A Feast For The Moon Mother

Amari found it hard to contain her excitement for the evening planned. After her 17th birthday, only three nights ago, her parents deemed it appropriate for her to attend the Moon Feast in honor of their goddess, Hecate.

As the maidens began finishing their work dressing her, she couldn't help but stare into the silver-plated mirror on the wall. Its intricate carvings of willows, vines, and wolfsbane weren't the reason for her entrancement. No, it was her figure. She had never been the most lady-like in her family, much to her parent's dismay, yet the reflection staring back at her was nothing less than a woman.

Amari had always preferred to play in the forests with her brothers Ruadan and Tadg. She found herself most at home when her fiery-red hair became blanketed in shades of blue and purple from the moonlight above when she could smell the frost and pine from the trees and feel the cold dew-covered grass hug between her toes.

Many moons have passed since she last saw her brothers as they had become soldiers drafted for the war in the south. Amari closed her eyes and said a small prayer to the moon mother, may she guide and keep them safe. With her brothers gone, she now had more time to attend her worship and magical studies, which she hoped would be of service tonight. 

The dress chosen for her for the feast was nothing to scoff at. The lilac color complimented her pink skin. A corset with pressed cyclamens and hemlock accentuated her chest, stopping at her waist. The floor-length skirt that followed was loose fitting, allowing for comfortable movement considering the dance tonight. Silver bands placed just below her shoulders held sheer tulle sleeves that lightly puffed and ended at her wrists and tied with laced bows.

The sliver of leather around her neck beheld Hecate's Wheel pendant. Amari spun it between her nimble fingers and considered herself blessed to behold this symbol tonight. As the maidens finished tying the top half of her hair back into braids on either side of her ears, Amari let out a trepidus breath.

Tonight was to represent more than Amari's entry into womanhood. Though the druids will celebrate their moon mother's birth with a ritual feast and dance, they must also bring a gift to their goddess. This gift must represent their love and devotion while beholding her power in the highest of regards. Legend states that Hecate will bleed the moon if she does not accept her gifts, leaving her disciples drained of the power she has bestowed them until they redeem themselves with unyielding signs of devotion.  

The two maidens bowed their heads to Amari and silently left her to her dwellings. Amari began to pace through the room, still twirling the pendant in circles. If the gift she had spent months preparing is not received tonight - she stopped in her tracks. There's no point in dreading something that will not come. She and her family are most devout to their mother. There is no reason that Hecate would deny her gift. It is perfect. 

Amari knelt beside her bed, careful not to dirty her dress, and lifted the comforter. She pulled a small onyx box from beneath her bedframe and ran her fingers over the soft velvet. The light spilling from her window was dissipating, a sign that the lunar eclipse was coming and the festivities would start soon.

With the most delicate touch she could muster Amari carefully opened the box. The inside lay with a cushion covered in black satin that glistened with a purple sheen in the remaining moonlight from the room. Laying atop the pillow was a teardrop-shaped glass vial, the cork stopper decorated with a silver crown. Black snakes slithered on either side, meeting head-to-head at the point.

Amari lifted the vial from its resting place and softly swirled the liquid inside. Luckily, the blood inside maintained its bright red hue and hadn't rusted. Raudan had made her aware of the possibility when he had it sent and the risk he was taking having it delivered. However, Amari could think of no better gift to her moon mother than the blood of her enemy shed by the hands of her reverent soldier fighting a battle against those who claim a false deity.

A smile formed on Amari's lips as she placed the vial in the breast of her corset. She was foolish to believe that the gift was anything less than exceptional. The sound of a horn began and shook through her feet up to her knees. The feast was starting. Amari lifted the skirt slightly above her shins and hustled out the door down the spiral stone stairs crowded with her kin.

When she stepped outside, her feet again meeting with the cool embrace of the earth beneath her, her heart began to pound. She followed along with her brothers and sisters, their joyous chatting a lovely song to her ears. The first task of the night was to bestow their gifts on the dais, located in a small clearing of the forest, and await the lunar eclipse, the sign that Hecate had accepted her gifts and the druids could now dance and feast and sin to their heart's content in embracement of her love. 

Some druids took it upon themselves to make the trip faster by changing to their bestial forms. A congregation of wolves, bears, and eagles of varying colors and sizes darted through the pine trees, shaking the leftover frost of the winter from their leaves. Amari took in a sharp breath and focused. She could feel the burning in her bones as her magic encompassed her body. She could feel her feet and hands begin to take shape and felt herself come closer to the ground. 

Opening her eyes, she took a few seconds to allow her newly enhanced vision to adjust. Suddenly, her ears filled with the sound of scurried scratches. Her head twisted toward the source; a squirrel was making its way up a tree, most likely looking for a place to stay warm for the night. Although her body screamed to pounce, she steeled her newfound paws into the dirt to steady herself. She could not let herself become distracted. 

