— •🦋 Paige 🦋• —

I wake up to the sound of birds chirping and the constant fuzzy noise of wind in my ear.

Opening my eyes and looking around, I realise I'm in the woods. Alone.

How the goddesses name did I get here?

The world is balanced in good and bad,
Don't break it for it might not last.
The ground will shake, as will the trees,
The rivers stop as will the breeze.

The balance needs to be maintained,
For if not it's devils play.
The creatures will come out to hunt,
You have to either hide or run.

What in the.

Am I hearing things?

"The world is balanced in good and bad.
The balance needs to be maintained."

Why is there a voice talking to me?

What does it mean? What does 'the balance need to be maintained' mean? What balance? I don't understand.

Stupid woman voice of the wind! Go away I don't like it, you're saying big words I don't know.

"The balance needs to be maintained."

I turn and run away, covering my ears trying to get the stupid voice out of my head.

I somehow end up back at home. I blink a few times to make sure it's definitely real and I'm not imagining voices and places.

I was running fast and not focusing on where I was going.

Maybe Auntie Julia can help me. She's smart and she knows a lot of stuff about the nature and the trees and stuff.

Yeah, I think I'll talk to Julia.

I start walking over to her tent and stop when I realise that Bella isn't there anymore.

I didn't mean to but I cry. I miss her and it's all stupid Lucas's fault! The silly nugget brain. I haven't spoken to him cause I'm mad.

I stop crying when I hear people talking. I listen and try to find out who it is. When I figure out it's auntie Julia and Charlie I stay quiet.

My mummy said that eavesdropping is bad and it's non of my beeswax, I can't be nosey. I should go. But then I hear him say Bella's name so I stay.

I hope Charlie doesn't see me, I don't like it when he shouts because he's scary and he makes me cry.

"Where were you? You've been gone for hours. Were you looking for Bella as well?!" He asks. He doesn't ask nicely, his voice is mean.

"I was in the woods, trying to find some herbs for the medical reserves. You know we have to hide the advanced medical equipment as we are meant to be gypsies and not a werewolf group. If anyone was to find out we have advanced medicines and technologies-"

"Enough!" Charlie shouts.

What do all the big words she said mean? Why do we have to pretend to be what she said? What are technolollygies and something wolf? I don't understand. I hate being little.

Charlie shouted loud and I jumped because he scared me.

"Why did it take so long though?!" He asked.

"There were some rogues on the border where I was, on the west side. They didn't attack, something about not being what they were looking for and something about being an unworthy prize."

What is a rogue? And why would they attack Julia anyways?

Grown ups are weird.

"Okay very well, I'll see you later on, next time you leave camp, tell me where you go."

"Yes Alpha."

What is an altha? All these words I don't know.

Maybe the words are all bad and that's why Bella ran away to be safe. Maybe everyone was telling lies about the badness.

I take a step back but fall over a stick.

Whoopsie daisies.

"Paige, come here."

Oh poo!

I get up and step out so Julia can see me.

I'm always bad at hide and seek. I fall and then people find me.

"What are you doing darling?" She asks nicely.

I look at the ground. "I was trying to find you and then I heard Charlie talking so I listened."

"You were eavesdropping? What has your mother said about that?!" She asks. Sounding sad that I've been naughty.

"She said not to do to it. But Julia! What is technolollygies and what is an Altha? You were talking big words."

"I'll explain when you're older." She says, stroking my hair.

"But that's what my mummy says as well! Urgh stupid people." I kick the floor because I'm mad. Why does no one tell me things. I'm little but I'm not really little! I'm still a bit big, they could tell me.

"Paige, that's enough of that, now why did you want to see me?" She asks, talking nicely even though I'm mad at her.

"I heard a voice talking to me but there was no one there. A woman voice in my head." I say back.

Her face looked happy but when I spoke she looked worried.

"Paige, you need to come with me now."

She grabs me and drags me to her tent.

I walk and sit on the bed as she grabs some coloured stones from a box.

"Umm..."

"Shh. Sit down for me." She asks and walks to the bed.

"Why!? What are you doing?!" I ask.

She might hurt me with the coloured stones.

She walks over and puts them down in front of me. "Choose one."

I look at the stones, there all different colours like a rainbow, there lellow, pink, blue, geen, purple, black and white.

I look at them all and think that the pink and lellow ones look pretty and I try reach it but then I get a bad feeling in my belly.

I move my hand back and stroke my belly cause it hurting.

I look at the stones again, I reach forwards and touch them all until I get to the black and white one.

When I touch the black one I saw shadows and when I touch the white one I feel electric on my hand.

I look up at Julia and she smiles at me but I know she's worried.

"Can I pick two?" I ask, worried that I've done something wrong. Why does she look scared? Did she see the shadows as well? They were scary.

She nods her hand and I pick them up.

"What did the voice say to you?" She asks.

"She said the balance needs to be maintainated."

Her face goes white. What's happening? Was the voice a bad person?

She talks quietly to herself. "The balance needs to be maintained. Where have I heard that before?"

"Ummm Auntie Julia what's wrong?" I ask.

She shakes her head. And then her face goes all white again and she looks shocked.

"P...Paige, did the voice tell you anything else?"

"I don't know."

I remember her saying about playing hide and seek and she talked about trees and rivers.

"The world is balanced in good and bad,
Don't break it for it might not last.
The ground will shake, as will the trees,
The rivers stop as will the breeze.

The balance needs to be maintained,
For if not it's devils play.
The creatures will come out to hunt,
You have to either hide or run."

