Daughter of Luka (LGBT+)

Five 🌑

The boy's eyes scanned my face quickly, before he spoke again. 

"Fenn. What kind of a name is Ophelia?" he asked, as he scratched at his chin. 

I released a humourless laugh. Only I was allowed to make fun of my name, after all. 

"What kind of a name is Fenn?" I asked him. 

"It's a standard wol- nevermind," Fenn rapidly corrected, which caused me to narrow my eyes at him. I supposed that I couldn't just demand answers from someone I had met mere moments ago, though. 

"Anyway, it's nice to meet you, Fenn," I said cheerfully, "I sort of thought I was the only one out here." 

"Oh no, there's lots of us. This is where we live. Just don't tell anyone," he said, as he pat the front door of the cave. 

I gave a small shake of my head. 

"I won't. Your secret hideout is safe with me," I said, going along with what I could only imagine was some sort of weird joke. Who lived in caves anymore? "How old are you?" I asked. It was the next question I had on my mind. 

"I'm fifteen," Fenn said. 

He looked younger. 

"And you?" he asked me. 

"You can't just ask a lady how old they are!" I said. 

He shrugged. 

I sighed. 

At least he didn't ask me that question again. 

"Regardless, it's nice to meet you, Fenn," I said happily, "I'm sure we can be friends, or something, but you really should get home." 

He frowned at that statement, and then gestured to himself.

"I should get home? Shouldn't you get home? These forests are no place for a girl," he said. 

"Woman," I quickly corrected, "And these forests are no place for a boy who's barely reached his senior year of secondary school. Can you even grow facial hair?"  that question slipped out, but it earnt a warm chuckle from Fenn. 

His laugh, much like his voice, seemed warm and friendly. That was how I knew that it was alright to joke with him. I liked to think that I was good at reading people, anyway. 

"You're right though, I'll get myself home," Fenn said, "This has been fun." 

I couldn't quite tell if he was being sarcastic or not. 

"I'll see you later, Ophelia," he added. 

"Will you?" I asked, taken by surprise. 

"No but I'm not good with goodbyes," he replied matter-of-factly. 

That much was understandable. I had to say goodbye to my mother far too many times. For someone who had said goodbye so many times by now, I wasn't any good at them, either.

"Alright. I'll head home, too. See you later, Fenn," I said with a kind smile. 

I then turned around to face my path back home, with a million and one questions on my mind. 

I turned around to ask Fenn something, but he had already seemingly disappeared.

As I walked back down the path that led home, I released a cold breath. The evening had started out pleasantly enough, but now it was growing colder and a little uncomfortable. My pace quickened. I was mostly focused on getting home, but my mind couldn't help but wander back to the memory of meeting Fenn. What exactly had he been doing, out in the forest? It was weird. Then, he had seemingly vanished into nothing. I just really hoped that he hadn't been eaten by a bear, or something similarly catastrophic. 

My eyes glanced up at the sparkling stars in the black canvas overhead, but only for a moment. I had to remind myself, still, that I needed to make sure I didn't walk right into stinging nettles, or fall over a tree branch, or something similarly clumsy. I would probably lose my own head if it wasn't screwed on, thinking about it. 

At long last, I spotted the front door of mine and my father's house again and sped up my steps, as I moved towards it. I had to remind myself, as much as I may have liked to blabber to my dad about everything that I had seen, that I could not tell him about Fenn. He might think it weird. He would definitely think it weird.

I opened the front door and stepped inside. 

My dad was nowhere in sight, so I assumed that he had gone to bed. 

I returned to my own room and checked my phone. I had received a new friend request from Kate, which I quickly accepted. She had seemed like a nice enough girl and I really did need to at least try to make some friends. This was just so that my father would stop pestering me about it or worrying about me, though I appreciated his compassion. 

It was only a few seconds after I had accepted the friend request that I received a new message from Kate. 

Kate: Hey. Did you manage to get the maths' homework done? 

Ophelia: Please tell me this is some kind of late April Fools' joke? 

Kate: Unfortunately not. I'll help you through it tomorrow, if you like? 

Ophelia: Absolute life-saver. Have I mentioned that I love you yet? 

Kate: You may have, a couple of times. You're welcome. 

I smiled down at my phone, before I turned it off for the night and changed rapidly into my Harley Quinn pyjama top before I crawled under the covers. 

I couldn't sleep for quite some time, so growing frustrated, I did a quick Google search for the forest behind my house. It had been renamed in recent years to Lykos' forest, and it was rumoured that many wolves lived there. People had been hunting in the forests for several years. Poor wolves, if they actually existed in these parts. Only the rare sighting had been noted, and that had been a few months ago. 

My eyes soon fluttered shut, though my mind was restless. 

I needed the sleep, though, especially if our teacher was going to surprise us with a test in maths, which was certainly among the least-liked surprises a person could encounter. 

Eventually, I fell asleep. That night I dreamt that a wolf was staring right at me.