Elspeth and the Traveling Shadow

Elspeth gasped. “My shadow just leaped over the mushroom!”

She hurried along the broad leaf that served as the village path, but the dark shape beside her had vanished. A moment ago it had been following her heels. Now it was nowhere to be seen.

Elspeth loved her shadow. She liked making it bow to the baker’s door, or stretch its arms across the tiny bridge between two branches. At bedtime, it usually walked home with her, keeping close as a friend. But tonight, she had promised to bring it back to the village path before the lanterns went out.

She peered behind a curled fern. No shadow. She checked beneath a round acorn cap. Still none.

“Maybe it took a shortcut,” said a voice above her.

A moon moth named Pip fluttered down and settled on a twig. His wide wings looked like little cream-colored leaves.

“Shadows don’t take shortcuts,” Elspeth said. “They stay where I can see them.”

Pip tilted his head. “Then why are you looking under things?”

Elspeth had no answer. She marched to the edge of the path and waved both hands. A shadow appeared on a nearby trunk—but it seemed to belong to someone much taller.

“That can’t be mine,” she said. “It has a nose like a turnip.”

Pip landed on the trunk beside it. His own shadow showed up, small and round-winged. When he flapped, it flapped too.

Elspeth turned to look. Her shadow slipped away again, sliding off the trunk as a leafy branch swayed overhead.

“There!” she cried, chasing the patch of darkness along the branch. It jumped to a wide leaf, then stretched thin across the bark. Elspeth reached for it, but her fingers closed on empty air.

Pip fluttered after her. “Perhaps we should follow it slowly.”

“I am following!” Elspeth said, though she had to stop to catch her breath. The village path curved around the old tree’s trunk, and the shadows kept changing as moonlight sifted between the leaves.

At the next bend, Elspeth spotted a long shape slipping toward the far end of the path.

“My shadow is running away!” she cried.

Pip landed on her shoulder. “Let’s see where it goes.” Together, they hurried after it.

The shadow stretched over a root, climbed a branch, and slipped across a broad leaf. Elspeth chased it around the trunk. Each time she reached the place where it had been, the moonlight shifted and the dark shape appeared somewhere else.

“Wait for me!” she called. “I’m trying to bring you home!”

Pip flew ahead and hovered over the path. “It’s right there!”

Elspeth darted toward it. The shadow slid away again, this time stretching up the trunk so tall that its head seemed to touch a leafy roof.

Elspeth stopped. She was tired of chasing. The dark shape lay across the bark, its long arms reaching toward her. For a moment, it looked as if it were waving.

“Why won’t you stay still?” she asked.

A breeze stirred the high leaves. The moonbeam moved, and the shadow’s long arm slipped sideways. Elspeth watched carefully. She took one step to the left. The shadow shifted, too. She raised her hand. A hand rose on the trunk. She stepped back, and the shape stepped back with her.

Elspeth’s eyes widened. “It isn’t running away. It’s changing when I move—and when the moonlight moves!”

Pip fluttered in a small circle. “Then let’s give it a path to follow.”

Elspeth faced the moonbeam and spread her arms. Her shadow stretched across the trunk. Pip flew beside her, and his little wing-shape joined hers. When Elspeth leaned right, the two shadows leaned. When Pip dipped low, his shadow dipped, too.

They tried standing near the trunk, then farther down the branch. The shadow grew short, then long. It wobbled when the leaves swayed, but it always followed their new places.

“Now,” said Elspeth, “let’s line it up with the village path.”

She stepped onto a flat leaf where the moonbeam fell straight across the walkway. Pip perched on her raised hand. Together, they turned toward home. Their joined shadow stretched from the leaf onto the path, long enough to reach the little doorway beneath the lantern vine.

Elspeth smiled. “There you are. You came back with us all along.”

She and Pip walked slowly along the path, watching their dark shapes travel beside them. At the doorway, Elspeth paused. Her shadow lay across the threshold, right where it belonged.

The village was quiet beneath the old tree’s wide canopy. In the little homes tucked between branches, lamps had been covered, and the last sleepy voices had faded away. Elspeth and Pip stayed on the path a while longer, not because they had anywhere to go, but because their joined shadow was such good company.

Elspeth lifted one arm. The shadow lifted an arm, too. Pip opened his wings, and a small pair appeared beside it. Then Elspeth lowered her arm, and Pip folded his wings. Their shadow settled along the path like a dark blanket laid out for the night.

“Do you think it liked our game?” Pip whispered.

“I think it was playing, too,” Elspeth whispered back.

A leaf above them swayed. The moonbeam slid a little way across the walkway, and their shadow shifted with it. Elspeth watched without chasing. Now she knew what to look for: when the light moved, the shadow moved; when she changed her place, it changed with her.

She leaned gently against the tree trunk. Pip settled on her shoulder, his wings folded close. Their shadow stretched behind them, then grew shorter as the moon climbed higher and the bright beam reached a different patch of bark.

Elspeth remembered how she had raced around the tree, calling after her shadow. She gave a quiet giggle. “Next time, I’ll invite it to play before I start running.”

Pip made a tiny sound that might have been a laugh. “And I’ll try not to point it out from the wrong side.”

They watched the broad leaves stir above the path. Moonlight rested on one leaf, then another, while the branches held the village snugly in their arms. Elspeth’s shadow grew small beside her feet. Pip’s little shadow tucked close to it.

At last, Elspeth rose and padded to her doorway. Pip fluttered in after her and settled on a folded leaf beside her bed. Through the open doorway, she could still see the moonbeam lying across the village path.

Elspeth watched her shadow settle quietly beside her as the moon climbed higher, and let her eyes close.