I follow her to the edge of the lake, the moonlight casting a glow on her profile. I watch silent as she wades out into the lake, her fingertips swirling the water. I watch as she controls the tides with a swish of her hands. She inhales the midnight mist and embraces the crispness of the night like a mother would embrace a babe. She swims around the lake as I stand mystified. When she finally leaves the secluded pool I see she is weeping. My heart aches with the pain of a thousand lashings. I want to reach out, to comfort her from her troubles, to protect her from her pain that is so surely my own pain. She breaks so effortlessly into a run, her hair as black a night itself, streaking out behind her form. Her skin is so pale and pure that I wish nothing touch it but me, I want to stroke her cheek and wipe away the diamond tears that stain them so prominently. Thoughts of her ruin my focus and I lose her to the night.

I go back the lake the next night and she is there, her eyes shining a piercing blue. The need to be near her is too strong and I wander like a fool to the water’s edge. Her eyes flash with vulnerability before she submerges and disappears. I sit quietly at the water waiting for her for her to come to me. Eventually she ventures forward; I can see sadness radiating from her. She is wearing a dress, made see through by the water and she sits next to me. I can feel her presence; It sends desire coursing through my body. We sit for hours before we finally talk. We talk about nothing in particular. By the end of the night we are kissing, her cold lips moving gently with mine. She tells me, a secret that if found out would have her burned at the stake as a witch. She tells me that she is the moon spirit, sent by the sun and the stars to earth for a thousand years as punishment for disobeying the orders of mother nature and not shining quietly in the background of the sun, she told me that she wanted to shine brightly, to alert people to her presence, she has a quiet yet loud beauty. Her eyes she tells me represent the water which she controls, Her ebony hair represents the night in which she shines brightest and her pure pearl white skin represents the pure pearl white surface of the moon which cannot shine a brilliant white until she returns to empower it. She cries each night for the lost beauty of the moon, but each night she returns from her resting place to meet me. Eventually we became lovers and she shared a piece of her immortal being so that I would never age and that we could be together forever. One night, a thousand years later, she comes to me, come in tears and tells me that she can feel the sun pulling her to space, back to her true physical body. We cry together before becoming one long into the night. We lie on the water, floating like two lily pads and wait, wait for mother nature to take her, eventually I fell see her wriggle uncomfortably and know it is happening, I see her start to glow before rising silently into the night her sobs tearing the silence apart. The tears fall into the water as she reaches out for me and I kiss her hand before she drifts away back to the sky,

Each night the moon becomes brighter, more vibrant, but I do not cry tears of joy for her, rather tears of utter despair as I know that I will never look into her piercing blue eyes again, never stroke her black hair again, and never touch her pure, pearl white skin ever again. But I know that she is happy and that brings me some comfort.