Ten Arrows

Chapter 18

I found the fur of the floor rug very comfortable, despite being the slightest bit ticklish against my skin.

The two of us were lying there on the rug, neither of us moving a muscle. Talia had her head propped up atop my chest, right next to where it met the shoulder. The rest of her felt like she was curling against me, but in a supremely relaxed fashion. She wasn't actively pressing against me, but was instead allowing something more natural to occur. It was as if we just fit, or something.

I was in a weird frame of mind, and had been for a while - that strange, surreal feeling you get when something completely unexpected happens, and you start thinking to yourself 'Did that just really happen?' Every time I had that thought, I'd review my memories of the past hour or so just to assure myself. Each time I did, I felt a strange mix of panic, and elation, and wonder, and several other feelings I wasn't really able to pin down just then.

Briefly, I thought back to the person I had been a mere hour ago, and found myself feeling sorry for that poor, sad fragment of a man.

Quite suddenly, and without warning, I was taken by the panicked notion that I somehow might be dreaming.

I performed a quick check. Yes, arm still resting atop her bare shoulder . . . her head still pressed up against my collarbone, her golden ringlets of hair cascading down one side of my chest. I breathed a deep, relaxing breath, noticing as I did that it caused her head to rise slightly, then fall as I exhaled. I watched that for a while - found it fascinating somehow.

Relaxation. Contentment. It was something far more than either of these things, quite possibly the most at ease I've ever been at any point in my life. I didn't have fifty things going on in my head at once. I wasn't preoccupied with trying to ignore aches and pains, nor could I even notice any. There was just this feeling of warmth, and happiness, and serenity that covered me completely, like a gossamer shroud.

I took another slow, deliberate breath, and watched as Talia's head rose fractionally, then gently fell back down a moment later as I exhaled.

Breathe in, head goes up. Breathe out, head goes down.

Amazing.

"Wow," I said, finally.

Enough of Talia's face was visible that I could see a ghost of a sleepy smile cross her lips.

"Mmm. Good word," she said, adjusting her head position slightly.

"Only word I could think of that seemed to fit, really," I said, idly tracing some of her ringlets of hair with one of my fingertips. "Seems much more romantic a thing to say than, 'I think my arm is falling asleep' . . . "

She shifted her head so she was facing me, and then sent me a look of concern.

"Would you like me to move?"

"Don't you dare. It's just an arm, after all. And it's not like it'll ever be doing anything quite as important as what it's doing right now." I squeezed her shoulder lightly with my left hand for emphasis.

Talia smiled, allowed her eyes to close, and then adjusted how her head was positioned, somehow becoming even more beautiful in the process.

I allowed a few seconds to pass.

"How do you do that?" I asked.

"Hmm?"

"Just when I think you're the most beautiful sight I've ever seen in my life, you go and do something, and somehow you become even more beautiful than before. It- . . . there, see? You did it again!"

Her smile is just one of those things I've never understood, and may never understand. I've seen people smile before, but there was something so different that seemed to happen when Talia smiled . . . it was as if there was a completely new facial expression that only she was able to do.