An Unexpected Love
A young man with brown hair stands under a canopy of leaves, remembering. Looking around, he spies the tree in which he once carved his name, walking towards it, he reads aloud. "Tyler and Emma, Forever." If only, he snorts. And still he cannot stop the hand that lovingly strokes the solid lines cut into the bark, outlining the sap encrusted name, "Emma." With a growl, he wrenches his hand from the name, only to slam it back down, now a fist. And so he stands hand planted on the tree, watching his own blood make its quiet way to the forest floor. He takes a single shuddering breath, and raises his hand to his eyes, and there, now etched into his very skin, as if she had carved them herself, where the letters Emma, spelled across his knuckles. Crystalline tears mix with dark blood. With a sigh, he turns around and begins slowly walking down the once beloved path, leaving a trail of broken, crimson droplets of blood, and tears. Each a metaphor for his own divided soul. When he, a lonely child had carved both the names into that tree, Tyler had believed that Emma was real, and that one day they would be together. Years later Tyler had finally come to the realization that Emma did not exist, and paid one last visit to the tree, where he had spent so many hours of his childhood, fantasizing adventures with his imaginary friend Emma. Only to leave with the most tangible evidence he could have of her love, etched into his very skin. After returning from the tree, Tyler's life continued as any other teenage boys would, apart from the fact that every night, Tyler would enter a world, filled with his suppressed thoughts of Emma. Some of the dreams where those of a child, playing in the forest, running through the fields. Others were much more stereotypical of a teenage boy, including sex and erotic pleasures. And still others were those of an old man, laying by the side of his life-long love, entering the void with her by his side. And yet all of these had one thing in common, the identity of the woman, all of them were white, just white. Yet even then the whiteness conveyed a sense of softness, of feral beauty that he could not explain in his waking hours, but seemed so simple in his dreams. In many of the visions, a pair of glowing golden eyes were present, disconnected from everything else, as if observing the adventures of his dreams. Throughout his high school years this continued unbeknownst to both Tyler's parents and friends. After graduating high school Tyler decided to take a year off from school. He promised himself he would travel, he promised himself he would work. But it seemed the only thing he had time for was hiking, almost every waking moment he spent he was hiking, and in those rare moments when he wasn't, he was planning for his next hike, soon he began to camp, sometimes for days at a time. Tyler was obsessed, he spent more time sleeping under the stars then he did a house, he fell in love with the forest. Soon one year stretched into two, and still Tyler continued to explore, looking for something without even realizing it, until one day, he found it. He awoke, screaming, pleading. He awoke tonight, as every other night, positively begging, not for his life, not for an end, but for Her. He raises his hand, reading the name on his knuckles, "Emma " he says aloud, such a small simple word, yet the only thing he has to take of his friend, of his partner, of his lover. And yet the strangest thing of all, he has never laid eyes on this women at all, never touched or been touched, loved nor been loved. Again as every other morning, he questions his own sanity, yet after analyzing his soul for more then a half an hour, staring at the slowly brightening fabric of his orange tent, he concedes defeat, throwing sanity to the wind, and steps out of his tent. The light from the rising sun immediately assaults his eyes, a problem since his eyes were always dilated, a quirk that the teachers in high school never failed to notice. Short of being accused of being high every other day, Tyler was quite sad about leaving high school, it marked some of the most memorable dreams he had, odd how Tyler judged his life on the quality of his dreams, which all, without fail, centered around his fictional love, Emma. Still shading his eyes from the sun, Tyler stepped away from his tent, and was greeted by a spectacular view. He stood at the top of a cliff, looking down upon the forest he claimed his sanctuary. He looked down at the mottled greens and yellows of the trees, which he had known for as long as he could remember but only just come to love. Each and every needle and leaf seemed to whisper a name, he had long since learned to ignore it and barely noticed it now, but even in the still air of the morning, the trees seemed to whisper "Emma." With a sigh he turned away, still squinting against the sun. He began to pack up his camp. It was now late fall, and a light layer of frost covered the ground, casting a surreal beauty over even the most mundane of plants. After Tyler had finished breaking down camp, he slung the heavy blue frame pack over his shoulders and set of at a strenuous pace. In the past year Tyler had learned to move quickly and quietly and so after almost six hours and fifteen miles, he decided it was time to take a break. Shrugging the pack off his shoulders he let it hit the ground with a thump. With a grunt he sat down against a stump, head pointed to the sky. Soon enough he fell into the habit of naming clouds, that one would look like a turtle, that one a mushroom, and that one, even a wolf. As soon as he saw the cloud-wolf his vocal chords seemed to act on there own accord, turning his exhalation into a whisper, Emma. Startled he continued to gaze at the cloud-wolf but before long it was unrecognizable. With a shrug he stood up and reached for his backpack, his fingertips brushed the strap just long enough to feel the rough texture before he was slammed to the ground. His face in the dirt, Tyler quickly turned onto his back, just in time to be pinned by a massive white wolf, a white wolf with golden eyes. He had just enough time to wonder why the wolf looked as if it were smiling before it leaned in, and whispered in his ear "Boo"