Feast of Life

Seobanien watched the girl as she strung wispy threads of mock spider web across a flimsy wooden coffin. She had been working for hours decorating the small house and bit by bit transforming it into the very ideal of suburban festivity. Stark white plastic ghosts frolicked in the yard alongside cardboard gravestones. A scarecrow sat limply on the top of a tree stump, his painted on face pleasant and happy. Jack-o-lanterns lined the front steps and grinned their idiot smiles of welcome.

It had not been those false monuments to a dead religion that had brought Seobanien to the edge of the wood. He had no interest in the trivial observances that humans indulged in during this era of 'modern' thinking. No, his attention was riveted on the girl. It had been her soft singing that had captured him, the sibilant melody of her young voice, so full of life that had drawn him from his sanctuary. Seobanien did not know how old she was; he had lost all sense of human age millennia ago. From the curve of her hip, the swell of her breast through the thin costume she wore he guessed that she was well past adolescence.

He stared at her hands as she wound another string of the artificial web around the coffin. Her fingers were long and thin, tapering perfectly into long nails that were painted black. The green dress she wore clung to her body, accenting every supple contour like a lover's embrace. Her hair was plaited in intricate braids that looped around her face and accented the graceful lines of her features. A sparkling green powder glittered on her eyelids, matching her dress, her eyes. Her delicate feet had been bound into black slippers with thin cords of satin that crisscrossed up her calves. A pair of wispy wings floated on her back and though Seobanien knew they were false the image she created charmed him in a way he barely remembered.

Voices, high and piercing, interrupted his train of thought and Seobanien looked on in consternation as a group of fantastically dressed children scampered up the street. There were princesses, pirates, gremlins and each one held a bag or bucket of some sort that displayed decorations similar to those that the girl had put up so diligently. They clambered around her with a singsong chant, giggling and jostling each other. To Seobanien's surprise, instead of sending them away, she gave them handfuls of small brightly colored packages that were piled high in a glass basin. He did not completely understand the function of the custom and before he could deduce its meaning the children were gone, running back up the street with squeals of laughter.

As the hour grew late, he watched the scene repeated again and again. As the moon neared its zenith the groups of children trickled off into pairs then they stopped coming altogether. Seoban could feel the girl's fatigue as she took the nearly empty basin into her small house then returned to the steps. With a tired sigh she sat and turned her green eyes up to the moon with a wistful expression.

Seobanien knew the time was nearing when he would be able to leave his hiding place and approach her. It was Sow-en night, a night when the barriers between the worlds grew thin. It was during this time that all the peoples could mingle together, good and evil. He slipped down through the branches of the tree where he had been waiting. His slender form moved among the branches with a gracefulness that no human could match, making no sound as he dropped to the ground in a crouch.

The girl did not move as he made his way to where she sat; in fact she had not yet realized that she was not alone. The shadows were Seobanien's friends and he slipped between them as if he were one of their own, letting their soft darkness cloak his body until he was nearly upon her. When he finally stepped into the harsh yellow light pouring from the windows of the little cottage the girl's eyes widened in fear. Seobanien had not been expecting fear from her and it pained him to see it in her gentle features.

"Do not fear me. I have come to show you the wonders of my realm," he whispered to her in his most soothing voice, drawing on his own elemental influence to ease the troubled thoughts from her mind. The frown marring her face smoothed, melded into a tentative smile that lit her features with a glow that shone from within. Seobanien basked in that glow, drinking in the essence of her like a cool wine. It was sweet, subtle, and wholly pleasing.

He held a hand out, willing her to take it, using the force of his presence to urge her into trust. When she did, her touch sent a wash of her life force through him, making his head spin as if he had indeed drank wine. Seobanien gently tugged her to her feet and pulled her with him toward the wood. He wanted her to see his domain this night. A world she would likely never have known existed otherwise. She did not protest but followed him willingly.

They moved quickly into the dim realm of the trees where the moon's salient face could not follow. Seobanien gloried in her innocence, the wide-eyed virtue of her clean presence. He had not felt a soul such as hers for a very long time and it nearly overwhelmed him. She was a spring breath, filling him with that sense of newness that could only be found in the purity of youth.

Seobanien lead her deeper into the forest, past the familiar trees that lived in the mortal world. They were the same trees that grew in his realm but here there was no sign of time's passage. As they traveled further into the interior of the ancient wood, there was a subtle change and the verdant leaves lost the lackluster haze that surrounded the world of men. Here in the outer ring of his haven life had a different soul. Here the soul of the fey touched everything, made itself palpable to the senses.

