((Closed))
Avalee laid in the grass out by the lake. The grass made a strangely soft bed. She was on a small blanket she had taken from her home. She smiled and her eyes were closed. She was peaceful. She was happy. Small headphones rested in her ears. They played one of her favorite songs:
"Night delivers cold shivers
I've been waiting on a heart that quivers for
You, Kathleen, you're golden
You're just waiting for the stars unfolding for you
Slow winnings, the room's spinning
False starts lead to sad endings
Oh, close your eyes, I'll remind you
It takes an angel or the devil to find you
Kathleen
You shot me down just as I was starting to feel alive
Little girls tell the biggest lies, baby
Your love is just the salt in your eyes
You bolted all your locks just in time to hear the doorbell ring
But you can't shut out everything
Oh, Kathleen, I hope the stars set you free
You shot me down just as I was starting to feel alive
Little girls tell the biggest lies
It was just yesterday we said goodbye"
She smiled and whispered the lyrics along to the music. Her hair was in soft curls around her face, which was blank of makeup. She wore the simple black, loose dress she had taught in earlier that day. The air out by the lake was so fresh and clean. It was practically intoxicating.
Walking along the grass covered field was Seth, the tall dark skinned boy with jet black hair and eyes as green as the forest in the summer time. He was muscular and you could usually see the outlines of his toned muscles. He never worked out, but he did do his own training outside in the forest. He ran a lot, which gave him a lot of stamina over the years. Being a wolf animagus had its benefits.
He wasn't wearing his boots like he did sometimes in the winter. Today, he wore a new pair of black sneakers, a gray tee shirt, and frayed blue jeans. His hair was in his eyes, the wind sometimes pushing it this way and that. As Seth was walking, he saw a familiar figure down by the lake and a small smile formed on his face.
Avalee.
She was alone. Maybe she didn't want to be bothered. But then again, maybe she wouldn't mind some company. Seth hadn't been around anyone for a long time.
He wandered down to the lake and sat down on the warm, soft grass, staring at the lake.
Avalee opened her eyes when she heard a small grass-crunching noise. She rolled over on to her stomach and squinted, trying to make her eyes adjust. She soon saw the outline of a man. Her heart beat faster, trying to see who it was.
Seth.
It had been a while. She took the buds out of her ears and pushed her bangs out of her eyes. She smiled weakly at him.
"Hello, Seth."
Seth maintained the same small smile, his eyes casting off a typically content yet inquisitive glow. He was thinking a lot lately. About what seemed like everything.
"Hello, Avalee. How are you doing? Is it okay if I sit here with you?" He asked, his tone soft and light.
"I'm fine." She said in a false contented voice. And then she nodded, sitting up and crossing her legs. She faced the lake.
"Of course." She responded to the second half of his question. She sat there for a moment in silence. The weather was so perfect. It was chilly outside, but the warm breeze made it so perfect.
"And how are you?"
Seth shrugged.
"Decent." He said simply. "Not the worst, not the best. Just...content." Yes, that would be the word he would settle on. Content after the divorce. After being what felt like an alien to society. To his parents. At this point he just didn't really care about things anymore. He just didn't.
"I know what you mean..." She sighed.
She really wanted to ask about Alice. She really wanted to ask about Axel. But Avalee, for the first time in her life, kept her mouth shut. She was quiet. She just sat there. And sitting with company next to her was an incredibly good feeling. Words didn't form in her mind. She just liked the feeling of sitting with someone.
Seth nodded and picked up a smooth, flat pebble and flung it across the water, watching it skim and bounce across the light rippling waves.
"So, you think maybe you'd want to go out later? Maybe get a drink or something?" Seth asked, still staring at the water. He flung another pebble.
Avalee was confused momentarily. Why did he want to hang out with her? After everything that happened? Huh.
"Yeah." She nodded. "Yeah, that sounds...good" She copied him. She picked up a pebble and threw it in as well. She pretended it was a wishing well, and a penny was in her palm instead. She wished on in silently in her head and threw it in.
"I just thought," Seth started as he layed back in the grass. "that it'd be nice to get out. I really have just been in the forest for the last few months. I only go home to eat or, if I have to, to rest."
Her face fell a bit. That sounded really sad. So she decided to ask the inevitable question. I mean, it sort of applied to the whole 'never going home' thing. She blurted it out.
"Are you and Alice together? I mean...I was just wondering...because um, I haven't spoken to her or you or Axel since December." She paused a second. "Sorry. It's not my business."
Seth shrugged it off.
"Don't worry about it. To answer your question, I'm not seeing Alice anymore, no. We've been divorced for a few months now. We wanted to get it done quickly so we didn't have that lingering over us."
"Okay." She looked down at the ground.
"Why do you spend so much time out here?" She asked.
"I just don't like being at home anymore. I'm actually thinking about moving out for good and forgetting about all of my luxuries that I have at the house and living among nature. I'm going to put my human self behind me and be the wolf."
Seth could only imagine what Avalee might think about this idea. That he was insane or crazy maybe.
"Why? What's so bad about being human?" She asked it in a non-condescending way. A way that seemed genuinely curious.
She looked at him, ready to read his face.
Seth knew her too well, and rolled over onto his stomach so she couldn't see his face.
"Because," he said. "you have to deal with so much. As humans, we're basically shackled. We aren't free. We...we aren't free to-to explore the things we should because we are weighed by our affairs and daily dilemmas." He rolled back onto his back and then sat up abruptly.
"Can I try to give you at least a taste of what that is like? To feel...free?"
She looked at him and tilted her head to the side. Her eyebrows pushed together. She clasped her hands together in her lap. She thought for a moment about what he said.
Then when he asked, she though again for a moment. Then nodded. "Sure, Seth." She was nervous. What was he going to do?
In a flash, a white wolf was standing in Seth's place. A giant, snow white colored wolf with those same green eyes. Only, now Seth's wolf animagus had a thick black outline around the eyes. A small change to his normal form. Who knew if something else would change.
He bent down lower so that she could get onto his back easier. She would understand. And hopefully, she wouldn't be afraid.
Trust me. He thought.
Total flashback moment. The first time she had hung out with Axel he had done the exact same thing. Avalee shook that from her mind. She trusted Seth.
She tried to modestly climb aboard his back in her skirt. Awkward. But she got on eventually, and held on tightly. She trusted him, but was still scary.
"Okay" She said
The wolf hunched down even lower, so that his chest was against the grass. And then without warning, he sped off. He was as fast as a vampire. As fast as Alice now. If now faster. He raced across the field, so that his paws were pounding into the grass, propelling them off on an adventure.
He ran past the lake, even daring to run through the edge of it and splashing some water around. Then he took off for the valleys and the hills. It would take hours for a person to walk there. But they would be there in no time. He wanted to take Avalee away from the sites that were so familiar to her. He wanted her to see something different. Exciting. Beautiful.
And then they came to a halt. Right at the edge of a cliff. Seth transformed, while Avalee was still on his back, and was on the ground, breathing hard. No matter how much he ran, when he put that much strength into his sprint, it tired him out quickly.
She was smiling so widely. The world whipped by. And it was beautiful. She was breathing as hard as he was at the end of it. She just laid there on top of him when it was over and he was on the ground.
"Wow." She breathed.
((Lets finish?))
"I've been wanting to do that for a long time." Seth breathed once he was back to his normal human self. Avalee was still on his back and he was flat against the ground, his chin resting on his crossed arms. He closed his eyes, catching his breath and feeling the cool breeze blow against his sun kissed skin.