Merryn & The Hare

Glasshouse Nocturnes IV

On certain nights, Merryn and the hare left the glasshouse for the oldest part of the gardens. Always when the moon was almost full and always to the same secluded place.

It was a ritual so established that neither of them quite remembered who had first suggested it.

The hare watched the path between the trees, his long ears raised. Merryn faced the opposite direction, her hair glowing like an ember in the dark night. In the moonlight, the skirt of her grey gown seemed to dissolve into fragments of mist.

They stood completely still. Someone dear to them had once promised to return and so, whenever the moon approached its fullness, they returned to watch the archway.

Tonight, as the moon grew brighter, the hare turned his head and somewhere beyond Merryn's sight, a branch moved.

For the first time, neither of them was quite certain they were alone.