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The Copper Crow
Mila Chase
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M.C.
Dedicated to Corinne Miller and Ali Tran
R.R.
Dedicated to all of my friends, you all mean so much to me ( ⸝•ᴗ•⸝)♡
C.M.
Dedicated to Rosi and Mila- I love you guys ( ⸝•ᴗ•⸝)♡!
A.D.
Dedicated to Ella Synold
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright ©️ 2021 by Mila Chase
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright author and publisher except in brief quotations for a book review.
First E-Book Edition March 2021
Cover art by Alessa "Mint" D.
@mintmoonliight - Instagram
Book design by Rose "Cactus" R.
@rosihinata - Instagram
Published by Bella and Cactus Publishing
https://bellaandcactuspublishing.com/
bella.cactus1@gmail.com
Edited by Karen Coates
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“No.” It was the first word that came to mind when my mother mentioned the new house. “You can’t. You can’t make me!” I ran upstairs and slammed the door to my room before her lips could even form her response. I can’t believe her, trying to move us again when we just settled in.
The tears started falling before I even reached my bed. I bundled up in my blankets, shutting myself off from the rest of the world. I didn’t even acknowledge my mom when she came in to bring sugar cookies- my favorite, still warm from the oven. I played with the colorful icing on the delicate treat, letting it crumble into bits at my feet. I didn’t want to listen to what she was saying. It’s always the same story whenever I storm off. Still, my eyes fell closed and I let her carefully stroke my hair as she told me the story in her soothing voice once again.
Once upon a time, a young girl named Moa went into the woods. She was always told not to stray off of the path, but when she spotted a shiny feather just out of her reach, her curiosity took over. As she started walking toward the feather, a deafening noise stopped her in her tracks. Unlike the calming noise of the birds chirping, this scream shattered her ears. Frightened of what kind of beast had made that threatening sound, she made her way back to the path, careful not to make a sound. When she once again was on the path, she started to run, not daring to look back.
“Mama, Mama! Guess what I found!” Moa said in her sprightly way, “Where’s Papa? I want to tell him too!”
Without even lifting her eyes from her book, Moa’s mother pointed in the direction of the shed. Moa’s heart fell, knowing her mother was too caught up in her book she wouldn’t even notice Moa.
“Thank you, Mama!” the little girl called behind her as she raced out the door.
“There’s my little Moa!” Moa’s father said when she reached him, with a huge grin on his face. “How are you?”
“Oh Papa, I was so scared!” Moa exclaimed. She told her father all about the loud noise and the shiny feather, making sure not to tell him about her straying off the path.
“You had quite the adventure, didn’t you Moa. Why don’t we go inside and eat our supper?” replied her father when she finished.
As they ate their soup and nibbled on their bread, Moa couldn’t get the horrible noise out of her head. That night, when her father came to tuck her in, she asked him, “Papa, is there magic in the woods?”
This caught her father off guard, and he hesitated before saying, “Did you see anything in those woods? Well, besides the shiny feather.”
“No, nothing unusual. Why?” she responded, suddenly wide awake.
“Oh, there’s...nothing for you to worry about, my Moa. I was just wondering,” he told her. After he kissed her goodnight, she lay in bed, eyes staring wide at the ceiling. Perhaps there was more in the woods than she thought.
By the time morning came, the sun shining down on her face, Moa had not yet forgotten the question her father had asked her the night before. It seemed like he knew something that he wasn’t telling her, but Moa decided to forget about it. After getting dressed and putting on her lucky charm, a beaded blue necklace that her father had given her, she went back into the woods to look for the shiny feather. Not long after she was walking along the path, she found what she was looking for. Just as she was about to reach for it, an oddly shiny feather caught her eye, the copper colour sparkling in the golden sun. But there were not only two, but a whole path of these strange feathers.
Forgetting that she was supposed to stay on the path, Moa started following the trail of feathers deeper into the woods. She picked up a handful of the feathers, and continued walking until she realized that these were not normal feathers. They were at least three times the weight of a normal feather, and when she stepped into the sun the feathers shone with a magnificent bronze color. She saw what had dropped the feathers. It was a beautiful crow. When the crow landed next to her, she bent down to touch it, but it flew away. Moa had managed to touch the bird before it was gone and she sucked in breath when the cold metal stung her skin. She withdrew her hand then finally realized, this crow was made of copper.
