Summertime prologue

“Summer.”

Summer lifted her small, tapered chin to meet her mother’s soft, emerald eyes. Her mother’s thin, scarred fingers wove the strips of rich, red bark into a tightly braided necklace, a heavy ruby pendant strung at the end of it. The hard, delicately cut surface of the scarlet jewel glistened luminously under the bright red flames, winking at every sudden flare. Summer kept her eyes following the agile hands until they tied a small dead knot, and her small mouth opened.

“Mother?”

“Yes, Summer?”

She pointed a finger at the fire. “What is that?”

“Fire?” her mother asked gently, but her emerald eyes darkened. “It’s an powerful element, Summer. You mustn’t play with it.”

Summer understood the serious tone to her mother’s voice, and knew it was a warning. Still, she couldn’t shake off that inquistive, curious feeling. She didn’t understand. Slowly, she reached out to touch the leaping flames that was licking the air like a hungry snake. She expected nothing as her finger steadily plunged into the comforting warmness of the lovely fire. It didn’t hurt. Her mother was watching this carefully with guarded eyes and did not speak. Summer drew her undamaged, pale hand out and examined the fire thoughtfully. The Fire gave her a sense of capability, of unconquerable elation, of power...

“How did I do that, Mother?” Summer’s small, childlike voice was full of deep intuition, yet she still had to ask. The Fire answered her thoughts, unraveled the raveled, understood the mysteries of beyond.

Her mother didn’t answer directly. “Come here, Summer.”
Summer obliged and climbed into her mother’s waiting arms. Within the arms, Summer felt safe and so she smiled happily at her mother, who returned an equally dazzling look back. Her mother took the freshly-woven necklaces and placed it carefully around Summer’s neck, the pendant fitting perfectly into the hollow of her throat. “There,” her mother said, “that should remind you of me.”

Summer’s delicate brow furrowed slightly. “Are you leaving, Mother?” Her ringing voice was filled of confusion. “Stay with me, please!”

“I’ll never leave you, Summer.” Her emerald eyes were distant as she gazed the infinite darkness beyond the light of the fire. It was nothingness, just a vast, endless plain of the unknowns of Summer’s deepest fears. Her mother was the only one she could hold onto, who she needed most desperately - she couldn’t leave... could she?

Summer’s question was answered almost immediately. Her mother pushed Summer gently back onto the black floor, and rose. To Summer’s shocked cries, her only mother walked into the darkness.