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The trees around her creaked softly in a breeze, and even though she couldn't see them in the darkness, she could hear the night creatures – predators on the hunt, most of them – prowl around the undergrowth.
She was similar to them, in that aspect, for she too had come to prefer searching for herbs and such at night rather than daytime; but unlike the animals of the forest, she could not see all that well in the darkness and still had to rely on the light of the moon and stars.
On cloudy nights such as this, only the pale moon in the sky above offered enlightenment, and a way to recognize the plants she sought as well as the barely-there paths she treaded.
As she stood from where she'd previously knelt next to a kingsfoil plant, Halowen admired the sight of the bright shafts of moonlight breaking through the canopy of the densely growing trees, illuminating much of the clearing she stood in, and many more trees and plants beside.
It was a beautiful view, for the moonlight produced a much more mystical and otherworldly atmosphere than the old, dark forest with its many predatory inhabitants would have otherwise.
Looking at her basket, Halowen realized that she had found and collected everything which she'd sought that night, and with a pleased hum, she made to turn and head back to the abandoned cottage near Tharbad which she had claimed as her own only some months ago, when—
A twig snapped nearby, and a rustling sound arose, sounding much like footsteps.
Frozen in place by apprehension and curiosity both, Halowen stood as still as she could, waiting— hoping, for this other late-night wanderer to enter the clearing.
It took her a moment to realize how cold the air had become, and that the crickets nearby had ceased their chirping and fallen silent; as if the very warmth and life around her had been sucked out of the world. The change reminded her faintly of the Dementors, but no such creatures existed in this world to her knowledge.
She hadn't realized that she was waiting eagerly with bathed breath until all air was knocked out of her as the first one came into her view.
Halowen didn't even need the moonlight to see it clearly. For suddenly, the world was plunged into an unnatural darkness, a facet of shadows, and the only lights that seemed to remain emitted from herself and the... creature.
It— he had stopped at the sound of her gasp and turned into its direction, and she found that he shone as brightly in this shadowed world as the moon and stars combined. Her breathing faltered once more as he angled towards her, involuntarily offering her a glimpse of his features.
Pale he was, and ancient he looked; a tall, withered spot of brightness in the darkness, dressed in pale garments that looked timeworn yet regal. A crown sat upon his brow, too— a jagged, ironwrought thing, and it seemed to her that he was or at least used to be a man of noble descent.
Bright and intelligent eyes bore into her, and she knew that he was assessing her as she was assessing him, and he did not even blink as a strand of his long, pale hair drifted across his eyes in a breeze she could not perceive.
Despite how aged his face appeared – his cheeks were sunken in deeply, and his skin was pulled taut over tissue, muscle and bone, giving him a hollowed appearance –, there was unmistakably a predator stood before her. It was noticeable in his stillness, in his awareness of her every move such as her breathing itself, and in the way he still seemed to be measuring up whether she was worth the reach for the sword at his side.
She knew that she most likely ought to be afraid of him, but she simply couldn't find fear of him within herself.
He was not alone, she realized, a bit belatedly, when three others who looked similar to him slinked into the clearing, casting looks of confusion – or irritation? – at the first creature and weary ones at her.
Pale and bright they too were, wearing garments just as pale and crowns just as jagged as that of the first one, and looking just as ancient and hollowed.
The first one tore his gaze away from her, and after what appeared to be a silent conversation with the others, looked back at her. This time, there was less predatory intent in his eyes, and when he tilted his head to the side as if considering something, she found herself mirroring the gesture subconsciously.
Then the moment passed, and between one blink of her eye and another, the shadows disappeared and she found herself in the moonlit clearing again, yet the creature and its companions were no longer before her.
As she took in the absence of the unnatural coldness in the air and the returning sound of the crickets' chirping, she knew without a doubt that the creatures had passed, and that it was once more only herself and her basket full of herbs in the clearing.
With a shake of her head, Halowen turned to leave, though she recognized the spark of fascination that had been lit inside her, and hoped that she'd encounter the creatures again in the future.