THE KINGDOM BENEATH THE MOON

The first time Elyan Vale heard the moon whisper his name, he was eight years old. He was sitting beneath the old oak tree behind his house, watching fireflies drift over the fields while his mother hung freshly washed clothes from a wooden line. It had been a warm summer's evening in Briar Glen. The village was quiet except for the distant sounds of farmers returning from the fields and the occasional bark of a dog. Elyan remembered looking up. The moon was enormous. Perfectly round. Pale silver. And for a moment, he thought he saw a dark shape moving across its surface. He blinked. The shape disappeared. Then he heard it. "Elyan." He looked toward his mother. She hadn't spoken. "Elyan." The voice came again. It wasn't coming from the house. It wasn't coming from the forest. It wasn't coming from anywhere he could identify. It seemed to come from everywhere at once. Elyan stood. "Mother?" His mother stopped hanging the clothes. "What is it?" "Did you hear that?" She stared at him. "Hear what?" "The moon." His mother's face changed. Only for a second. But Elyan saw it. Fear. Real fear. She dropped the shirt she was holding. Then she walked quickly toward him. "Don't say that again." Elyan frowned. "But—" "Never." She knelt in front of him and placed both hands on his shoulders. Her eyes were unusually serious. "Do you understand me?" He nodded. "Yes." "Good." She looked toward the moon. For several seconds, neither of them spoke. Then she pulled him into a tight embrace. Elyan didn't understand why she was frightened. Years later, he would understand. That night was the beginning of everything. Nine years passed. Elyan was seventeen when the moon whispered his name again. This time, he was alone. And this time, it didn't stop. He had been returning from the western fields after helping his neighbor repair a broken fence. Briar Glen was a small village surrounded by thick forests and rolling green hills. It had existed for generations without becoming important enough to appear on most maps. That was precisely why Elyan liked it. Nothing happened in Briar Glen. No wars. No royal visitors. No dangerous creatures. No magic. At least, that was what everyone believed. Elyan walked along the dirt road carrying a lantern. The sun had disappeared almost an hour earlier. Above him, stars were beginning to emerge. The moon was rising. He stopped walking. The whisper came. "Elyan." His fingers tightened around the lantern. He looked around. Nothing. The road behind him was empty. The fields were empty. The houses of Briar Glen were several hundred yards away. He swallowed. "Who's there?" Silence. Then— "Come to the forest." Elyan's heart began beating faster. He had heard voices before. Not often. But enough. When he was younger, he had occasionally heard whispers from wells, caves, abandoned buildings, and once from a locked chest. His mother had always told him that imagination could make ordinary sounds seem strange. His mother had also told him never to enter the forest after dark. She had been dead for six years. Yet he still remembered her warning. Never enter the forest after dark. Elyan looked toward the trees. The forest stood beyond the eastern fields. Black. Silent. Waiting. He should have continued home. Instead, he stepped off the road. The deeper Elyan walked into the forest, the colder the air became. The trees were enormous here. Their branches formed a canopy so thick that moonlight barely reached the ground. Elyan raised his lantern. "Hello?" No answer. He continued. Leaves crunched beneath his boots. Somewhere far away, an owl called. Then silence returned. "Elyan." He stopped. The voice was closer. "Where are you?" "Behind you." Elyan spun around. Nothing. His breathing became shallow. Then he noticed something. A faint silver glow between the trees. He moved toward it. The light grew stronger. Eventually he reached a clearing. In the center stood a stone. It was taller than he was and covered in symbols. Elyan had never seen anything like it. The stone appeared ancient. Very ancient. Moonlight poured directly onto its surface. The symbols began glowing. Elyan stepped backward. One symbol looked strangely familiar. A crescent moon surrounded by seven small circles. He had seen it before. On his mother's necklace. On the old wooden box she had kept locked beneath her bed. On the strange scar-like mark on his shoulder that had appeared when he was eleven. His mother had always refused to explain it. Elyan approached the stone. He raised his hand. Something inside him told him not to touch it. Something else told him he had been waiting his entire life to do exactly that. His fingers touched the stone. The world went silent. The insects stopped. The wind stopped. Even his own breathing seemed to disappear. Then the stone exploded with light. Elyan screamed. Images flooded his mind. A city beneath a silver sky. Thousands of people running through