It was much too late for her to be out. She knew that. But her father's sickness had only grown worse as the night had worn on, fever climbing, shivers intensifying. He was dehydrated, and fresh water was absolutely necessary at this point in the sickness. So she walked out to the well in the woods.
The full moon shone silver, tinting the girl's hair a lighter shade than it actually was and bathing her in an ethereal light. The large water pail she grasped with thin fingers, ready to use it as a weapon should anything make the mistake of attacking her. Dead leaves crunched under her feet as she made her way into the woods, alerting her to how vulnerable she was on this night.
It excited her.
For as long as she could remember, she had felt bored. The oddest boredom, as if there was something much more exciting she should be doing. Alas, there was nothing to do in the village but groom the plants in her garden and sell her tomatoes. Each night she'd latch the gate to the garden to prevent animals from stealing the vegetables, make dinner for her father, and go to sleep.
Tonight was different.
The Wulf would be hunting tonight. It was the most feared of all nights, for the Werewulf was the most terrible Faery creature to ever plague the village. It hunted every full moon for the past twenty years, always taking a victim. No matter how many sacrifices the villagers made in an attempt to appease its hunger, when the sun rose on the morning after the full moon, there would be another human body. Ripped to shreds, all the insides on the outside, missing limbs. There was a victim every month.
It seemed the creature craved only human blood.
As the girl made her way down the path she tried to calm herself by thinking logically. Out of all the people in the village, what were the chances it would take her? She'd also been making careful observations for the past few years, and it seemed the Wulf only made prey of a certain type of people. Unsavory folks. So, despite the innate fear that came with knowing it had torn apart countless people, she took comfort in the fact that she probably wouldn't be one of them.
Before long, she came upon the well, where she reached out to tie the hanging rope to the handle of her bucket. She lowered the bucket into the water far below, and was just about to bring it back up, when it happened.
She heard a twig snap, somewhere off to the left. Her head flew up, eyes searching through the darkness, but didn't find anything large enough to have made such a loud crack.
An urge overtook her. One of the oddest, stupidest urges she'd ever been struck with.
The urge to investigate.
Against all logic, she wanted to know what was in the trees. So despite being a rather bright girl, she took a step in the direction of the noise.
And another.
And then she saw.
•*•*•
The Faery sank his teeth into yet another tender heart. Hot blood rushed into his mouth, soothing the icy burn deep in his gut. The salty, coppery taste rolled across his tongue, and with the taste came feeling. Real feeling. Such that he hadn't felt since the last full moon, and before the moons, since before he'd been banished from Tir Na Nog.
He cursed this world, and all who inhabited it.
He remembered the happiness from so long ago. His memories of love, of being in love, tormented his every waking minute. The agony of knowing he'd never feel it again sent him into a rage, and every full moon, his rage transformed him into this thing, and he took the only thing that would allow him to get some relief.
A human heart.
But his lost lover would be ever-so-disappointed in him if he went on to kill innocent humans. So he watched. And waited. And when he caught site of one such human worthy of death, went to meet them.
This full moon was like any other. He followed his prey into the woods, and tore into them with enthusiasm.
The man never stood a chance.
So there he stood, with a juicy human heart at his lips, when he heard a voice.
"Excuse me?"
That voice. He would recognize it even if it had been centuries since he'd last heard it. As it was, it had only been almost two decades.
Two decades since he'd been cast out of Faery, since she'd been cast out. Their love, forbidden as it was, had been their downfall. As Prince and Princess of opposing Courts, Winter and Summer, a relationship between the two was forbidden, unheard of. They'd been adamant in their surety, that there would never be anyone else for either of them. But alas, 'twas not to be.
They were, unfortunately, star-crossed.
When they were cast from Faery, they had the decision to live a cursed existence on Earth, or be reincarnated into human forms. Sakura, brave, courageous Sakura, had taken the leap of faith and accepted mortality. Sasuke, cowardly as he was, chose to live in the darkness, never to know Faery magic again.
"Sir, are you alright?" That voice... He studied the girl. In the moonlight her skin had taken on an otherworldly glow, and her green eyes peered at him with concern. But no familiarity. No relief.
No love.
But of course not. She was a simple human now, wasn't she? She'd have no memories of their home world, no memories of their love.
No memories of him.
"Yes, quite alright," he said, though he was anything but alright. His heart pounded in his chest in a way he'd almost forgotten was possible. His mind whirled with memories of a world filled with cherry blossoms and a forest very different from the one they were in currently. A world where light came from everywhere, and was not just a reflection, a trick of the eye.
"Are you sure?" Her voice asked again.
"Hn." No longer able to think clearly, he was reduced to one syllable answers. A flash of pink, dazzling sunlight, bright green eyes-
"What's that you're eating?"
Her question snapped him out of his daze, and he realized he was still squeezing a bloody human heart in his fist. She must not recognize it for what it is, he thought. He had the darkness to thank for that.
"Hn, a tomato," he replied. In an attempt to distract her, he redirected the conversation. "What are you doing out in the woods anyways? On a full moon, no less."
"Ah, I had to get water from the well. My father is terribly sick, you see-"
"You have no bucket."
"I left it at the well." She peered at him through the shadows. "What are you doing out here anyways? Shouldn't you be afraid of the Wulf?"
"I live out here. I just came to town for a tomato."
"Just for a tomato?" she asked skeptically.
"Hn. I come to town once a month for tomatoes."
She glanced back the way she'd come, seemingly deep in thought. "Well, if that's the only reason... I actually grow them. I could just leave some for you here the next time I come for water. That way you won't have to walk all the way. I know it's quite the hike."
"You'd do that?" he asked in surprise. "For someone you've only just met?"
"Well," she started. "I'm not quite sure what it is, but for some reasons my instincts tell me you mean me no harm. I've always had good instincts in the past."
He gazed at her. "Your instincts are correct."
"Good. Then I'll bring a basket of tomatoes this time next month."
Her smile was brilliant and bright as she turned to leave. "I'd better get the water back to my father. He's really quite unwell."
He watched her walk away. He remembered distinctly the way her body had dissolved when they'd reached Earth, how her soul escaped its shell and scattered in the wind. He remembered the last time she'd left him.
"Thank you." For coming back to me.
He felt a weight lift from his chest, and in the next moment, let the heart fall from his fingers.
•*•*•
The villagers had not felt this freedom for nearly twenty years. For eleven months, there had not been a single suspicious death. Eleven moons, and no Wulf.
Not one of them suspected that the reason for the Wulf's appeasement was love. Every month, a girl with pink hair strolled into the woods with a basket of tomatoes, where a boy met her. He bit into a tomato and remembered happiness. Nowadays, there was a certain feeling in his being which had been missing for a long, long, time.
Peace. He looked at the pink haired girl with emerald eyes, saw the beginnings of love in her smile, and was content. Although her name was different, that was the only thing.
Sakura, his love, was not gone. They'd just have to begin again.
He thought that perhaps this world was not so bad after all.