To The MOON GODDESS!

 CHAPTER 37

Where Brandel was filling Connor with all the details, despite a doubt in his mind that no one was crazy enough to believe him, a miracle was happening somewhere else.

Ansel was sure that he had died, so why was he there.

Wherever Ansel was, it was not his pack. In fact it was a place where he had never been before. For a moment he thought that everything had been a dream, him getting the book, and discovering the letter to him jumping into the moon lake and dying.

But the warmth that was emitting from the red stone in his palms reassured him and made his shudder at the same time.

"Where am I?" He whispered, yet he could hear nothing.

Maybe he had really died and this was afterlife. That would explain this serene and almost unbelievable place he was in.

It was like there was no end to this place. All white, calm and endless. Where this place should have scared him, oddly enough, it made him feel protected. After what felt like an eternity, Ansel thought he heard something, so he strained his ears for any other sound, yet none came.

"Am I going crazy?" He chuckled to himself, but a part of his heart did not find the entire situation to be funny.

"Welcome my child!" Ansel recognized the vice right away. It was the same silvery voice that he had heard in his dreams and somewhere else too, but he couldn't remember where.

'Am I dreaming again?'

The voice giggled a little and moments later, a girl appeared out of the thin air.

The girl was hardly ten years old, yet her eyes portrayed so much wisdom. She was no mere child, and Ansel could see it too.

"Who... are you?" He mumbled even though he knew otherwise. Just being in her presence filled him with so much love and longing, he knew who she was, already.

"I have so much to say!" the girl exclaimed full of excitement, which brought a smile on Ansel's face. "I wonder how long it has been..." she mused out loud. It took Ansel a few seconds to understand what she meant, but once he got it, he spoke-

"Hundreds of years!"

The girl looked slightly taken aback, but soon her face held the same smile.

"Yes," she nodded; "hundreds of years..." and trailed of in the end, as if she was living those years in that moment. "I am selfish, aren't I?" She asked Ansel, and plopped down in front of him, but she had not demanded any answer, so Ansel never gave one.

He just sat there, staring at her. He took in her form which looked so pure, so very defenseless.

Her hair was as silver as her voice, her sharp eyes which were slightly slanted upwards and the shining moon on her forehead.

There was no doubt in Ansel's mind that he was sitting in front of the Moon Goddess.

Both of them just observed each other for a while and just the sound of silent breathing could be heard.

"Am I dead?" Ansel reluctantly asked and fidgeted with the stone in his hand. Upon hearing the question, the Moon Goddess giggled again and shook her head, telling him he was not. "Then..." he peeked from under his lashes and bit into his lips, "am I going to die?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, a sudden feeling rose in him. 'I don't want to die!'

"Do I look so cruel to you my child?" The girls' voice was small. Ansel panicked upon hearing her. He had never intended that, he could never even think so.