The Lullaby

I started to edit this for grammar and spelling as well as to better the writing but I much prefer it in its natural state because it shows how much in just a short year or two I've grown when it comes to these things.

A crystal wine glass was met by a silver spoon

the tinking of their meeting rung out.

The low chatter around the bedecked hall quieted.

A small, almost gaunt, pale man stood up

and coughed lightly.

He smiled weekly around the group,

the grief almost palpable in his eyes.

"Tonight," he said, "we have congregated

together to celebrate the joining of..."

and here he trailed off,

unsheathing his front teeth enough

to lightly bite at his already swollen lip,

"of two blessed people," he continued on

with solemnity that did not fit the occasion.

"Now, in my home, we have a tradition.

Whenever two people join their lives together

my people tell a story to ensure the success

of the union."

The pale man visibly shook as he set down his glass,

and turned to the two smiling people

both sitting at the head of the hall.

"A long time ago, back when deities swarmed the Earth

and man knew not what civilization truly looked of

There Was A Couple, two people whom loved each other

more than any creature had seen love before."

Here the pale man reached his green silken clad arm down,

resting it gently on the shoulder of the man sitting next to him.

His eyes had yet to leave the man sitting at

the head of the hall with his happy new wife.

"The first full moon after they had joined their lives

together, a pack of wolves stumbled upon the two,

laying together as sleep was setting in.

The wolves looked upon the couple with

Jealousy in their eyes.

The love the two shared looked much more pleasing

than any game they could hunt.

The wolves become frenzied.

driven mad at the sight of the two lovers, loving.

They began to howl, such a wanting howl.

A cry that any caring soul would rush to answer.

They cried out and ran around the shelter

the lovers shared."

The man was now nervously tugging on a tress of his pale locks,

the thumb on his resting arm now rubbing gently against

the material of the dark skinned man sitting next to hims' shirt.

"one of the couple, disturbed from her rest,

turned and peered out the window, seeing not

the wolves that circled her home,

only hearing this cry,

so seducing to her. She quietly dressed and left her bed.

He husband, awoken from sleep by the

cooling of her bed side, turned to the window,

hearing the howling melody in the night air.

He looked upon the scene, just in time to see

the frenzied wolves fall upon his newly wife.

He screamed out and begged, begged whichever

god would listen, begged for her to be spared

the teeth of the wolves, he would do anything

to spare her the sharp teeth of these creatures."

The man coughed harder this time, doubling

over from the strength of them.

"The deities of the night took pity upon the new lover,

knowing the couple to hold such love as nothing

they could conceive. They trapped the newly wife's

essence, in the light of the full moon, saving her

from perishing. As punishment to the jealous wolves,

they were locked, forever in the moonlight with her,

to protect and assist her for eternity.

The man was over wrought with grief, even still,

knowing that if his love were moonlight,

he could never hold her again.

The man covered his face with the pelt

of an already fallen wolf, saying that if his love

would be alive by the light of the moon,

then he would die by the dark of the night

and join her in the moon."

The man ran his hand over his face then through his hair,

stopping at the back of his neck to rub.

"The deities were outraged by his lack of thanks,

they decreed, as a form of payment for

his lack of respect that he would forever haunt

the dark inside a newly joined couple's bed room,

his wife would stand outside their room on the first full moon

of their joining, and if, by unlikely chance,

he heard her calling to him, singing for him,

and went to her, they would be joined as the

dark and the light of the moon, forever,"

The pale man let his head tilt down,

causing his white hair to cascade over his body.

"but to hear her call, he would have to hear

it, over the singing, the calling, the lullaby of one

newly wedded lover to the other and convince

one of the newly wedded lovers to move

a shadow from the dark of their bed outside...

So his wife, forever sits outside a new lover's

window, with her pack of moon light wolves,

howling with them for her love,

and he, haunts the all newly wed lover's

bed shadows, urging one of the couple to

leave their love's side, so he may be joined with

his own."

The pale man took a big breath, wheezing air and

standing as tall as his small frame allowed.

"However, there is a catch, for the deities

at the time were not kind but spiteful.

any lover, that went out to the wife in her

moon hunt to let his trapped soul be with hers

would be turned into one of her moon wolves,

stuck forever in the hunt for love as deep as theirs,

and that person would be damned to all eternity,

standing outside their lover's window,

howling to be let back in,

but their lovers will not open the window,

because no one lets inside their home a wolf,

especially a moon wolf, a creature that consumes

love out of jealousy."

The pale man smiled sadly and raised his glass,

tipping his head slightly causing his pale locks

to catch the light that shone in through the window,

"may neither of you become the wolf in hunt.

and may each other's lullabies of love be so strong

as to over power that of the strongest love known

to all living creatures alike."

everyone took a sip of their drinks as the man

coughed lightly again and swayed.

the man he had been sitting next to stood,

and gripped lightly his elbow, a look of concern

on his dark face.

"and, lastly," Said the pale man almost breathlessly,

"please forgive my long toast, I must admit I have been-"

He coughed again and swayed more, the dark complected man

frowned and held more securely onto the small,

pale man's body.

"I have been remiss in my censor or what I am to and not to

say. At one point, I know, my toast was to be short and sweet,

it seems I have missed my mark."

The pale man's knees gave slightly and the dark haired gypsy

of a man that had been holding him up hoisted

his small, fragile frame into his arms and strode quickly

outside the open doors into the dark, moonless night.