But to Love...

She doesn't know I watch her. Perverse as that may sound, my eyes not only take her in, her flowing golden hair, her eyes that shine like the sky during a passing storm... No, I watch around her. The shadows. The moments where she's less than safe. For little does this one know, she's angered the wicked with her life. You can feel it pulse through the earth as it ebbs forward and away. Each motion sends a sickly-sweet tremor through the reverberating ground. Yet, she smiles that unknowingly, perfect smile. "Oriya!" someone shouts towards her. Her gaze travels to an amber-haired woman who carries a warm smile in greeting. Once more, her smile pierces through, welcoming the person I've grown to know as her friend. They hug in greeting. Nothing about their connection screams ill-intent, but I refuse to relax my guard. And then... I see it. A flicker. A slight motion waiting in the shadows protruding from the business near. Oriya and her dear friend start waking closer. The more she nears, the more I feel the being as it anxiously awaits her. Before she can succumb to the creature, I raise my bow, aim, and fire. The mark is hit, and a shrill screech fills the air. Who would notice though? No one, as the body of the ink-like being crumples in on itself, its life-force oozing into the earth where it once derived. No one, not even Oriya, notices the danger, because she can't see it. She can't see me. She can't see the monster who wanted to devour her. One day though, she will.