After several long sparring sessions with HalfHyde, Waverly felt very exhausted and went straight to bed. She forgot all about her promise to watch the moon with Judson. She even forgot about eating supper or taking an evening bath.

She crawled into bed and slept loosely without properly tucking herself in. It was a belief in all the realms that if one slept untucked they were likely to have nasty mares that would take the sleep out of their eyes for weeks or more.

Waverly forgot all about that as well and went straight to sleep. As she slept, she experienced a crippling mare that burned in her mind for several days.

She was sailing stormbound on a ship; a very beautiful ship with golden oars and a silver plated hull that struggled across stubborn ocean waves. The ship was constantly getting slapped from left to right by these waves. Waverly stood in the poop deck near the top of a wooden mast, watching the bleak horizon. She ignored the storm of the seas and kept muttering to herself "almost there! almost there!".

The waves finally succeeded in toppling the ship and Waverly sank to the depths of the black sea. She felt her insides heat up as she floated because she hated darkness and she feared it more than anything else.

For how long she was continually pulled deeper into the ocean, she did not know. She could not breathe. Her lungs steamed underwater and her eyes burned from straining for clearer vision. Suddenly, she was sucked from the ocean by a force she could not see.

Waverly looked about at her new location. She was in a country. A large country that she could not recognize because she had never left Bremeton in all her life. The skies were a mix of pitch black and midnight blue, void of stars or a moon. The ground was cracked everywhere as far as the eyes could see and thick black smoke erupted from these cracks. Waverly tried to walk but her boots were stuck fast to the solid earth.

Swirling all around her were clouds of black smoke that hid the rest of the landscape from view. Mountain tops jutted out towards the sky and Waverly guessed that the country was probably one far far away because the mountains in Bremeton did not reach towards the sky. As she wondered why she was in a strange place, a cold feeling suddenly overcame her. The sound of footsteps approaching from behind shook the ground. Waverly did not wish to behold what creature had such might enough to shake the ground when it walked.

As the earth continued to shake, the ground in front of her cracked open revealing a large pit. More black smoke billowed out of the pit but despite that, Waverly could spot the faintest light inside of it. She became overwhelmed by warmth and forgot all about her fear. She curiously peered down into the near bottomless pit and heard her name. Waverly could have run or at least tried to but the voice of the caller was female and so gentle that she felt extreme pity for whoever was at the bottom.

"Who are you down there?" Waverly whispered unsure of how keen the caller's ears were but the reply came almost immediately.

"Save me, daughter!" The voice pleaded.

Waverly was taken aback.

Now she wanted so much to run.

The voice had called her daughter.

She inched backward. Her own voice became stuck in her throat and her bones shivered. The voice had carried so much power and gentleness and truth that its effects washed over Waverly and made her feel faint.

The pit ran so deep into the ground that Waverly could feel no air from it at all. She wondered how the woman inside it managed to breathe.

"Who — who are you?" Waverly asked with a little shiver.

The pit seemed to exhale at that moment because a violent yet warm and very smelly wind blew into Waverly's face. She coughed and turned away. The hole must have been eating lots of rotten things and forgot to clean its mouth, Waverly thought. She wondered if she could jump in at that moment to rescue the woman beneath.

"No!" The caller shrieked almost as if she read Waverly's thought. "You must find me! Save me! Hurry!"

Waverly was beginning to get irritated with how desperate the caller sounded. Why not climb out of the pit instead of waiting for someone to rescue her? She thought.

"You must hurry! I do not have much time." The caller pleaded again.

Her powerful voice also sounded so pretty that Waverly was really tempted to jump in the pit and stare upon her face.

"Where is this place?" Waverly asked. She glanced around and suddenly realized that the booming footsteps had ceased.

"I do not know but you must find it before He comes. He holds me prisoner. You must set me free." The caller sobbed.

Waverly also felt moved to cry but she held back.

"Who is He that holds you prisoner and why did you call me daughter?"

The caller suddenly gasped. "He comes!"

Waverly had little time to register where the earthquake had come from because when she looked up, she found herself staring into two large holes the color of snake skin. It was green with luminous black dots. At first, Waverly wondered if these holes were caves until they closed simultaneously and opened again.

Fear made Waverly able to move again. She jumped backwards with a loud shriek realizing that the caves were not caves as she wondered. They were eyes. The eyes of a really gigantic thing. And this thing was what held the woman prisoner.

