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blood red eyes.
    The woman is holding a small child who I feel an almost familiar kinship too as I run my finger slowly across his smiling face. But the other three hold no meaning to me. The man and I assume his wife. And their two children one older, and the younger boy. The photo looked worn and well loved except for the split glass. The edges were slightly torn and darkened as if they had been through an ordeal. It was the only item in the room that felt like it meant something to whoever owned it.
    Gently placing the photo back in the dresser I walked to the door of the room.  Opening it slowly I peeked out into the hallway but there was nobody there. No monsters or beasts come to kill me it was silent.
    The natural wood carried its way into the hall as well, and it muffled my steps as I worked my way toward the open doorway at the end. The hallway opened up into a large great room, sparsely decorated with leather furniture and large furs. It was like going back into the dark ages. The only visible technology was the dimmed lights, giving the room a dark foreboding ambiance.
     With no other alternative I walked up to the only other door in the room and pulled it open. The late evening breeze was chill, which made me glad I had gone to sleep in the clothes I had worn for school that day. The sun was just beginning to dip below the treeline, casting long shadows across the ground. And a deep thunk was the only sound that broke the shrill chirping of birds and insects.
    I followed the hollow thumping sound around to the back of the small log house.  And there was Deegan. Slowly and methodically chopping through a pile of wood. His muscles bunched and twisted under the repetitive motion. The dull hollow thunk of the ax struck a melodic rhythm, but he never looked up from what he was doing.
    “Hey... Deegan?” I called softly, but he just continued his rhythmic movement without even turning to glance my way.
    “Helloooo?”  he continued to give absolutely no indication that he even knew I was there standing in front of him. So I worked my way next to him avoiding the continuous drop of the ax, and began waving my hands in front of his face.
    “This joke isn't funny anymore Deegan.”
    Moving closer I was about to grab him and shake him for playing a trick on me, but just before I reached him there was a rustling coming from the woods. Like something was getting closer. Flinching I began to back away from the noise, when suddenly it came jogging into the clearing.
    It as my mind had instantly called it, was actually she . She couldn't have been much taller than me. She sported the same dark hair, impeccably tanned skin, and deep red eyes as Deegan. And just like Deegan she didn't appear to have a single ounce of fat on her body. And as if to say her athlete's body wasn't just for show, she had a huge deer slung over her shoulder. A deer that probably outweighed her. She was carrying it effortlessly, which clued me into the fact that she was probably like Deegan. Definitely not human. She was...something else. But what that something else was I had no idea.  
    Wrapping my arms tightly around my stomach to hide my less than athletic self, I scooted closer to Deegan. Once again he didn't even turn my way.
    “Helô Dee... What's wrong?”  
    “Just thinking,” Deegan replied, setting the axe down and facing the woman.
    “You look pissed.” Her accent wrapped thick around her words. Thicker even than Deegan's accent.
    “Eira... If I left...”
    “Do I think Seig would go apeshit...? Yes I do. But I have a feeling you will go anyways.”
    Deegan's whole body deflated at the words like they were the ones he feared most. The small woman slowly dropped the deer to the ground and walked over putting her arms around Deegan's large frame. And I felt a bitter weight constrict my throat and tighten my gut at the sight. This was my dream... I dreamed him up... and I certainly didn't like seeing some little dream vixen wrap