Chapter 4 The Storm
On their way home from the park to Alice's house Jasper and the girls agreed to come into town and meet again the following week.
"I know a place that sells just the right kind of locket. It is round and not ornate. It will be just the right size," said Alice.
"I won't wear anything girly, and I'm not getting a necklace," groused Jasper.
"If the chain is long enough it shouldn't be so noticeable that people will pay any attention to it," Bella added.
"I'm not wearing anything around my neck. Men don't wear necklaces, they wear ties or neckerchiefs," Jasper stated firmly.
"I know just the right thing! Would you wear it on your watch bob? It would be in the watch pocket most of the time, anyway," coaxed Alice, giving him the puppy dog eyes.
"Hm-m-m. I guess that would be all right, but nothing flowery on its face," he insisted.
"Okay. I'll go there tomorrow and pick them out. We can take delivery next week when you come back to me," whispered Alice. He melted.
When he got close to Alice's home, Jasper thought that maybe he could sneak a little kiss good-bye, but Mr. Brandon had heard them coming and was waiting on the front porch. The boys jumped out, "Thanks for taking us with you!" they shouted and disappeared.
Jasper walked Alice to the door, but they waved their good-byes. "We'll see you next week," he whispered, squeezed her hand and returned to the wagon. They waved until they had to turn the corner.
"That was really something at the river. I don't know what to think about it. It was amazing what the hair did to the water. It brought the fish back to life. It wasn't knocked out, it was dead. We can't tell anyone else about this. They might find out about Moonlight and take him away and kill him for his hair," Jasper mused.
"I wonder what else it can do. And then there is the horn. If the hair is magic, maybe it is, too. Oh, my poor little Moonlight!" Bella moaned.
"Here, you take the reigns. Let me take a better look at that horn," he declared. She took it out and traded it to him for the reigns. He looked at the detail of it more intensely. It was about a foot long, white, but kind of shiny. The grain of the horn was sort of a spiral pattern like some antelopes have. The point was sharp. The stump was ragged, due to Bella's unsure motions as she severed it from the forehead. It made Bella shiver every time she thought of doing it, but she still felt that it was the right thing to do.
The interaction between the poison in the water and the single hair gave them a bit of a different perspective on anything about the momma unicorn, as well as on Moonlight herself. She was growing at a good rate, faster than the kids that she played with, but Bella expected this, since she would be more than double their size as an adult, judging from her momma.
When Moonlight did go up and down the steep hills with the goats, she was a sure-footed and graceful as they were. She could leap farther, not surprisingly, since she was so much bigger already. Her surrogate momma wasn't sure what was happening, but she stayed close to her anyway. They "ma-a-a-ed" back and forth to each other, too, as she did her best to make her 'baby' the best in the flock. Moonlight could speak "Goat".
When Moonlight stayed with the horses and Jasper, she got to the point where she would go to the corner, but not hide altogether. Moonlight ran around the corral with them. She was pretty fast. She might get to be as fast as Flame when she was fully grown, even. The horses whinnied and made noises to each other, and it didn't take long before Moonlight did it back to them. Soon she was conversant in "Horse", too.
Bella was already protective of her, and she responded the best to Bella. They spent a lot of time in the pastures of the hills. It grew apparent that Moonlight could almost read her thoughts. Bella took to talking with her, as she would to a person, talking about any old thing that came to mind. She talked about their surroundings, the mountains, the hills, the flowers and trees. She talked about the people and her family. A couple of times Bella even mentioned Moonlight's momma and how beautiful she was, and what a valiant effort she gave to birth the foal. It seemed that the little one could almost understand Bella's words, and that emotions were expressed in her eyes. She couldn't speak it, but it seemed that she could understand "Human", too.
She was an amazing animal, but she couldn't speak "Unicorn".
