Silence

One night while I walked in a dark wood,
The snow crunching lazily beneath my feet,
the only sound in the palpable stillness,
Trees sticking up in the barren white deep.

I stopped for a moment, suddenly aware,
The stillness only seemed -it deceived-,
For when I stopped something else upset,
A branch, its coat, toke offense to receive.

Curious, but unafraid, I looked into the trees,
Two gleaming sets of eyes stared back,
one stepped out after another, two wolves,
One flaxen white the other raven black.

The white had moved out of the shadows,
Following the ebon -who stood unmoving-,
Tredding softly beside the other -ears perking-,
The black staring still, eyes soft and soothing.

Not staring at me as I had once thought,
Those black eyes met eyes of black,
But the eyes they met were not understanding,
No, frantic and knowing they stared back.

With a flick of white, fear fled swiftly,
And with it a streak of black bolted,
And then a nearly invisible ivory,
Three came down, only one jolted.

Then no more white, only deep crimson,
No expression I made, I am quite sure,
For all three were one to begin with,
Why stop what Nature herself has made pure?

-Nicia Vas'amaen

Penned by my hand on the 5th of Lupar, in the year 413 AF.