Stories by the Fire

As the other members of the weary search party slept, and Tobias kept a watchful eye, Lincoln returned to the past with Octavia. Luna, he explained, had been his closest childhood friend. Raised by his father, the tribe's keeper of history, and his mother, the tribe's healer, after the death of her parents – he and Luna had been inseparable. Two years his senior, Luna had made herself Lincoln's designated protector – first from insects while he slept as a babe and then from older children in the village when he was a toddler. They had passed through the warrior initiation rite together, learned to hunt and fish, watched his mother heal the sick and gained an understanding of the past by listening to the tales of his father. They slept in the same bed and ate from the same fire. By the time they were teenagers, and Lincoln grew in height and build, people from neighboring Grounder communities assumed they were twins.

Lincoln paused and gazed at the fire. "Then came the flood."

It rained for seven days straight. Water from the heavens steadily drizzled, along with heavier showers and some raindrops as big and hard as small stones. Rivers burst their banks and the village became a sea of mud. As soon as the waters subsided, Luna was out the door – restless and anxious to be free. Lincoln followed, never far from her side; but they wandered too far.

"The yellow mist descended on us. We ran as fast as we could, but there was no escaping it. As I looked back for Luna, who was only a few paces behind me, I fell into a boar trap set by my own people." Lincoln shook his head, embarrassed at the memory. "I can still remember looking up and seeing her face peering down at me. She reached out her hand and, when she realized that there was no time to pull me out, she threw down damp leaves, branches, foliage - anything that would act as a natural covering from the poison. Then she replaced the man-made cover on the trap before the mist enveloped her. " Lincoln paused, lost in his thoughts. He shook his head again. "She knew that if she'd jumped down to join me, there would have been no one to replace the covering. She made that sacrifice for me."

Another pause. Octavia did not interrupt.

"I must have passed out. When I awoke, it was dawn and the mist had evaporated. It took me 'till twilight to climb out of that hole. When I returned to the village, Luna was not there."

"Lincoln," Octavia began "that's awful."

"There's more," Lincoln cut her off, his words descending in rapid, hushed whispers.

The cycle of two moons passed. Everyone, including Lincoln, assumed Luna was dead. No trace of her could be found. Then one morning, Lincoln awoke early. A dog had been barking incessantly, but had abruptly stopped. The sudden silence tore him from a dream. Leaving his parents' hut, he'd walked to the edge of the village by the well. There, naked, drinking a mouthful of water, with the hound curled by her feet was Luna. She looked at him and, at first, it seemed like she did not recognize him. Then she said his name and ran into his arms. It was a joyful reunion, especially for Lincoln and his family, although some tribe members questioned how she had survived. She was the first known Grounder to endure the yellow poison and, mysteriously, she had no memory of events.

"It was as if she went to sleep and woke up two months later, standing in front of the well. And Luna was changed. Quieter, more introverted. She also seemed to have a sense of things to come." Lincoln smiled at Octavia. "I know it sounds ludicrous, but she could tell when it would rain from when it would shine, where the boars would be gathering in the forest on the days of the hunt, when neighboring Grounder tribes were coming, days before the first riders reached us with messages of arrival." Lincoln's gazed turned grim once again. "This gift would change her life."

Word spread among the villages of Luna's foresight. Grounders revered her and feared her at the same time. But one man realized how useful this power could be and how he could use it to his advantage. The summer after Luna's return, The Commander came to Lincoln's village. When he and his party of warriors arrived, he soon made his intentions clear. Luna was of age and was to become chief among his wives. She would return with him to the commanding Tribes of the Eastern Sea. There was no disobeying. When Lincoln confronted Luna about it, on the night of her wedding, he realized that she'd known that this would come to pass.

"Why do you worry, Lincoln?" She'd asked him. "This will not be our final goodbye."

That night, Lincoln presented her with a gift – a copper chain with engravings of the moon in various stages of its passing in the sky – quarter, half, full. She wore it in her hair as an adornment when she was given to The Commander. As soon as the ceremony was over, he rode off with her in the night, his party of warriors following. No time for her family to give her a final embrace. As he watched her leave, Lincoln realized that his affection for Luna had transformed into something he could not quite describe. He longed to ride after The Commander, to take Luna away by force and to bring her back to the tribe; to protect her, as a brother should. But, as he watched her ride away, he could no longer say that brotherly love was all her felt for her. Creeping up inside his chest were the first tender inklings of adolescent love.

"I tell you this all now, truthfully" Lincoln murmured to Octavia, holding her close in his left arm and playing with the copper trinket which he had found in the horse's mane in the fingers of his right. "I hold nothing back."

"And I am thankful." Octavia replied. Her voice was level, honest, and that made Lincoln thankful as well. They were quiet for a while. Only a few hours remained till daybreak. They had not slept, but they both felt rested and calm.

"A year later my mother passed on to the spirits and my father shortly afterwards. I am a warrior, but I keep their teachings close to my heart."

"In your cave of wonders," Octavia said, turning her head up to his.

Lincoln looked into her eyes and smiled, "In our cave, yes. Another three years would come and go before my heart stirred again in anyway remotely similar to what I felt for Luna. That was the day you fell from the sky."

Lincoln pulled Octavia in tighter and they both fell into an easy sleep.