Moa stumbled backward and started to run back to her house before she realized that she didn’t know which direction her house was. She was lost and, not including the copper bird behind her, alone. Suddenly, the horrible noise that she had heard the night before came out of the crow’s beak. Of course! thought Moa, That’s why I found the feather right before I heard that noise. It was that bird!
Too tired to find her home, Moa lay down on the ground and drifted off to sleep.
When Moa woke up with the sun shining in her face, she realized that she was no longer in the woods. She was in her own bed in her own room. She got out of bed and crept into the dining room, only to find her father sitting at the table staring at a wall. When he noticed her he immediately hugged her and said, “Moa, I was so worried! Why were you off of the path?” Moa hugged him right back and whispered into his ear, “I’m sorry Papa. I just wanted to have fun.” She decided not to tell him about the bird. But as she was leaving the room, one of the copper feathers fell out of her pocket.
Her father picked it up and eyed it suspiciously. He stared at the feather, and then realizing what it was, he ran to Moa before she could leave.
“Moa!” he called out to her frantically, “Moa, do not go back into those woods. It is dangerous! Stay in your room.” Moa was stunned and slightly afraid. Her father had never spoken to her that way, and she was starting to think that he had lost his mind.
“But Papa” Moa started, before her father cut her off.
“No ‘buts’. Just go to your room and stay there!” Moa stood there speechless before she turned around and ran to her room. Tears were streaming down her face as her father locked the door. She didn’t know what to feel. Angry, sad, scared even. She knew she had to go back to the woods. She couldn’t just sit in her room crying like a baby.
That’s when she noticed the crack in the window.
Moa snuck over to the window and opened it so she could slide through. When she hit the hard ground outside of her room, she became almost frozen with fear. What if Papa catches me? What if I get lost again? She thought as she crept along the side of the house. She pushed the thoughts out of her mind, knowing that she was too far to turn back. She pushed her way through the hedge that surrounded her house and ran into the woods.
* * * *
“What am I going to do?” Moa’s father sighed. Had he been too harsh on his daughter? He decided that it was time to talk to her and let her know about the dangers of the woods. He had kept his own experiences a secret for long enough. He walked over to her door and gave a gentle knock. When no one answered he started to worry. Was she that mad at him?
He hesitated before opening the door slightly and calling through the crack, “Moa? Can I talk to you?” When still no one answered he opened the door all the way and said, “Now Moa, I know you're mad but I . . . Moa?” He ran into the room and looked everywhere, under the bed and in the closet, but Moa was nowhere to be found. He looked at the open window and realized what had happened. Moa had gone to the woods. He knew that he had to get her back before midnight. His time was running out.
* * * *
Moa was running faster than she ever had run before into the woods. She didn’t care that she was not on the path or that she didn’t know which direction her home was. She had been so angry that she didn’t realize how tired she was until she fell into a heap onto the ground. Just as she thought that things couldn’t get worse, she saw the copper crow staring at her from a nearby log. Moa found herself scooting closer to the bird. “Do you remember me?” Moa asked cautiously. The bird let out a loud “Caw!” and hopped away.
Moa sighed. Maybe I should go back, she thought as she picked the wildflowers that grew at her feet. It was getting dark and she didn’t want to have to spend the night in the woods. As she slowly rose to her feet, she spotted something that took her breath away. A beautiful doe stood frozen next to her. Moa slowly approached the deer with careful steps. When she reached out to touch it, the deer raised its head and galloped away. The sun was slowly starting to set and Moa was getting worried when she heard rustling in the bushes. It was getting louder by the second and she thought it was some sort of bear. Maybe it’ll be made of glass, Moa thought, silently laughing at her own joke. She braced herself for an attack when all of a sudden her father came stumbling out of the bushes.
He was filthy and covered in cuts when he hugged Moa so tightly that she thought she was going to burst.
“Moa, are you ok? Why did you run away like that? We have to go now. It is almost midnight!” Moa was too stunned to answer any of his questions.
“What happens at midnight?” She asked, not even trying to hide the fear in her voice.