He heard her gasp in awe and knew she could sense some small part of what surrounded her. Seobanien clasped her hand tighter when he noticed a group of curious sprites gathered around a ring of bright red toadstools further up the path they followed. He wondered if she would even see them as they passed their tittering voices unmistakable to his own ears.

To his disappointment, she did not. It saddened Seobanien, reminded him of his banishment from the mortal world now many centuries gone. There had been a time when humans could recognize even the smallest fey, the very least of his brethren, but that had been before the cataclysm had come, before one world had been sundered into many and all the peoples had scattered.

As they neared his refuge, his own small palace at the heart of the forest realm, Seobanien felt his pulse quicken in anticipation. The girl had come quietly with him to this point, willing and docile. It boded well for his purposes that she was compliant, yielding to his subtle glamours. She sparked a hunger in him that had long lain dormant. So long that Seobanien had all but forgotten its existence.

He led her, wide-eyed and breathless, through the arching entrance of his home. He could feel the unsteady beat of her heart, sense her overwhelmed thoughts, as she trailed behind him through the countless rooms of living stone. She gaped openly at the beautiful tapestries, the galleries of delicate statues, the things he looked upon as constant reminder of his isolation. His eyes passed over these wonders with hardly a pause. She was the most beautiful object within the walls of his prison this night. She was life itself, newness made flesh.

On he took her through the maze of hallways and alcoves until they were at the door to his private chambers, his own sanctum. With a slight twitch of his hand, the intricately carved doors swung out and he motioned for her to enter. He could not lead her here; she must come of her own will. For an agonizing instant, he thought she would reject his invitation but she only hesitated for a breath before stepping over the threshold.

She was his now, there would be no turning back for her from this point until he had drunk his fill of her cleanness, her essence. Seobanien gathered her slight form into his arms, the feel of her soft flesh alive against his own, and the utter purity of her singing through his veins. The girl sighed, a light sound, almost a whisper of breath as his mouth captured hers.

Her lips were rose pink and sweet with the wine of mortality. Seobanien could feel his own body responding, gathering his spirit so that he might partake of hers. His hands clutched at her, wanting, needing the feel of her skin without the barrier of her clothes to hamper their need. She did not protest as he plucked at the clasps holding her silky dress in place, did not resist as he stripped away the flimsy material from her warm flesh.

Seobanien lifted away the false wings tied to her back, letting them fall unheeded to the cold marble floor of his chambers. His fingers plucked at the sheer underclothes that hid her away from him, discarding them impatiently in his haste to have her completely exposed, open before him. Her eyes were closed, shut tight, though the skin of her face glowed with the barest flush and her lips were parted just slightly. Seobanien's eyes were ravenous for wanting of her, gliding over her bare flesh with a greedy haste. He had not bothered with the thin little slippers on her feet he was so overtaken with the need to have her.

It only took a moment for him to bear himself to her, though she could not see him and he could wait no longer, could not withhold his hunger. Seobanien let his hands gather her pliant body to his own, let them wander as they would across her supple skin, eliciting wordless cries from her slim throat. He urged her back against a thick tapestry, careful not to let her touch the chill stone wall lest it break his spell. She gasped, but did not protest as he lifted her, gathering her legs in his arms and opening her completely to him. Seobanien pressed against her, capturing her mouth in his one last time as he thrust, tearing the very last of her barriers.

She cried out against his lips, the sound of her agony filling his ears with a music he had not heard in to long a time. His glamour gone, the enchantment he had woven around her from the beginning vanished in the simple brutality with which he took her. Seobanien gloried in her pain, in the screaming echoes of her mind as she saw his true form at last. He clamped his sharp teeth to the pulsing vein in her slender neck, rending the tender flesh, swirling the salty tang of her lifeblood over his tongue.

He forced his distorted flesh into her with no regard for the damage it caused, the sharp scent of her fear and horror driving him into ecstasy. She whimpered softly, the sound a hum of pleasure against his tongue as he drew her essence into himself. The heady scent of her death made his head spin, his body tremble as her soul slowly slipped away from the mortal bonds that had held it for so short a time. He convulsed violently as her heart gave its final gasp and went still. Seobanien shuddered against the limp husk that had been the girl; let the last vestige of her wash over him in glorious waves.

When at last he could focus his mind again Seobanien let the desiccated body fall to the floor with a smile, his long needlelike teeth shining in the soft candle light. He ignored the dry and withered shell that had fed him so richly this Sow-en Night and dressed in his finest tunic, leaving his apartments without a backward glance. He had not had such a rich meal in so long he had nearly forgotten the surge of power that accompanied such a feast. Seobanien strode through the dim halls of his palace, his glassy black eyes glittering and his leathery wings twitching in satisfaction.