♛♡♛

an encounter so unexpected,

who would have thought it would be a meeting so dear?

encounter

noun /enˈkoun(t)ər /

an unexpected or casual meeting with someone or something

The full moon that night was bright and beautiful. I was behind some alley, deciding to spend the night in that hellhole of a place. Stinky place, but hidden and quiet. The temperature was perfect, too; not too hot, not too cold.

I was about to drift to sleep when all of a sudden, noises came from the other side of the alley.

“Stop there, little shit!” shouted a grown man, followed by rushed footsteps. I thought, how annoying. What kind of grown man was playing chase in the middle of the night? I sighed, pressing my eyes shut as I tried to get to sleep. Yet, the noise got louder and more annoying. So, I opted to get up and look for the cause of such hullabaloo.

There was this really small gap that barely fit me, but I managed to crawl to look for the commotion. Right when I peeked, passed by me an angel sent from heaven, in such a hurry as though her carriage back to the moon was about to leave.

Do you believe in love at first sight? Well, I didn’t. Until that moment, when I saw her.

As though pulling me back into the realm of reality, a man screamed at the poor girl. “Come back!” he screamed, followed by words of profanity. Disgusting, chasing down a tiny little girl. Not only one, but two men! Such shameless people.

Poor little girl turned into the wrong alley. This alleyway had a dead end. Trust me, I am the master of alleyways, after all.

Indeed, poor little girl was greeted with a looming dead end. She turned around, facing her fate. Even from such a distance I was in, I could see bravery in her eyes, but despair in her shrinking shoulders. Oh, what a pitiful little deer.

The two men, who seemed to never exercise past the age of 17, caught up with her. They dropped on their knees, catching their breaths. What a bunch of weak pigs, getting out of breath just from one tiny little girl. Then, the bigger man staggered back to his feet, dragging himself over to the young girl. Then...

He punched her.

I was so furious I lost my senses. I ran out from my hiding spot, charging towards the asshole of a man to repay for his unwanted punch. I didn’t even care. I just fought them with all my might. Those disgusting men, I knocked them out cold.

You know, when one is in danger, they can break their own limits and release certain superhuman powers? I did just that. I lost my senses and went rampage on the two men, leaving nothing but fear and despair for whatever remained of them.

By the time I came back to my senses, both men were unconscious. One had their head bleeding, which I didn’t recall how. Well, not that it was any of my problem, anyway.

I turned, finding the poor girl in daze. Looking at her, she was even more beautiful than I thought. Well, aside from being so disheveled, of course. She was like a hidden gem under the mud; gorgeous, though her beauty was concealed behind the dirty, flimsy old T-shirt she had on. A little polishing and she would shine, like a pearl under the sea.

She flinched as I approached her. Could she be scared of me? A tinge of guilt grew in my heart. I just wanted to save her, but did I scare her off?

I extended a helping hand, which, fortunately, she accepted. However, as she stood up, she whispered to me, “We need to hide,” and led me somewhere out of sight.

Our hiding place was cramped and smelly. It stunk so bad. Like, really bad. I wondered, why did we have to hide? Could she hear something? It would have been easier if we just went back to that tiny hole I came from, it would be a better hiding place, too.

But, being in a cramped place together was not bad, at all, as we had to stick close to each other.

Then, we both fell silent, before she whispered, “Thanks for helping me.”

Such a gentle whisper, I adore it. I was over the clouds that I did not know what to say. Instead, I gave a curt nod that was colder than intended.

She had her eyes on me, which, to be fair, was very awkward. I thought she could notice how nervous I was next to her. However, she asked, “Why did you help me?”

How could I not help you when you are this adorable? I was about to explode. I cleared my throat before answering, “I just see that you need some help.”

To be fair, that was one of the reasons. I didn’t lie to her.

To my surprise, she scooted closer to me.

“Hey,” she whispered right next to my ear. “What’s your name?”

I was going to combust.

Dear God and the Stars, thank you for the darkness between us, or she would have seen how red my face had become.

Then, her question dawned to me. Name. A name, of me? Sure, it would have been easy to tell her my name; no one knew Altair and Deneb Zelinda, after all. We were but two hidden existences. Yet, I didn’t want her to call me with such spiteful name; a name I threw long ago. However, asking her to call me Deneb was not a good idea. I hated that name, as much as I hated Altair. Thinking of a new name was out of question, too, as my brain clearly stopped functioning. I looked at her eyes as I thought of a name, yet nothing came into mind. So, I said to her, “Give me a name, then.”

I didn’t know which surprised her more; my wish or my meeting her eyes. Either way, her surprised expression was adorable.

“What’s with that reaction?” I laughed. “Give me a name. A name! I want a cool name.”

She was so flustered with my request that she became silent for a second. How adorable. Then, she blurted out, “Hera...?” with uncertainty in her tone.

The name had a nice ring to it. I nodded, accepting the new name. “I like the name,” I complimented her. “What does that mean?”

She was, yet again, flustered by my question. The name could have popped out of nowhere for her, to the point that she didn’t even know what it meant. “I don’t know,” she admitted. Bingo, it was a random name she said. I couldn’t help but laugh.

What an enchanting person, I thought, as she covered my mouth with her hand. I shot her a surprised look, but she shook her head frantically, telling me to remain silent. Only then that I heard footsteps approaching. The stranger might have found the two unconscious men, as he freaked out and ran away to call for help.

Shoot, we’re stuck in this commotion, I thought to myself, holding my breath. However, a few minutes later, the commotion died down after they took away the two men.

She released her hand. “Sorry,” she said sheepishly, as though feeling guilty of what she did.

I smiled at her. “No, no problem!”

With a guilty smile, still, she peeked out of our hideout. “Maybe we should go now,” she suggested, indicating that the dead end was empty now. “Do you want to come to my place?”

No way I would refuse! I grinned. “Sure!” I replied, following her out.

Oh, what a lucky day it was for me to find her.

the moon smiled,

as she looked down to the mortals beneath her, treading their own story of love and fate

damsel in distress.