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Moongatherer
On all sides of the vast cavern system that made up their home, Clan Foxfire gathered to see their ambassadors forward. Honeycomb could feel their eyes on her like burning as she hitched her heavy pack up higher on her shoulders and followed Pomegranate toward the northern mouth.
“Sacred Granddaughters, you make us proud to call you ours,” Grandmother Flame said, standing just inside the cavern, body limned with the light of the fading sunset. The iron-colored coils of her hair were caught in a protective knot on top of her head, and her warm brown skin glowed where the last remnants of the lengthening day touched it. To her sides, the faces of their Clan members were smiling, or reverent, or warm—but their eyes lingered on Pomegranate, on the perfect sight she made, walking in front with the offerings carefully packed in her bag and her chin held high.
Let them keep watching Pomegranate. Honeycomb wished they would not look at her at all. They would only be disappointed.
“Sacred Granddaughters, you make us proud to call you ours,” Grandmother Flame said, standing just inside the cavern, body limned with the light of the fading sunset. The iron-colored coils of her hair were caught in a protective knot on top of her head, and her warm brown skin glowed where the last remnants of the lengthening day touched it. To her sides, the faces of their Clan members were smiling, or reverent, or warm—but their eyes lingered on Pomegranate, on the perfect sight she made, walking in front with the offerings carefully packed in her bag and her chin held high.
Let them keep watching Pomegranate. Honeycomb wished they would not look at her at all. They would only be disappointed.
29 pages, ebook
Published June 20, 2023
About the author
Willa Blythe
7 books4 followersWilla Blythe is a queer femme writer from the American South who specializes in queer speculative fiction. Willa grew up reading fantasy novels of all kinds, and got a Master's degree studying young adult science fiction. The fantastic speaks to the purest truth inside her, and that's what Willa writes for.
She lives in the lower Hudson River valley with her son and her best friend, and is working on her first novel--but is continually getting distracted by *really* good short fiction calls...
For more information, please check out http://willablythe.com
She lives in the lower Hudson River valley with her son and her best friend, and is working on her first novel--but is continually getting distracted by *really* good short fiction calls...
For more information, please check out http://willablythe.com
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 13, 2026
I believe this is my first time reading something within the "lunarpunk" genre and I thought I had an idea of what that meant when I saw the tag for this, but it turns out I absolutely did not. It's not just solarpunk but in space, which, not sure why I thought that.
This is a very charming story set in a world that we only get little sips of, the story being so short and primarily focused on the relationship between Honeycomb and Pomegranate, two young women who set out on a pilgrimage to a sacred place to give offerings to a Moon Goddess to try to bring back the night. It is a delightful inversion on the usual solar deity tropes and the many cultures around the world that would celebrate the Solstices, and the return of life-giving sunlight. In this world, moonlight is the life-giver, and the sun is a deadly laser (gets the hook).
Even a small amount of exposure to the sun can cause "sun sickness" and lead to burns, dehydration, seizures, and even permanent brain damage. Honeycomb is our perspective character and she is coping with the pain of losing an elder sibling to a long battle with sun sickness, that she blames herself for. This journey she is sent on is a metaphor and a parallel to her discovering a path to healing and letting go of her grief and survivors guilt, and her journey of accepting that she is worth love. It's short but sweet and it does what it sets out to do, taking advantage of the setting to fill in the themes of feminine power, healing, and acceptance. It is the kindness of a cool drink of water in the dead of summer.
I love a good god-touched moment, and I love seeing a character who blames themself and puts so much weight on their own shoulders have that weight lifted off, and it's a definite bonus when both halves of a relationship do that for each other. I also love that it was done using the language available to the characters, who seem to live in a less technological world than our own, or a post-technological world, is the implications I got, so it avoided a lot of the forced-feeling "therapy speak" that I tend to find negatively impacts immersion and suspension of disbelief. I found myself relating to both Honeycomb and Pomegranate's struggles for my own reasons, and I think all of us can find a little of each of them in ourselves. The beloved high achiever who becomes someone others want her to be rather than being herself, and the self-isolating weirdo who creates a self fulfilling prophecy against connecting with others, lost in her own dissociation. They're easy to love, and seeing them together is beautiful.
This is a very charming story set in a world that we only get little sips of, the story being so short and primarily focused on the relationship between Honeycomb and Pomegranate, two young women who set out on a pilgrimage to a sacred place to give offerings to a Moon Goddess to try to bring back the night. It is a delightful inversion on the usual solar deity tropes and the many cultures around the world that would celebrate the Solstices, and the return of life-giving sunlight. In this world, moonlight is the life-giver, and the sun is a deadly laser (gets the hook).
Even a small amount of exposure to the sun can cause "sun sickness" and lead to burns, dehydration, seizures, and even permanent brain damage. Honeycomb is our perspective character and she is coping with the pain of losing an elder sibling to a long battle with sun sickness, that she blames herself for. This journey she is sent on is a metaphor and a parallel to her discovering a path to healing and letting go of her grief and survivors guilt, and her journey of accepting that she is worth love. It's short but sweet and it does what it sets out to do, taking advantage of the setting to fill in the themes of feminine power, healing, and acceptance. It is the kindness of a cool drink of water in the dead of summer.
I love a good god-touched moment, and I love seeing a character who blames themself and puts so much weight on their own shoulders have that weight lifted off, and it's a definite bonus when both halves of a relationship do that for each other. I also love that it was done using the language available to the characters, who seem to live in a less technological world than our own, or a post-technological world, is the implications I got, so it avoided a lot of the forced-feeling "therapy speak" that I tend to find negatively impacts immersion and suspension of disbelief. I found myself relating to both Honeycomb and Pomegranate's struggles for my own reasons, and I think all of us can find a little of each of them in ourselves. The beloved high achiever who becomes someone others want her to be rather than being herself, and the self-isolating weirdo who creates a self fulfilling prophecy against connecting with others, lost in her own dissociation. They're easy to love, and seeing them together is beautiful.
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