The earthquake shook the ground with a loud rumble. Waverly shuffled back on her behind, unable to get up. The quake was actually the creature's growl.

"Run! Run child! But come and find me. Please, come and find me!" The caller's voice seemed to fade into oblivion.

Waverly stood up and at the same time, the creature arose. She watched in horror as its eyes kept going up and up until it was as tall as the mountains themselves.

The clouds of darkness swirling all around her made her senses rattle with such alarm that she was sure the thing was what covered up most of the country.

A loud cry suddenly washed over the land, causing extreme darkness to blow over Waverly like a violent wind. The creature moved toward her and frosty chills ran willy-nilly up and down her spine.

"Run!" The woman's voice echoed in her mind and Waverly screamed with all her might.

"Goodness, child. What is ye wailing about tis middle of night?" HalfHyde asked as he hurriedly ran over to Waverly's bed.

He had heard her scream once before but decided to leave her be. The second time was not so dismissible. HalfHyde feared some evil creature had attacked Waverly in her bedroom but when he got there she was sitting up straight in her bed, soaked in sweat and staring with wide eyes.

"A mare! A terrifying mare!" Waverly panted. HalfHyde sat in front of her causing her bed to creak under his weight. He examined her for a few seconds and sighed.

"Did ye go to sleep with failure to tuck in?" He asked raising one eyebrow.

Waverly looked about her and realized she was sitting on her covers. She nodded grimly.

"I told ye mares come if ye goes to bed and fail to tuck in." HalfHyde complained whilst pulling the sheets from underneath her.

"Ye must refrain from silly and trifle mistakes these types. What did ye dream of?"

Waverly hesitated as HalfHyde began to pull the covers around her, carefully tucking the covers into the bed frame.

"I just asked ye a question, not i?" HalfHyde chided. He was wearing a different tunic. It was light green and if he were any taller, he would have looked like a tree.

"What did ye dream of?"

"Mother!" whispered Waverly.

She now strangely believed it deeply in her soul - the woman in the hole had been her mother. She was full of doubt when she was in dreamland but after she woke up, the reality struck her like a match stick going up in flames. Waverly was convinced her mother was alive and out there in the world, held as a captive somewhere unless HalfHyde would convince her otherwise.

"Ye mother?" HalfHyde asked. His voice was low now, with a certain tremble beneath it. Waverly could tell it was anger but why the Elf would be angry, she did not know.

"Y-Yes! I believe it was she!" Waverly said shuffling slightly in her bed. HalfHyde had tucked the covers in so tight that she found it impossible to shake her legs.

The Elf inhaled and exhaled, rather dully. "Did ye see her what she looked like?"

"No!" Waverly answered. She did not wish to admit it but a part of her had been dying to catch a glimpse of the woman in the cave.

Waverly had spent her entire life wondering what her real parents looked like. She was never satisfied with her own looks. She hoped that if she was anything like her parents, then it should definitely be her mother.

"Then reveal to me how ye confirmed tis lady in a mare ye mother she is." HalfHyde asked folding his long arms across his chest. He had always been an immensely skeptic person.

"I. . . she identified me by daughter."

This was not a good enough reason but Waverly felt that was all she needed to say for HalfHyde to believe her. Even she had believed the woman at once when she addressed her by daughter. There was a feeling of certainty that had built up in Waverly assuring her that the woman was indeed her true mother.

"Any can identify ye by daughter. I call ye daughter, not i? Any woman who can conceive ye likes of Human can identify ye by daughter. Ye has had a mare and a mare is but only dreams. Dreams matter not in real life unless they be messages from the gods."

Waverly laid back in her bed. Her eyes were clouded from looking into so much darkness. In spite of all that scary blackness in that scary country, there had been some light. Light from the hole where the woman was. It was weak and very faint but it was there. Waverly had felt no fear when she peered into the hole. The faint light had brought some form of comfort to her.

"Sleep better now, child. No mares no more with ye covers tucked in tis time." HalfHyde comforted in his best lissing tone. He walked over to the windows and opened them allowing the slightly cool night breeze fill the room.

"Ye must rise early at dawn to have breakfast as about supper ye forgot last night. I reckon sparring took strength all from ye." HalfHyde muttered but Waverly was already asleep. He quietly left the room on his tiptoes as his walk could sometimes cause a noise.

