Fiends in High Places ...

Gustav Klimt ~ The Kiss

  "It's getting late.  I should probably get you home before your parents worry about you, Lyri."

  "Yes, I suppose.  I'm sure by now Kael has gone to my father and told him some horrid lies to make himself seem like the victim."

  The two of them walked along the path in silence, their way lit by fireflies that flashed on and off as their steps disturbed them.  Both of them lost in their own thoughts as they walked.

  Lyri was wondering if Thal would try to kiss her and secretly hoping that he would.  Thal on the other hand, grinned in the dark, knowing that it would be the perfect time to kiss her just around the next bend in the path.  There, they would be halfway to her house and out of sight of anyone following behind them. Kael was much too clumsy in the woods for them not to have heard him by now, but just in case it wouldn't hurt to have more privacy.

  If he had paused to look up at the stars while they were walking, however, Thal would have been shocked to see how many pairs of eyes were actually following them. 

  High up in the trees, flying silently from branch to branch, one of the watchers was a tiny Northern Saw-whet Owl [<link].

  Kael may not have had the wherewithal and skills to be as quiet and stealthy in the woods as Thal was, but if there was one skill he had that would take him places, it was his ability to bribe, blackmail, and beat his competition into the ground.  Along the way, he'd managed to pick up quite a few "fiends" for friends who were more than happy to drop everything on a Friday night to help him without ever asking "Why?"

~*~*~

Participating again this week in Words for Wednesday, found here.