Sword Crossed Lovers

The Fish

More time had passed and the seasons were beginning to change.  Tybalt Capulet had kept mostly to himself, Juliet requiring much of his services and company.  Proud that his little cousin is feeling back to herself, the two take long horse rides in the vineyards of the Capulet Estate and Tybalt shows her how to fish like he did when he was little.

The two spend more and more time together yet Tybalt's heart only draws pain from seeing her so much.  The way she talks about him and how she pines over every tiny thing about him is a stab to the Capulet.  How could she love him?  How could he even let her love him?

"Tybalt?" asks Juliet, pulling her fishing line out of the water.  Tybalt is struck from his thoughts and looks into her beautiful eyes.  "Yes?"
"I have caught a fish," she giggles, tugging harder on the line and breaching a small fish from it's home.  It flops around and Tybalt draws his knife.

In a sharp motion, the fish is bleeding out on the banks and Juliet is staring at it's lifeblood drain back towards the river.
"Look away, child.  Such a sight is unfit for you."
"I am no longer a child, Tybalt.  I have seen worse," she sternly reminds him, her eyes fixated on the blue tint of the scales.  Tears begin to collect on her eyes and she finally turns away so he won't see her crying.
"Juliet, what is the matter?" he breathes, sensing her unease.

In moments, Tybalt's eyes catch her fingers.  Her beautifully maintained nails draw his attention to a tan-line right on her ring finger.  Something is missing.  The ring!  The ring he gave her when he was just a stupid boy, uncultured in the ways of manhood and adult life.  His ring which he gave to her so that he might always be with her.  It is gone.

Juliet sniffs and turns to look at her cousin, her eyes reddening as more tears can't help but stream like the river.  "The scales... they are blue.  They remind me of him.  He has not returned to me, Tybalt.  He has forsaken me!"

Erupting into tears, Juliet falls to the banks of the river.  Tybalt moves beside her and offers his arms around her for comfort.  She gladly takes them and weeps into his strong shoulder.  For moments the two sit calmly, allowing the air around them to continue blowing and the serene stream flows by, whisking away other possible catches further downstream.

Finally Juliet rears her head and looks at Tybalt closely.  "He promised to return...  perchance he found another?  Yet, that's not so.  It cannot be so...!  O, a man's love is lame!  Love's heralds should be thoughts, which ten times faster glide than the sun's beams, driving back shadows over louring hills-"
"Peace, girl!  Peace!  Thy love is not as fragile as thou thinkst.  Though his family is wretched and he is a hell-spawn, thy heart is pure and honorable.  Any who would taint it, I would strike a blow to.  If he does not return, I shalt find him myself and wring his neck back to thee once again," groans Tybalt, unwilling to carry out the promise if need be but finished being in agony at seeing his cousin in so much pain.

Juliet nods and places a chaste kiss on her cousin's cheek.  "Call Nurse to me.  I have a message for her and I require her aid.  Thank you, Tybalt.  You have been the sibling the Gods never granted me."

As she leaves his side, Tybalt's heart sinks.  He feels a twang of his heart strings as yet another is cut.  Unknowing of how many remain to allow his heart to continue making sweet music, the Prince of Cats drags himself up off the grass and collects the fishing things together.

Before he leaves, the dead fish Juliet caught catches his eyes.  It lays there, the blue tint of the scales calling to him.  Immediately, he senses something rise up inside him.  He draws and strikes the fish, spilling the remaining guts onto the ground.

As its organs spill into the place from whence it came, instead of feeling triumphant as he normally does when obtaining his family's honor, he feels empty inside.  Something is wrong.  His heart is not working properly.  Usually it feels nothing but is awakened by Juliet.  Now, there is a constant pain, holding his mind at pay and cornering his body.  Now even the Prince of Cats feels for a fish, its eyes staring blankly at him causing him to turn away.

He mercifully plucks the knife from its body and cleans it in the grass.  When he finishes, he places it back in its sheath and breathes calmly.  Before he leaves, he stares back at the fish one more time.  This time, however, the fish no longer reminds him of a Montague.  It now reflects his own image on the grass, bleeding out, baited by the lovely Juliet.