Keep Your Lantern Burning
an excerpt

The dining room was dark and silent, as was the connected kitchen. Moonlight streamed through the dining room's picture windows and sliding doors, illuminating the room with clear pale light. ...

...

The crisp scent of winter hung in the air, accented by a chilly breeze that whispered silent promises of frost and snow. The cloudless sky held a whole note moon and scattered a rhythm of staccato stars. The insects all ready fled into their burrows for the cold season, so the air was silent aside from the rain stick hush of the garden and its fountains. The night rang with life and buzzed with magic.

Liliane wrapped her robe nearer to her to guard against the cold and breathed in the smells of winter. The wood of the deck, the flowers of the garden, the trees of the surrounding woods, the water of the fountains, the grass of the yard... The entirety of nature combined its instruments to form the greatest symphony of all.