Moonlight was definitely more comfortable with the girls of the family. Rosalie and Rachel could groom her and play with her, too, but not Renee so much, which puzzled Bella. Jasper couldn't even pet her, but he could come closer to her than any other man. She totally hid from anyone else.
While there was a lull in conversation on their ride home as Jasper looked at the horn, Bella thought back on the morning after Moonlight was born. True to her word, Bella had taken Jasper out to the place where the momma had fallen early the next morning, but the scavengers had been there, and some of the body was gone. Jasper could still see where the horn bad been. He had brought a sturdy shovel and they buried what was left. He was sad that such a beautiful animal came to such a sad end, yet it was still heroic how she held on until the baby was born. By a couple of weeks the weeds and grasses grew over the grave, and no one would know it was there but the two of them. Bella had immediately taken the horn and the hair and placed them in a box, tied it up with string and kept it under her side of the bed. Rosalie or Rachel had never even noticed it, though they shared the room. Now Alice had the box, and Bella kept the wrapped up horn with her in her backpack. She felt its connection to her that way. It was almost warm, loving. She figured when the time was right, she would know what to do with it, and just took comfort from it until then. They didn't talk about the momma very often after they buried her, and then, only in whispers.
Charlie knew that morning that they were going out to bury the mom, but didn't know that she wasn't just a wild goat. He watched Moonlight closely from a distance as she grew, however, and noticed some unusual things about her. She was very attached to Bella, which he understood, with how much time they spent together. He noticed the sparkle and intelligence in her eyes, and the daintiness in her step. Her shape was that of a filly, except there was something different about her forehead. She seemed to have an injury healing wrong or something on it. She was getting a lump on it. It was becoming more pronounced as the days crept by. Bella kept covering it with her bangs. Her coat color was lightening. Instead of the silver-grey color, it was getting whiter. The mane and tail were a bit longer that he expected to see on a goat or a horse, especially a wild one. She was weaned by then, and ate either with the goats or with the horses. He wasn't a very verbal man, though, and determined that he would watch and see how she grew, and talk with Bella more a little later. It wasn't like he could do more than watch her. She hid from him and any other male but Jasper. She was a pretty little thing, though.
One day in the middle of the week, as Bella was out with the goats and Moonlight, she noticed that the clouds were gathering as they approached the mountains. The breeze was picking up, and a summer storm seemed to be gathering. She gathered her flock and Moonlight and headed on home. Part of the way down the hills she met up with Rosalie, bringing home their flock of sheep for the same reason. It began to shower as they got home. They just got all of them safe and sound crowded in the barn when the rain began. Jasper brought in the cattle in the rain and put them under the trees for shelter, but everything was then secured. Rachel was just locking the hen house. The geese and ducks stayed at the pond. Father was just locking up the barn when the hail began. The lightning and thunder spooked some of the animals, and they clumped together for security. The family waited it out in the house.
This storm was worse than others had been, though. It seemed very localized, as if the clouds wanted to do their worse. It went on for an hour, and then eased up, finally dissipating. There had been a lot of rain in just that hour, too. However, the worst had been up against the mountain. Father and Jasper saddled up Flame and Breeze and rode out to check the crops for damage. Seth, Bella and Rosalie went out to check on the animals in the barn. Everything had been all right, but there was something that caught Bella's eye. The goats were all gathered close together, with Moonlight in the middle. She seemed to be softly whinnying to them, which had a calming effect on the whole flock. The odd thing was that the sheep were there, too. Even the dairy cows were facing her from their stalls. They were unusually calm, about which the family was glad.
When father and Jasper returned it was with good news. The fields had sustained some damage, but most of the crop was all right. The fruit trees, likewise, had minor damage. The fruit that hadn't ripened or been harvested was hit the worse. About a third of those had been pelted, but there were still the other two thirds left. The cattle were loathe to be herded from all that fallen fruit. The river below was a roaring rapid. The wash was full up to the edge of the floodplain. Some of the opposite edge of that bench had been washed away, but the side by the Swan residence was holding, being the inside of the slight bend of the river. Big boulders crashed into each other, and there were fallen trees and other debris rushing by in the roaring river. Their own stream was overflowing, and the pond was huge. The ducks and geese had taken shelter at the base of the tree during the storm, but were fine now.
