Glowing Up: The Pirate and The Princess

by TippenFunkaport

Bow's sick of his family treating him like a baby when he's nearly seven years old! When his older brother takes him for his first trip to the market, just getting to leave The Library seems like a big enough adventure. But soon he's caught between the rebellion and the Horde and discovers the Whispering Woods may be guiding him to exactly where he's supposed to be.

10. The Woods (Again)

Time has a funny way with memory. Enough time and you can convince yourself that you confused a childhood fantasy for what was merely chance. Years pass and you start to believe that tunnels that were once mysterious and dangerous are simply a convenient shortcut, an underground path with no other purpose than to take you from where you don't want to be to where you do and back again. Ending a day at Bright Moon and ducking underground to walk home faster than should be possible, the entrance exactly in the spot where Glimmer told you it was all those years ago, becomes routine.

Routine like lying to your family. Like saying your farewells to your brother at the mill, letting him think you were working in the shed all day. Like shooting a bow like it's an extension of your arm, the arrow sailing exactly where you told it go.

But not that first day. That first day, you race to the wood to get back in time to meet your brother, heart racing, terrified of what you've already decided to do. Because you'll need to learn to fight, find a way you can help.

You only hesitate for a moment at the entrance. The tunnels are a dark hole, old magic you were taught your whole life not to trust, a path to everywhere your life wasn't supposed to go. But you know you've got to do this, for a million reasons you can't put into words, and there's no going back now.

So you step forward into the unknown, a leap of faith that changes everything.