Morning (again just a reference)

Something warm and wet brought me from the depths of sleep. It wrapped around my toes, then followed the arches of my feet. At this point I was completely awake.

The dawn's early light casts shadows across the room and all I can see are golden, almond shaped eyes shining out from dark shaggy fur. Somewhere inside my head I heard a wicked laugh and those famous lines from a old children's story, “all the better to eat you with my dear”.

I'm not a child and what follows is not a children's story.

It started in training. Training to feel, see and hear on a new and totally different level. Grandmother sent me into the woods to seek healing plants, bits of stone and other odds and ends she needed. Now that she was no longer able to fetch them herself it was up to me to learn what they were, where they lived and how to search them out. That day I was searching for Wolfsbane. The search took me deep into dark woods.

The heat of the day faded behind me as the cool damp of the forest surrounded me and my eyes adjusted to the dim light. I searched for the plant. Intent in my search I lost track of time, so it was with a start that I heard the night birds beginning to stir from their day's slumber. All around me were shadows within shadows. Dark trunks shadowed by leafy bowers as far as the eye could see. Heavy wings beat the air above me, then as the last of the light faded, small pin lights pierced the darkness.

The damp air added to the eeriness of the night. I stood and watched the night come in, afraid to move in the darkness. The wind whispered secret words, the trees rustled, from a distance water rumbled.  Frogs sang of orgies and coming rain, tiny glowing insects hovered in the air, then the moon rose in all its full brightness and the glade was bathed in light.

The inky blackness of the forest turned silver under the moon's touch. Here to fore unseen eyes glittered in the moon's light. Soft whispering wings unfurled in the darkness and turned gray in the light. The glade was a magical place when lite by moonlight.

Seeking elemental protection while I could see, I moved to the shelter provided by a huge old tree, its roots protruded above ground creating natural cave like openings below. It was in one of these openings I prepared to spend the night.

Fallen leaves softened the lumpiness of the ground cavern created by the vast root systems under the trees. Broken branches closed me in, hiding me from casual observers. Sighing, I settled down into my leafy bed and closed my eyes. I was safe, or so I thought.