Like in a Dream…
With nightfall, the mid-summer time moon rose over the lake, bathing the woods in a rather surreal, sombre ghostly pale light.
From a small valley located just over a hill, the backside of which led down to the lake cottage, a park was located.
The small community park was usually dark and forbidden at this time of year, this time of night.
But on this day, it was lit up with strings of lanterns lined up on the perimeter, and candles flickering from tables set up in the parks centre. At one end, next to a made-up dance floor on the lawn, a band playing romantic music was set up on the platform of a wooden Japanese style pagoda… A design a little out of place among the misty welsh moors of the area.
From the hill above, one’s eyes could see that a party was indeed taking place below. The guests elegantly dressed up as if for a wedding, which it was, a wedding reception to be exact.
And on this evening, from that hill, eyes, multiple sets of them, had indeed for some time been curiously watching.!
Eyes that belonged to all manner and types of creatures…
Some were the round eyes of small nervous creatures, furry and feathered, that were too timid to come out of the safety of the shadows. While others were the rather slanted, pointed eyes of predators, not all of them the furry and feathered kind, that lurked and watched with drooling interest, this uncanny commotion taking place below…
Now, from that party below, amongst the many colourful and shimmering guests, there was one figure swishing about that had soon caught the attention of the eyes watching from the hill.
It was that of a young girl of around 16 that was being watched, as she scurried about in and out of the shadows of hedges that lined the little park…
The hedges separating the party area from the darkened woods that began at the bottom of the hill and reached its’ top…
From this young female figure’s body language one could tell that she was a bit bored. And in actuality was, for she was used to being the centre of attention, and at this party, the wedding of her older sister, made her quite a bit moody, that she was anything but…
So, she was now daydreaming that she was a princess and was seeking an escape back to her castle, pretending the other guests wished to hold her captive. Along with her ‘evil’ parents and bride sister who kept telling her to behave herself!
This meant that she had to be careful not to be seen, and so was playing a game of hiding and seek by herself!
Now, this particular young faux princess almost looked like the real thing!
With long silky curls of red hair that flowed down as she moved about, held by a thin band of rhinestones that could be seen as a crown!
Also, adding to the overall effect, the sulky girl was royally, quite fetchingly clad, in a shiny green taffeta gown, pouring down along her figure! She was, unhappily, wearing it for a second time, the gown originally was worn for a dance she had attended that spring.
She also was strikingly for the first time, wearing some of her Mother’s sets of expensively set Emeralds!
A demanded to pay off for not having a new dress bought for the occasion!
Her mother had made the mistake of showing her father, first her emeralds, then her diamonds to decide which she should wear with the mother of the bride ’s gown she had bought for her eldest daughter’s upcoming wedding at their lake cottage. They had decided on the diamonds presenting a better look with her gown.
The younger 16-year-old red-headed daughter, already steaming over the fact she was not allowed a new dress for the wedding, raised a minor tantrum to wear the emeralds when her mother had given them to her father to place back in the banks’ vault!
They had finally, unhappily, relented!
So, feeling like a princess would in her jewels and fancy dress, she meandered daringly out of the safety of the park, and made her way around the outside of the hedge, skirting the darkly sinister woods!
Then looking up at the moon rising over the hill, she saw a flicker of light, like a candle, up at the hilltop!
And curious, she looked around to make sure no one was watching, she slipped on the winding path that led up to the top of the hill...
She then carefully walked up that hill, higher and higher into the depths of the shadows on either side of that moonlighted path.
She was aware of where she was, the other side of the hill led back to her family cottage.
Thus, she felt safe to be there alone.
Plus, in her daydream, she was a princess escaping to her castle for safety, wasn’t she now!
A Princess that sparkled green flickers of flashing light from her headband, earrings necklace, finger rings and bracelets snugly held around her wrists!
The watchers in the woods drew back into the shadows as the young faux princess approached.
Those creatures with round eyes slipped down and squinted, whilst those of the slanted eyed type, crouched, and their eyes merely grew larger!
None of the rounded eyed creatures understood what that sparkling meant…
The slant-eyed creatures had a better understanding that it singled some type of prey…
And so, though it was like being in a dream for the imaginative girl who played at being a princess…
She was, in fact, playing alone in a nightmare!
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Next Up
Chapter 2
Autumn weekend at the cottage
