Moonrise ✔ [Complete]

00 Beginning

Lyn had always wanted to follow the path of her parents: live quietly, marry a good man, and raise strong children. It was her younger sister, Ayla--the only family she had left--who lived for magic and adventure. They were different, but she loved Ayla all the same.

After their parents had passed, Lyn had enjoyed her peaceful life in her family's quaint, but quiet home. She'd found comfort in serving tea to those who had called upon her. Their deep conversations had consumed her afternoons and provided lovely entertainment.

Life had treated her fairly. Life had once been good.

"Lyn!"

The scream hurled Lyn out of her thoughts.

She felt the violence of reality shake her to her core. A shiver drove every pleasant memory from her head, forcing her back into the present. She finally took a moment to witness the disaster that had pulled her peaceful life out from underneath her.

Beyond the window of her friend's house, snow fell in frozen clusters, casting a blanket of white over the Silver City. Lyn watched crowds of city folk sprint past on the streets, their heads bowed low against the blizzard.

Families scrambled over each other as they all careened toward the city gates--their only hope of survival. It was fear, not snow, that painted all their faces white. Above the ice that pummeled their skin, the sky burned with fire. Clouds swirled in waves of flames and flashed like a lightning storm. Lyn likened the scene to a vision of hell.

She knew better than to call it unfortunate weather. There was an unseen battle taking place in the heavens. With the shards of metal that rained from the sky, the city was facing imminent destruction.

"Lyn! For crying out loud!"

Lyn turned to the sound of frantic shouting. An old woman--her friend Pana--stared back at her with fearful eyes bulging from her skull.

They were standing inside the sitting room of Pana's narrow house, its furnace blazing with sufficient heat to combat the cold. Lying supine across one of Pana's couches was Ayla, her face covered with sweat.

A scream of pain erupted from Ayla's throat. Lyn ran over to her sister's side and seized her hand. With fear squeezing her heart in a vice grip, she scanned the large bulge of Ayla's stomach.

Using quick fingers, Lyn moved aside the black strands of her sister's long hair, revealing the oval shape of Ayla's face. Ayla's usual pale skin was blotched in a deep, pink flush.

"Sister," Ayla uttered. Her eyes were awash with tears.

With her pregnant sister, the kingdom's crumbling capital, and an unknown terror wreaking havoc in the skies, Lyn's life had fallen apart in the blink of an eye. But she had to be strong now, for her sister and her sister's unborn child.

"She's going to have the baby," Pana muttered through clench teeth. "Right here, right now."

The words didn't surprise Lyn. Having carried the child for only six months, Ayla had told her that the gods were now requiring its urgent birth. How Ayla or the heavens even had that kind of power for an early birth, Lyn could not fathom. But with whatever powers the heavens had bestowed upon Ayla, Lyn had no choice but to believe her sister.