Chapter Text
On days that the goddess chose to descend, it felt as if the moon glared daggers at the earth.
The streets drained of townsfolk, the winds picked up in a blustery, furious storm. The trees swayed back and forth, a foreboding dance that warned of the destruction in store for this humble world.
A young girl, hair glimmering in the moonlight, stood where no one else dared to on nights like these.
She stood, feeble human body seeming to beg for death in it’s weakness, donning a schoolgirl’s robes and a hat that threatened to be swept away by the wind
She looked into the eyes of the moon, and she glared back.
~
“Mama Koto… can’t you read it one more time?”
Young Nyx, who turned twelve last week, looked up at her mentor with pleading eyes. She was all dressed for bed, tight coils of hair pulled up in a hand-stitched bonnet. Silvery-purple pajamas were buttoned up to her neck, a few buttons missing or about ready to fall off. A combination of a clumsy girl and an inexperienced seamstress.
The woman who stood before her, storybook in hand, did not look like her mother at all. Her skin a golden-brown and her eyes black as coal, white hair as straight as a pin falling to her waist. “Aren’t you getting a bit old for bedtime stories, kid?”
“…Noooo…” Her lips drooped down in a frown. The dimple on her cheek disappeared with it.
The woman she called ‘Mama Koto’ put a hand on her chest and let out a rusty, bellow of a laugh. “In any case.. it's late. You’ve got training early tomorrow, hit the hay.”
Nyx looked down when she noticed a tugging on her pajama-pants leg. What could’ve been mistaken for a smudge of soot from the fireplace opened two green eyes and meowed. The cat’s claw caught in the fabric of her clothes, as if he was tugging her along.
“Pfft— Pillow! Are you ready for bed too, you scraggly little baby?~” Nyx cooed, scooping up the black pile of fluff in her arms and holding him like an infant.
Koto looked at the two and smiled, before her face split into a yawn. “That makes three of us. Night, Nyxie. Love you..”
“Love you more, mama!” Nyx trilled, her feet pounding on the hardwood floors as she hurried off to her room.
She set the bundle of joy in her arms on her bed, where he promptly curled up as if the bed was his alone. She awkwardly laid beside him, feeling as if she was halfway to falling on the floor in her effort not to disturb him. She eventually shifted onto her side and nudged the kitty just the slightest bit to the left.
She shut her eyes and began to drift off.. but something nagged at the back of her head.
“Ah! Can’t forget my bandage..” She sat up and glanced at her nightstand, cluttered with mugs, an open novel, and a bundle of herbs Pillow had chewed to the stems. But alongside the mess was a white bandage, two elastic strings attached. She stretched it around her head and allowed the bandage to cover her left eye. That eye was blind, a silvery color standing out from the other, which was gold. She had never received a proper explanation for why she needed to wear it, only that she had to at night and when she was out of the house to prevent an infection. But Nyx never questioned, as it was no skin off her nose. With the bandage secure, she laid her head down and finally, peacefully, drifted off to sleep.
~
Nyx awoke to an anguished cry from outside her room. She bolted awake and upright in an instant, her bedroom door squealing on its hinges as she rushed to the kitchen to see what the issue could’ve been. Pillow jumped up from his place beside her on the bed, his tail fluffed up like bottlebrush grass as he followed behind her.
To Nyx’s relief and slight annoyance, there was no emergency, just Koto holding an empty box of Frootle Flakes. “Damn it, kid, you used the last of the cereal. I’m going to run to the markets and get some more. Go practice your spells for me in the yard, m’kay?” Koto remarked, already throwing on her wide-brimmed hat and robes as she prepared to leave.
“Ah— sorry, mama.” Nyx smiled sheepishly. “I’ll hold down the fort!” She saluted with all the obedience of a soldier, her face solemn and serious with the weight of this task.
Koto couldn’t help but snicker as she ruffled Nyx’s bonnet. “And remember…”
“Don’t touch the trapdoor! We’ve been over this a million times, mama..”
Koto let go of her daughter and nodded softly. “I know, kid. It’s just important.”
Koto turned away from her and crouched down in the corner of the kitchen, next to the aforementioned trapdoor, she fiddled with the padlock and eventually got it loose. She opened it after a moment, honey toned light flooding the dirt cavern beneath. As she was about to disappear inside, Nyx spoke.
“…Mama Koto?”
