I meant well, sending her off on an impossible quest for the Silverword Cascade, hoping she’d find distraction and joy during the painful waiting time until her childhood friends return to her; No Baba Yaga am I — my magic is limited to perception only of magic’s heady limerance, and I hadn’t felt her subtle glow.

How could they fail to rediscover and return to this sweet moonflower of a girl, so kind to this old grandmother, so fair with her friends and family, wishing only to care and be cared for?

I suppose Solveig’s fragility is part of her charm, a power nurtured by the love and support of her strong community, even if her friends are in short supply right now.

But what I perceive on this crescent moon midnight, the grace and glow of darker edges and arcane knowing, is something that others may not see, and something for which they may not be prepared.

You may say to me that every teen suffers the imbalance of knowledge and awareness of both light and dark, that this is only an augmentation of a very normal part of growing up; I hope you’re right.

For my part, I will pray to the Goddess for her protection, and hope the foundation set in her early years will be enough to carry her through, should she decide to pull away from her loved ones.

© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2022)

For Part One of this tale, please click here.

The challenge? Write a story in 6 sentences, no more & no less, and if you’d like, share your creation or just visit and comment on others’ ideas, with GirlieOnTheEdge, Denise. The prompt is “CHARM”, and here’s where you join the party: Six Sentence Stories  

Additional Prompt: MindLoveMisery’s  Menagery Photo Challenge #396