Author Information
Love of Night
The moon was beautiful that night, with the clouds ringing around it to reflect onto the ebony ground before her feet. The frost on the ashen grass glowed and sparkled as the wind brushed through the blades. She always liked the forest better at night. The night was when her friends came out of hiding, away from the persecution of the sun. They liked her because she was like them, dark, mysterious, unknown. She waited to try to hear her new friend’s approach. She could not, however hard she tried. She called him Eventide, for his moon white and night black bars. She had only met him a few nights prior. She had brought a gift for him, having seen him before and wanting to be friends. Eventide’s presence was only known when he landed on a branch above her.
“Hello Eventide, how are you tonight?” She asked the owl above her.
She looked up at him with reverence in her golden hazel eyes, almost matching his. She lifted her small but strong hands up to him, offering him another gift, a meal of field mouse. He hopped off the branch to come down to her, landing on her shoulder lightly being a rather small barred owl. Her face was kind and round, her eyes big and bright, pupils heavily dilated, accustomed to the darkness of the night. She sat on her favorite boulder by the creek that runs through that forest. Eventide enjoyed his mouse and roosted next to her, eyes open and alert of the surrounding forest.
The forest of birch and pine had always been beautiful to her, especially in autumn. At night the birch shone silver, the pine needles glistened like fresh blood on a frozen ground. Eventide made a small squawk and hopped up onto her shoulder after he had finished his mouse and stared into the darkness seeing perfectly. She nuzzled her thin fingers into his feathers and cooed to him. He lowered his lids appreciatively.
She had come here to meet someone important, not just her new friend. Someone else like her, which made her nervous. She had never known that he was like her and had never met anyone else like her and him. She had moths in her stomach and Eventide could tell. He looked at her and tilted his head questioningly.
“Stop looking at me like that, Eventide, you know I’m nervous,” she paused for his response, Eventide just tilted it the other way and she sighed.
“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” she said softly and bit her lip.
She fiddled her fingers in her long pine bark brown bangs, the rest of it braided down her back. She thought she heard something and stopped. Stopped everything, even breathing, to listen. Eventide heard it too and she felt him quiver against her neck so she lifted and put her hand on him to calm him. She had heard that there were wolves in these woods, but had never come in contact with one. Before tonight that is. She looked into the darkness in front of her and saw the glint of moonlight off of dire eyes. She felt her heartbeat increase, she tried to calm herself and hoped the wolf couldn’t hear it as it pounded in her ears. The wolf stepped towards her and she tried to keep still, gaze locked onto the wolf’s.
Then she heard something else, the footsteps of another human, careful and quiet and she knew it was him. He stepped into the moonlight beside the she-wolf, his hand on her head as if she was his pet. His dominance was obvious, but he had a softness in his deep blue eyes that she recognized. He lifted his hand off of the she-wolfs head and motioned to her. The wolf stepped forward and looked up at him questioningly. He nodded and she walked over to the girl with the golden eyes and sniffed at her. The wolf was all shades of silver and gray with bright blue eyes, almost matching his. The wolf lifted her head to look at the girl, she looked up at him and then at the wolf, she lowered her head and they almost touched noses. He then walked over to her and she felt her heart swell.
“Leave us, Amare,” he said in a low voice, it deep and seducing.
The wolf complied and turned to leave, but before she left and made a small sound to Eventide and he nuzzled into the girl’s neck once and swooped silently into the forest after Amare.
After they were alone he turned to her, her heart felt like it was going to fly straight out of her chest. There was desire in the boy’s eyes, desire and love. His bright blue eyes glinted, his short blonde hair naturally standing up in the front, shadowed his strong face. They didn’t speak, they didn’t need to. As he approached her he didn’t smile, his eyes intent. She stood up to meet him, their eyes locked on each other’s. He was taller than her and she didn’t mind as she looked up at him. He moved a hand to her side to bring her closer to him, as she brought up a hand to touch his face. At her touch his mouth opened slightly, feeling her energy, his eyes burned with passion, containing himself. She stood on her toes to meet his slightly open mouth with her own, both of their eyes closed and he fully embraced her, holding her close. Never had anything she had ever done felt so accepted and right before that night.