Koto looked over her shoulder. “Make it quick.”
“Why can’t I touch the trapdoor, anyways?”
Koto’s eyebrows furrowed in an unreadable expression. “Because you’re young yet, and its a dangerous world out there.”
“You always say that.” Nyx frowned. “What’s so dangerous about the market? Can’t I at least go that far?”
“People are dangerous, kid.” Koto’s tone became more stern. “They can have hammers and knives and spells you couldn’t dream of fighting against.”
Nyx didn’t look convinced. “But I’ve never even seen another human before! Please, mama, I get so lonely!”
“No.” Koto raised her voice until she was nearly shouting at her daughter. Nyx flinched, and Koto’s expression softened. “I’m sorry, you can come with me on your eighteenth birthday. But until then, no dice.”
Nyx lowered her chin and looked at the ground. “Okay..”
“Love you, Nyxie.”
“Love you too.” Nyx didn’t look up even as the trapdoor closed, instead trudging drearily to her room to dress herself.
~
Nyx stepped into the front yard of her humble cottage, now with her purple curls pulled into two buns just above her ears. A wide brimmed witch’s hat littered with dirt stains and patches sat atop her head, and her worn pajamas had been switched out for a poofy purple dress with white frills that brushed against her knees. Pillow circled around her feet as she stepped barefoot into the dewy grass, looking out over the horizon.
Stepping outside her door revealed The Far Forest, the wild heart of the realm Nyx called home. Her front yard was densely packed with weeds, big and small, glowing, entrapping, or coiling up the trunks of the majestic trees. They stretched thin branches to the heavens, while vines stock with seed pods the size of Nyx’s head hung from the canopy. The grass reached up to her ankles, making them itch as she took in a lungful of the morning air.
It was humid out, she decided, as she took her favorite storybook from under her arm and thumbed through it. Legends of Uwondria, the title read, each chapter a different fantastical story that Nyx could read for hours on end. But it wasn’t time for her to curl up in bed and disappear into the pages. She was here to learn.
Each page, faded with time, had pictures painted in watercolor of each story they told. Demons with skin as white as snow that towered over humans like trees, goddesses with hair dark as night and dresses that bled into the stars, each delicately painted alongside the handwritten words. She flipped through them all unsatisfied, until she reached the last page.
This page had no words, only two symbols. A green plant, and a blue cloud alongside it. Nyx tapped the cloud with two fingers, and a wispy recreation of the picture drifted up from the page and into the sky. She watched it float away with wide eyes, then looked down at her furry companion. “Pil? Why don’t you sniff out a target for us?”
The cat pointed his nose to the orangey sky obediently, taking in the air until he suddenly began to rocket into the trees.
Nyx giggled loudly as she followed behind him, elegantly evading every rock or stick that would threaten her bare feet. The wind whistled in her ears and the trees grew closer and closer together, the sunlight being lost above the canopy as she weaved between each trunk. Suddenly Pillow’s pawsteps began to slow and he cast a glance over his shoulder at Nyx.
Nyx slowed in accordance with her familiar, looking around for whatever creature Pillow had led her to chase. Eventually, from between the trees, a lithe and ghostly figure stood. It’s fur was gray and flowed as if there was a breeze, but since Nyx stopped running, the air had stilled. Its tail was thick and fluffy, brushing against the dirt as it swayed gently. Long, thin legs ended in dainty white paws, two pointed ears turning to catch any bit of sound around it. It’s skin was just barely translucent, showing white, glowing orbs that turned in its belly.
Nyx quickly recognized them as souls, which could be found in small numbers drifting throughout The Far Forest. When something, person or animal, died in the forest, its soul did not die with its body. Losing all senses of sight or hearing, the soul drifted about the forest aimlessly until it fell prey to a creature such as the voulpus, who would quickly make a meal out of what remained of their being. Nyx stared at the voul and grinned.
She looked down at her storybook, still held open in her left hand, and tapped the cloud with three fingers this time. A new cloud appeared from the pages, this time darker, gray, and crackling with light. Before it could float to the heavens, Nyx pointed her fingers at the voul, sending the cloud shooting towards it. “Take that!”
The voul startled and looked at Nyx with big, white eyes, swiftly leaping out of the way of the lightning bolt that nearly struck it. It was far too small of a bolt to cause any real harm to the creature, but of course, it didn't care. It went dashing into the forest with incredible speed, Nyx and Pillow quickly following behind.
