Come Love A Stranger

Nine

Mariah stared at the big cat with its head still on her thigh, she looked closely at his neck wounds to be sure she wasn’t hallucinating but the wound was indeed healing. The panther whimpered, and she instinctively scratched its head again, it slumped on the ground, enjoying the caress. Mariah found it hard to take her eyes off its healing parts and when it was completely healed, it stood on its fours and shuddered, making its furs to smoothen down.
It looked at her with its midnight sun eyes, it didn’t look away neither did it hurt her, Mariah kept its gaze, she could hear her heart beats loud in her ears, her hands were shaken but she told herself not to be afraid, it didn’t hurt her before, it won’t her now. The panther yawned and licked its lips and before she could blink once, it vanished into thin air. Mariah was shocked at that, she stood up immediately and searched around her, it was not there and neither did she hear any sound of it leaving. What just happened? She wondered, it was standing right before her and then it was gone, just like that?
“Mariah?” Someone called and she turned around to see the stranger, he was approaching her and when he was close enough, he looked around them and then at her, “what are you doing here?”
Mariah still couldn’t get it out of her system that the panther disappeared right before her, she searched around, hoping to find it but it was gone, then she turned to the man that was worried about her, “I…I,” she couldn’t coherent her words, the night was not only scary but strange and magical as well, how could she explain this?
The stranger tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, making her glance up at him, his touch was just like in her dream, a little cold but still sent burning sensation through her body that she shivered. “I thought you won’t come, I have been waiting for you,” he smiled, “are you okay? What happened here?” He asked, nodding at the dead wolves.
That fixed Mariah right up and she forgot about his touch and glanced at the wolves, “you won’t believe me should I tell you.”
“Try me,” he smiled.
“I…I was attacked by the wolves,” she began and his gaze turned serious immediately as he searched her body for any possible wounds, “it wasn’t able to hurt me,” she added to put him out of his worry but that only made him look at her in confusion. She gulped and licked her lips, looking away from him to not see the look of doubt in his eyes when she tells him what happened. “Just when they were about to attack me, the panther came, the panther I told you that has the same eye color with you,” she looked up at him, “it fought them off, killed these ones and one ran away.” She kept his gaze, waiting for the doubt to come but nothing happened, his eyes showed not a single glint of mockery. “You believe me?” She couldn’t help but ask.
He smiled, his eyes a little brighter than usual, his teeth pearly white and sharp to the eyes, “why should I not? I can see the wolves as proof. T’s not possible for a lady like you to kill three wolves,” he looked away from here, when he did again, his eyes had returned to normal.
Mariah was surprised that she was relieved to find out that he believed her, “it was strange.”
“Aye,” he answered, walking away from her, “come, there is something I want to show you,” he smiled, walking ahead without a backward glance, believing that she was following him.
Mariah watched him leave in surprise, he just closed the discussion? He didn’t even ask about the panther or what happened next? She frowned, why does she feel that there is something strange about him? Also the way he acts and speaks, as if nothing in this world would be a surprise to him. Seeing that he had gone a little far from her, she abolished her thoughts and ran after him, taking care not to slip and fall.
She expected him to take her to the meadow but when he stopped between two trees and finally turned to look at her with a smile, she wanted to know what was behind him and he seemed to hear her thought for he shifted aside and she gasped. Before her was a beautiful waterfall. She walked past him and couldn’t believe her eyes. She thought the meadow was beautiful but she was wrong, nothing, absolutely nothing could compare to the view she was looking at. There were flowers of different colors; the moonlight glowed on the water, making it magical. She looked at the sparkling clean water and could see the stars and the moon clearly in them. The scent that enveloped her was a mixture of blossoming flowers and smell of rain on earth. The trees added their own scent and it was very hard to pinpoint which scent exactly she perceived and that made her love it the more.
She turned to the stranger who was watching her with a smile on his face, his silvery white hair glinting with the moonlight; it was then that she noticed it was quite long. She had never seen a man with such long hair, even her hair was considered the longest back in the kingdom and she loved it. But staring at his white hair which cascaded down his shoulders, long enough to touch his thighs, she was mesmerized. He looked almost looked like a painting, for how would a man be so beautiful more than a woman?
“T’s alluring,” he whispered, “Do you not think so?” He glanced at her.
Mariah looked away from him at the flowing water, “yes, it is.”
The stranger smiled, he held his hands behind his back, staring at the water with a beautiful smile, “t’s the most beautiful place in the forest. I spend most of my time here, t’s my favorite place.”
“You stay in the forest always?” She asked.
“Aye. T’s home to me.”
“The forest?” she asked, shocked.
He looked at her with a smile when he heard the shock in her voice, “aye, you sound surprise.”
“Yes. Why? Don’t you have a home? Where do you come from?”
The man chuckled, “I have a home,” he looked around them, “this is my home, has been for as long as I can remember,” he looked down at her, his eyes glowing softly like low fire, “do you not like it?”
“I love the forest; I just don’t think someone would make a home in it. What about all the stories told about it? Are you not afraid of the beast that is said to guide the forest and the animals?”
He smiled and glanced at the flowing water, “the beast would attack you if you hurt the animals or hunt any of them to extinct but if you leave the animals alone and hunt reasonably, it would do you no harm. That is what men have found hard to understand. The guardian or the beast as you calls him,” he chuckled, “only attacks those who attack the forest. If you coexist with the animals and forest, he would leave you well alone and not harm you. Some hunters who understand that come to the forest and hunt and then leave, with the beast not approaching them, despite knowing everything that happens in the forest.”
“You seem to know about him and the forest,” she noticed.
“Aye, I have spent most of my life here and the other studying about the forest,” he smiled.
“Oh, but where do you come from? Don’t you have a kingdom?”
“I do.”
“Where?”
“Vagadon,” he answered simply.
Mariah was surprised; they came from the same place? “That is my Kingdom,” she announced and he only chuckled as a response. Staring at him, she decided to ask what has been her most desired reason of coming to meet him. “You promised to tell me your name when I see you today.”
He grinned then and glanced at her, “you never forget, I guess,” he chuckled, “how about I say I shall tell you if you meet me tomorrow?”
Mariah frowned, “you do not have to use it to bring me back. I shall come to the forest whether or not you tell me your name.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, I love the forest and if I would be seeing you in it from now on, I will like to know your name just like you know mine.”
“Aye, you are right,” he smiled, “but you have to go now, your mother is worried.”
She glanced up at him, how could he know that? Yesterday that he had said the same, she went home and her mother was worried, and now he is saying the same? How can he know and be sure of it?
“Like I said the previous time, every mother would be worried if her daughter is alone in the forest so late in the night, you do not need to be surprised whenever I said that,” he explained, answering to her thought and that made her more confused. How could he know she was thinking that? How could he know what she was worrying on?
The stranger chuckled, “come, I shall take you home,” and with that, he grabbed her hand and started leading her home.