Ebony

Third Meeting

The sun was bright the next few weeks, warding off much movement for those who were not too resilient or interested in becoming so. The girl was one of those, the uninterested, but she moved once the sun fell below the horizon, inviting the temperatures to join it. She would run, starting with only a few miles and growing the number in a few days until she would reach a limit towards the end of the summer and abruptly stop.

It was a temporary, fickle activity for her species, to exercise. She did not find overt joy in it, but there was always that moment right after the run when the adrenaline still shot in bursts through her veins. A sort of euphoria swept through her during the time afterward, her reward for the hard work she did not like to put in. That was the little resilience she possessed, all for a temporary hype that would eventually fade.

Though she would never tell the true reason, the girl sought for something solid, something to keep once she had left the stage of her life that she had been trapped in for seventeen years. With the summer now there, she would be getting a license soon and a car, starting to work and get ready for college. However lofty it was for a poor southern girl, she felt a need to do it. Perhaps it would be a fate for her, or perhaps the sight of her parents miserable with jobs that might be gone before she was fifty encourages her.

All that she knew was that she would ready for what would come. One particular cool morning, she had gone out running with her brother, a twin her age. He was about a foot taller, and he would often outrun her due to the leg difference by the time they returned from the end of the road for a second round. When she found the end of the road for the second time, she paused for a few minutes to catch her breath and take a swig of water.

A shiver ran down the girl's spine, but it could not be the weather. However cool, it was not enough for the shivers she felt wracking her body. They ended as soon as she turned.

Here was the creature once more, the sight of her capturing his senses once more. There was a different smell in the air today, not like the scent she released when they had met the second time. For two cycles, she had held its attention, wholly and entirely. Her species was beautiful, and it could not go home. Not yet.

Perhaps she would teach it?

The girl approached of her own accord as if none of the cautions she should be showing was there. Her interests had gone too far into her head, dug a little pit with claws that would never release. Not until she found out more. A very real sensation made her relax, but she was more than sure it would not hurt her.

The ebony alien moved around her like liquid night, blending in with the dark trees and blacker sky, only the lack of dotting stars keeping it in her sight. She angled her body slowly, keeping it in sight the whole time. Its eyes flashed to her, and she met its gaze.

They stayed like that for a while, both quiet and serene in their patient watchfulness.

The girl spake.

And it did not answer for it was gone.

Her brother had come round to find her and htey traveled back together, his laughter ringing up into the sky at how slow she was. It watched, and it waited.