tag alOng sister mOOn

Fiona loved the Forest.

She treasured the smell of the tall stately pines and the black rich earth beneath her feet.

She delighted in the sound of the wind breathing high in the tops of the trees and the skitter-skatter of animals as they caroused and labored in their forest homes.

Fiona's small fingers sought the roughness of tree bark and the velvet of the verdant moss.

Sometimes she constructed a bed of leaves, pretending that she too lived like one of the primitive denizens of the woods. Criss-cross the trees spread their branches like arms around the bed of Fiona, creature of the wildwood, to protect and comfort her.

Yes, Fiona loved the Forest.

But sometimes she loved it so much she stayed too long.

On those days Papa would stand at the heavy wooden door of their cottage at the edge of the forest and call in a long singsong voice, "Fi-ooooooh-naaah! Fi-oooooooh-naaah!"

Sometimes Papa's face bent down sadly as he worried and waited and waited.

But then Fiona remembered to return, Papa scolded her and everything was fine.

"But you must be home before the dark!" Papa warned her time and time again.

One day Fiona was playing hide and seek with a family of squirrels, when she looked around and saw that the sky had grown dim and cheerless; tall gloomy shadows surrounded her like frightening and fierce soldiers in a fortress.

Too long had she stayed again.

Remembering her father's admonition, Fiona ran quickly toward the path home. She turned here, she turned there but alas! The murky depths of the rayless Forest kept the secret of the path that led home.

She had hurried and missed the way and now it was too dark, just as her father had said.

Fiona was lost.

She sat on a rock in a clearing.

What would she do now?

The Forest was different at night, full of long dark phantasms, mysterious hiccups and sad scowls. Fiona was uneasy because at night, this place could be frightening and unfriendly.

Just as she was wondering what to do, a brilliant arrow of light fell across her small shoulder, illuminating the clearing before her with a glow that was both lustrous and magical.

Fiona leapt from her cold hard seat.

"Because of the mOOnlight I can see," she cried, "and now I know

where I am!"

And off she went with the mOOn smiling behind her.

As she made her way through the night, the mOOn changed sides; sometimes it was on this side, sometimes it was on that side but always it was with her. The Forest looked different at night in the ghostly light; it was as if she had entered Fairy-Land, at once both remote and strange.

She would not have been surprised to see an Elf or Spirit floating between the trees.

But it was growing cold and Fiona knew she did not belong alone in the Forest at night.

"Everywhere I go, " she thought, "there is the mOOn-showing herself when I need her, just like a tag along sister.

She is my tag alOng sister mOOn."

Now Fiona could hear Papa's sad mournful call, and she could see the gleam of the fireplace embers twinkling beyond the open door; she hurried as quickly as her small legs would carry her; soon she was safe in their cozy cottage again.

Fiona said her sorries, promising her father she would never ever stay away so long again.

Then she snuggled into a steaming dinner of elderberry muffins and stew made from the vegetables in their little garden behind the cottage.

Fiona was happy again.That night after Papa had tucked her snugly under her bedcovers,

Fiona crept quietly out of bed.

She pressed her rosy round cheek against the cold windowpane and whispered, Thank yOu,

tag alOng sister mOOn and gOOdnight!" ****************   She Reaches the Moon

gouache on rice paper on board