“Moa, you don’t understand. Listen carefully. We must go—” He was cut off by the sound of her gasp. The same deer that Moa had seen earlier had just come prancing before them. All of a sudden there was a blinding light and a loud crash, making Moa’s ears ring. When the light had gone, they looked up to find that the deer was frozen in mid-leap. Moa reached out to touch the deer but its fur was gone. Instead, she felt the hard, cool surface of copper.
“It’s happening.” Moa’s father said under his breath. “Listen to me Moa, if we don’t leave now, we too will be trapped in a shell of copper forever.” Moa didn’t have to be told twice. They started running out of the woods, tripping on copper statues of animals as they went. The moon was close to the middle of the deep blue sky and Moa thought that they might make it. When they were about to take their last steps out of the woods, another crash sounded and they were blinded once again. Moa felt herself be pushed out of the woods and onto the ground. When the light had faded from Moa’s tired eyes, she looked up and found her father’s eyes staring back at her. These eyes that were once so sweet and kind were now scared, worried, and most frightening of all were made of copper.
“Papa?” Moa’s voice was barely audible as she rose to her feet and grabbed her father’s hand. It was as cold and hard as the crow’s heart. Her beloved father’s entire body had turned to a shell of copper. Her father was gone. “No!” She screamed as she crumbled on the floor, tears freely flooding, her vision blurring. When her mother came out of the house to find her daughter weeping on the edge of the yard, she did not expect to see her husband enclosed in the shiny metal. She fell beside her daughter and cried along with her and held her in her arms.
All night they cried, and in the morning, Moa’s mother found that her daughter had fallen asleep. She carried her to her room and sat her down on her bed. When Moa woke a few hours later, she thought that it was all just a bad dream. She put on her necklace and walked into her mother’s room where she found her sleeping. She opened the door to the shed, hoping to find her father waiting to greet her, but all she found was rusty old tools. She started to realize that her dream was real. And then she saw him at the edge of the woods, still in his cocoon of copper.
Moa slowly walked over to her father and stared at his caring eyes. “Papa? I miss you so much. Is there anything I can do?” An idea started forming in her mind. The flowers! Her Papa had loved the tulips that they had planted together. Moa started to pick the flowers from their garden. She carefully wove the pink tulips into a crown and went to place it on her father's head. When she looked up at her father again, she saw that the crow was sitting on his shoulder. She smiled and wove another flower crown for the bird. After placing crowns on both of their heads, she stepped back to look at her handiwork. It was as if the look from her father's eyes had changed from fear to peace. Moa sighed and went back into her house with her mother.
“Is that story true?” I asked my mother when she had finished telling her tale. All of the cookies were gone by then and my smile had returned.
“It depends. Do you believe in magic?” It was not the answer that I had been looking for, but I didn’t bug her about it.
“Hey, Mom? I’m sorry.” I said as she got up to leave. She smiled and hugged me.
“It’s fine, Tulip. I’m sorry too. I know that you were starting to like it here.” She left me in my room to pack for the new house.
My mother fiddled with her blue beaded necklace and closed her eyes. My mother always told me of my grandpa, his kind laugh and his love for tulips. I never met him but I like to think my mother has the same kind laugh. I was so excited about moving day that I could barely stay in my seat. I looked up at my mother and she smiled back at me. “Are you ready for this?” she asked me before we drove off. “As ready as I'll ever be!” I exclaimed. We started driving away from our old house and toward our new life.
As we neared the new house by the woods, I looked up at the bright, clear blue sky. Something in front of us caught my eye. I smiled to myself when I recognized the bird in front of me. It was a copper crow. Perhaps this new house will be more exciting than I thought.
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~Acknowledgements~
Sorry for that cliffhanger, I am working on part two as fast as I can! I want to give a huge thanks to my friends Ali Tran and Corinne Miller who pushed me to continue writing this story. Another applause for Ali Tran for editing a few of my drafts. A big thanks to Karen Coates for editing my story. Thank you to Alessa “Mint” D. For creating the wonderful cover art, and to Rose “Cactus” R. for the great book layout. A thank you to my family for giving me feedback and helping me work out my story. One big final thanks to Bella and Cactus publishing for putting The Copper Crow out into the world! That’s all for now, but keep a lookout for part two of my story!
( ⸝•ᴗ•⸝)♡
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