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The Moonlit Post

    He was just infuriating! Arlene was not able to go to sleep. She had been tossing and turning in her bed for the last few hours but the sandman was not out to get her. It was 11pm and she felt restless. She kept glancing at her window expecting to see something there. Her room was on the second floor of the house, with a window to the back garden. If she sat up she could see the large sycamore just a few feet from her house. Finally she turned with a big sigh and lied down facing up looking at the ceiling. She was pondering, trying to make heads or tails of it all. She loathed to admit it but she found herself oddly missing the company of that narcissistic elf. After spending the last two nights with him, he had told her not to come the next night. She was surprised but he didn’t offer any explanations. Did she do something that might have offended the resident dark elf? Her mind couldn’t help but race through the events of the previous night but she couldn’t think of anything that might incur such a strange dismissal.

    She soon found out after her last three visits that Raven was not a threat at all! Despite having eyes that seemed to belong to a creature from hell, his diet, to her relief, did not include humans. In fact one would not be wrong to assume that the eating habits of a dark elf was much like a cat. Apart from eating her cupcakes, Raven was in the habit of eating birds, rabbits, squirrels and any other smaller mammals or rodents. For this purpose dark elves had a pair of sharp incisors although only slightly longer than a human. 

    In fact Raven had been in the act of skinning a rabbit and eating them raw when she arrived the previous night. She almost balked at the scene. Apparently dark elves.., or any elves for that matter, didn’t cook. They did not see the point of cooking since they never get sick. Although according to Raven, the Silvers preferred a more botanical diet. He was telling her all this, while slowly snacking away on the rabbit while Arlene was fighting the urge to throw up. He even offered her a rabbit’s foot and laughed when she screwed up her nose in disgust.

    After he was done with dinner and washed himself in the near creek, he walked back. With just one leap he was suddenly up in the tree again. 

    “Climb up!” he said. Arlene just stared up at him. Was he insane? Trying to climb a tree in darkness sounds like a recipe for a broken neck to her. She started trying to scrabble up the tree anyway, with her small gunnysack still behind her. After a few agonizing minutes, and with a lot of effort, Arlene managed to pull herself up to one of the lower branches. She looked up to find Raven looking at her with boredom. He jumped down to her branch and offered her his back. 

    “Hold on” he said. 

    Arlene held him around his neck and closed her eyes. With just a few more steps they were up in the highest branches. She still had her eyes closed because she didn’t want to look down. Her feet managed to find some footing. To her surprise when she opened her eyes, she found herself in a small room made entirely of leaves and branches entwined tightly to make a foundation. She was still holding on tightly onto Raven’s shoulders. She didn’t dare move an inch. She could see right through the holes between the leaves! She didn’t think anyone would be able to survive a fall from this height! And if she looked up, she could see the moon and the clear night sky. The leaves were much tighter on the floor than the roof as if to let some space for the moonlight to pass through.

    Raven’s hand was around her waist. And she was not about to let go of his shoulders either, if anything, she was holding them tighter. He was looking at her and grinning ear to ear. Her heart was beating fast and she wondered if he could feel it. Her cheeks were burning at the thought but she was too terrified to pull away. After a few moments, his eyes grew soft and he put her down. 

    “Don’t worry, it’s safe. You’re not going to fall.”

    She tried standing gingerly at first. But true enough she found that even her feet couldn’t go past the leaves. The leaves were frozen as if by magic. Still the sheer height was dizzying. It was like standing on a floor made of glass. She decided to look up when she walked.

    The room itself was bare but big enough to hold five grown man standing comfortably. Everything in the room was made out from the tree itself, including a small table in the middle of the room and a makeshift bed. She had never seen anything like it. It was like the table and the bed grew out of the tree itself. The only things that stood out were the two items of clothing on the wall opposite his bed. One is a black robe; the other seemed to be pieces of clothing with very thin metal attached over it. She put her gunnysack on the table.

“This is your home?” she asked.

“No, this is my post.” 

“Oh... So you will leave after your job is done?” She tried to sound nonchalant about it but she could feel his gaze on her.

“Depends. I have to follow orders.”

    Why was she asking if he was leaving? It was none of her concern. Shouldn’t she be glad if he was? She was annoyed at herself. Was she starting to have feelings for him? She stole a quick glance at him standing in front of her on the opposite side of the table. Tall and foreboding, his posture was always straight and at ready. His black hair was swept back for once, making his pointed ears all the more visible. His soft but handsome features looked very serious this evening, lips thin in a tight grim. His eyes narrowed at the edge made his gaze feel as sharp as daggers. He had an air of arrogance that always seemed to surround him, which she found infuriating but attractive at the same time. She quickly busied herself and opened the bag of cupcakes to distract herself from her thoughts. She arranged the cupcakes on the table and to her amazement, the leaves on the table started to lift up suddenly, to form a bowl. She marvelled at the leaves movement.

“How do you stop the raindrops from coming in?” she said, now looking up at the open roof while attempting to take a turn at a new topic.

    He motioned with his hands, his fingers long and graceful. Automatically the leaves moved and covered up the roof. Assuming those hands were weak she knew would be a costly mistake for any opponent. The room was momentarily dim. She was awestruck by it all. She had never seen leaves moving at such speed. As fast as plants go anyway. 

“Thanks by the way, for bringing these cupcakes. It contains very interesting flavours” he said, watching her through the now much darkened room.

“Oh it’s nothing. I enjoy painting them. I can make more of them if you like?“ Oh, what? Did that just come out of my mouth???

“I was hoping you would” he said. She could tell he was smiling in the dark. He waved his hand a second time and the leaves on the ceiling moved again. This time, apart to make a clear and large window of the moon. The room was flooded with moonlight once again.

“Aren’t you worried someone might find this place? Some kid could climb this tree and accidentally find it.” 

 He strolled over and picked one cupcake of the table. He was eating it slowly this time. He seemed to be staring at the moon, his mind preoccupied. He was distracted when he answered.

“Hmm? No, that’s not possible. I used an enchantment. You wouldn’t be able to find this place unless I allowed you to.” 

    He finished the food, and turned towards her, looking very serious. He took her hand suddenly pulling her in the direction of his bed. What is he doing? Her mind went numb. Her heart felt like it was bouncing all around her ribcage. If she felt like bolting, his grip was much too firm to allow it. He sat down and pulled her to sit next to him. She didn’t know what to expect. Her stomach felt like it was doing somersaults.

    He was sitting very close to her. She knew her face must be burning like a red fire engine. It was dark but Raven could probably see her clearly as in daylight. He brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed it lightly, all the while those sharp gleaming eyes looking straight into hers and then he said, 

“My dear, do me a favor. Can you not come back here for the next three days?”

She was too busy gasping for air that all she could manage was a weak “Huh?”