Most of us long to "Be" but when the path gets too costly, or steep, we take solace in what we "Have." Remove the trappings of what we own and then what is the sum of us?
They were the survivors, abandoned by the allies who swore to protect, in...
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In the long dark hours, Aurianne sat with her mother's head cradled in her lap, the woman had given her the gift of life, and now it was Aurianne's turn to ease her mother's departure from this one. It was a bitter pill for the young woman to swallow, her mother was still young and vibrant, why did she have to die? Could some act of providence still save her?
She knew that answer as her emotions ran raw. Sometimes the woman slept, other times she was lucid. It was strange Aurianne thought, she had known everything about this woman, her physical appearance so like her own, her likes and dislikes, her past, her secrets. Now as the hours they would share drew to a close, there were so many questions that she framed in her mind, and the time was running out to ask them.
In quiet tones they spoke of the past, her mother reminisced in a joyous rapture of the days before the war, and of the mythic knight who was Aurianne's father. The stories always delighted Aurianne, they had ever since she was a little girl. Even the dreadful stints spent in the air raid shelters were filled with these sparkling tales of the man she had never even seen a photo of. However this night sensing the end was near she would finally ask the question she had always desired, the one she had never dared.
"Mother?" Aurianne questioned tentatively. She was unsure if the woman was asleep, or merely resting, as she had been talking just moments before. She gently brushed the woman's ample red hair from her face noticing she was running a fever now, her blue eyes opened suddenly staring upward.
"Yes, dear?"
Aurianne was relieved she had heard her, and she attempted to frame the question in clumsy words. "Tell me Mother, what happened to Father?" Aurianne felt the woman stiffen and she felt afraid, but her mother was not done with this world quite yet.
"He had to go away." The answer was so simple, yet raised even more questions, she had always figured he had died and her mother could not bring herself to talk about it. Boldly Aurianne dug further.
"But if he was so wonderful, and you were both so in love why did he leave?" There she had said it, and at once she was most sorry she had. Her mother looked up at her daughter, a pained expression on her face, but the pain was not that of a physical wound. Her features softened and she gasped as she tried to move.
"Sometimes even though you love with all your heart...... You cannot stay together. You have yet to love my dearest, one day you will understand." The woman shuddered and closed her eyes. She lay still for some time, breathing shallow, skin pale, she had lost a great deal of blood.
Aurianne was bone weary, the couple of hours of snatched sleep had not nearly been enough. Now that the adrenaline of the battle and narrow escape had subsided, her eyelids were heavy, and just wanted to close. Giving in to this feeling she slumped forward on the verges of sleep over her mother's supine form.
"You have the sword!" The ailing woman suddenly exclaimed, her sightless eyes opening for the last time.
Aurianne jumped her heart somersaulting in her chest.