But they were outmatched from the moment the voul noticed them. With its long legs, it quickly disappeared into the brush and left Nyx panting for air. “Dang it..” She grumbled, staring at the leaves it slipped behind.
Nyx looked down at her storybook, the two symbols staring back at her. “Ugh… Storm powers are dumb, anyways.”
She wondered for a moment, as she continued to stare, if she had made a mistake in choosing her magic object. She knew that any object could be one’s magic object, but they also were intrinsically linked to how one casted magic. Koto, for example, used her hat. Depending on what she put into the hat, the possibilities of her magic were virtually endless. For example, a fiery plant like ashvine in her hat would produce a powerful burst of flames.
“…Right, Pillow?” She looked down at the cat at her side, worried he hadn’t acknowledged her, and found him with his green eyes as wide as saucers, his fur fluffed up to make him look twice as big, staring at a dark space between the trees ahead of them.
She followed his gaze, confused, until a brown paw the size of Nyx’s head stepped out of the darkness. A dandelion expelled its fluffy seeds as it was crushed by the force of the pawstep. Then came another paw, and a round face revealed itself in the shadows. Piercing yellow eyes stared into Nyx’s soul, the fur on the beast’s face cream colored with brown flecks and spots. The beak in the center of its face was clamped shut, a knife-sharp point at the tip, perfect for ripping into a kill. Its feather-tufted ears faced her straight on, nearly touching the tree branches, trained on hearing her every breath. It had two great, elegant wings tucked to its back, with the potential to lift its entire massive body off the ground with little effort at all.
Nyx felt her entire body tense up. She took a trembling step back, while Pillow began to make a soft yowl. “N— nice owlkitty…” She said with a sheepish smile.
Her dreams of resolving this peacefully were swiftly cut short when the beast swung its huge paw at her, claws unsheathed. Nyx ducked, her hat catching its claws as she took a frantic step back. She turned her attention to her storybook, her hand hovering over the plant symbol this time. She whispered a prayer, though she didn’t know who it was addressed to, and tapped with three fingers.
Just as she tapped, a great gust of wind bellowed through the forest, leaves coming loose from their branches, grass bending over backwards as it was flattened by the gale. The pages of the storybook were stirred with it, and instead of tapping the plant as she intended, her fingers landed on one of the story’s illustrations.
Eyes of the Moon was the title of this story. It had always been Nyx’s favorite, telling of a schoolgirl who stood up to a great, imposing goddess with nothing more than her own humanly magic. Nyx often daydreamed about being that girl, she thought for sure that she wouldn’t be scared. She would keep her cool and face the goddess with grace and bravery.
But now, she looked at her trembling fingers, mistakenly touching the illustration of this goddess. Watercolor strokes made up her thick, dark blue curls, the shadow of which hid her eyes from view. Her skin was a deep brown, and her dress a deeper black, flecked with shining stars that looked as if they had been plucked right from the night sky. She laughed a little bit, now looking up at the owlcat, raising its paw for a final strike. She couldn’t even stand up to a wild animal, she had no chance against a goddess.
But before she could resign to her fate, something glimmering in the canopy caught Nyx’s eye. A fleck of light, a star, she realized. In the same way a cat knows his way home, or a duckling knows her mother, Nyx knew that star was hers. She didn’t even have the time to recognize this thought before she pointed her three fingers at the aggressing owlcat, sending the star, her star, hurdling towards it.
There was a great flash of light, and suddenly all that was left before her was a crater and a slightly scorched owlcat tail disappearing into the brush. Nyx blinked a few times, looking down at Pillow, who was staring at the scene with a similar expression to hers.
She looked back down at her storybook, silently recounting the rules for casting. Two fingers for a neutral spell, three fingers for attack. She again tapped the goddess, this time with two fingers, and a small star rose from the page and hovered above it.
“..I did that.” Nyx said as a smile grew on her face. “I DID THAT!!”
Pillow looked up at her, his confusion turning to excitement along with her. He jumped up to Nyx’s chest for he knew she would catch him, rubbing affectionately against her face to express his thanks.
Nyx, in the meantime, began to stomp her feet and giggle giddily. “I DID THAT!! I BEAT THAT OWLCAT!!” She repeated over and over, circling round the crater she created with Pillow in her arms. “I’ve gotta tell Mama Koto!”