The Prey and the Predator

The next day Evoni ran around the house gathering things into her bag.
“What are you doing?” Alistair asked, watching her skip from room to room happily.
“I’m going out.” She said. “Since Tom isn’t here and neither is father…I get to do whatever I want for the next 3 days!”
“And when does going to school come into the equation?” he asked disapprovingly.
“Oh brighten up Alistair!” she yelled from the lounge room. “It’s the holidays, so who cares?”
“So where are you planning to go?”
“Well…I don’t have any money, so I’m going to walk around to the forest…there’s this really cool tree I wanna show you.”
“…You want to show me a tree?” Alistair asked.

Alistair and Evoni walked out of the house and began walking down the road to the forest…They didn’t see many people on their walk since Evoni’s house was on a hill that was behind the town. They walked into the forest.
“Come on!” Evoni yelled running. “It’s really cool, you’ll love it!”
Even though Evoni ran ahead, Alistair remained walking. Evoni stopped and looked back at him.
“Hurry up!” she yelled.
“Evoni, we have all day, and if you keep going at this rate you’ll be tired and asleep by mid-day.” He said.
“No I won’t!” Evoni yelled and ran off.
“I bet I’ll be carrying you home asleep in about two hours…” Alistair murmured to himself.

Alistair finally caught up with Evoni, she was rocking backwards and forwards on her heels by the trunk of a large oak tree. She pointed up at it.
“Beat you to the top.” She said and began climbing.
“Wait!” Alistair yelled. “Don’t climb up there, child! You’ll hurt yourself!” he said angrily.
But Evoni didn’t listen, and she was already six branches up. He quickly got up into the tree and jumped from branch to branch faster than any human could. Evoni climbed up onto the next branch to find Alistair already sitting on it looking angrily at her.
“Oops…” she said smiling. “I’m in trouble, aren’t I?”
He let a low growl slip through his lips.
“When I tell you not to do something, I mean it.” He said darkly.
“Oh come on, Alistair. I’m climbing a tree for crying out loud. What do you expect me to do? Fall out and break my neck?” she asked.
“Yes, actually. You have absolutely zero co-ordination skills.” Alistair said annoyed.
“I’ve been climbing this tree since I was six, and I’ve only fallen out of it 9 times, so my co-ordination skills are fine.” Evoni said,, her hands on her hips.
By the look on Alistair’s face Evoni realized she wasn’t winning this conversation.
“We’re getting down from here.” He said, quickly putting his hands around her waist and hoisting her up over his shoulder.
“Wait!” she said kicking her legs. “There was a reason why I wanted to get you up the top! Please Alistair? I’ll get down once you’ve seen the top.”
He placed her back down on the large branch.
“What’s so good about going up the top?” he asked.
“You’ll see.” She smirked and began climbing upwards again.
He watched her for a moment disapprovingly, and then he disappeared from where he was standing.

When Evoni reached the branches at the top of the tree she found Alistair had already beat her to the top.
“Bloody vampires.” She murmured.
He chuckled and put his arm tightly around her body.
“I don’t want you falling.” He said. “It’s a long way down.”
“Oh get over it.” She said. “I’ve already fallen from up here twice, so a third time won’t hurt.”
He looked at her crossly.
“You are hopeless.” He said. “So what is it that you wanted to show me?”
“You mean you don’t see it?” she asked surprised. “Look, Alistair.” She pointed out to what they could see.
They were so high up that they could see the top of every tree in the forest…the trees reached on and on…and if you strained your eyes just enough, you could see the sparkling blue strip of the sea.

He looked at it all for a moment.
“This really interests you so much?” he asked.
Evoni looked up at him hurt and shocked.
“Well…y-yes. It’s beautiful isn’t it?” she asked a little timidly. “I-I thought you would like it…”
Evoni had shown this, one of her most special places, to him in order to share the wonder she felt when she looked at it all…but he obviously didn’t see what she saw…
“I do like it.” He said. “But…” he didn’t finish his sentence in case he hurt her.
“I’m sorry.” Evoni said quickly. “I just…I thought…”
“Shhh.” He said. “Don’t take it personally. I’m a vampire, child. Very few things interest us as much as they do for humans.”
“I’d hate to be a vampire then.” She said more harshly then she had meant to.
He looked down at her, for some reason what she had said had hurt him. She quickly looked up at him with pain in her eyes.
“No! I didn’t mean it like that…it’s just…” she looked back out over the forest. “For me not to be amazed by nature…and become bored of it and uninterested…I don’t think I could handle that.”

He looked down at her shocked.
“Tell me.” He said. “Tell me what you see…I want to feel like you do, Evoni…I want to know how you can be so grateful and so amazed for something that has surrounded you your whole life…”
“Your looking at it too much.” She said. “You’re looking at everything as a whole…look at each tree separately and you can see the differences from one to another…you can see that each tree has a unique color…a different leaf shape…” She turned and looked at him…but the look on his face clearly showed that he was doing what she was saying but he wasn’t feeling about it the same way as she did.
“…Close your eyes.” Evoni said.
Alistair turned and looked at her for a moment, then shut his eyes.
“How will this make me see the way you do, child, if my eyes are closed?” he asked.
“I thought that was obvious…though you can see, but you’re blind to everything around you, Alistair. You’ve taken everything in life for granted.” Evoni said.
Evoni said this harshly and Alistair felt like yelling at her angrily in response, but he restrained himself as Evoni reached up and touched his face.
“Okay…now let go of me.” She said, but he shook his head. “I won’t fall off, I promise.”
He slowly let go of her and she shifted away from him.
“Okay…now take in the feeling of what you’re sitting on…now think…you are sitting on one branch, one small insignificant branch that is one of many…your sitting on a living organism that holds life in every one of its cells…this tree…is so large, and yet it started, it grew from one tiny little seed that came from another tree.”
“Evoni…I still don’t understand what you see in all this-”
“Shut up.” She said. “You’re the blind one, not me…now think, this is one tree of many…it’s one organism amongst alot…its insignificant when compared to all the others, just like this branch is when compared to the others on this tree…but it’s apart of this forest as much as everything else…its home to other living things, it holds life of all different kinds… open your eyes.”
He did so.
“Now look around you. There are so many other trees just like this one, all holding life, all so large and big yet they all started from seeds, they are all apart of this forest, they’re all apart of nature itself…each one may be insignificant when compared to all the others, but they’re still all apart of one another…they are life and we…are surrounded by it.”

Alistair stared, but not at the trees, not at the forest that Evoni was so raptured by…he was staring at her, so interested, so intrigued that she, a little girl, a child, could feel so much about such insignificant things, that she could feel so grateful, so amazed by a simple forest. He smiled; it made him happy that she was so happy.
He saw that she felt so at peace here, that she felt apart of the world. She was so innocent, so beautiful…
She turned and looked at him, and saw the look on his face. She beamed.
“You understand now, don’t you?” she asked, unbelievably happy. “You now see it my way, don’t you?”
“No, child…” he said smiling, slowly shaking his head. “I’m afraid I don’t…but now I see something much greater than what you do. You were right; I have been blind…but now I’m not. And now I see who you truly are.”