Writer Games | Death Wish & 51

Task Seven: Epilogue /F - Amari Fairland [4]

The gentle hum of inner  city traffic floated into the room through an open window, providing a  quiet accompaniment to Tegan's slow, steady breathing. Amari Fairland  stood alongside her daughter's bed, delicately stroking a lock of the  young girl's hair as she watched her rest peacefully. She was not  plagued by nightmares, a soft smile spreading across her face as she  became lost in the land of sweet dreams.

She was growing older.  Amari no longer tucked Tegan into a cot, instead watching her clamber  into a bed with a duvet so big that it seemed to swallow her up.  Eventually, the girl would no longer need her mother who had fought so  hard to keep her promise that she would come home but Amari was  beginning to find she no longer seemed to care. She had gained far more  than she thought she would when she was in Area Fifty-One – a sense of  fight, a sense of adventure and a sense of independence. She would pull  herself together for Tegan, but she did not need Tegan there forever.  Amari had grown used to letting people go.

Gently, Amari knelt down  and planted a kiss on her young daughter's soft cheek. The brief moment  of human contact sent Tegan's eyes fluttering, the girl rolling onto  her back and looking up at her mother who stood over her. "Something  wrong?" she mumbled, rubbing at her eyes before grabbing hold of the  duvet so that she could pull it tightly around her.

"No," answered Amari,  quietly. She also took a handful of the quilt, helping to tuck it around  her daughter's chin. "There's nothing wrong, baby. You go back to  sleep."

"I can't now," argued  Tegan, trying to pull herself away from her nest of a bed. As she moved,  an old teddy bear fell from the mattress and landed with a soft thump  on the floor. "You've woken me up. I'm not tired anymore."

With a sigh, Amari  picked up the bear and tucked it directly under Tegan's arm. Her  daughter did not complain, clutching onto the head of her toy and  pulling it closer so that she could hug it to her chest. "Listen,"  reassured Amari, perching on the edge of Tegan's bed and returning to  stroking a lock of her hair. "Nothing is wrong, okay? You need to get  your beauty sleep, okay? We don't want you throwing a temper tantrum  tomorrow."

"Nanny and Granddad  always used to tell me a story when I couldn't sleep at their house,"  tried Tegan, pouting. She buried her face in the soft fur of the teddy  bear. "They told me a story every single night when you were away on  your adventure. I think they have an entire fairy kingdom in their  garden!"

Amari smiled, trying not to laugh. "What makes you think that?" she smirked, tickling her daughter under the chin.

"They told me so much  about fairies," answered Tegan, laughing. "They have to have visited  them. Then, when I said I got bored of hearing about fairies, they told  me about an evil monster gnome that broke into the kingdom and stole all  of Queen Titania's cookies! It was a massive adventure. Did you have a  monster on your adventure?"

"It wasn't really an  adventure," murmured Amari, quietly. She could not help but imagine the  recurring nightmare that haunted her each night, not wanting to pass  that curse onto her daughter. She could not explain it. "There was a  monster, yes, but I'm never going to go back there."

Tegan smiled, moving  closer and cuddling up to her mother to try and make her talk more. "Did  the monster steal your cookies?" she asked, breathlessly. "Did it chase  you? I bet you were the fairy queen, weren't you? Nanny told me that  something went wrong and that you might not ever come back. She was  really quiet and didn't talk to anyone for ages! I didn't believe her,  though. You told me you were going to come back and I believed you!"

Amari could not help but  break into a smile, her daughter's innocence somehow making the  torturous situation seem just a little more light-hearted. "Yes," she  agreed, eventually. She nodded her head to reinforce the story, holding  Tegan close to her. "Of course, the monster stole all of our cookies and  a lot of the people as well. Nanny was right, you know – everything  went really wrong and I didn't think that I was going to get out, but do  you know what? Whenever I got scared, I just thought of you and told  myself that I had to get home so that I could give you another massive  hug."

Tegan wrapped her arms  around her mother, squeezing her tightly into a hug just like Amari had  spoken of in her story. "There," she added, pausing to see her mother  smile. "There's the hug you came back home for! Promise me that you'll  never go away again, because I have to give you lots and lots of hugs."

"You have to go to  sleep," corrected Amari, pulling herself away from her daughter's tight  grasp. Tegan grabbed hold of her hand, pulling on it and trying to  convince her to stay.

"No!" she argued, moving  out of her covers and trying to make it look as if she was not tired at  all. The young girl yawned, but a fierce determination stayed in her  voice. "You can't go yet, not until you've say you promise. If you leave  me again, you might never come back! You have to promise you won't go  away."

With a sigh, Amari  allowed her daughter to pull her closer to the bed. She sat down on the  edge of the covers again, tucking them delicately around the small girl  who had rested her head on a nest of pillows. "I can't say I promise,"  explained Amari, her voice soft and melodic as if she was singing a  lullaby. "I can't ever say I promise to something like that, because  there might be a time where I have to go away and I don't want to have  to break that promise. But, Tegan, I can promise to you that I'll always  be here for you, okay? I'll always give you a hug. I'll always say  goodnight. I'll never, ever let you have to go out there on your own,  even when you're older and you don't need me anymore. Then, Tegan,  there's one more thing that I'll promise you. Someone promised it to me  before you were born, but they broke it. I want to pass it on to you, so  that this promise will be kept someday, okay?"

"What?" mumbled Tegan,  growing more weary as she nestled into her mother's arms and rested her  head on her lap. Amari returned to stroking her hair, a soft smile  spreading across her face as she realised how lucky she was to be able  to hold her daughter. Tegan's breathing began to slow, gradually fading  away from the land of the awake.

"I'm going to take you  to the moon," promised Amari, her voice barely above a whisper as Tegan  fell asleep in her arms. "I'm going to take you to the moon and back."