okay, this is a scene from my book. let me know what you think!
oh yeah, and the people talking are winged horses...
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A third being lay awake, looking at the stars. His love lay at his side, gazing not at the stars, but at him. He was acutely aware of her presence, just as he was painfully conscious of the need to leave her soon. She knew this as well as he did, yet she clung to him, rejected his feeble attempts to leave her, saying that she would rather die than be separated from him. He feared that that would be exactly what happened.
“How long?” she whispered, her voice low so as not to disturb the stillness around them.
He shook his head, making his mane swish silently. “I don’t know.”
“Why must you leave?” she asked, just as she had asked so many times before. Just as before, he had no answer for her.
“I must.”
She did not move away from his side, but he sensed her displeasure. “That is not at answer,” she complained.
“It is all the answer I have for you. I must go.”
She sighed. “He will not be happy about it.”
“He is already unhappy with me. My leaving cannot hurt things any more.”
“Are you certain?” she asked. “You have not heard him as I have, Wind Runner. You do not know what he truly thinks.”
“If he wished me to know what he thought, he would tell me himself,” he said stiffly. “Why are we speaking of this yet again, Shining Star?”
“Because you refuse to see the truth,” she told him, perhaps more sharply than necessary.
“I see as much of the truth as I must,” he assured her. “If he wishes to speak with me, he may do so himself.”
Her tail batted the air in impatient exasperation. “Don’t you see?” she pleaded, her voice rising in pitch despite herself. “He’s just as stubborn as you are. He will not forgive you unless you ask him to.”
“And I will not ask him to unless he offers,” he finished. “I know.”
“Then why do you insist upon leaving?” she cried, her voice ringing sharp and clear through the dead night air.
His tail moved to wrap around hers, and she allowed herself to be calmed by his touch. Her eyes stayed hard and unsatisfied, though, and he knew he would have to explain himself properly. He sighed, thinking it would be far easier if he knew himself just why he had to go.
“Would you believe me if I told you the Gods had granted me a vision?” he began hesitantly.
“Perhaps,” she admitted grudgingly. “What vision?”
He detailed his dream to her, speaking of mysterious strangers and long journeys. He told her of danger and of adventure, and of the strange summons he had received at the end of his dream. “The Gods spoke to me,” he told her. “They told me I must go with these strangers. They told me my life would be forever altered if I went with them.”
“In what way?”
“They did not tell me that.”
She sighed, the hard look in her eyes melting slightly. “They did not tell you. Yet you leave with these strangers anyway? Maybe your life will be altered for the worse. Maybe…” her voice broke, and she paused, looking away as she regained control of herself. “Maybe you will not return.”
His insides clenched at the thought, but he did his best to hide his sudden uneasiness from her. “I will return,” he said confidently. “I will return and we will be wed, just as we swore.”
“And until that time?”
He did not answer her, perhaps because he had no answer to give. There was no possible answer to her question. He did not know, and she knew that very well.
“You are determined?” she asked at last.
He nodded. “I must,” he repeated.
“Take me with you.”
He blinked, taken aback by the suddenness of the request. “I cannot.”
Her tone was angry and she moved away from him slightly, untangling her tale from his. “Why not? Why are you the only one allowed to have adventures? Do you not love me?”
“Of course I love you,” he assured her, seeking halfheartedly to regain contact. She eluded him, truly angry now.
“Then why will you not take me with you? Is there something wrong with me? Am I unsuited to travel with you?”
“You are perfect,” he said, and he meant every word from the bottom of his heart.
“Then why won’t you let me go with you?” she asked, tears of frustration evident in her voice, though she tried to hide them.
“I cannot,” he said again. “You have a life to live here, in the forest.”
“And you do not?” she retorted. “You belong with me, not off having adventures with strangers.”
Once again, he was silent. Finally, he spoke, his voice no louder than the softest whisper. “Yes. I belong only to you. I leave you my heart. Take care of it until I return.”
“I want all of you, not just your heart,” she protested, but she knew it was fruitless. His mind was made up, and she could do nothing to dissuade him.
“I
will return to you,” he insisted. “And then we will never again be parted.”
“You promise?” she whispered, moving close to him once again. He leaned his head against her shoulder in answer, a promise without words.
She let the air out of her lungs slowly, accepting his promise. They lay together, watching the stars, saying nothing, savoring the time they had together. As his eyes closed, she watched him, trying to fend off the growing sense that she would never see him again after he left on his journey.
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Personally, I think having math first thing in the morning should be declared unconstitutional – isn’t there something in the Bill of Rights outlawing cruel and unusual punishment? – but I wasn’t consulted about this.
--Adarius Rathburn; My Happily Ever After
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Subject: Re: oneshots by anne 
Sun May 25, 2008 3:03 pm
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