Under the Oak Tree (Riftan Calypse POV) - The Send Off

The Send Off

(Riftan POV)

*Trigger Warning: Contains emotional scenes of Suicide*

Riftan was distracted while Maxi was recovering in the healing tent. He had asked Ruth to personally look after his wife while he attended to his tasks as Knight Commander. Ruth in turn, coordinated with Idsila as he could not go to Maxi's tent by himself since he was a man seeing a female patient. It would be inappropriate if he was not accompanied by a priestess. While Maxi was unconscious, naturally her body could not take food or water through the mouth, so Ruth had to perform recovery magic everyday until she woke up and regained her strength. With every recovery and healing magic performed, Maxi's bruises and scars began to heal until the traces faded from her skin.

But even with such reassurances, Riftan's heavy cloud of guilt and worry would not lift from his mind. After all the day's tasks were done, he would take his meals in his barracks quietly and wash up before proceeding to Maxi's tent. Every night, he would sit down on the chair beside her bed and trace the outline of her lips, the bone under the side of her face, down to her neck and her collarbone. He would touch her soft hair and kissed her cheeks gently. He could feel her warmth and hear her breathe. Somehow, that was enough to fill his empty spirit, as the light from the lanterns in the tent emitted an orange glow.

Please wake-up Maxi... I've missed you so much... please wake up...

Riftan held her hand and clasped the spaces between her unresponsive fingers. He rested his forehead by on the edge of her bed. When his eyes started to droop and grew tired, he laid out a sleeping bag on the ground beside her bed and fell asleep.

But after the shock of the first night, Riftan started having nightmares that led him back to his painful childhood when he discovered his mother's body hanging from the ceiling, brought about by her own hands. The vivid, strange smell of death once again touched his nostrils as he dreamt. He hadn't thought about that smell in a long time, since he had already grown accustomed to it in his line of work. He saw himself as a child in the dream looking up at the grotesque scene above him. The next moment, he hears a thump and sees a thin woman, kneeling and pulling her long hair, crying in desperation. Riftan looked closer at the tortured face of his mother. She had heard the bad news that her former lover--Riftan's father--had died. His mother looks at something far away and doesn't see him. Riftan felt afraid and small once again.

Then suddenly in his dream, he ran away from the house into the dark forest, anxiously trying to find that patch of bright meadow which offered a view of the white and gleaming Croix Castle in the background. He knew that Maxi would be there, waiting for him to lead him away from this place. He was dressed in his armor as a Remdragon Knight in this part of his dream, and indeed, right where the meadow should be, he finds Maxi with her long, wavy red hair and wearing a deep green dress. Similar to when he first saw her at Croix Castle after the Dragon Subjugation, it was as if sunlight from the wide glass windows filled the meadow they were in. But something was wrong in this scene and she didn't look well. There was blood on Maxi's forehead streaming on her face. Both of her hands were on her stomach, covering a large patch of blood on her dress. She looked sad and afraid, wanting to reach out to him with pleading eyes.

Riftan then woke up in beads of sweat from his nightmare. He rose and sat-up from his sleeping bag and rubbed the palms of his hands on his face, feeling a little uneasy. Then he stood up and looked at Maxi's peaceful and beautiful face, asleep and oblivious. He sat on the chair beside her bed, and Riftan put his hand on her cheek and felt her soft skin. The natural warmth let Riftan knew that Maxi was still there. Then he kissed her lightly on the lips, on her cheeks, and by her ear. He smelled her hair and touched it, so he could shake off the lingering bad dream before he closed his eyes again. This nightly routine went on for days.