Amari stretched her front paws forward and shoulders as far down as she could, bringing her tail up into the hair as high as it could reach. She let out a satisfying growl at the feeling of her spine stretching and aligning and thanked the moon mother for gifting her soul the second body of a glorious mountain lion. Oh, how she loved being a feline. Amari took off on a pounce, following her brethren. 

When she arrived at the dais, now back in her elven form along with the rest of her circle, she saw several gifts placed on the circular stonework raised a few inches from the ground. The gifts varied from homemade pastries and breads to sets of jewelry that surely cost some families all of their gold, silver, and copper pieces, to even carvings of the moon goddess herself and blacksmiths laid down their weapons they had worked tirelessly on these past few months.

Amari stepped to the dais and lifted her head up to the sky. The moonlight was beginning to become blanketed with the darkness that Hecate was preparing for them. She placed her hand upon her breast, checking that the vial was still there, and closed her eyes. A silent prayer began singing in her mind, begging Hecate to accept her gift and bestow her and all of her kin with many blessings. She pulled the vial from her corset and softly laid it beside the other gifts. 

She stepped away from the dais and turned towards her parents, who met her with warm, smiling faces. That was all the confirmation she needed to know her gift was exquisite. The air around her suddenly felt rigid and dry, and the taste of iron fell on her tongue. The ground below her feet, green and lush with life just moments ago, was cast in an orange glow and now cracked under her toes as she wiggled them. She turned her head towards the sky to find the moon no longer shrouded in darkness but covered in red and orange swirls. 

The moon was bleeding...

A sharp pain abruptly shot from the top of her scalp down her entire body, causing her to double over and curl onto the ground. Amari watched as the same happened to her circle, the ground now littered with druids hunched in pain. Using every ounce of power she could find within herself, she tried to turn, hoping that the strength of her ferocious feline would bring itself forward in aid.

She strained as she reached for the well of power that resided in the depths of her soul but was met instead with a dry, bottomless well. Tears streaked down her face as she became overcome with the feeling of grief. It felt as though a deep tear had gouged in a tapestry of power that once resided within her, and no matter how hard she tried to pull the fabric back together, it was to no avail.

Her face crumpled in the dead land below her. Amari did her best to scan the land for her family. Maybe she could provide them comfort in these moments and thought if they put their strength together, they could use it to show Hecate that they were worthy of her power and undeserving of this pain she brought down on them.

The sound of clanking armor flooded the forest, and the druids who had been screaming and writhing in pain became absolutely silent. Amari, filled to the brim with a dread she wished upon no one, even her worst enemies, made herself as quiet as a mouse. She closed her eyes and began to pray to her moon mother. Amari prayed for forgiveness and hoped with every fiber of being left in her that who now stood above her crumpled figure was not there. For if they were, she knew why Hecate was angry. 

"Open your eyes." The deep male voice spoke with an unwavering command Amari did not follow. 

"Open them, girl. See what praying to the false moon goddess brings those who dare meddle in the affair of war." Amari did not follow.

Metal-clad hands grappled her scalp and lifted her head barely an inch from the ground.

"I SAID OPEN YOUR EYES!" 

Whether it was out of fear or anger, she could not tell, but she followed the command.

Amari met the stare of eyes she knew better than her own. Soft shades of honey brown that used to swirl within them were now a smoke-smothered grey. Oh, Raudan....

He had warned her in his letter that delivering this package might not be wise, yet he still threw caution to the wind. "I want my baby sister to have a gift for the moon mother that all the circle will envy and gossip about for years to come." he had written. 

The sadness she felt before was a blink in time to the heavy stone her heart became at that moment. They followed the package somehow. Because of her, they knew how to find her circle and her family. Her home. May Hecate never forgive her and may she succumb to whatever end the fates have designed her for her misjudgment. How foolish of her to want the title of "prettiest prize."

She felt nothing but the shell of her body lifted from the ground. She could see her mother and father's faces contorted in pain and was sure they were screaming, though her ears had become deafened. That was until the man who was holding her spoke.

"Let what has transpired here today be a sign to all those who pray to the false moon goddess Hecate." The man said with a thunderous boom.

Amari looked down at the man. His plated armor covered all of his features. His helm gave no sign of what the face underneath might be. The only identifying feature of this man was the signet emblazoned in his armor: A golden crescent moon above a cross, a sign of those who promised their souls to Selene. Tales told that those who followed Selene were known for their kindness and compassion and that they were only in this war out of necessity to protect their people. She oddly wondered if this soldier would meet a fate worse than hers for the atrocities he had likely already committed in her name. The man's helm turned up towards her dangling figure.

"Forfeit your tarnished soul to the one and ONLY moon-mother, Selene. Forget your claim to the false goddess Hecate so that I may spare your life."

Amari only looked forward and began to recite her prayer:

"O Hecate, gird me with thine invincible might,

Be my shield, my guardian, my protector;

Make me mighty, make me brave,

Stronger than any who - "

The last thing she felt was the cold slice of the blade against her throat. Her body thudded to the ground next to her brothers. A fitting end, she supposed.