By moonlight's shadow

Chapter 3

The night was a special kind of blackness, the kind that wants only to hold the stars and help them to shine all the brighter. It was a warm black that hugged you no matter what, and within it's safety she could feel her own soul all the more clearly, that innocent inborn spark. The black night holds me close until the dawn, always her cloak until she is ready for the dawn. It is that friendly blackness that allows her eyes to rest and let my dreams take centre stage. The pure black of the night is her comfort, the blanket of generous velvet that keeps me safe. It is the pure black that makes the moon so beautiful, that makes a stage for her to stand upon. It is the pure black of the night that gives the stars their beauty, and in it my heart is safe, my soul serene.

But that was all a lie. A beautiful lie.

She instinctively knew that but she could not do anything about it at all. She could not do anything because she did not remember anything at all.

The only time Snow felt comfortable was when she alone out in the woods without anyone bugging her from behind. She left her shoes back at the school and walked down the path laid down with white pebbles and golden red gravels towards the darkness of the woods. The students were not allowed to venture out there, but she was the only exception.

After all she was the grand-daughter of Elizabeth Snow, one of the first vampires ever created by the curse placed by the Witches. She was bound to have some liberty more than the rest of others. The stones hurt her feet which were soft like cotton-wool and cut them, leaving her feet bleeding. But within a few moments her feet were healed good as new and she reached the soft carpet of the thick grass and then the broken pine needles which were a prickling comfort to her feet, leaving only the bloody imprint on the path. There was only a particular person who was allowed to take care of her as she moved wherever she wanted. Snow knew that he was always there to have her back and after three years she was not bothered anymore by that. It was the same feeling when you were wrapped in the warmth of a blanket on a cold night.

She reached the edge of the forest and breathed in the smell of the cold night air along with the damp earth and the leaves which were on the verge of shooting to receive the dawn of first morning. She could hear the hoot of the owl looking at her and sitting atop a high branch trying to warn off others about a predator who was entering their realm. Snow smiled at the owl in acknowledgement and then a few steps later she started running. She did not look anywhere because she knew every inch of this soil like the back of her hand. She knew the air of the night as if it was her second breath but still she could feel him looking at her from the tree-tops branches, leaping from top to top making sure that she did not uproot any of the trees in her anger or she did not catch hold of any panther stalking a fawn.

At night she was as the flora of nature, alive and unseeing existing as only herself.. She closed her eyes and she could feel the blackness around her enveloped around her like a cocoon, a place where she could do whatever she pleased and had a family. A place where her dreams were not restricted by the dreary desert sands. The night rides in on a horse of pure midnight velvet, beckoned by the stars under a the glow of a full moon. As the colours of the day rest, perhaps dream of the morrow, the hillside becomes its monochrome beauty, shapes that make an ever-changing, ever-present puzzle, question and answer united. In this night we all become one, from rock to plant to animal, one promise of life awaiting the return of the sun.

“You can come down from the trees,” whispered Snow as she reached a clearing in the middle of the forest.

“What? And miss the chance of seeing of stumble?” asked the handsome man with a smile as he landed on his feet nimbly before her.

“Are you going to torture me for an eternity for a singular incident in my early days? How are you better than those snobs that I am forced to call my classmates?” asked Snow, with a scowl on her beautiful face and her hair unruly as ever.

“You know that is a joke that only we can understand, right? But tell me something Ms. White, did you try the products that I had suggested you for taming your hair? I mean the others saying that you look like Merda from Brave is not entirely an exaggeration, you also understand that, if I am not wrong?” asked the Headmaster.

“If any part of my entire body is transformed or is harmed in any way then you know that my Grandma will have your hide for her Persian rug, correct?” prompted Snow, very seriously.

“Ms. White, there is no man or woman or vampire alive on this Earth who doesn’t know or fear your Grandmother or what she can do to them. I fall in that same category, even though I tell the students otherwise but threatening me with her having my hide is a bit too extreme for asking about your hair is it not?” asked the Headmaster, a soft chuckle on his face.

