Blessed Thing by Erurainon

Chapter 1

All is dark. The mountains loom cold and rigid in the distance, and I am with her. Her face is pale and blank like the page unwritten. I turn to her and brush her hair with my hand … My only hand. She nods and breaks the blankness with a smile brighter than everything. A warm breeze stirs the leaves, and we are laughing- Laughing harder than we ever could before. The past cannot hold us. We are fair and free. The future is a door and it is open wide. We clasp hands and trod through the open places where the grass lies thicker than the years. I am humming.

“What’s that,” she asks furrowing her brow, the calm mirth in her eyes like moonbeams. “I don’t think you played it for me before.”

“no,” I chuckle keeping pace. The sleeve of her dress brushes my arm and I blush red hard like a lad. But the age is there. It’s always there. Time is an enemy.

“Come on,” she insists tugging me to the clean earth. The road is soft and covered in a fine dust. She couldn’t look more beautiful there under the stars. She is a star herself and I am the night, vast and tender. We kiss and the flavor of her lips is luminous. My heart lifts within me. Yes … Yes this is how it is supposed to be.

“I’ll sing it,” I murmur, my voice thick with emotion. ”But first you have to promise me something … “

“What,” she giggles pursing her lips. I can feel her against my shoulder and breathe in her smooth sent. Lilac … And clover … Splendid!

I reach into the fold of my cloak and remove the necklace. The jewel burns through the palm of my hand, and I can see her face in its light. Her eyes go wide and then close.

“Should I,” she mutters inching back a little not daring to touch the blessed thing. “After … After all that … Can I?”

“What does your heart tell you,” I inquire gazing through the shade. There are shadows beneath the tall elm trees and they are whispering. Red lanterns twinkle in the vale beyond. But she does not see them or the jewel. Her eyes are on me and me alone.

Her fingers curl around mine, and for a moment there is no tomorrow or yesterday. There is only now, and that now lives forever in her gaze. The gaze lingers as she lifts the chain to her neck. The jewel sparkles like a fire-brand, and it rests there in the soft place beneath her chin. Memories of other days cloud my mind, and I recall black dungeons and distant waterfalls. But none of it matters. She is with me.

“Yes,” she half-whispers radiant in her delight. “Now … How about that song …”