory’s fingers as his aunt ushered them both inside with promises of iced tea and burgers on the grill. “This might be one of the last nice days we have before fall really hits with a vengeance, so we ought to enjoy it as well we can, don’t y’all think?”

 

She urged Cory to show Moon around and dragged Moon’s mother with her to the kitchen, talking a million miles a second about her family’s old recipe for potato salad that she just couldn’t wait to share with their new friends, and once the two of them were alone at the bottom of the stairs, Cory finally pulled his hand free. He also looked up.

 

“I’m sorry,” he said, and he left the apology there for Moon to do with as she pleased. All of a sudden, she understood why he seemed so unhappy to see her. He was afraid she might be angry with him. But for what…?

 

“You don’t have to apologize,” she protested, but he shook his head.

 

“No, no, I do. I lied to you; I almost made you run away with me. I should never have dragged you into that…”

 

Moon stepped closer, wrapping one arm around his and reaching with her other to grasp his hand. “Hey, no, it’s okay. You were afraid of getting caught. You had every right to be. I made my own choices.”

 

“Can you forgive me…?” He looked at her with uncertainty, but instead of an answer she leaned in to kiss his jaw. He blushed even harder this time, but seemed to understand her response.

 

“You can come with me. My room is up there.” He nodded to the stairs, and Moon followed him, watching his body language as they ascended to the second floor. There was none of the confidence he’d had in the forest, and there seemed to be a hesitation to his every movement. The dangers of the forest floor, with its gopher holes and fox holes and oddly placed roots, seemed nothing in comparison to the pitfalls of a home. Here, he seemed to lack the certainty in his own actions, and she wondered how long it would take before he grew accustomed to the safety a true home could offer.

 

He brought her to a small room just to the left of the stairs, and the first thing she noticed was the view he had of the forest. She stepped toward the open window, resting her palms on the sill, and looked out across the road to the trees that rustled in the faint breeze. It was a warm day, no doubt the last warm day of the season, as his aunt had said, and she could smell the conifers on the air.

 

“Do you ever go back there?” she asked, turning away from it. Cory had taken a seat on his bed, and he moved over and patted the space beside him, shaking his head.

 

“My aunt doesn’t like me to. I’ve gone in a couple of times, just to explore, but I was gone too long the last time and she was worried, so I haven’t in a few days.”

 

Moon sat where he’d motioned for her, and dropped her backpack to the ground. She rummaged around in it for a moment before pulling out a simple ham-and-cheese sandwich. Cory’s eyes widened a little, and he smiled, a true smile this time.

 

“You brought one.”

 

She laughed and handed him half. “Of course I did. There’s a soda in there, too. I thought we could use something a little familiar.”

 

For a long while, they sat in easy silence, eating their sandwich and simply enjoying the familiarity of each other’s company, but eventually Moon had to ask.

 

“Do you ever see her? Fox, I mean, when you’re in the forest?”

 

Cory shook his head. “No. I think she’s gone back to wherever she stays when nobody needs her. I know it sounds crazy, but she isn’t just a deer. She’s some sort of forest spirit, I think. When she’s not needed, she’s not there. When she is needed, she comes to the people who need her. She’s the real protector of the forest.”

 

Moon reached over to touch Cory’s wrist. “Will you tell me what happened? I mean, what really happened?”

 

For a long while, Cory stared down at his lap, saying nothing, but Moon urged him with a gentle nudge and he heaved a heavy sigh.

 

“How much do you want to know?” he asked, quietly.

 

“Everything,” she said. “Or as much as you’re willing to tell me.”

 

“Alright,” he said. “Everything, then.”

 

~*~

 

Cory Larson’s story began long before he ever met Fox. “I used to go into the woods a lot as a child. It was safe there. I could trust the trees and hide from my father if I had to. He didn’t like me to go there. He said it was unsafe, dangerous. I could get hurt. I always thought that didn’t make much sense, since he was already hurting me at home anyway. Why would he care if I got hurt in the woods?

 

“I was fourteen when I met her. Well, it was just after I turned fourteen. Things were getting worse with my dad for a long time, but I just couldn’t take it anymore and I had started spending more and more time in the woods. It was summer, and he would be gone for long hours at his job. I’d run off and get lost and pretend I didn’t have to return.

 

“Fox came out of nowhere, or she seemed to. There was a flurry of leaves, the wind spinning them into a magical spiral, and she stepped straight out of the center and walked right up to me. She sat before me, wrapped her tail around her, and put a paw up on my knee. I could almost hear her. She promised it would be alright, that she was going to keep me safe. I know how this makes me sound, but I believed her…”

 

Moon rested a hand on Cory’s arm. “I met her. I know how powerful she was. I know you’re not crazy.”

 

He smiled in relief, and continued his story.

 

“The fox was always there when I’d come to the forest. We’d play. If I was in a lot of pain, she’d curl up beside me, lick away my tears, sometimes put her paw against my skin and take some of the pain away. When I had to leave the forest, she always tried to stop me, darting in front of me to push me back. But I knew if I didn’t get back to my dad, he would come for me, and it would be so much worse, so I always went home again.

