Blacktop in a Red Wood

 

MORNING LIGHT FILTERED through the canopy and birds sang greeting.

Ben stretched after uncurling from his hollow in the damp soil along the verge. Body heat had made the indentation for him. He hadn’t dared the wood behind. He doubted there were predators, but rather safe than not.

Wisps of mist floated like white ethereal arms about the tree trunks. It was so silent he felt entirely alone. But for wildlife, no one else lived in this world. Except a woman in a cottage not far away. North, a few miles.

He turned to gaze in that direction. A hollow feeling erupted in his stomach, and it had nothing to do with hunger.

Slinging his rucksack over one shoulder, he started walking.

There was no sign a car had ever passed here during the night.

Alayna lives as a recluse in the giant redwood forest far from prying eyes. When intruders break into her home with the intention of robbing and using her, a man with vivid green eyes becomes an unlikely saviour. The instant they see each other their fates are sealed. Ben and Alayna have the kind of attraction that reeks of a celestial mandate.

 She realises what Ben truly is, but he’s too young to know his real self. She sends him away to discover his destiny, telling him to play the music able to move stars, and awaits his return. Their attraction, though, is so visceral and overwhelming that Ben comes back again and again, each time finding it harder to leave the only woman who has ignited his soul.

 Alayna feels it too, because Ben possesses a kiss able to break worlds. His green eyes are an ethereal magnificence amid the redwoods, lighting the way for love, music, dreams and destiny to mark their paths, but such a connection has a price.

ETHEREAL MUSICIAN