“No, not threatening, just checking. Then you would probably like to know as well that I had sheared of my hair in clumps a few nights earlier but to my dismay they had grown back again overnight,” said Snow, running her fingers through her huge swath of hair. The headmaster knew why her hair was unruly and why it could not be tamed but he could not say or even breathe a word about it to her.

“Fine, then I shall make an appointment for you at the Salon in the city, something should work,” said the man with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“Why is it that you are so goddamn interested in making me civilized and beautiful to be presented in the society like a damsel in distress?” asked Snow, a puzzled look on her face.

“It is not about what I want, it is about what you and your Grandmother want Ms. White. The school is not run by my personal preferences or choices. It is run by the Board and I have to abide by all the rules and regulations they provide me with. Well your family is on a different league all together which is why you have been always treated as an exception but you are also aware of the fact that before the Hunt and the Ball there are norms to be followed. I am just trying to get you in par with all those things,” said the Headmaster.

“But my Grandma never told me about any of these norms or rules. She has specifically asked me to not develop any kinds of bonds with anyone because they might stake me from the back,” said Snow, taking out her stick from the sheath strapped to her back.

“Well that is a way of not developing any kind of bonds with a nice reason but I must tell you that it is going to take a lot more to kill you rather than staking your heart. You might not believe me now but you will one day Ms. White,” said Raphael King as he brought out the sticks from his own sheath.

“I believe you Headmaster. I absolutely do. If there is anyone who can do that to me still now then it is you, and that is also going to change within the next month,” said Snow as she took a defensive position rather her normal offensive stance.

“I must say that I adore your confidence,” said the headmaster as he waited for her to take the first strike but that did not happen so he took the initiative and lunged at her with aggressively. Snow was ready for the attack she easily parried and side-stepped him and tried to hit him in the ribs but the man she was fighting against was a veteran warrior of lot wars she had just heard about and with their vampiric speed and strength it was more like a dance of death with both of them trying very hard to kill each other. The aggression and passion found in Snow could be found only in a specific kind of animal but they tended to move in pack, unlike her.

But they did not know that there was someone who was looking at them at that moment from somewhere very far away. They did not feel the need to be bothered by a threat which had been lying dormant for the past three centuries.

After an hour of trying to murder each other and being quite unsuccessful at that Snow finally stopped and threw the stick on the ground. She closed her eyes and then looked upwards at the sky.

Moonlight poured from the sky like the milk of a god that required no sustenance and instead was satisfied with only the beauty of the soft rays. And in the distance the trees were silhouetted against the deep velvety sky. The moonlight shone down, a diffuse glow, lighting the forest from pitch black to charcoal grey.

“Why is it that I have always been drawn towards her?” asked Snow as she looked up at the moon hanging in the sky.

Raphael knew what she was talking about but he looked back at the direction she was looking and said,” I know the story but I am forbidden to tell that to you.”

“Yeah, I know I know…there are fates worse than death and my Grandma can provide those to you with quite pleasure but I can even do worse than that Headmaster and you should know by now that like my Grandma I also never give empty threats? And what can be more ruinous than the rumours of a failed love story ending at the hands of your own brother?” asked Snow, her eyes glinting at the light of the moon.

Raphael sucked in a sharp breath.

“And why would you exactly do that? I want to say that how is my ruin going to help your cause at all? I am the one who knows most about you and your family and also a few things which probably no one else should know or knows about. Then why would want me to go away from here at all?” asked Raphael folding his arms over his chest, making Snow aware of his beautiful muscles which rippled underneath the flimsy nylon t-shirt he was wearing.

“I don’t want you to go Headmaster. Not at all. I just want to know a bit more about my own self. Grandma doesn’t talk about my parents always avoiding the topic. I know that losing children can hurt a mother, especially when having a child is so damn impossible for us. I just want to recognize my own self. I need to know. That is what I am trying to tell you and wanting to know,” said Snow as Raphael sighed at her.