Adventures in Moonlit Valley: Book One--The Protector of the Realm

The Last Goodbye

Harold then races to Star who was gasping for air on the ground.

"No!" Harold yelled. "Star stay with me."

"Harold." Star gasped. "Harold."

"Stop, don't speak...you gotta save your strenghth."

"I love you." She started to cry. "I'm scared Harold."

"I can imagine." He laughed a little.

She laughed through her pain. "Remember our promise?" She smiled.

"Yes," He said.

"Then start singing."

"But your not dead." He said, tears forming in his eyes.

"No." She sighed, coughing up blood. "But I'm getting there." She smiled.

"No. You can't think like that."

"Harold." She said reassuringly. "It's true...and besides I want your voice to be the last thing I hear." She cries in pain as she readjusts herself. "Please Harold...sing."

Harold couldn't hold back the tears anymore and they flowed down his face.

"I saw the light fade from the sky, from the wind I heard a sigh. As the snowflakes cover, my fallen brothers I will say this last goodbye. Night Is Now falling so ends this day, the road is now calling and I must away. Over hill and under tree, through lands where never light has shone, by silver streams that lead down to the sea." He pauses to reagain himself. He sees that Star was looking intesnely at the stars and was breathing heavy on his lap "Under cloud, beneath the stars, over snow and winter's mourne I turn at last to paths that lead home, and though where the road then takes me, I cannot tell, we came all this way, and now comes this day to bid you farewell. Many places I have been, many sorrows I have seen, but I don't regret...nor will I forget, all who took that road with me."

Harold looks down to see that Star has stopped breathing. He hugs her body tightly as he cried. He felt a hand land upon his shoulder. Harold looks up to see it was Pacchi. He sits next to Harold.

"She's dead." He cried.

"I know..." He said. "I know..."

"What do we do now?" Harold asked,

"We move on."

"Move on? How can you say that?"

"You're not the only one who lost someone he loved today." He smiled at Harold. "But all we can we do is live on with our lives."

Harold looks at the stars, especially Orion's Belt.

"What do we do with the bodies?" Harold asked.

"We hold a ceremony where we celebrate their lives and then...we cremate them."

Harold caressed the face of his lifeless love. He then picks her up and carries her off into the distance.