Dante's Prayer

The night she was born, the great willow tree fell, as the lighting and thunder ripped the sky in half. The normally quiet river was rushing along, full of water from the thick blackness above. The trees all bent and swayed in the winds that howled, yet the house stood strong against it all. One window was lit with firelight, and a child's first cries sounded, drowned out by the wrath of the storm. Her mother lay weak and silent, as the midwife held the child in her arms, wrapped in a soft pink blanket. The baby's father was kneeled on the floor, his head bowed, beside his wife's bed, holding her hand against his face as he cried. He knew that his beloved wouldn't last very long. The midwife came forward and laid the baby into her mother's cool arms, tears misting in her own eyes as she watched the lovely young woman smile ever so gently, before her intense rust eyes closed and she breathed her last. A holy hush fell over the room, and it seemed even the storm no longer existed, as a new life began, and a beautiful, too short one ended. Her husband looked up as the veil between this world and the next thinned and his bride's soul lifted up and away from her body. He couldn't see it....but he could feel it...and in that moment his tears ended and he looked down at the beautiful baby laying in her arms. She squirmed a little, thirsting for mother's milk. He rose to his feet, leaning forward to kiss his wife's head gently, "I love you Eve...I always will...thank you..." he reached down and lifted the tiny infant into his arms, cradling her close and turned to look at the midwife, nodding to her slowly as she covered up Eve with a white sheet. He then left the room, meeting another nurse in the hallway who held a bottle full of milk for him to feed the child. He took it and allowed the baby to drink, watching her with eyes full of love. His heart burned for the one he loved behind him and screamed out in utter joy for the beautiful gift that now lay in his arms. His daughter...
He sat down in a rocking chair and kissed the babies forehead just as he had her mothers, "You are so beautiful...my sweet...from this dark night...and storm, you have come forth...you shall be called Luce Scura...and the world will know you for all eternity..." he felt tears in his eyes again as she yawned and fell asleep in his arms. Right there....the most precious thing he had ever beheld, his wonderful daughter, Luce Scure Donovan...
The night she was born, the old willow tree fell....and a new power entered the world, a great power that would shake the world, just as the lightning split the sky and revealed the fallen tree in the pounding night. A brave and powerful magic, all in the eyes of a tiny child as she lay in her fathers arms.













"DAD!" she ran down the hallway and came skidding to a stop at his office door.
"Come on in baby..." she heard him call from the other side and she pushed open his door with her behind, careful not to kill the mouse cradled in her hands. She brought it happily to her father, holding it out so it was nearly under his nose, "LOOK what I caught DAD!"
He looked up and cringed, "How did you catch a Mouse without it trying to kill you?" and this wasn't the first time.
"I just picked him up...isn't he cute? Can I keep him Dad?" she looked at him with those rusty eyes and smiled her wonderful smile. He had to admit she was good...but this time he had to say no. He just had to, come HELL or HIGH water he would say no...
"Come on Dad...please..." she held the mouse close to her and looked at it with a compassion and joy he had seen all too often. NO! Tell her to put it outside where it belongs...he shouted it in his head, tapping the pen he held on the desk, "Baby...it's a mouse..." he gave her the same look, his bright blue eyes dancing with reason, "Mice belong outside in the wild."
"The wild..." she snorted and took a few steps to his great picture window that looked out over their 400 acre property, complete with a forest and a stream, "You call that the wild?" she inclined her head to the great span of space.
"Yes!" he nodded, rising from his leather chair, "That is the wild..." he moved around her still cupped hands. He realized that most parents would wonder if there was something wrong with the animal in the first place, but he had learned long ago that there never was. She just had a magical way with animals. Considering where she came from, that was really no surprise to him. They both were part of a long legacy of magic. He himself being a vampire and witch, she as well, with the full bloodline of the Fae behind her, courtesy of her late mother Eve, the two of them were definably magical, even if some of their talents only brought slight misery onto the other. He didn't mind much, she was the most precious thing is his world, ever since the night she was born and her mother died of complications. His heart had been broken and rebuilt in a day...a day that changed his life forever. Luce was the nearly the exact copy of her mother, the same rusty eyes and hair, the same pale complexion of the fae. She had her mother's kindness and compassion towards animals and people alike. She did however share some of her father's personality, and his temper...they went head to head all too often. But after a short time of being angry with each other they would come and apologize and clean up any mess the had made together as they laughed and joked like best friends. It was how their lives worked and it suited them...