In the morning, Waverly was unable to do anything. She lost her focus and also lost quite a number of times while sparring with HalfHyde. She did not pay attention to her lessons. She lost her appetite and refused to play outside by the lake. Judson worried about her and HalfHyde also worried about her. She remained so for many weeks as a result of her disturbing mare.

Judson noticed that for several nights the moon did not come out. He mentioned this a few times to Waverly mostly in an attempt to get her to talk but she was too misplaced to dwell on anything. She lost interest in all her favorite things. Her dreams taunted her and called to her. She even dared to sleep untucked just to experience the mare once again. Nothing changed. The dream repeated as it had the first time.

Waverly became convinced that she had to save her mother. She was also overcome with the desire to be reunited with her mother. She hoped that when they were reunited, they would find her father and live happily together. In secret, she craved dearly to be with her real parents. HalfHyde was not bad but he made her do things she found uninteresting except for sparring. Waverly loved to fight but she had never had a real opponent other than the scarecrows she borrowed from Judson.

HalfHyde always told her how Elves were the best fighters in all the realms and how he used to be one of the greatest during his time which meant that she had learned from the best. This had made Waverly feel naively eager to test her fighting skills out in the real world.

At noon one day she climbed up the ladder leading up to Judson's tree house and came up to the door. Judson was extremely good with plants and he used them for certain difficult things sometimes like sealing his front door.

It was impossible for just about anyone to walk up to his door and open it with the amount of security it had. The door itself was complicated enough to confuse even the smartest person in Bremeton. It was a fairly large circular frame in the top half of the tree, made from thick intertwining vines with large green leaves forming locks around the rim. In the middle of the door was a plate of thick square wood where the image of a strange plant was engraved. Waverly had never seen such a plant in real life.

She rapped her knuckles on the door and each leaf receded before the frame slowly yawned open. Judson stood there holding a small mortar in his hand which he stirred with an equally small pestle.

"I must go, Jud!" Waverly announced as she walked past him into his flowery home.

Most of the flowers on his windowsill were encrusted with gemstones and Waverly found it hard to resist plucking them off.

Judson put his mortar down on his neat table. It was made out of tree bark just like every other furniture in his tree. He opened his arms and tilted his head questioningly.

"I have to save my mother. I just know she is in terrible danger. And. . . and i wish to meet her." Waverly said. She sounded like she was going to cry and Waverly rarely cried unless she was really angry or frustrated.

Judson sighed and walked over to her then took her hand. Waverly flinched a little. He hardly ever made any contact with her but she liked the lingering warmth in his hands that came as a result of how often he spent shoving them into the earth. Despite this, he had neat fingernails even though tiny crusts of molded earth stuck to his wrist. He looked Waverly in the eyes and shook his head sadly.

"I am going to go and neither you or Pa can stop me." She said and pulled her hand away from Judson's but very gently. "If you had a chance to know who your mother was - to meet her, would you not take it?"

Judson seemed to consider the question for a count of ten. He sighed and went over to his table to pick up his mortar. Waverly watched as he emptied the perfectly ground leaves into a small clay pot. He also emptied a kettle of steaming hot water into the pot then added a few droplets of red liquid. He stirred the contents of the pot with a tiny spoon and then added a couple spoons of raw cotton sugar. This was a local sweetener in Bremeton and Judson had them in abundance. Waverly had tried to convince him to sell most of his plants but he refused. He grew them for his personal use only and not for trade.

He stirred the contents again and brought the tea pot to Waverly. She accepted it and took a sip then a long quaff. It tasted of all the good things she could think of; flower juice, cotton sugar, stale herbs and spices.

"Hmm! I feel a bit better!" She admitted. Judson smiled and nodded. He seemed satisfied with the effects the tea had brought to her.

"You need to think hard about what you are about to do." He said as he relieved Waverly of the tea pot.

"I have thought about it, see. It will be spring soon which makes for the perfect travel weather. I can venture out of Bremeton and be back before spring comes to a full bloom."

Judson shook his head. "You really believe it to be that easy? You never have left the border. How will you know where to go?"

Waverly pondered the question and bit her lip in nervousness. She had never left Bremeton indeed but she knew a number of merchants in town that had traveled in and out for business. HalfHyde was a well known Elf. If she asked for help in his name, she hoped she would get it.

