The New Life

• Aurora Toivanen, Grade 6, Bellevue Primary School
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'The Write Track 2015' competition

As she walked on the leafy foot path, the glorious moon sailed to the top of the star peppered sky. It was really hard to see, for she was walking under a roofed forest. After a while, the forest stopped at a well lit, round clearing, surrounded by woodland, and the full moon shone brightly onto her worn-out, tattered clothes. She had been walking away from her burning village, as everybody had been split up in the panic.
She looked around the moonlit clearing. There seemed to be a generously sized boulder at one side that looked rather comfortable. She sat there, watching the white moon slowly make its way across the sky, spreading it’s even, dim light. The air was cold and crisp, and she imagined her breath as smoke coming from the puffing train she'd been on in the past.
Suddenly, a loud sound of rustling of leaves came from behind.
“Who's there?” she yelled in panic. It could be anything. It felt as if she had swallowed the boulder she had been sitting on a moment ago, the weight of it pulling her stomach uncomfortably.
As she said that, the noise stopped.
“What are you doing!” she yelled again, this time with a louder, more stern voice, before realising that the comment didn't make any sense.
Somebody stepped out of the bushes.
“Hello there” they said.
The white light from the full moon lit the face of the person. She noticed the clean, beautiful clothing, and the friendly, calm face of the aged woman. She wore a sort of leafy band around her head and a necklace with some illuminating liquid in a bottle, with only a drop or two left. She said that she would do no harm, and that she had been in the forest for nearly her whole lifetime, that it is hard to get out of it... she mentioned the wildlife and plant life being magical and that the ivy was evil among other things.
It was nearly midnight and the moon was close to its zenith, directly above. The girl had fallen asleep. The woman was calm as she watched the ivy crawling its way to the girl. When the ivy reached the girl, it started to wrap around her, strangling her. Suddenly she woke up, panicking. The woman, who now looked more like 250 years old, shushed her. She was holding the bottle of that illuminating liquid. Suddenly everything around her stopped. The moon was exactly in the middle of the enclosure, no leaves rustled, the ivy felt loose and there was no wind. Time had been stopped. She heard the woman's voice in her head, telling her the secrets of the forest and what she could become; a guardian of the last Twilight forest. She said yes.
When she woke up, she was in a beautifully furnished cave, with a book floating in the middle of the room. It said on the cover, ‘From Kalua’.