Chapter 2 The Watcher in the Woods

I watched the man struggle with his dark thoughts out in the snow, under the trees. He will not see or sense me unless I allow it. I can taste his fear, his sorrow, his lost of self. His pain brings tears to my eyes, but I can not let them fall, as that would allow him to find me, and that I could not allow.

I know this man from another time and place, not so very far from this remnant of the great forest that once covered all the northeastern part of this land. I remembered when he was just little more than a boy, learning the ways of his nature, while running with the wolves. When I saw him running with the gray leader of the pack ,at first I thought I had found another of my kin, it had been aeons since I had danced with my kin under the silver light of the full moon. I started to run to him to fall in the sweet grass of the meadow and welcome him home when I realized that even though he was a type of an immortal, he was not of my kind. His bloodline was that of mankind not mine, even though he did have some qualities of us within him. So I remained hidden from him and I went deeper into the forest.

Time passed and every once in a while I would see him return , little changed, to the forest to run with the wolves. The passing of the years have no meaning for me as I am one who has little use time or is touched by time. But in the way man keeps tract and breaks the natural flow of the seasons into years, it must have been 100 years or so that had past when I saw him again. He was sorely wounded and driven close to the point of losing what remained of his humanity by what other men had done to him. When I found him, he was laying nude in the snow, covered in blood and horrible wounds. I recoiled and turned to flee back into the forest as the violence emanating from him sickened me.

Then I heard him. "Please help." So soft, so weak was his voice that I had to return and help him. It took all of my being to kneel down in the snow beside him, to cover him with my wrap and pick him up to carry him to my dwelling, a simple cabin in a small clearing. Once there, I laid him in my bed and covered him with furs to warm him. Then I set a bowl of snow near the fire to melt, so I could wash the blood away and tend to his wounds. As the snow in the bowl melted and I threw in and stirred a selection of dried herbs and flowers in the warmed water to aid in healing and keeping infection away from him.

As I washed the blood away from his body with soft cloths, I was very careful not to touch his bare skin with my hands. I could feel the cold tingle-sting coming up through his skin from where some one had bonded some type of rare metal to his bones. It was not as harmful to me as cold iron would be, but it was still very unpleasant to be that near it. I could feel, through the cloths, the fire raging through his body as it quickly healed itself of all wounds. I watched all the wounds heal, except for the one deep inside around his bones as his healing factor could not push the metal away to allow them to heal naturally. He had that cold metal bonded to him, for good or evil I did not know at that time. All I knew was that I had to bring his fever down or he would burn himself up and die despite his gift. Immortals can die despite their gift, if the wounds are too many and too deep or if they will themselves to death's cold embrace.

All night I bathed him and soothed his fevered brow. Toward morning his fever broke but was replaced by something more dangerous – chills. I stoked the fire higher and added more furs to the bed, but still he shivered and the bed shook with the force of it. I laid down next to him under the furs and tried to use my body's heat to warm him. It did not working. To save his life, I had to lay nude against him so his skin would react with mind and start to warm.

So I did what I had to do. At first, the cold tingle-sting danced along my entire body like thousands of ants biting me but I held him close with my body covering his. Then the cold tingle-sting went away and was replaced with a warming that I had not felt in a very long time. My body 's desire had re-awoken, as if from a deep sleep and I wanted him. It had been so long since I had felt the desires of spring that I could no longer bring my last partner's face to mind. Even though he was not fully aware, his body reacted with mine and soon all thoughts of why we should not be doing this fell away.

It was magnificence. As he slept in my arms with his head on my breasts, I stroked his hair and hummed an old melody from when I was young. I did not sing it as I could not bear to hear the words in the tongue of my kin and the tongue of humans did not do the medley justice. After a while I slept.

It was late in the day with the last rays of the winter sun coming through the window when I awoke with a start like a doe realizing that there is a preator near. I looked over at the window and he was standing there looking out the window. Realizing that I was awake he turned and smiled at me, a smile of total peace and happiness. He leaped back into bed with me and gathered me in his arms.

He kissed me and said, "Great Lady, who are you?"

He wanted to ask more but I stopped him with another kiss before I gave him my name. "I am Elanna, Lady of the North Woods, James Logan."

"How did.." I stopped him again.

"It does not matter how. Only the now matters."

Saying that, I pulled him deeper into my embrace and time passed by as day became night and then in turn became dawn. Not wanting to waken him I eased out of bed and stood. Sadly I shook my head. Even though the past hours had been the most wonderful I had experienced in centuries I knew that this time was not the right time for us. It was time that I left this part of the forest and him.

Quickly and quietly, I dressed and gathered up the few belongs I had. I looked back at him sleeping and I knew that for his peace of mind I needed to bury his memories of us and our brief time together deep in his mind so he would not miss me and fail to follow his fate. Sitting down on the bed beside him I used my glamour on him and push all his memories deep inside his mind and put a block around them. Even though it was wrong to tamper it was for his sake as well as for me. I left one thought of this time and place in his mind – the cabin, when ever he need some peace in his life he would return to this place and feel contentment and at peace with his self.

I left James Logan asleep in the cabin knowing that the people that would be his guides for the next stage of his life were heading at this very moment to the cabin and would discover him. He would think that they were the ones that saved him and they would not deny it for they needed what he had been made into. Whether it is for good or evil purposes, I could not see but I knew that he was a good man deep inside and that would always be his guide.

As I heard their voices I faded into the forest away from this part of the world. I have only one fear and one regret that will haunt me and worry me. I believe that because I was trying to be kind and bury deep his memory of me I may have also have buried too deep his memory of his own self and leave him with no knowledge of who and what he is. But because of who and what I am I have no choice as the elder ones did not give me permission to reveal our kind to the mortals.

So thus I left, only sensing him briefly ever once in a long while through out my travels these many years since that happy all too brief time in the north woods cabin.. Today was the first time I had seen him and as I watched him and to my everlasting sorrow, I knew that I had also taken his sense of self away from him and knew that I had to some how correct my misguided deed. Gliding down the hill through the trees, silent as the snow falling around me, I following him. Stopping at the edge of the trees at the end of the trail, I watched him mount up on his metal machine and start it. The noise of the machine roaring likes a great beast driving the quiet of the woods away.

As he rode away, I raised my hand toward him and softly said his name, "James Logan." But he appeared not to have heard, so I stood there watching as disappeared into the haze of falling snow wondering if I should follow him this time. Standing in the falling snow like a wrath out of time I stood there hoping that he heard my voice say his name. As the day turned to dusk I found my self stepping onto the parking lot and walking down the road on the same path I watched him take a short time before.

I wonder what the elder ones would think of me, the last of the fair ones, as I followed the one I have chosen to what ever my fate with him would be. I know where he is going and it does not matter how long it takes. I discovered in my heart, mind and soul as I watched his pain that I could no longer take the loneness and the silence that came from the responsibility of this world the elder ones gave me. So thus I left the safety of the woods and walked into the dangerous world of man.

TBC

LEM