Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Sophie, are you in bed yet?”

Her mother’s voice was loud enough for her to hear despite her bedroom door being shut. A fast glance at the Winnie the Pooh clock hanging on the wall revealed her that night had already fallen, the hands of the yellow bear pointing at 09:00 pm. Caught red-handed, the little girl quickly closed the thick book she had been browsing through and set it aside onto the nightstand next to her cot, making sure to mark the page she had been on before she crawled under the blankets.

Just in time as well. The door flew open and in came her mother with her make-up washed away, wearing an old, purple bathrobe. Her gaze instantly found the book on the table, her eyes squinting as she moved to stand beside her daughter’s bed, an elegant pale hand picking up the novel collection. She turned it around couple of times before sitting down on the sheets.

“I take it that you were reading this instead of getting ready to sleep.” Her voice was calm, soothing in its gentle alto. There was a hint of amusement in the tilt of her words.

A small fingers curling up around the longer ones, Sophie pulled herself upwards until she could rest her cheek against her mother’s arm. “Yeah. It has pretty pictures inside.”

“I can imagine. But isn’t this a bit too difficult book for a girl of your age, dear?” She turned it over once more, eyeing the pompous title. “Natural Phenomenons Around the World!” , the cover image being a peaceful scenery of an active volcano, the camera pointing straight to the molten lava, capturing its warm glow beautifully and casting a group of shadows to dance around the stony crater.

Pursing her lips, Sophie took the book back from her mother, patting its leather cover tentatively.

“I can read it fine.” She was silent for a moment, then continued with a smaller voice, “there are just few words that I don’t know yet.”

A tender smile rose to Sara Newman’s face. “Oh sweetheart, you don’t have to know those words at your age!” Now her grin widened. “I bet they were long and boring ones too!” With a quick sweep of an hand, she captured her first-born into her arms and started to tickle the little one, laughing to herself when the girl let out a loud giggle, squirming in her grasp.

“What was the chapter you were looking through? The one with pretty pictures?”

Glancing upwards, Sophie grinned and pulled the book closer to her chest in order to re-open it and show her mother the page she had been eyeing just minutes ago. It didn't take long for her to spot the right chapter with the big scenery picture of a colorful sky, lines of green and red dancing between the shining stars.

“It was this, mom.” She turned the book in her small hands so that they were both able to see the images of the paper. “Isn’t it beautiful? It says here that those are called a-aurori... Arori borelis.”

“Aurora Borealis, dear. They are more commonly referred to as northern lights.” She bent lower to take a better look at the book, smiling as she pointed at the short paragraph written under the main picture. “According to this author, they are only visible during nighttime and occur most frequently near the polar circle.”

A tiny pout formed on Sophie’s face. “So we can’t see them from here?” The disappointment in her voice was clear. The short fingers caressed the picture gently. “I wanted to see them.”

Tenderly easing the book from the little girl’s hands, Sara took a last look at the text within it and then slammed it shut, setting it back to the wooden table. With her other hand she stretched out to pick up a laptop from the bottom drawer, nearly spraining her back as she pulled it into her lap. The scuffed computer was turned on, and the bright screen caused the two of them to cover their eyes in the dimly lighted room.

Tapping the keys with unwavering accuracy, Sara logged into her home account. She checked the number of her unread emails, ignoring a bunch of them coming from a man simply named “Dee”, before proceeding to open a search engine in the new tab. After a bit of searching, she managed to pull up a video clip she had once seen in a commercial for a traveling agency, a finely made piece of media filmed in the Lapland, near the border of the Arctic Circle.

“If you want to see what they look like in motion, I have a video here for you.”

Eyes widening, Sophie shifted closer, pressing her back against the headboard. On the screen, a vibrant set of film was rolling, the midnight sky painted throughout with waves of colors ranging from delicate greens to raging shades of red, the white background of snow and ice contrasting perfectly against the star-spotted darkness. It seemed to last forever, or made the viewer hope it would.

However, the video was only a couple of minutes long.

A familiar frown appeared again on Sophie’s face. “That was way too short! I want to watch it more!”

Closing the tab, Sara set the computer back to down and settled herself better next to her youngling, pulling the small body against hers while flicking the table lamp off and a nightlight on. The room grew darker, the atmosphere calming down alongside of Sophie’s heartbeat. A fine sense of vanilla touched the air as her mother ran her long fingers through the curly hair, but Sophie didn’t seemed to notice.

Sara did.

Her voice was silent and soft, lulling the listener into a slight slumber as she started to talk. Without acknowledging it herself, Sophie’s eyes slipped shut, but her mind began to draw images invoked by her mother’s deep, gentle tone.

“They certainly are beautiful; nature’s very own fireworks, the jumble of colors and glows.” Her fingers untangled a nasty knot in the flaxen curls, then petting the hair once more. “But did you know they have created entire legends of their own?”

“What kind of legends?” A sleepy voice was barely audible, and made something warm blossom inside of the woman’s chest, a slight tilt of lips the only sign of this. Carefully laying her daughter’s drooping head to rest on the pillow, she continued her tale.

“When people saw them during olden days, they imagined that the dancing lights were an act of higher powers. For example, in one of the northern lands, they believed that the blazing colors of the sky were made by a mystical animal called fire fox, or ‘tulikko’.”

She glanced down, seeing little eyelids starting to slip closed.

“This animal was a pinnacle of every hunter’s wildest dreams, and it was said that whoever managed to kill such a creature would receive a fulfillment of their lifelong fantasies. They’d become rich and famous throughout the land! The lights themselves were lit up by the fox’s tail and fur when it ran past the frozen landscape, its fire-red fur and cinder tail hitting the white trees and piles of snow. This is the reason why, to this day, they do not use the term ‘aurora borealis’ in their regular speech. Instead, they call the phenomenon ‘fox’s fires’ in the honor of the old ways of life.”

A steady set of huffs were the only sound in now quieten room. She smiled, turning to pull up the covers that her little girl had pushed aside while slipping into the world of dreams.

After settling everything down for her liking, the tall woman rose from the uncomfortable wooden edge of the bed, casting a final look at the sleeping form beneath the blankets.

“Good night, my precious silver moon.”