Narrative: Summer Haze WHO: Ewan Carlyle WHEN: Late July WHERE: Outside Camden, the woods
Tanek was right about summer getting busier. It certainly did. Business picked up a lot at Duke's, and Ewan spent a lot of long hours in a kitchen. When he finished worked, he mingled and enjoyed what company he could with those just passing through. Most nights he went into the woods in his kelpie form. It was weird without Van there because it was the first time that Ewan was really on his own. Hollow. Was this what Van had felt until he got there? Becoming a horse and finding a need to be with others but no others were around.
When Van did return to the school, the two went out some nights and raced each other. They talked and Van indulged him with all the gory details of what an elven wedding was like. The private ceremony sounded much more interesting than the public one that made the news. Maybe because Ewan liked the sound of old rituals and ceremony. It was poetic. Ewan felt a tinge of envy that Van got to see it.
In what free time Ewan had, he wrote. He purchased a notebook from a small shop in town and it was now about half filled. Some poetry, with the same words written over but small changes to meter or rhythm. The subjects varied. Scotland, missing Scotland, a few of the people he'd connected with over the summer, and even a couple about his brother. He had a few starts for ideas of some fiction to write, but for the most part, his writing was poetry.
It was a cool summer evening. In Camden there was a street festival going on, with people excitedly visiting the different stalls to buy treats or souvenirs. Ewan left it behind him as he made his way back toward the school. He didn't have a car, but he never needed a car. Whenever he was a reasonable distance away and he knew he was alone, he changed into his horse form and raced back. Sometimes it wasn't a direct path back to the school. Tonight seemed like a good one for meandering.
The moon would be full in a few days, which meant that Ewan would be working earlier shifts. Full moon rules applied during the summer months, so that mean Ewan couldn't be on his own after dark. He could probably take whatever weres remained at the school, but he would be the only one that would get in trouble for it. Even if he was defending himself.
As the lights of the evening summer festival faded into the background, Ewan stripped himself of his clothing and placed everything into a bag. He ran his fingers through his hair a few times, closed his eyes, breathed in as a human and then exhaled as a kelpie. Black eyes observed his surroundings, looking forward to the arrival of something he hadn't expected to enjoy so much.
The dusk was already evening and so the soft lights began waking. The glow of the fireflies transported the forests of Maine into another world. He smiled, as much as a horse could, at the sight of his new nightly friends floating about. They didn't have fireflies in Scotland. Hell, they didn't have fireflies in the UK at all from what he knew. The first time he saw them here, he'd been confused but entranced. Van mocked him for it. Ewan saw the artistry of the natural world before him. Apparently they were a different color in the south.
Ewan picked up the bag with his teeth and began trotting back toward the school through a sea of fireflies. Van was waiting for him by the lake. The days of summer were still at their peak but Ewan could feel the change in the air. The colder months were waiting for them ahead. The fireflies would depart but they would return the next summer.
At first Ewan was a little bothered he wasn't going to spend his summer at home, but now? It wasn't so bad here. In fact, he was having a hard time missing Scotland lately.