For weeks we followed the same routine. After a hearty breakfast, The Aunties trained us in spellcraft and swordplay, medicine and etiquette, strategy and heraldry. I'm proud to say it only took the first fortnight for me to realize the lessons were more for me than Marina. She'd been raised to be the future queen, but I would be the one at the head of her army, fighting to win back her kingdom.

"I'm just one man," I'd said to Dinar and Shekel during one afternoon lesson. "A single man can't win a war."

"You are more than a man, Sir Malachi." Dinar replied, pointing across a map of Gilderayne. "You are the Stag Knight, twelfth in a line of heroes who have protected the royal family and saved the kingdom nearly a dozen times. The Sons of Elm chose you, and, when the time comes, you will be the difference between defeat and victory."

"You're not just any single man," Shekel added. "You are a symbol. Men will follow you, women will fight for you, Princess A'Sheba's enemies will shrink from the sight of you. The mere belief in your power is power."

Our lessons would go until noon then Rowen and I would venture into the forest. He would talk to me of the realm's various religions, determined to help me find faith, and I'd challenge his beliefs. At first it was out of a mean-spirited arrogance, but eventually it became my part in our daily wordplay.

A small sect of fae and monstrous humans follow the teachings of The Old Monsters, immortal beings like dragons and the enigmatic Sprite Queen, whom Florin shares blood with, Rowen said one afternoon. He brushed his antlers against the bow of a thick tree and it groaned, showering us with brown leaves.

"These old monsters don't sound like gods to me."

The Old Monsters aren't deified, but their laws are treated as unbreakable scripture. The deer turned to me, curiosity in his eyes. They claim to have come from a forgotten dream where men lived on the surface and monsters dwelled below in a world ruled by darklings under a blue sun. What lies beneath your world, m'lord?

"My world? Trains and pipes, and far beneath that magma and science. Sorry. As I've told you before, magic died in my world when they split the atom. Whatever is unknown, we strive to make known and thus strip it of anything mystical."

It sounds like a cruel and broken place...

"It does, doesn't it?"

We came to the bare patch of earth where I'd learned I could send Rowen back to The Sacred Grove. The fallen leaves and dirt of the forest floor shunned the circle, leaving it undisturbed even after days of autumn weather. I watched as the wind blew around the spot, never touching it. A truly curious place.

You disrupted the dream. Now your mark is forever upon it.

I didn't want to think about that.

"Rowen, my friend. I'd like to walk alone for a while... would you mind waiting for me here?"

I tried to hold my mind blank, using the same techniques Florin taught us to utilize when preparing to cast a spell. I cleared my mind of everything but green flames and leaves. Rowen cocked his head to the side, studying me.

I don't like the idea of you wandering alone.

"I will be careful... I'd just like some time to think." Only a partial lie.

I will explore this part of the forest. See if any of my ilk might be about.

"More talking deer?"

No, not deer touched by the Sons of Elm, but... deer.

"I understand, pal. I'm lonely too."

He nodded and I set off. Following the route shown to me by The Tiny Choir, I made my way to the river, but no singing greeted me nor any tiny birds. I sat beside a tree, thinking of Aurora's beautiful voice and lovely eye. I thought of her green tinted skin and her jet black hair, and hoped she would wander out of the brush, smiling that smile that illuminated her features. After an hour I returned to Rowen.

A month passed, and I'd traveled to the river every day for two weeks straight, but there was no sign of Aurora. I started to believe I'd made her up. The thought made my chest hurt, a deep hollow pain just below my actual heart. We'd only spoken once, but the yearning to speak again, to stare into her eye again, was like an insidious poison that all of my power could not purge. Not that I wanted to be rid of it. A part of me reveled in the familiar loneliness. It was something I understood far better than the hope I felt each time I thought of her.

"What the fuck is wrong with me," I whispered as I skipped a stone across the river. "I wonder if The Sons of Elm provide medical? I could really use a therapist right now."

A musical note wound up the riverbank, answered by the chirping of tiny birds. My heart soared.

I easily leapt across the river, yet stumbled on the opposite bank. A shock ran through my system as if I were doused with cold water. Something severed my connection with Rowen. As I felt for him, I realized Marina was gone as well. Looking down at the river, I realized the rushing waters were some kind of natural barrier to our bonds.

The singing drew closer and the brush rustled.

"I'd told her I smelled you all along the river," the she-wolf snarled.

"Hail, Big girl."

