Avenlae

"Hair black as coal and straight as a blade of grass fell past the man’s shoulders as he turned to look. Tips of large, pointed ears sprang up from the hair around his temples, pointing towards the crackling of small fires. His head whipped back around to me, and his opalescent eyes were the brightest orbs I had ever seen in my forest. 

The man’s face was human in essence but different in detail. Gradually, his slitted pupils dilated until they appeared almost human. Moonlight slid across his high, sharp cheekbones as he tilted his head to the side, a hawk studying a mouse. Claw earrings hung from each ear, and a third black claw was pierced through the septum of his nose. The tips of two long canines pressed gently into the stranger’s lower lip as he opened his mouth and cocked his head, ears twitching, much more sensitive than my own. Gold was woven into braids around his hairline, a sharp dichotomy to the brilliance of his skin, as white as the snow that would fall during winter."