Clove & Moose 13: The Many Mooses

Clove and Moose is a serial fiction story. While there is an overarching plot, each episode can be enjoyed on its own without reading what came before. However, if you want to get caught up, click one of the buttons below.

Previously, on Clove & Moose: After the mysterious Cataclysm dried up the earth and its magic, Clove and her cat Moose travelled to find and repair pools of corrupted magic left behind in the Cataclysm’s wake. Along the way, she has picked up three travelling companions: Marissa, Jasper, and his trusty horse Miss Delilah.

"Woah there, Miss Delilah,” Jasper called, and the cart began to slow.

Clove sat up as the wagon came to a halt. She’d been trying to have a nap, but sleep wouldn’t come, so instead she’d been laying on her back with Moose curled up on her stomach, watching tree branches go by overhead. He grumbled as she dislodged him to take a look around.

“Wow, it’s beautiful.” The landscape around them had been changing over the past few days, the mix of farmland and forests giving way to a series of lakes and streams. When she’d laid down, they were circling the shore of a lake, but now they were skimming the edge of a marsh, complete with reeds and grasses and the dangling branches of willow trees. A frog croaked somewhere in the distance, and a duck answered with a quack. A heron stood at the edge of the water, perfectly still, waiting for the moment to strike.

“Road hasn’t been maintained,” Jasper said. “It’s getting swampy. We’ll have to double back and find a different route. Can’t go through this.”

“Can we stop here for a bit first?” Marissa asked. “Clove’s right, it’s lovely. Besides, I want to watch that bird.”

“We can do whatever you like,” Jasper said. 

Clove felt a pang of guilt that Jasper was always so willing to accommodate them when he was the one giving them free transportation. She still felt like she hardly knew him after weeks on the road together, but he was a solid and dependable presence. 

“What do you want to do?” she asked, trying to at least do the bare minimum of making sure they didn’t take his generosity for granted.

“I don’t mind much whether we stop and go, but if we’re going to stop, this is as nice a place as any.”

Clove did know him enough to know that was the best answer they were likely to get. 

“What do you think, boy?” She scratched Moose under the chin. “Want to stretch your legs?” 

She had barely unlatched the back of the cart before he jumped down and took off. 

“Hey, get back here!” Clove grabbed for the rope tied to his harness, but the end of it slipped through her fingers. “Moose!”

He skirted the edge of the marsh, sticking close to the water yet keeping his paws dry. Clove was less successful, her feet sinking into the muck as she sprinted after him. He wasn’t getting too far ahead of her, but every time she grabbed for the rope, he put on a burst of speed and kept out of her reach.

More footsteps splashed behind her–Marissa, no doubt, proving her undying love for Moose yet again. 

They passed another heron, startling it into taking off. Clove followed Moose under a weeping willow; he ducked between the branches with ease but they whipped Clove in the face and tangled around her limbs. She finally detached herself and emerged on the other side to find that Moose had finally been brought to a stop by a stream flowing into the marsh.

“Gotcha, you little stinker.” She reached for the rope, but he dove to the side and took off once more.

They rounded a corner of the stream and were greeted by a whole edge of the marsh dotted with herons. 

“Wow,” she called over her shoulder as she continued to chase Moose, “I’ve never seen so many. I thought they were solitary birds.”

She was surprised to hear Jasper’s voice respond. “They usually are. This is unusual.”

Clove’s skin prickled. All too often lately, ‘unusual’ meant ‘magical’. For the moment, her priority was to catch Moose. She could figure out what kind of magical shenanigans were going on once he was safely in her arms.

Except that when he darted back toward the trees, the magical shenanigans quickly made themselves known. Even here, herons crowded together in clusters, like pigeons or seagulls. And Moose’s path soon led them to a familiar orange glow. 

Clove was tiring, but she put on one last burst of speed, diving to make a final attempt at catching him before he could run into the corrupt circle, but it was all for naught. She landed on the ground with the end of the rope inches away from the tips of her fingers.

Moose kept running until his paws hit the orange light and suddenly there were two of him.

Then three. And four. Five. Six. Nine. Twenty. There were Mooses everywhere. Mooses chasing the herons, Mooses nosing at Clove where she lay on the ground, Mooses tangling in Jasper’s feet as he caught up to her, Mooses running back to the marsh and yowling when he got his paws wet. 

Jasper offered Clove a hand up. 

Clove surveyed the scene. A nearby Moose climbed a tree, while two Mooses tussled with each other. A fourth Moose was chasing a fly while a fifth was batting at a pine cone. And all the time, more Mooses and more herons spilled out of the magic circle, filling the area with them. 

“Marissa’s going to be so mad she missed this.” 

“Aye,” Jasper agreed. “Very kind of her to watch Miss Delilah for me. She insisted I should follow you. She had taken her shoes off and wasn’t ready for a run over rough terrain.”

“I guess I need to deal with this, huh?” 

“Hmm. Not good for the ecosystem, this.”

“No,” Clove agreed. But she didn’t move.

“Everything alright?”

“What if I mess up?” Clove hadn’t had a personal stake in the outcome of her spells in a long time. Not since the first time. Not since Arthur. “What if something happens to Moose?”

“You won’t.” Jasper placed a hand on her shoulder, a quiet affirmation of trust in her. “You know what you’re doing. He’s going to be fine.”

“Thank you.” 

Clove picked her way through the Mooses and the herons until she came to the edge of the circle, clearing a space to sit down. A Moose came and sat in her lap; Clove absently patted his head with one hand as she spoke the words of the spell, clutching her crystal in the other hand.

The chaos around them slowly resolved into order. Herons and Mooses popped out of existence one by one. The flapping of wings and leaping of cats slowed and stopped as the magic changed from orange to green and the crystal grew warm in her hand. By the time the magic disappeared, there was only one heron down by the edge of the marsh and one Moose: the one curled in her lap.

“Hey little guy.” Clove quickly pocketed her crystal and grabbed onto his harness before he could make another escape attempt. “That was quite the adventure, huh?”

Moose pushed his head into her hand, purring loudly. Clove scooped him up as she stood, cuddling him close as she turned to Jasper. “Ready to head back?”

“If you are,” he agreed. 

They began making their way back along the edge of the marsh. “Thanks for your help.”

“Didn’t do a thing.”

“You came after us. And you believed in me when I needed it.”

“Anyone would do the same.” Jasper reached over to pet Moose. “I knew you would save this little one. I can see you care for him as much as I care for Miss Delilah.”

“Anything for our furry friends, huh?” Clove kissed the top of Moose’s head. “Let’s get back and tell Marissa all about your little mishap.”

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Katie Conrad is a speculative fiction writer living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. You can find her on bluesky, instagram, and tumblr.