"I can ask around. It will not be difficult." Waverly said even though she was not quite sure of her own resolve. It would definitely be difficult.

Most merchants in Bremeton were hard men who were far from friendly and she was not convinced they would be willing to convey such information about leaving Bremeton to anyone much to a twelve year old. Waverly was aware of the Rule of Realms; crossing into another realm without good reason was a crime punishable by death. She did not intend to die before she was reunited with her mother.

Judson sat down on one of his stools and Waverly made herself comfortable on the other. Now that she was about to leave Bremeton, she took notice of all the things she had taken for granted before.

Each one of Judson's stools were long and thin, covered with soft flower petals on top to make a cushion. The floors, roof and walls were all one big tree flourishing with leaves and flowering plants that locked in an everlasting warmth. His kitchen was carved from several parts of the tree where very little kitchen tools were arranged in a funny pattern. Below that, his wooden cupboard was filled with earthenware, smaller gardening tools and many things Judson had crafted from plant life and flower roots. His bed which was positioned next to a large opening that served as his window dangled a couple of inches from the ground held on ends by four sturdy posts. Waverly admired how Judson's bed could dangle in midair bringing some comfort while he slept. His window looked directly into hers enabling them to gaze at the moon from their respective rooms on days that HalfHyde would get angry and forbid them from doing so together.

He had constructed a flight of steps that led into the thick branches at the topmost part of the tree and this was where they could sit and watch the moon come out. Waverly had a funny fascination with the moon - like her obsession with shiny things. She loved watching the moon shine it all its big round glory. She loved its reflection in the blue lake on clear nights. The light it brought comforted her whenever her lantern went out in the middle of the night. She even secretly wished, like a silly little twelve year old, that she would one day be able to stand face to face with the moon.

"Did you tell him yet?" Judson asked quietly. His voice was so low that Waverly had nearly missed it.

"Who? Pa?" Waverly sighed and eyed the empty tea pot next to Judson's arm. The sweetness of the mixture lingered on her lips and she wanted to drink more. Cotton sugar was addictive. One could simply never get over the taste.

"I have not. He would simply tie me to my bedpost and never let me see the daylight outside."

Judson chuckled. HalfHyde was tough but he meant no harm. Waverly was too important to him and he would not permit her to do something as wild as what she had in mind.

Judson was in fact, in agreement with HalfHyde. Waverly acted like she was under the influence of strong magic. All she had spoken of for the past weeks was finding her mother and rescuing her from a danger she claimed her mother was in. He tried to warn her about the dangers and convince her to forget about her quest but Waverly was the most stubborn Human on earth. She would not listen.

"I will leave without his knowledge. He does not have to know where i have gone." She muttered.

Judson became alarmed at that. "He might put the blame on me."

Waverly felt tremendous guilt immediately. HalfHyde would make life difficult for Judson in her absence but she could not ask him to go with her. He would only slow her down. He walked with extreme precaution what with his overweight wing.

Judson was a rare sight. Too rare in fact. His kind was almost non-existent if not entirely. Waverly had never read of any creature like him. According to the description in her study books, he did not look like the other Shades of the realm of Dakriton. He also did not look like an Elf even though he was part Elf. HalfHyde was not aware of this. Even if he were, Waverly was certain he would not treat Judson any differently than he already did.

"You will have to pretend to leave town before i do, for a short while at least. This will make Pa believe that you know nothing of my disappearance." Waverly stood up and put a finger to her mouth. "We have to make up a story plausible enough for him to think that you had no earlier knowledge of. . ."

"No!" Judson objected quite distastefully.

"What?" Waverly asked.

He was now turning the color of sickly green. She had never seen him like that before.

"Do not go. Please!" He pleaded.

Waverly stared blankly at him. She could tell he was serious but this was her assignment. She had to do it.

"I am truly sorry, Jud. But i must." She said defiantly. "Even you cannot make me stay behind. I must do this."

Judson looked brokenhearted but he gave up. There was no stopping her and he knew it. He nodded and sat down dejectedly.

"Okay. Just remember to be careful!" He said.

Waverly smiled at him even though he was still quite sad. She gave him a rushed hug.

"I will see you again, i promise." She assured and hurried home to pack for her journey.

The Moon Spawn|
Book 01