Winter Wish

6

Lost Memory



She woke up sweating under the blankets as daylight filled her room. She sat up with a groan as she tossed aside the heavy drapes with her hands and feet. Felix was a pain in the neck!

She rolled her eyes when her brother suddenly opened the door to her room, as if he had heard his name running through her mind. Her hair was sticky with sweat on her neck and face and she felt like she was suffocating.

"How are you Luna? Are you okay?"

The anger she felt towards Felix instantly subsided as he nervously padded over to her. She smiled and got out of bed. "Good morning Felix, I'm fine. I told you it was no use worrying."

He looked at his sister seriously and then touched her forehead with the back of his hand. She didn't have a fever, she had color in her face, maybe the only problem now was that she smelled a little sweaty, but Felix wasn't the last person to worry about that. He was happy that Luna was okay. For some reason last night she had seemed very strange to him and he couldn't help but worry a lot.

"Good morning, I'm glad you're okay Luna."

"Are our parents awake?"

"Yes, dad went to the market with Albin. Diana and Silas are preparing breakfast."

"Good, I'll go down and help them."

Felix grimaced and took a step backwards just to annoy her. "I think you'd better clean up first, you stink!"

Felix grinned wryly as Luna hugged herself in horror and shame. Like any brother, of course he enjoyed picking on his sister, he couldn't help it.

Before Luna could get angry and lash out at him, he walked backwards out of her room and downstairs just as she started to growl in anger.

**

That day Luna felt strangely absent-minded.

It was as if something had happened or something was on her mind, but she couldn't remember what it was. She just had this confusing feeling that she would occasionally have a thought, and then she couldn't find out what it was, so she went about her daily life.

She had breakfast with her family. She spent time with Albin. She went for a walk with Diana and together they made short visits to her siblings' homes, but the strange feeling inside her never subsided throughout the day.

What was on her mind?

What could she have forgotten?

No matter how much she thought about it, she could not find an answer to these questions.

So she finally forbade herself to think about it and spent time with her family until bedtime.

On their agenda was Fabian, the youngest boy in the house. He had been getting a bit too quiet lately and somehow the subject had come up when he wasn't around. Silas was the first to broach the subject.

"Felix, have you and Fabian been fighting lately?" he asked, looking a little thoughtful.

He didn't interfere too much with them, but of course he tried to be as attentive as he could to all of them because they were his brothers and sisters...

"No," Felix said, surprised. "Why do you ask?"

"He seems a bit strange lately."

That's when Luna chimed in. "I agree. It's like something's wrong with him... I keep catching him frowning and staring at the walls."

So they tried to find out why until Fabian came back to them. They were still not successful.

Fabian was not the most cheerful of the family. He was neither as smart aleck as Albin nor as playful as Felix. He was usually quiet, but his silence now was strange and different from his normal self. Maybe it was because he was growing up. After all, he would soon be 14.

In the end, they decided that if he had a problem, no one would know about it except his best friend Lucius. So it was obvious that no one in the family, except Felix, would ever know the truth. Lucius would never tell Fabian's secrets to anyone else, but maybe only Felix, just because he was the boy's biggest role model, would be able to get something out of him.

As darkness fell, Luna retired early to her room, feeling tired.

As she got ready for bed and combed her hair, that strange feeling had once again taken over her heart. Even though she was diligently combing her long, almost white, light blonde hair, she still felt strange. Normally combing her hair always made her feel good. Especially if someone else did it and slowly touched her hair, she would be ecstatic, but right now she didn't feel ecstatic at all.

When she was done, she lay down on her bed and adjusted her pillows. When her hand hit a hard book cover, she flinched back. How funny was she acting? It wasn't a bug or a monster, was it? It was just a book.

She frowned as she remembered that Bella had given it to her. Hadn't she started reading this book yesterday?

It was as if in some far, far away corner of the palace of her memories there were memories of this book, but she was too far away to catch them now.

Maybe she hadn't started reading it, maybe she was confusing it with another book. After all, she and Bella gave books to each other all the time, and they really liked to talk about books after reading them, or to act them out.

"Let's see what kind of book this is," she murmured, opening it.

A small dried rose had been left inside a page. Was this a bookmark or was the rose just there? If she had put it in the book herself, she really didn't remember it.

Frowning, she began to read the page. She thought that if she had started the book, she would remember it.

It wasn't even the introduction that she started reading, it was the mysterious presence of the wizard in the forest. Her brow furrowed even more as she felt like she was experiencing déjà vu. The lost memory haunted her, and as she flipped through the page, she could strangely feel her heartbeat begin to quicken.

At the end, she came across a place where the writing was different from the rest of the book, in bold letters and dark ink. Although she couldn't understand what it said, she suddenly found herself beginning to read the words aloud.

"Tenebrae super te cadent et nubes lunam operiet."

Her candle went out as the book slipped from her hand, and Luna didn't even have time to be surprised before she was startled, feeling trapped in pitch darkness.

"So you read the book again after all."

The echoing, yet familiar voice she heard made her distress disappear instantly. Luna responded, realizing that she remembered everything too. "Wizard? Is that you?"

Yes, of course! She had read the book, and when she fell asleep, she met the wizard in the forest. It was very strange, but why hadn't she remembered it all day?

"Yes, it's me..."

As the darkness was illuminated by a dazzling glow and the intensity of the light slowly faded, Luna found herself sitting in the same chair again. Of course, the green-haired sorceress was there again, smiling at her.

"I'm here," she said, batting her eyelashes.

"That's right."

"And you are here!"

The wizard laughed as her voice rose in amazement. "Yes."

"Does that mean... does that mean... I'm dreaming again?"

The wizard smiled differently this time. Her eyes squinted and turned orange, as if her pupils had begun to form a straight line. Luna shuddered and hugged herself, certain that this was the most sinister look she had ever seen. Why had the wizard's gaze changed so much now?

"No, Luna," she whispered as she moved closer to her, but she hadn't actually moved. It was as if the distance between them had suddenly vanished, and they were sitting so close that their knees touched.

"You're not dreaming this time."