"Wait!"
"Stop!"
"Please... please turn around!"
Her breath came in sharp, ragged gasps as she sprinted down the narrow, winding path, her eyes never leaving the figure in the black cape. His silhouette danced just ahead, always just beyond her grasp. Every step she took, she pushed herself harder, her muscles burning with the effort, but no matter how fast she ran, he stayed out of reach.
She stumbled over the uneven ground, her foot catching on a loose stone. A sharp curse escaped her lips, and instinctively, she looked down at her feet. In that instant, when she looked up, he was gone. Vanished. Like smoke dissipating into the night.
Her heart sank, the silence around her swallowing up the last echo of his presence. She muttered a frustrated blessing under her breath, her gaze drifting upward toward the starry sky. How was it that he always appeared at the most unexpected moments, only to disappear without a trace? He was like a shadow-there one moment, gone the next.
But in the fleeting moments when he was there, she knew he was always watching over her, helping in ways that defied reason, in ways that only he could understand.