A Midnight Stroll

Slowly, very slowly, the phoenix flower opens. It bursts in an array of spear-sharp petals the colour of embers, scattering pollen like sparks.

He gasps and is certain that the girls have heard him, but they show no sign of having noticed his presence. He steps slowly out of the shadows, and they do not turn.

The girls are silent as they come to stand before a wall. Arianwyn slides the wall aside, like a paneled door. Beyond is darkness and stairs, punctuated by dim lantern light.

Fabrics as shimmering and diaphanous as woven moonlight rustle as they descend and, after a moment’s hesitation, he follows them.

They emerge from the stairs into a forest, in a kiosk filled with moss, speckled with night-blooming flowers. The girls walk with purpose, as though their destination is in sight, but they do not stop soon. They do not trip on the roots snaking in and out of the soil, as though they have walked the path a hundred times before.

Then, very slowly, the forest begins to change.

The trees are lit with a soft silver light, and every leaf is carved silver so bright they appear like stars.

He holds his hand over his mouth to stifle his gasp, and almost stops walking. He must run to catch up with the girls, whose procession does not halt and whose silence is uninterrupted.

The silver light begins to fade. Like moonlight changing to the light of dawn, the forest glows golden. The leaves on the trees here are like golden coins. Even the blossoms on the ground release small starbursts of golden pollen, and the ferns are covered in fine golden hairs, like those on a peach. The woods are a rich man’s dream, but the boy does not pause to pick a flower, to snap a twig and its leaves from a low-hanging branch.

They continue, and time begins to lose meaning in a blur of gold and silver. It is not until the light before them begins to twinkle like the night sky that he realizes the forest is changing once again.

The leaves, each one on every tree, is a clear shining diamond. They rustle with a sound like twinkling silver bells and catch the moonlight, glittering like tree-fulls of stars.

Art by K.Y. Craft

Text by Lucie MacAulay