Disclaimer: the only thing I own in this story is the characters I made up. The rest belongs to its rightful owner
Note: I was planning to leave this story until I had completed my other fanfiction, hollyleaf's second chance, but I became impatient, so I just decided to post it anyway! My main priorities are still on my other stories, so I may not be able to update this as much as I would like.
The blessing of the moon
Prologue
She was falling. The ice had splintered even under the weight of her small, light feet, and she was plunged into the soul-numbing cold of the lake. Her eyes were half closed in agony as the murky waters bit and snapped cold jaws around her exposed arms and legs. She was still too young to understand what was happening to her. All she knew was that she was cold, and that she couldn't breathe. The urge to take a breath was fighting a winning battle with the little common sense that was left lingering in her mind, sole survivors from the decimation that the icy waters had inflicted on her young mind.
Suddenly, the intoxicating urge to breathe gave an overpowering surge of strength and dominated her mind, causing her to inhale sharply. A rush of water gushed into her throat, searing her mouth in frozen fire. She began to choke, bubbles spiralling out of her twisted open mouth, carrying away the remainders of the life-giving oxygen that fuelled her will to live.
The darkness that pressed against the edges of her vision began to creep in, and her limbs seemed to lose connection with her rapidly shutting down brain, so that she hardly felt the sensation of a pair of warm, welcoming hands grasping her shoulders. The only thing that she knew was the sensation of her mouse-brown hair clouding around her neck, and the growing darkness that beckoned her closer to death. Then, in a single moment, her head broke the water's surface, and the girl realised that she could breathe again, and she took a single, shuddering breath, and flopped backwards, exhaustion sapping all energy from her limbs, denying her the ability to even shiver.
Hazy voices snaked into her ears, and the young girl heard the makings of a very peculiar conversation. She could not tell who was talking, nor managed make out most of the words, but three things kept cropping up time after time: the words 'Artemis', 'Death' and 'Blessing'. Suddenly, someone laid their hand on the girls arm, and she managed to build up a sufficient reserve of strength to open her eyes. A young girl, only about twelve years of age, was crouching over her. She had curled, brown hair, and silver-grey eyes, and her face seemed youthful, yet seemed to reflect an ancient sense of wisdom, far beyond her age.
The young girl began to sing, a melodious lullaby that had the sweetness of birdsong and the eerie ferocity of a wolves howl. She was both chilled yet comforted by the sound, and felt sleep falling like a blanket upon her. Upon closing her eyes, the girl was startled by images that seemed to run through her dreams. A pack of wolves, a silver arrow striking a target, a small deer faun with silver antlers, and last of all, a glowing full moon, framed by a glittering swath of stars. The moon calmed the girl, and it began to fade, but almost as soon as it had, a voice as soft as silk and as smooth as running mercury echoed into her head.
"I, Artemis, leader of the hunt, place my blessing on this child, and in doing so, grant her the powers she would have if she were my child…"
A/N: did you like this? If you did, please tell me that you want me to continue, because I will only keep going if my readers like it and want me to continue!