enormous streets. A tower reaching toward a moon that seemed impossibly close. Soldiers wearing black armor. A woman holding a baby. A man standing before a massive gate. Then— Fire. The city burning. Seven figures standing together. A man with silver eyes looking toward them. The man was screaming. Not in anger. In betrayal. Then Elyan saw his mother. She was younger. Much younger. She was running through a forest while holding a baby. The baby was him. His mother looked terrified. Behind her, something enormous moved between the trees. She stopped. Looked at the baby. And whispered: "Forgive me." The vision shattered. Elyan collapsed. When he opened his eyes, he was lying on the forest floor. His lantern had gone out. The clearing was dark. He slowly sat up. His head throbbed. "What... was that?" He looked at the stone. The symbols were gone. The surface was completely blank. Then he noticed his arm. A silver mark was spreading across his skin. It began at his wrist and moved upward like liquid light. Elyan tried to wipe it away. It wouldn't disappear. He stared at it. "No." The mark reached his shoulder. Then stopped. A sound came from behind him. A branch breaking. Elyan froze. Something was in the forest. He turned. Two pale eyes stared at him from between the trees. Elyan couldn't move. The creature stepped forward. It looked almost human. Almost. Its body was unnaturally thin, its limbs too long, its skin gray beneath the moonlight. Its mouth opened. There were no teeth. Only darkness. Elyan stumbled backward. The creature made a sound like a breath being dragged through broken glass. Then it charged. Elyan ran. He didn't know where he was going. Branches struck his face. Roots caught his boots. Behind him, the creature moved impossibly fast. He could hear it gaining on him. Closer. Closer. Then it leapt. Elyan fell. The creature landed several feet away. It turned toward him. Elyan raised his arms instinctively. "Stay away!" The creature lunged. Something inside Elyan awakened. A burst of silver fire erupted from his hands. The creature was thrown backward. It struck a tree with enough force to c***k the trunk. Elyan stared at his hands. Silver flames danced across his fingers. "What am I?" The creature slowly stood. It wasn't dead. It looked at him. And for the first time, Elyan understood what the whisper had been trying to tell him. The creature wasn't afraid of him. It was afraid for him. It whispered a single word. "Moonbound." Then it vanished into the darkness. Elyan remained in the forest for several minutes. His hands were trembling. The silver fire had disappeared. But the mark remained. He didn't know what Moonbound meant. He didn't know what the stone was. He didn't know why his mother had hidden the truth from him. But he knew one thing. He had to get home. He ran. By the time he reached the edge of Briar Glen, the moon was high overhead. Then he stopped. Something was wrong. The village was completely dark. No lamps. No candles. No fires. Elyan's stomach tightened. "Briar Glen?" He started walking. The first house he passed had its door open. Nobody inside. The second house was the same. The third. The fourth. "Ella?" He called his neighbor's name. No answer. He ran toward the center of the village. Then he saw it. Smoke. Dark smoke rising above the rooftops. Elyan's heart sank. He sprinted forward. The village square was empty. The old fountain had been destroyed. Windows were shattered. Doors hung from broken hinges. And in the center of the square lay the village bell. Crushed. Elyan slowly turned. A sound came from behind him. He spun around. A figure stood at the edge of the village. Then another. Then another. Dozens. Their eyes reflected the moonlight. Elyan stepped backward. The creatures from the forest had followed him. One of them stepped forward. Then the moon changed. Elyan looked upward. The silver surface of the moon began turning black. Not slowly. Not gradually. The darkness spread across it like ink dropped into water. Within seconds, the entire moon had become black. Every creature in the village stopped moving. They looked upward. Then they bowed. All of them. At the same time. Elyan's blood turned cold. A voice echoed across the village. Not a whisper this time. A man's voice. Deep. Ancient. And impossibly far away. "After a thousand years..." The ground trembled. "...the gate is opening." Elyan stared at the black moon. The silver mark on his arm burned. The voice continued. "And the last Moonbound has returned." Elyan looked at the creatures. Then at the forest. Then at the black sky. He finally understood why his mother had been afraid. She hadn't been afraid of what lived in the darkness. She had been afraid of what would happen when the darkness discovered him. A terrible sound echoed beneath the earth. The ground cracked. Something enormous began waking below Briar Glen. Elyan ran. And behind him, the forgotten kingdom began to rise.