Aranil's eyes snapped open. Her breath caught in her throat as she looked up at the intense blue sky, which was entirely free of clouds. Her heart pounded inside her head and stabbed daggers into her temples. She groaned and rolled over, squeezing her eyes shut to pretend the migraine didn't exist. Her face and arms brushed against a warm, smooth body, and she snuggled into it.
"Shadow, you silly cat," she whispered, "did you sneak out of Grandmother's cabin again?"
She opened her eyes just enough to see, expecting her longtime companion. Instead, she was confronted by soft white hair, glittering painfully in her narrow field of vision. She jumped up and screamed, backing away. In front of her, two large, white and blue elk lay on their sides in front of her. The wind whipped at her hair and her nightgown, freezing her skin. The snow bit her feet, and she looked around frantically, not knowing where she was or why she was here.
Why am I out here? Why am I in only—
My dad.
He left me.
She gasped, remembering last night.
Last night, he led me into the woods, and he left me to starve, to be eaten, to freeze to death. He did that. I'm not home. I can't go back home. I don't even know where home is!
She fell onto her knees in the snow, sobs racking her small frame.
He doesn't love me, Mother doesn't love me, and they never did. I was supposed to die, their little girl, gone, to make their life easier because I'm not important, I've never been important, I was never supposed to be born. The other children said so, and they were right, I am nothing!
She screamed, tears falling from her face as she hugged her body with thin arms, pain searing through her chest. Nausea rolled through her stomach and made her want to vomit, but there was nothing there.
I've been starving for days now, and I can't take care of myself, how can I possibly find anything to eat if my parents couldn't find any food either? I'm going to die I'm going to die I'm going to—
A figure in front of her moved. She had almost forgotten about the reason she had jumped up in the first place. She froze stock still, unsure of what to do.
If I stay still, it won't notice me.
If I stay still, it might kill me.
If I run, I could get away.
But how long can I run?
Enough. I can run far enough.
"Young one, ease your cry—," a low voice, so deep it resonated through her body, started speaking, but it stopped when Aranil looked up to face it.
The elk had spoken to her. Aranil's eyes widened, and her mouth gaped. The pounding in her head intensified to match her heart. The elk, bigger than any creature she had ever seen, loomed over her. The sharp points of his antlers sparkled in the sun. She started crawling backward, as slow as she was able, never breaking eye contact.
Just back away slowly, she thought. Don't give it any reason to hurt you.
Her head whipped to the side as another elk, slightly smaller, with dark blue swirls covering his body, walked up next to the first. She changed her angle to walk away from both of them, waiting for them to stop watching so she could turn around and run.
Where? She asked herself.
It doesn't matter.
"Brandar," the white elk said in a low tone. "Do you see her eyes?"
YOU ARE READING
The Shadow Phoenix
FantasyA 13-year-old girl is abandoned in the woods to keep her family from starvation. She is saved by a family of Moon Elk, who are the magical guardians of Moon and Water magic. There, she learns that she is the first magical human to be born on the ear...
