"Is the journey a difficult one?" Amory whispered, his voice a dull ghost in Io's soft, snowy hair. The breath that brushed over his skin made goosebumps rise on his neck.
"That is yet to be seen." Io replied, reluctant with his words. His head lay upon Amory's broad chest, the safety of which he never wished to leave. "There is only one way to discover it."
"I will miss you..." murmured Amory. He set his lips upon Io's temple. "May speed follow your steps."
"Thank you." Sighed he.
Io remembered the conversation as easily as he remembered his own name.
He stood, on the rocky ledge of his mountainside home, looking down at the snow covered valleys and hills below him.
Amory stood to his left. He could feel the hesitation coming off of the boy.
"I still wish you would not go." Amory whispered, just loud enough for Io to hear.
"But I am going," replied Io.
"I do not have to be happy with your decision."
"No." Io shook his head.
Amory gave an exasperated puff. He trudged to Io's shoulder and lay his chin on it, wrapping his arms around the boy's waist.
"Why can you not just let your existence be a mystery?"
"Give a toddler a rock and tell him not to flip it over."
"It cannot be that hard, Io..."
"I have to know what I am."
"Please be safe."
"I will."
Io kissed Amory's hair.
Hiking was not something Io was very acquainted with, Amory knew this.
He watched as his little world walked away down the trail to who-knows-where and beyond. Io would be gone, no one knew how long, and there was a possibility he would never come back.
Amory knew more than he admitted. He knew why it was that Io watched the stars every night, and why he could never seem to sleep through the late hours. He knew what called Io to wake.
But he would not tell the boy.
On his first night alone in the cabin, he wondered if this loneliness he felt as he sipped hot cocoa in the evening was the same loneliness that Io felt each and every night.
If so, Amory would learn to give up time for him, to keep the boy happy.
A relationship where each half sleeps at different times is no relationship.
He could only hope Io would be safe, and use his wits.
Until then, Amory the god watched the news in case of another solar storm to draw the big boy's out to play.
YOU ARE READING
The God and His Moon
Spiritual"Is the journey a difficult one?" Amory whispered, his voice a dull ghost in Io's soft, snowy hair. The breath that brushed over his skin made goosebumps rise on his neck. "That is yet to be seen." Io replied, reluctant with his words. His head lay...
