“Young Love Under the Moon”

“Night had now come. Fairy light, from a waxing, gibbous moon that looked like a stone skull leaning back against the sky, a head colored in chamois and yoke yellow, its face blotchy and weathered as if from a thousand battles and a million tribulations, played upon the woods, streams, and rocks around their tent. Their environment was delicately lit by gossamer, lambent, muted rays that informed it with the spirit of an elemental world, a realm ruled by soul rather than mind, where dancing imagination replaced plodding intellection. This light was of a playful, feminine sort, with a soft burnish, all silvery-liquid metal, and seemed to be not earth’s own but a reflection of illuminations from another universe. It was the light ruled by animals, one in which man retreated and the four-leggeds advanced. In this powdery diffusion, when the earth freed herself from the harsh glare, rasping tongue, and domineering will of mankind, the nature spirits felt free to frolic. Humanity’s night was their day. Ilona knew directly, and Skylar felt subconsciously, that all around them, romping in innocent amusement, were fairies and elves, sylphs, naiads, and salamanders, nixies, oreads, sprites, and trolls.”