She snarled and I instinctually responded in turn. I dropped down to all fours matching her bared fangs with my own. I was much larger than her, but she was fearless. Something in the back of my mind, older than my rational mind, urged me to go for her throat. Aurora and the smaller wolf emerged from around a copse of small trees. He saw us and loped to the other wolf's side, but the moment my eyes settled on the olive-skinned woman, all of my animal instincts melted away. I stood upright, running my hands down my leather and kilt.

"Aurora! Hi– ummm, how are you? S... Surprise seeing you here." I screamed in the back of my mind at my stammering buffoonery. "I mean– Greetings, m'lady."

I couldn't even meet her eye.

The female wolf lunged forward.

"Winter, stop!" Aurora cried.

The wolf came up short, close enough I could feel her breath on my legs.

"He's my friend."

"I don't like him," the she-wolf growled as she padded away.

Aurora scratched the heads of the two wolves then walked over. She wore a short teal tunic with black hose and high riding boots. Her hair hung over her patched eye in a wide braid anchored by a lapel on her shoulder. She smiled that smile I remembered from our first meeting.

"We're friends now?" I asked, trying to sound roguish but feeling like a goofy character from a comedy.

"Oh, I hope so." Her smile faltered for a moment.

"Well, I hope so too," I said hurriedly, reaching for her hand.

She let me take it.

"I came back to— to thank you! I wanted to thank you, but..."

My thoughts raced and I couldn't slow them down. Each time I tried to keep from sounding like a fool all of my thoughts spilled out at once. It was like I was in high school again.

"I came back too, but Winter said we kept missing you." She looked up at the forest canopy where a dozen of the yellow warblers chirped loudly. "My little friends said they'd seen you on occasion, but the closest ford across is a good distance upriver and I didn't have the time."

"But you kept coming back?"

"Looks like we both kept coming back," she chuckled.

"I wasn't sure I'd see you again. Last time we spoke, you said you were on holiday." I focused on one thought at a time, again relying on Florin's lessons. "I haven't been able to stop thinking about you."

"Are you I'll?" She took a step back, expression concerned.

"What? No!" I grinned, drawing a snarl from the wolves. Taken aback, I covered my teeth. "Believe me. You're a beam of sunlight in the storm swirling around in here," I made swirling gestures around my head.

"How dreadful... I'm ruining your dark clouds."

"No. That's a good thing. If I could, I'd wish them all away."

Her eye grew intense.

"If you do not want your clouds, why do you let them fill your head?"

Great question. I thought of Maleek and Pierce, even my life with Kena. Whispers of failures and small successes that ultimately led to more failure. I felt it all threatening to drag me down and had to acknowledge it was always there, the sinking feeling, the dread, the sadness.

"I think I need them. I don't quite know what I'd do without them?"

I expected her to frown. Instead, she slowly nodded.

"We all have our dark clouds, I guess." Aurora looked down at her boots. "How else can we know when we've found blue skies? Yet, if they trouble you why do you allow them to fill your thoughts. What we dwell on becomes our world."

I let her words sink in

"Would you like to take a walk?" I offered my hand.

She took it without hesitation, her sly smile returning.

"Gladly."

We started walking along the river and she sang a playful melody. The Tiny Choir joined in and the wolves followed at a respectful distance.

"Your wolves don't like me."

"Winter doesn't like you. Summer is merely wary of strangers."

"I like their names."

"They aren't as interesting as yours, Malachi." She said it with a heavy Yiddish accent. "There are people in the far mountains with similar names." She squeezed my hand. "So, you said you wanted to thank me. Does that mean you're putting yourself in my debt?"

"No!" I blurted to her amusement.

That day and for eight days after; we met at the river and we talked. I was careful never to speak of Marina or my mission, but we spoke of hopes, dreams, pain, and sadness. Rowen didn't like that I was wandering the forest without him and hated that there was an hour everyday when he couldn't track me. The Princess proved a bit more understanding once Shekel convinced her it was better to let me roam than to keep me on a short leash. I didn't like her implying I was a pet, but it kept Marina from ordering me to stay within the clearing.

I had the distinct impression that if she did, I wouldn't be able to disobey.

For a week, I was the happiest I'd been since the birth of my baby boy. Aurora extended her holiday and we met up for an hour each day. I felt needed and wanted for the first time in a long time.

The eighth day...

"Tell me about your homedream, Malachi," Aurora asked as we galloped through the untamed brush. "I want to hear more about a world where drinkable water is locked away in bottles and the water outside is poison."

"He's lying," Winter snarled, racing past me. Aurora leaned close to the big wolf's neck, clinging tightly to her fur.

Summer howled in the distance.

I had to push to catch the she-wolf.

"It's no lie. In my world, my dream, big corporations dump chemicals into the water which make it unsafe and it needs to be treated with other chemicals before it's drinkable again."

