[ TOGETHER ]: when the receiver awakens, they discover that the sender has been sleeping next to them, arms wrapped around one another for warmth, comfort, protection ( or something more… ) !!
The last embers of the campfire had long since puttered out. The moon hung high in the night sky. Midnight has passed overhead on her argent chariot and Elincia stirs awake.
Soft, flaxen locks of hair are the first thing she makes out in the inky darkness. The warmth of another, curled into her side. How strange, there was plenty enough room for two people in the tent and they had their fair share of blankets. Despite this, Elincia can’t quite bring herself to shift Sharena. The younger woman seems so peaceful, breathing softly against her chest.
By daylight, Sharena wears a halo of sunlight, bright and golden like the ichor that surely must run though her veins. She is so very alive as to seem positively divine. Iridescent and breathtaking, her enthusiasm and kindness is heaven sent. It’s such a sharp contrast, Elincia thinks, to see her dainty in her arms like a sugarplum dream. Quiet, softened and gentle as gossamer wings. At peace.
It’s still late, the sun slumbers just as Sharena does. Too early to rise and yet with a heart too full to possibly fall asleep, Elincia settles for stroking Sharena’s gilded hair with a touch lighter than pegasus down. Gently, she hums a song. An old lullaby, the words of which she has long forgotten. Something about princesses, angels and an ancient longing to be whole, she thinks. When mother sang it to her, she had never quite understood. Not until now, as she embraces a woman who is half seraphic and half storm beneath the glow of a silent, secretive moon.
-- Elincia stops her serenade and places a fragile kiss upon the crown of Sharena’s head. A revelation of things perhaps better left unsaid. For Icarus too, had loved the sun too much.
& the sun had loved back with her ardent zeal.
