AMALIA
THE SHIELD OF SAFRIN
i think it's beautiful how a star's light
He comes to her, and she wonders if she is not a little the siren, able to lure men and gods with the lilting tone of a gilded tongue. Will their bewitchment spell their deaths; will she snare him in pretty words and soft embraces, only to dash him on the rocks, to leave him drowning in the deep? Not on purpose, never on purpose- but she does not yet trust herself to be otherwise, anything but the harbinger of ill.travels the universe long after it dies
But no matter what mistakes she makes, how much she destroys through good intent, she trusts that he can swim.
Arms slip easily around her waist, as though they were meant to be there, to rest so lightly on her hips, to shield her lonely heart. She reaches her hands up his forearms, gently caressing the first and skin, her fingers tracing trails on his and lingering, resting, belonging to him. A smile flickers over her face as his chin rests on her gilded crown; "Hi," she murmurs, her chin upturned, wrinkling her nose as his beard tickles her face.
Compliant, generous, he begins to spin a tale of seafoam and gulls, children laughing in daring challenge, his voice a rumble upon her back. Amalia listens, enraptured, enthralled, humming her laughter at appropriate intervals, her fingers still playing a game on his. Her dark eyes close as she tries to picture it, but it is hard to envision something she has never seen. The ocean remains a mysterious thing, too large for the snow globe girl to comprehend. Water which stretches as far as the sun, and he but a boy, buoyant and free, trying to capture a bird for his father, laughing and lively, happy and bright-
A wistful sigh and a quiet laugh escape her coral lips as he ends his tale on a triumphant note. "I wish I could have seen that," she hums, leaning against him and breathing his scent.
Then he asks for another, and the girl licks her lips, the age old game of give and take an easy dance to step with him as guide, the only one she understands. "Hmm... There once was a girl who dreamt of flying, but had been born without any wings." Every time she's asked to change, the same reply: not yet, not yet. It was one of the only battles her mother had won against her Nani, to keep her from choosing the life of attuned until she knew she wanted nothing else.
"She would not let this deter her, though, and soon became infamous for her determination to try, climbing to the top of every structure and perching on every impossible roost." Her mother had found this trait amusing, laughing as her scrawny child clambered and challenged and frequently fell, never quite injured enough to be deterred.
"One day, she decided to do something daring: to attempt to reach the highest part of the wood without wings, despite the impossibility of the feat. So she gathered her friends and slipped away before her mother woke one day, making her way to this very Glade, to the tall tree over the Oasis- just there." She points at the offending growth, still towering above the quiet pool. It is an impressive specimen, though now that she has seen the Greatwood lacking in any real grandeur. Still, to Amalia's younger self the giant seemed to touch the sky.
"The ascent went well, until it didn't. She was feeling confident, cocky even, and in a moment of hubris leaned out to wave to her assembled friends below. It was then that her finger slipped, and before she knew it she was tumbling through the air- flying, sort of, but not in the way she always dreamed.
Luckily, the water below was deep, and her friends were able to fetch her home. Unluckily, her mother was not amused. It was a full season before she was able to go into the glade again, and only then with the promise to stop climbing. A promise she absolutely did not keep." She laughs, shaking her head against him, remembering fondly the follies of youth.
That's what I want to be in this world —
someone whose light lingers after I'm gone