A branch broke off in my mouth as we emerged on a wide track. A massive boar burst past, narrowly missing me with savage tusks, Summer hot on his heels. Aurora whooped as Winter and I joined the hunt.

"Those with money buy up all the land and force everyone else to pay to live on it. Very few grow their own food. Most struggle to live day to day."

"Your homedream sounds like a nightmare!" Aurora shouted as she ducked a low-hanging branch.

"It was!"

"Take her," Winter snarled.

Bucking Aurora off, the she-wolf charged the boar, knocking the beast over. I bound up and snatched the one-eyed woman out of the air. Clutching her tight to my chest, I landed in a roll, taking the impact on the shoulder. We tumbled across the grass, through a patch of bushes, and under the canopy of a cluster of small trees. Laughing, we came to a stop in a bed of flowers. Me on my back and Aurora on my chest.

Her hair hung down, hiding her face, but the warmth of her sunk through my fur and the leather straps crisscrossing my chest. I swept back her black tresses, and stared up into her beautiful face. She could have passed for a Cambodian model if not for the green tint of her skin and the inky black eye like a monochrome marble. My attention flicked to the intricate design of her eyepatch. The mirth of her face shifted to trepidation. I leaned forward and brushed my nose against the patch.

"Tell me about it."

"My family was betrayed by people they trusted. They wanted our land bad enough to killed for it. This is a constant reminder that I narrowly survived their treachery."

"Did anyone else..."

"No. I was the only one who made it out."

I watched the change in her face, movement in the depths of her eye. She drew back mentally if not physically.

"I'm sorry for your loss." I lowered my tone. "But I'm glad you're here–"

She kissed me, long and deep, her long fingers playing through my fur. My head or my chest exploded. I can't remember which, but suddenly I was dizzy and couldn't breathe. There was no pathetic drunk, no desperate princess, no green door nor roided-out deer. There was only Aurora and I.

Leaning back, she studied me with her good eye and I drank her in, her scent like pine and spice, the rhythm of her heart beating thrice as fast as it had before, her strange skin that was sometimes brown and sometimes green but always smooth.

"I love your eyes," she said, stealing my line. "There is a man beneath the wolf, a sad man, a wounded man."

It was my turn to withdraw.

"Wait, you said you had to tell me something." She rolled off of me and lay back in the flowerbed.

I told myself I'd put off sharing for the sake of Marina's mission, but the truth was I wanted to delay the inevitable for as long as I possibly could.

"I leave tomorrow on a quest of dire importance. A quest forced on me by The Sons of Elm."

She was quiet for a moment, and the air filled with the songs of chirping birds and the distant predation of Summer and Winter.

"Such quests are dangerous. The Sons of Elm set these tasks before us to test our spirits. There aren't many who walk away from such trials." She grabbed my hand. "We should thank them for what little time we've had together. I've rarely found such joy in this world."

"When my quest is complete, I intend to come back to you." I said it with such conviction it frightened me.

She squeezed my hand. "Don't make oaths you can't hold to."

"I swear it. Wherever you go, I will find you."

I meant it with all of my being. If I had to scour that dream world for the rest of my days, I would seek out the first source of true joy I'd had in decades and cling to it.

"Be careful of the promises you make, they may be your undoing. Magic may be dead in your dream, but words hold power here in mine." She shifted until her head lay on my chest, her fingers again playing through my fur. "Besides, if we are meant to be together, our paths will cross again."

That trilling series of flute notes shook the forest like a clarion call signaling the turning of a page. The birds all took to wing, emptying the canopy. Summer and Winter answered the flute notes with howls. Aurora rose to her feet, allowing my hand to drop from her grasp.

"It seems it is time for me to depart as well."

"What is that sound? I've heard it before."

"My chaperone."

On cue, the brush rustled at the sound of heavy footfalls. I stood and followed her out of our little sanctuary. Summer and Winter sat beside the corpse of the boar, their muzzles coated with blood. Beside them waited a man with long pointed ears and pale skin that sparkled like diamond dust in the rays of sunlight. So handsome he might be considered pretty, the man's striking appearance made me hesitate. Why would Aurora want to spend time with me when such a creature was at hand. He wore silver chainmail and a sword on each hip.

He narrowed his eyes as he watched me as if committing my appearance to memory even as he attempted to determine what I was. Finally he extended his hand.

"Come. It is time."

Aurora lowered her head and, with one last squeeze of my hand, went to the man. Without ceremony, he led her away.

"Good hunting, friend Malachi," Summer said as he turned to follow.

Winter snarled at me. "Keep the meat."

Word Count: 2837

Total Words: 12560