Different Worlds

Resolving Issues

Floating - ugh!  I had come to hate the word from the second I had experienced it.  I sat on a rock a short distance from everyone else, watching as they partook in their evening meal.  It wasn't something that I could control.  I shook my head at myself as soon as that thought passed through my mind.  I was lying to myself.  I could control my absolutely, terrifying, paralysing fear of heights, but it was just going to take some time.  Time.  Something that we no longer had.  From my vision, I knew that the army would arrive tomorrow.  By this time tomorrow our fate would be decided.  Win or lose.  Live or die.

Lifting my eyes, I watched as a young boy got into trouble from his mother for teasing his sister.  The picture almost made me smile.  I had never thought of having children myself, but since meeting Devon ... I sighed, knowing that trying to lie to myself was useless.  I would love to have Devon's children.  I would relish the experience of knowing that something that he and I created together was growing inside of me.  But whether I would eventually get that experience hinged on how everything went tomorrow.

I sat up straighter as I saw Devon walking towards me carrying two plates.  Reaching out, he handed one to me and I looked down at what was on it.  Bringing the plate to my nose, I gave it a sniff while Devon chuckled at my actions.

"It's good to know that there are some things about you that will never change," he grinned.  I frowned in confusion, which only caused him to widen his grin.  "Don't you remember your reactions when you first tasted Jacek's stew?  And the ajen fruit?"

I pursed my lips together as the memories came flooding back to me, but in the end a giggle escaped from my lips.

"How could I forget?"  I said in a light tone.  "You were teasing me about how I had to take a small taste test before I committed to eating it."  I sighed as he pulled me down to the ground and helped me settle next to him.  "It seems like so long ago," I commented as I took a bite of some strange-looking vegetable.  Surprisingly, it tasted a lot like a carrot, though it was completely different in appearance.  "How long has it been since I came here?"

"I've lost track," Devon admitted as he ate.  "It's been quite a few weeks.  A few months, maybe."

"I wonder what everyone else is doing back home," I murmured softly.  Thinking back to what had caused me to go running and falling into the chasm in the first place, I found it hard to care that my ex-boyfriend had betrayed me with my then best friend.  How could I care when I had found someone as special as Devon?

I looked up at Devon when he suddenly took my plate from my hand and placed it on the ground, then firmly turned me around to face him.  Looking into his eyes, I saw that all humour had vanished, and in its place an expression of soberness and worry had grown.

"W'hat's wrong?"

"What happens when all of this is over?" he asked quickly. "Will you stay here?  Or will you want to return home?"

My eyes widened at his questions.  Returning home no longer seemed like an option to me anymore.  Not when I'd be leaving my heart behind forever.

"How can you even ask that?"  I gasped.  "I'm staying right here.  How could I even consider leaving when it would mean leaving you?"  I would my arms tightly around him, trying to reassusre him that my leaving was never going to happen.

Gently easing me back, he put a finger to my chin and lifted so that I was staring straight into his eyes.

"Are you sure?" he asked quietly.  "What about your family?  Your friends?  They'll be missing you."

"I don't have a family," I said just as quietly.  It was the first time I had spoken about them to anyone since their passing.  "They both died in an accident when I was fifteen.  I thought I lost everything that day."  I leant forward and placed a light kiss on his lips before easing back again.  "But then I met you.  You mean more to me than anything else ever could.  I will never leave you, please believe that."