High on a Hill

The flames danced to and fro in front of his face, the fire now reasonably low. Everyone else had returned to the tents to sleep but not Khadgar. He couldn’t close his eyes; he couldn’t sleep, the stars were out twinkling in the distant sky. He used to count the stars with her and pick out the constellations. Somewhere under that sky in a different world, maybe a different realm, he didn’t know she was there. How he prayed to the light or whatever power that she was safe and living her life happily.

In spite of his hope, a pain stabbed his heart. He knew she would be sad but doing her best to smile. The wind blew cold and cruel across his face, a stark contrast to the fire before him but neither wind nor flame affected him. It was her warm he craved; he shut his eyes holding back tears, what good would crying do now…nothing.

Then it happened, whether it was his longing or some harsh trick this world’s latent magic played on him he didn’t know. Was it a lingering ghost or fragment from his time in Karazhan? He felt, or he thought he could feel arms slipping around him and a faint, familiar warmth encircling him. Distant but there all the same, if it was a dream he didn’t want to awaken from it. He knew deep in his heart she couldn’t be here but that feeling, he couldn’t deny it so instead he embraced it. His arms moved to rest lightly on the sensation, featherlight so as not to break this, this, whatever it was and so that was how the found him in the morning, hands resting on his heart with a smile on his face towards the rising sun.

Meanwhile, atop the crest of a valley, she sat, arms around herself. Peregrin, no smile bearing her features just a focus, a will, that should he still be living, breathing out there. That her love, her Sun would feel this warm, from her heart and soul. The same devotion that whished daily for his return or at least his safety for one more day.

Perhaps that was all they needed, a single day to find their way home, that’s what was heard around the camp that day. Some spoke of the Archmage as they had come to call him, seen with a smile they said. A sign of hope perhaps and that they would find their way off forsaken world soon.

High on a hill in both worlds, a pair of lovers were drawn closer together for the briefest of moments and reminded of each other, for one longing and pain, for the other hope. It wouldn’t be long now. Beyond the dark portal for the first time in years, a ray of light shone brightly in the hearts of all, that they would see home again.

Written listening to Ralph Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. Inspired by Drew Winchester’s hard work.