Natasha Luepke - The Adventures of Luna

The sun glittered before us.

“This is it,” Holle said. “This is where Wolfsdaughter and I leave.”

Sanum took a deep breath. “I can’t believe it.”

I merely sniffed, then howled.

“What are you so worked up about?” Sanum asked.

“Please, stay,” I said.

“What reason do I have for that?” Sanum asked.

“Me,” I said softly. “You could—you could come to the Tenth Kingdom. You should see it! I-uh…oh, cripes…”

Sanum hugged me. “Wolfsdaughter, my place is here. Your place is on the other side of your mother’s mirror. And Holle…will be leaving for the wood.”

Holle was standing with her head bowed. She finally said the words I had longed to say: “Sanum, I love you.”

He stared at her.

She wiped her eyes, those strange clear eyes that reflected back the world, that right now reflected only Sanum. “Do you think…your village will need a midwife?”

I turned away as they kissed. I backed away into the woods and ran. I didn’t turn back when they shouted after me. When I grew tired, I changed into a wolf, alternating between my two forms, never ceasing my flight. It took but two days to return to the Fourth Kingdom. The sharpest dagger in my heart hadn’t been their kiss but that Sanum didn’t call me “Luna” until I’d left them.

Mom said she was sorry that one of my more human attributes was unrequited love. Dad merely huffed and said that Sanum was obviously not the one I was destined to be with, that I would win someone worth the wooing. Or something like that; he’d obviously been reading poetry again and had become incomprehensible.