The Mating Ritual

Twilight faded into the deep, velvet expanse of night over the Northern Peaks. But tonight, the heavens were not dark. High in the celestial dome, the full moon hung vast and terrifyingly magnificent. The ivory surface was slowly being swallowed by a creeping shadow of oxidized copper and deep, bruised crimson—the Blood Moon eclipse. Ribbons of ethereal violet and emerald aurora borealis rippled across the stars, bathing the snow-capped mountains…