I didn't say that. When I opened my mouth and tried to talk the lady voice came back and said the words from my mouth.

Julia looks shocked. "The prophecy." She mutters.

"What's a properfy?"

"A prophecy is something that people think will happen in the future. Normally it's about the goodies fighting the baddies."

But why did the voice tell me and not a grown-up?

"There's baddies coming? Are they going to get me? Am I going to die?" I start shake and tears come out of my eyes.

"Shhhh baby, everything is going to be fine." She says stroking my head.

When my tears stop I look at her and she talks again.

"Auntie Julia? Why is the properfy bad?"

"It's not darling, it just means things are going to be difficult for a while."

"Why?"

"Because the moon goddess choose to tell you," She says. And whispers "of all people."

She gets up and starts walking around the tent. "But why? Why would the moon goddess choose you, a 7 year old? What significance do you play to the prophecy?"

She turns to me "Tell me right now, has anything weird happened to you lately?"

I think and remember about the butterfly and the flower and then about the men. I shudder and Julia sees me because she looks at me funny.

"I healed a butterfly and when Bella left I was sad. There was a dead flower and when I touched it, it wasn't dead anymore it came back to life... like a zombie."

"Anything else?"

"Nope." I shake my head.

"You can tell me, even if it's bad." She says.

"I killed two men... by touching them."

She looked white again.

"Are you okay?"

She gives me a small smile and replies "Yes daring I'm okay. Just a little worried." She pauses before continuing. "I think it's time I tell you about why the moon goddess is so important to us."

"Okay." I sit and cross my legs. I love story time!

"So the prophecy said the world is balanced in good and bad. This is true. The same thing is true for spirits. God created humans and the moon goddess created spirits. There was a ritual done moons and moons ago that bonded a human to a spirit.

Now a spirit isn't bad and isn't good, it is in balance with the human side, same for the human size. This was done in an attempt to create peace after the Great War, but much to their attempts it didn't work, it made things worse. I'll go into the detail of the war another time my dear.

A normal human is pure until they age, their 2 sides are in perfect balance but when they age certain events that happen in their lives can disrupt the balance and the spirit side, or human side can become restless. This causes humans to become greedy and some even go insane and kill.

A new born babe wouldn't kill, they are pure and as they age they act out more and more. It's the adults job to teach them how to behave and reign the imbalance in. Ultimately teaching them what right and wrong is, good and bad. As an adult it is then their own responsibility to decide which path to take.

Some humans find peace within themselves and so the balance is maintained, an even distribution of emotions between the two sides.

The spirit side of the person can come in the form of animal spirits, this is usually the case as it bonds people to nature, to the world. You've heard of wolf spirits right? Well the spirit side of you doesn't have to be a wolf either, it is simply the wild, aggression of nature that people possess. If a human finds peace they will be able to swap between the two states.

Others act out and loose control, this can result in a very bad situation. The person becomes too corrupt to effectively change between the two parts of themselves and get stuck in one state. This doesn't necessarily mean all people who are stuck are bad. People who are too kind can be stuck. There must be balance.

Imbalance is dangerous Paige. It can corrupt and it can kill. It is deceiving, for there can be chaos hidden in happiness.

So you see the moon goddess controls the spirit side of people. I believe she is the one who reached out to you. Why? Is what I still need to figure out."

I shuffle in my seat. "So god and the moon goddess made humans and spirits to make the balance stay?" I ask.

Aunt Julia nods her head yes.

"And if the two sides are balanced people can change between them. What do you mean by that?"

She sits on the bed beside me and places her hands on her lap. "Yes, so people who have inner balance can become a human or become their spirit animal. They choose. And do you remember what happens if people do not have inner balance?"

I nod my head slowly as I try to remember what she said. "You said that people who are not balanced are bad but are also good so be careful."

Julia smiles brightly. "Very good Paige. Right, run along now, don't worry too much, I'll call you over if I need you darling." She says.

When I get to the door, I turn around. "Ummm Julia?" I hold the stones tighter in my hands. "Can I keep the stones?"

Julia has a straight face and doesn't look happy and doesn't look sad. She waits for a long time before finally opening her mouth and speaking. "Of course dear, now shoo! Go play!"

I skip out of the door as she shoos me out with the hands.

I go back to my tent and get Hollie out. I decide to go back to the bit of the woods that I heard that voice but I don't want to go alone because it's scary and I could get hurt and bad things might happen.

"Hollie, come on girl." I call her over and we walk out into the woods.

As I walk, my mind fills will all the strange words that Charlie and Julia were talking about, the voice of the moon goddess in my head and the story thing that Julia told me about.

I don't even notice where I am until it's too late. "Hollie? Where are we?" I turn around in circles. I'm lost. Oh no. This is bad. I knew something bad would happen. This is why mummy says to not go into the woods alone.

I grab the stones in my pocket as some form of comfort. Suddenly the trees change and my eyes show me a girl crying and a white wolf stood near her. Wow that wolf is beautiful, but is it going to eat her? No, it's not hurting her, it looks like it's protecting her. It looks magical and I recognise it, but I don't know why.

Hollie suddenly barks and my eyes go back to normal and I'm lost in the woods again. A little blue and gold butterfly flutters past me. I reach my hand out and it lands on it. I recognise this butterfly. It looks very magical too, the same as the wolf.

All this thinking is hurting my head. I decide to cut my trip short and follow Hollie home.

Word count [2517]

Hi guys!! What did you think to this chapter? I found it difficult to write in the POV of a 7 year old, so if I've made mistakes or you have any tips it would be massively appreciated.

Stay safe guys, love you all
- Bri xox