Dandelion. That was her name. A free soul living in a small town, called Antark. Her parents were farmers, their only family wealth were the forty-six arches of land, on what usually they grew corn.
She rarely had a chance to go to big cities, but she never mind it. Her passion was the nature, the forest. She felt comfortable surrounded with flowers, herbs, trees, and animals. Dandelion loved every kind of speeches, but especially birds.
She often spent the dawns hiding in the bush, with her telescope, examining the birds of the forest near her family's house. Or if she missed the very early hours of the day, she just grabbed her basket, went to the meadow, and collected herbs. Dandelion had her own corner in the pantry, where she dried them, and later made tea from all different kind of herbs she knew.
Dandelion also helped her mother and father on the field, she always took her part of the work. Everyone was talking about her as hard worker, honest, reliable person, who has big respect towards her parents, and elderlies in the town. Everyone loved her…. everyone, above, or under her age.
Her classmates, her age group: those eighteen-nineteen years old boys and girls, who she went to the same class with, always looked down on her. They never realised how valuable person Dandelion was. They always made fun of her, because she had such a passion for nature, and for books. She loved reading, and was a deep thinker, with high level of emotional intelligence. And her classmates never saw it as something 'good', or 'cool'. She was called a bookworm, a nerd by them.
Thus, she spent most of her life now that she finally graduated from high school alone, deeply sank into her thoughts and books, or with the children, or adult people of the town. As on that very average Tuesday, when our story begins.
She was walking home from the centre of Antark thinking about the new romantic book, what she recently borrowed from the library, after she finished babysitting one of her mom's friend's toddler, a very sweet five years old girl. Dandelion was halfway to her home, when she saw a huge, a very huge…nearly oddly big, brownish wolf coming towards her on the road. That wolf seemed very dangerous, and its way of walking was nearly human-like. She got very scared, and even though she was a rationally thinking person, the situation made Dandelion choose the worst decision what in a situation like this someone can make: instead of turning back, and calmly walking back to the town, she ran into the forest, what was next to the road.
And, no surprise, the wolf got its hunting instinct activated, started to chase the freaked out girl. She ran, ran, as fast as she could, slaloming between the trees of the thickening forest. Her blue dress got stuck on branches, her hair was flying to her eyes as she kept looking back. The distance between her and the wolf became smaller and smaller, what made her run as fast as she could. Dandelion was running for her life, but her vision became darker and darker, soon black patches started to appear in her eyes as she started to get out of breath.
She knew the tragedy is about to happen, she knew she has absolutely no chance to escape from such a big and talented predator as a wolf is. Therefore, as the last push of her life instinct, she climbed up a big tree. She climbed up as high as she could, and when the wolf reached the tree, it started to make circles around it, trying to figure out how to take the frightened girl down, and tear her apart. She was sitting there no one knows for how long time, holding her breath… but the wolf did not seem like giving up on such a delicious dinner as she might was.
Hours passed by, and the wolf was still nearby. She started to panic, because even though Dandelion's biggest passion was the forest, her biggest fear was it as well: she was frightened about the nigh forest, and the sun was about to set down, inside of the trees the daylight started to fade away. And still, she had to wait more and more. But when Dandelion started to accept her faith, that she has to spend her night on the tree in the dark forest, the wolf's attention was called away from her.
She did not see yet what was taking the predator's attention away from her, but its head suddenly turned to the side, its ears stood up, pointing to the sky. The wolf soon left the spot it was patiently sitting previously and turned its back to Dandelion. Suddenly she could hear branches cracking, and before the man entered her vision, the wolf turned once more to her, looked up, and then ran to the very opposite direction from where she heard the footsteps.
After a few minutes passing by (what she felt as years), a very strongly looking man came out from the cover of the trees. He stopped in front of Dandelion's tree, put his hands to his waist, and looked up to her.
"The danger is away, now you can come down" he said. His voice was so deep, and dominant, she could not even in her nastiest dreams imagine a man with such a powerful voice tone.
"Are you sure?" she replied. "Yes, definitely. Come down my princess" he said with a nice, but at the same time demanding manner.
"I'm afraid, I can't" Dandelion just realised how high she climbed in the rush of adrenaline. And now that she was more calmed, and the adrenaline left her body, she had no idea how to climb down.
The man shook his head, and started to walk around the tree to check it out: how he can help to the miserable girl. Soon he found a lower branch, and grabbed it.
"I will help you, but you have to come a little bit down, I don't think the branches will bare both of our weight there." So did Dandelion. She very carefully grabbed the trunk of the tree, and slowly came down with two or three branches. Meanwhile the mysterious man climbed up, she made a wrong step, and started to slide town, but luckily, he quickly grabbed her waist, saving her from falling meters and meters down.
The man had very strong, and muscular arms, and chest, she felt it immediately. He grabbed her tight and made their way down to the ground. She was mesmerized. He carefully placed Dandelion to the ground, and examined her arms and face closely. She was so in shock; Dandelion did not even know where to look out of the sudden shyness.
"There is no serious injury, just a few bruises" he announced.
"Who are you" that was the only thing what came into her mind.
"Let's keep it as a secret, shall we?" he asked back.
"But you are not a serial killer, are you? I never saw you in the town, you must be from somewhere else."
"You are right, I'm from somewhere very else" he replied, leaving the first question unanswered.
"You didn't answer for my question" she insisted.
"I just did, didn't I? You gave me two questions, and I answered what I liked more."
Hearing it, she fracked out again. She thought she was saved by this man, but suddenly started to feel that she just made her way from one trap to an another. Dandelion deeply regretted her decision to come down from the tree. She should have been staying there, she thought. Her face must express her scared feelings as well, because the man spoke again:
"I am not going to hurt you. Okay? I would never every hurt you." But he could not convince her.
"I just want to go home now. Thank you for your help, I will find my way out." And she turned around, to walk away. But suddenly, a strong hand grabbed her arm, and she was turned back by it.
"Are you seriously believe that you can find a way out from the dark forest? Do you know even what direction the town is?"
"Yes, I do. Thanks."
"I don't think so. You were about to go the wrong direction. I am not going to let a young girl wonder around the forest at night alone. Let me escort you back to your home" he said.
"It's really not necessary." Dandelion was insisting on continuing their journey on separate ways, because this mysterious man as fast earned her trust, as fast lost it as well.
"Please." He even tilted his head to the side. She could do nothing else but had to let him show her way out of the thick forest hopingly, that what he said was true, and no harm will happen to her.
So, the mysterious man walked Dandelion home. This is how the first meeting between Dandelion and him happened… and she had no idea how her life will turn upside down by this mysterious man soon. As she did not even know that soon she will discover things about the world, what she would never-ever imagine.