Thick rays of sun warmed up our faces, as you and I sat underneath the large willow tree by the pond. You were cuddled up close against me, and drifting off to sleep. I couldn’t sleep with such an angel in my arms. I sat there, holding you tight, brushing your dark hair back. While I watched your sweet eyes blink into sleep, I couldn’t think of times where things weren’t so peaceful. Now, lying on a blanket in this idyllic glade, I realized my task was complete. Soft pink and yellow flowers flourished under the sunlight, barely chocked by the thick emerald grass that filled the areas not covered by the foxtail ferns, and cotton wisps beside the pond. I loved everything about this place, Syntia’s glade. Nothing was unappealing to me. Even the stones that kept the turtles and crayfish were beautiful and smooth.
I grew up here, but something was always missing. I’d spent suns out in the glade, with a fishing rod and a journal, trying to draw that which was missing from my secret hideaway, tucked away within the valleys of Chisinhea. I’d not thought it was a someone, but a something. I would climb to the top of the grand willow, and imagine the beautiful and majestic white winged horse, Pegasus, trotting into my sanctuary, to indulge in the freshest waters. I’d play it so well in my mind that I could really see it’s muscular body, as it drank its fill, and it’s tremendous size, as it spread its wings and took off into the sunset.
It was not until I became an adolescent, that I realized what it was missing. Such a mystical place was missing reality. And I was bent on introducing someone else to it’s inviting winds, and cool waters, and the shady arms of the grand willow. That is what told me to find you. If this place was kept to myself, it was no more real than the Pegasus I had imagined so many times. So I brought you here, and so we lay, under the sun, as it traveled across the sky. I watched the clouds pass in familiar forms. Like sprites, they drifted aimlessly. And nothing felt more real than this, holding you. I knew I wanted to be with you forever.
Soon after I had introduced you to my sanctuary, however, you were taken from me. Like an army of ants, darkness took over the skies, and from the trees around my glade, came a pack of wolves, bearing their shimper masters. I shook you awake; I was afraid. Suddenly I was filled with regret for wanting to introduce reality to what was once perfection. Like locusts on the field, the shimper folk quickly surrounded us, their sharp brown faces bearing scowls, and their twiggy arms shaking javelins. They did not fear to pluck you from my chest.
I grabbed my stave, though I knew my troubles would bear no reward. There were eight of the goblinoid demons, each riding on the backs of vicious wolves, hungry for blood. I cared not for my life, though. Only for yours. With two quick bounds, I volleyed myself from the trunk of the grand willow, towards the shimper folk that held you. I could see the confusion and fear in your eyes, as you shook off the confusion of interrupted sleep.
With a loud thwack, I struck the shimper holding you, with the force of my previous vault. Again, I struck, but this time his wolf clenched its gnarling fangs down upon my wooden weapon, and crunched it with its mighty jaws. It was not long before I received a series of thwacks from the javelins of the other shimper folk.
“Let him go…” I cried, as a heavy club fell down upon me from behind. I still regret being so weak.