It would take a week to clean everything up. It was this way each time there was a big storm, although this one was the biggest Charlie and Renee had seen in their twenty years on the farm. They were grateful that it hadn't been worse. They knelt together and thanked God, then got to work. The children left the animals in the barn and went out to the orchards with Renee to salvage what fruit they could find. There was a lot of fruit on the ground, but much was usable. It would still be good in jams and jellies. The rest on the trees could be processed when they were more ready. The vines were in better shape, but the children still brought in some strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. They would be very busy in the kitchen while the strong men worked on the outside damages.
The work was even more urgent when they heard the announcement that Sir Edward was coming to Twin Forks in just four days. They had much to prepare for their booth at market. A neighbor had a grown son named Paul who would rather earn a little money taking care of the livestock for the Swans than go to the fair himself. It would only be a few days, from Friday afternoon until Monday at lunchtime. He had been born and raised on the wheat and alfalfa farm and it would be a piece of cake for him. Charlie took him around, showing him what was needed for the animals, but he warned him about the goats. Their horns were coming in, and they loved to butt everything with them. Sometimes they bit. There was a filly that thought she was a goat like her surrogate goat mom that was shy. He needed to just leave her alone and she would be fine. The rooster would attack if he thought that Paul was threatening the hens and chicks. The ducks and geese just needed some grain in their little trough. He would need to slop the pigs. The cattle could stay in the corral and be fed alfalfa and hay. The most important thing was to milk the goats and cows twice a day, put the dairy products in the containers and keep them in the stream to keep cool and to gather the eggs in the morning from the chickens. He had done it all before, and Jasper had done it for his family when they needed it, as well. That's what neighbors were for.
True to their word, Bella and Jasper met Alice at the appointed time at the jewelry shop. They rode the horses in, rather than bring the whole wagon. Alice was so keyed up to do this that she was pacing back and forth when they walked in the door. It had been the rage a few years earlier to get a lock of the sweetheart and put it into a locket and wear it, so she took them right over to that display case. The lockets came in many shapes, sizes and colors .They looked right past the square and heart shaped ones, and to the circles. They decided to look at the pewter or silver colored lockets. Nothing really stood out to them, so they wandered around the store. Jasper was getting impatient, not being a jewelry sort of guy, but Alice was determined. Bella suddenly gasped, then called out to them, "Look at this one! I think I found it. What do you think?" When the others came around to her in the children's section Alice bounced up and down in glee. There was a small, circular locket in platinum. The background for the locket was navy blue, and there was just room for a ringed strand of hair. It looked sturdy, too. The link looked strong. It was fairly cheap, and they knew they had found their symbol.
"This is just the right thing!" she whispered to the others, excitedly. Jasper nodded his head in approval.
"Oh, yes!" Alice echoed quickly. "It will not draw anybody's attention, even on your watch, and it is demure as well. It's perfect. How much is it?"
"It is within our savings amount, and I vote that we get them!" Bella demanded of Jasper.
"You're right. It fits all of our requirements. Get the salesman. I'll pay for them, and we can go to your house, Alice to fix them for our needs. Let's do it!" Jasper agreed.
They purchased three of them on the spot. They rode over to Alice's house and went right into the parlor. Alice went right upstairs to get three strands of the precious mane. They each twisted a hair around and around until it was a tiny ring, opened the locket and carefully inserted the hair. They opened the links and hooked Jasper's onto his watch bob, and the girl's onto the chains they had bought to match. They were the Moonlight Defenders. They visited for half an hour longer, but had to part so Jasper and Bella would get home before dark. It had been a worthwhile trip.