 

“But then, one day, it just got so bad…” Cory shook his head to fight off the memories, and Moon gave him the time to gather himself. “He came after me late one night, after I was supposed to have gone to sleep, and I just knew that if I didn’t get away he was going to kill me. I could see Fox in the distance, and I knew that if I just got to the trees, I’d be safe. So I ran. He came after me, but I managed to lose him in the darkness. The next day, he came back with his friends. They almost found my hiding place, but Fox ran out and attacked the leg of one of the men. They turned back, but not before…” His voice caught in his throat, and he took a deep, shaking breath. “Not before my dad shot her.”

 

Moon could see how visibly this part of the story was affecting Cory, and she gave him his space once more, leaving her hand where it was resting on his arm to keep that connection open between the two of them, but otherwise giving Cory however much time he needed.

 

“By the time they were gone, and I could leave my hiding spot, she was dead. I buried her beneath her favorite tree, and tried to stay safe the way she would have kept me safe, but without her around, it…it didn’t take long for him to find me. He came back out that night and caught me sleeping over her grave. He dragged me up by the hair and I fought him as hard as I could. I escaped for a moment, but I slipped in the dirt near the stream and hit my head on the boulder. Before I could get my wits together, he had me by the hair and the shirt again, and he shoved me face down in the water. I knew I was dying. It seemed fitting. My protector was gone. Without her, there was nothing to save me.”

 

“But you didn’t die,” Moon said, and he shook his head.

 

“I did, I think. I think I was dead for much longer than a person can be dead for and still come back alright. My dad was long gone when I was dragged from the stream, and the water was purged from my lungs, and the life was breathed back into me. I was saved, given a new life, by the strangest woman I’ve ever seen.”

 

With this, Cory pushed himself to his feet and began to pace in the small space, using his hands to help tell the rest of this story. “She was tall, taller than I am, and she had the tail of a fox, and the antlers of a deer. Her hair grew leaves from its strands, and her face had bark around her eyes. She had deep green, gauzy wings on her back that fluttered as she cocked her head from one side to another looking down at me, and she had a glow all around her - the same glow Fox had in the woods that last night when she said it was time for me to leave.”

 

“What was she…?” Moon asked, breathlessly.

 

“I don’t know. Some sort of wood nymph? Fairy? Maybe the spirit of the forest itself… ‘Child of the Storm,’ she called me. ‘King and protector of the forest. Live.’”

 

Moon swallowed hard, and Cory lowered himself to his knees in front of her, almost pleading with her to believe him. “After she brought me back from death, I fell asleep again, and when I woke, there was just the deer. Somehow, I knew that the woman, the deer, and the fox, they were all the same being. One of her forms had died, but she came back in another. She took me through the woods, deeper into the forest than I’d ever gone before, until we came to that clearing. She helped me make a shelter and showed me how to find the right berries and how to get water, and over time…Cory disappeared. He was someone who’d died in the forest, someone we hadn’t been able to protect or save. Murdered by the hunter.”

 

“And you became Storm, king of the forest.”

 

Cory nodded solemnly. “Until they took me out. For a little while, the forest listened to me. I could hear it speaking, could tell when there were people nearby and knew when something was in danger. We saved a rabbit one time, when it got caught at the edge of the tree line by someone’s forgotten trash. It’s foot got wrapped up in a plastic bag that was caught around the tree itself, and it had hurt itself struggling. I unwrapped it, and Fox touched its leg with her nose and healed it, and it hopped away. And then, Fox took all of my powers away from me…she decided it was time for me to go home, and the cops found us, and when they took me out of the forest, Storm the King disappeared and Cory came back.”

 

He looked up, pleading for her to believe him, but Moon had seen these things with her very eyes. She had seen the omnipresence of the deer itself, had felt the fear that saturated the part of the stream where Cory Larson had died, and neither of them could deny the bright glow that had surrounded their guardian in those final moments alone in the woods.

 

She slipped off the bed and knelt beside him, taking his hands in hers. “She knew you needed her help, so she came to help you. And when she was sure it was safe for you to return, she made sure you met the right people who would take care of you when you left the trees.”

 

“You mean you…?” he asked, his voice quiet, but Moon shook her head.

 

“Not just me. My sister, who knew what Fox wanted before I did. My mother, who saw who you were and called the cops. And that police officer who promised me he would keep you safe, even though I don’t think he knew if he could keep that promise.”

 

Cory squeezed her hands, and something tense in his shoulders loosened for the first time. “I’m glad you didn’t listen when I tried to run you off. And I’m glad you came, today.”

 

She leaned in, pressing her lips to his, and across the street, high in the trees, there sat a woman who watched from her distance with a soft smile on her lips. Her boy was safe, and the girl of the Moon would keep him that way. All was well in the forest once more.

 

The End