Clove & Moose: Moose Moment 9

Clove and Moose is a serial fiction story. If you want to get caught up on what came before, 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. She's picked up three companions: Marissa, Jasper, and his trusty horse Miss Delilah.

The wind sent a dry leaf skittering across the bare ground and Moose went leaping after it: pounce, pounce, pounce. The breeze kept it just out of his reach, twirling and looping back on its own path, and he twisted and jumped to try to catch it. He frolicked in one direction and the other, then back again, until a bigger gust of wind took the leaf beyond the reach of his tether and out of his grasp forever.

With his toy gone, Moose returned to where Clove sat under a tree and nestled into her side. She scritched his head and he purred contentedly in the golden autumn afternoon until they both fell asleep.

Thank you for reading! We'll come back to the main story of Clove & Moose soon enough, but I've been publishing a monthly fiction newsletter for five years straight and I need a little break. These shorter Moose Moments will be coming to your inbox instead for the next few months.

If you’re not already subscribed, click below to get the next chapter delivered directly to your inbox. See you next month!

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