The girl looked at me from the corner of her eye before nodding at Calliope, and they trotted off to the patch of flowers.
She never spoke, never said a word, and I feared the smoke from the fires might have severely hurt her. She needed to see a healer, but I didn’t know how to get her to one.
Calliope eventually coaxed me into making crowns with them, which I could never get quite right. When I handed my poorly made flower crown to the girl, it fell apart, and my shoulders sagged in defeat. Calliope trotted to my back and dropped her own perfectly woven crown of tiny blossoms atop my head. I didn’t fight it, no matter how goofy I felt wearing one. I’d always humored my sister and her delights at dressing me up every chance she got, even when Father scolded me for it, saying it wasn’t right for males to be seen with flowers in their hair. I didn’t care what anyone thought of me. I’d do anything for her, do anything to see her smile.
The girl looked at me as the crown, which was a bit too big for my head, slid down over my eye and landed on the bridge of my nose. She smiled, and something warm filled my chest.
I wanted to make her smile more, hear her laugh.
We played together for hours—on and on until the sun began its descent behind the mountains surrounding the valley. My chest hollowed at the sight of the changing colors of the sky as sunset neared. “Come on, Cali. It’s time to go.”
Calliope let out an exaggerated moan of protest. “I don’t wanna go!”
“Cali,” I said sternly. Her cheeks puffed out, but she didn’t argue further.
“You’ll be here tomorrow?” Calliope asked, tugging on the girl’s hand.
The girl looked at her before lifting those stormy eyes to me and nodded. I looked across the woods; the only thing she seemed to have was the damaged Pegasus carving. I set my satchel down, slid my coat off, and held it out to her.
Her pale brows furrowed, and I smiled.
“It’s cold at night. Take it. Use it to stay warm, and I’ll bring you a blanket tomorrow.”
She hesitated, and I scoffed, walking around to place it over her shoulders. She stiffened, but then she pulled it tighter around herself, her shoulders rising as she seemed to burrow into it.
“I’ll bring you some more food tomorrow too,” I said with a smile.
“I can bring my brush and we can braid your hair,” Calliope said. “Mother taught me how to do it.”
The girl smiled, and my heart leaped.
“Come on Cali.” I took her hand. “Father’s gonna be mad if we’re late for dinner.”
I smiled the entire way home, excited to return to the park to play more the following day. There was no chance Father would let us bring her home—I was afraid to even ask him—but that didn’t meanwecouldn’t help her.
Father’s shouting persisted later that night than usual, but it wasn’t what kept me up. A storm hit Moonhaven in the dark, moonless hours, and I’d been unable to sleep, worrying about the girl as the winds and rains raged against our home. Every time I’d closed my eyes all I could see was her, alone, scared.
The following day, we returned to the creek, but as we made our way through the trees and to the clearing, the girl was nowhere to be found. Dead branches and leaves littered the grass from the terrifying storm that had ravaged the valley.
Had she taken shelter somewhere?
Calliope grabbed my forearm, pointing to the tree where we’d first seen the girl. I winced as she unintentionally gripped the fresh bruises left by Father when he’d learned I’d ‘lost’ my coat. I’d been too cowardly to tell him the truth, to tell him of the girl we’d found. What if he went looking for her? What if he hurt her? I could barely protect Calliope from his anger.
My gaze landed on the tree; a massive branch had snapped and was now lying in the dirt where we’d first seen her, but she wasn’t there.
I neared the oak, kneeling to see if I might find any sign of her, but all that remained was the subtle hint of black spruce and pine. The scent had been faint beneath the cloak of ashes and blood, but it was hers.
Was this where she’d slept?
My heart twisted as I stood, scanning the clearing for any sign of where she might have gone, but there was nothing. We spent the next few days searching every inch of the small patch of woods, even wandered what streets we could with the relief efforts still underway, but there was no sign of her anywhere. I didn’t even know her name to ask the adults around Moonhaven. We searched and searched, and yet no matter what we did to look for her, she seemed to have just...vanished.
And I would never get the chance to play with her again.
PART ONE
1469
(60 years later)
