From the Sun to the Moon

00. Prologue

00. Prologue

Auline was sitting by her father that day, her feet dangling, suspended above the marble floor. Her Pantä was lying obediently next to her throne, alongside her father's. He knew what was coming, but she did not. She didn't make a sound. She was wiser than to ask questions, but too naïve to predict anything else.

She clasped her hands on her lap, and waited. She could sense Eythios growing restless, and tried to calm him with her own patience. The Pantä next to her father was tensed, the black fur around her neck bristling. The man on the throne seemed the opposite, his thin lips curved into a tiny smile. Auline looked away, finding the expression extremely unfamiliar and equally unnerving.

The guards at the other end of the hall heard the commotion before the royals were within earshot; they stood to attention and opened the ornate doors. Auline sat forward, but looked down quickly when she felt a soft weight on her lap.

"Off, Eythios. Not now."

"But, Auline, I think that - I feel like -"

She pushed him firmly but gently onto the floor, her focus quickly drawn away from the small rabbit.

An entourage of knights marched down the crimson carpet, their armour clashing and clicking, the cacophony bouncing off the stone walls and slicing through the young princess's ears. If she had been anything less than a regal child, she would have covered her ears.

"King Ferai," the leading knight addressed her father, bowing so low that the scarlet plume of his helmet dusted the floor. "We bring before you the Dark Witch, Indella."

The knights stepped into a new formation. Auline found that their synchronised movements reminded her of monsters from long-buried nightmares. Her father's smirk broke into a gruesome grin when he saw the prisoner. Auline pursed her lips ever so slightly. It was the witch.

"How long it has been, Indella..." The king said softly and maliciously.

The witch didn't flinch, didn't react. A vulgar iron collar snaked around her neck, with a chain drawn taut by the guard behind her. Auline could see nothing of Indella's face, but she could see the long, bedraggled black locks and peasant clothes. She had expected a criminal of such importance to be more intimidating, but the only part of her which seemed imposing in any way was the rugged-looking wolf Pantä beside her. The Pantä had its eyes fixed on the king's cat Pantä, but the feline was quite unconcerned.

"Did you really think that you would be able to escape me, Indella? After all you have done to us, and the chaos you have caused?"

She deigned not to answer. The wolf stood, and his black lips curled back into a snarl, like it wanted to tear at the king and stop him from ever saying another word. Auline found herself with her arms tight around Eythios, his soft face buried in her neck.

"No, I thought not."

King Ferai brought himself to his feet, his grey teeth bared in an expression that matched the wolf's. He scuttled sideways down the first, second and third step. He revelled in his dominance, and Auline couldn't believe that anybody had ever called her father a 'fair man'. He was not.

"You're disgusting, witch. You and your kind don't deserve existence," he spat. He looked up and around. "Leave us, guards."

"What of the girl?"

At first, Auline believed that the guard was talking about her, but every pair of eyes turned the other way. There was a little girl behind Indella, Auline hadn't noticed. She could only have been half Auline's age: about five or six.