The grass is as cold as the moon’s light. I crush it with each barefooted step, knowing this moment is deeper than a dream.

The house looms silently, ominous in the girl’s absence.

I know where she hides. The ancient song, deep in her bones, rises and calls me to her. She and her sister crouch in the ground’s bushes, whispering of kingdoms in the stars. I will give them those stars.

Their voices cut short when I enter their hideaway. For a moment their eyes flash with fear. “Shouldn’t you girls be sleeping?” I grin, “It is a full moon after all.”

They respond with shivers. Through the shadows slashed by silver moonlight, I can see their knees stained with green, and twigs trapped in their hair. These wild things are far from the safety of warm beds.

The pulse of the girl nearest me beats with the magic of my own. The other stiffens in the darkness, caught in the sight of a huntress, praying for invisibility.

But I have come to give her sister the stars, as they were gifted to me many moons ago. I wave my hand over the space between us, and a pool appears, glowing with the light of galaxies. It is only an arm length across, but the depth is unfathomable.

The girl’s eyes glow with the light emanating from the pond. I can hear the song that possesses her, pulling her toward the water. “I’ve seen this in dreams,” she whispers. Her fingers brush the surface. The light is almost unbearable as she edges closer, lowering her face into the water, then her torso, and finally her legs.

The other girl gasps. Her paralysis broken, she lunges, arms outstretched, to catch a piece of her vanishing sister. When her fingers come up empty, her face fills with terror. She screams, heading feet first into the pond. Her head sinks and the earth swallows them whole. Silence is their gravestone.

The moon shines on as I climb out of the bushes and bask in her light. Something comes from the east, another pull. There are many more kingdoms that await their children.