Post by Chief Baliff Ealora on Jan 16, 2011 20:36:05 GMT -6
Your baby blues
So full of wonder
Your curly cues
Your contagious smile
And as I watch
You start to grow up
All I can do is hold you tight
Knowing clouds will rage
And storms will race in
But you will be safe in my arms
Rains will pour down
Waves will crash all around
But you will be safe in my arms
So full of wonder
Your curly cues
Your contagious smile
And as I watch
You start to grow up
All I can do is hold you tight
Knowing clouds will rage
And storms will race in
But you will be safe in my arms
Rains will pour down
Waves will crash all around
But you will be safe in my arms
The castle was quiet. All around the world slept in the late of night. The yule season was over and a new year was barely in the beginning ticking of time. The past year had flown by, much of it lost in a haze of memories to vast to take only a few minutes to tender upon. Though the snow was still falling down outside the window, it was thrown open to let in the air as the fire crackled heartily in the fireplace. The desk was underneath the window and Ealora could see the vast expanse of roof tops from home to shop of the city below. All was quiet within the world, even if everything was not all in the right. Elbow propped onto her desk top, she had paused in writing notes on open cases of disturbances to take a moment to reflect on life that was still going on outside. People and animals slept this late at night, except for those nocturnal few, her being among them, life moved on even as sleep was tended to in renewing the body for another day. Ealora was among the few that kept nightly hours only needing a few hours in the night to revive her for the day to follow.
Setting her quill in the inkwell her chin found her open palm as her elbow rested comfortable on the edge of the desk. Her return to Skye had been met with open arms by most, a pleasant smile and a lightened heart to see her so alive and yet there were a precious few who herald her return with a sour look and a stupid silence. Among them was Rah and though it broke her heart, she did not scold him for his feeling knowing it would take time for his forgiveness to come. He looked like his father except for his eyes and had much of his fathers demeanor but oh that temper, that was hers so gracefully passed on. He would need it to follow in his fathers footsteps just as Issa would in following hers. Their sons were so different, Rah was of the sands of his father, as Issa was the waves of his mother while Anu was a mixture of both of them and his destiny was yet hidden by a shy demeanor that Ealora saw her brother Eli in him. Perhaps he would be the balance between his brothers and like his uncle, follow the path of the righteous above that of sword and sea.
A shudder ran through her body at the chill that crept in from the window and with a sigh she sat back within her chair. She had toiled hours all ready over the reports on the desk and had no wish to return them. It was then the idea struck her and she shut the ink well and put her papers away before creeping from her rooms. Those of the night were few and in between, servants who stayed the night should trouble arise passed in quiet nods of greeting until she reached the children's room and in shadowed silence gracefully passed to the bed that held her sleeping son. Leaning down, she pressed her elbow in at his neck as her hand moved over the dreads that had been so like his fathers (before Maahes had straightened his hair).
"Rah" She hummed into his ear and kissed at his cheek. "Baby wake up" she whispered into the night. The little boy stirred and then turned looking over his shoulder at his mother with sleepy eyes. "Want to go somewhere special with me?" Ealora asked and then smiled. For several seconds he simply stared at her and then he nodded. With his confirmation, Ealora pulled the covers back for him and stepped back. "Come on, dress warmly..."
Story books full of fairy tales
Of kings and queens and the bluest skies
My heart is torn just in knowing
You'll someday see the truth from lies
Knowing clouds will rage
And storms will race in
But you will be safe in my arms
Rains will pour down
Waves will crash all around
But you will be safe in my arms
Of kings and queens and the bluest skies
My heart is torn just in knowing
You'll someday see the truth from lies
Knowing clouds will rage
And storms will race in
But you will be safe in my arms
Rains will pour down
Waves will crash all around
But you will be safe in my arms
It was less then an hours time later that Contessa peeled out from the stables, Rah seated before her dressed against the biting cold and Ealora similarly dressed with her cape flying against the wind as the horse took off across the courtyard of the castle and into the city. With the cover of night and the empty streets they did not slow as they wove through the cobblestone streets the horses hooves echoing as they hit the ground. Rah was held tightly between her arms as they held onto the reigns and as they rode out of the city limits and into the woods, Ealora smiled for Rah hands left the horn of the saddle and covered her own. Her head dipped and she kissed the back of his head and gave a mighty kick against the horses flank to spur her harder into the trees. For any other person this might be a death trap, the forest was pitch black, the trees disappearing into the night and yet Ealora with a heart beat that was to rapid for a normal human also had a keen sense of sight in the night. It could of been daylight for all the Chief Bailiff saw and Rah tense hands against her own soon relaxed as her hands pulled the horse this way and that weaving a path through the trees.
It seemed as if they rode for hours for the city was left far behind, their tracks would not be easily discovered with the snow still falling against a pitch black night. At some point Ealora hood fell backward and she reveled in the feel of the biting cold as it hit her cheeks, the snowflakes kissing her cheeks brushing away as the wind of their horseback movements were quick enough to push the feather light flakes away and into the night again. Soon Ealora was slowing Contessa to a prance still weaving between the trees and jumping the fallen logs on the forest floor. An even quicker they were slowing to a walk where Ealora rounded Contessa around to make a circle around a grouping of trees and then stopping.
"Look Rah..." She hummed in his ear as they came to a stillness in the night her breath billowing out into the night as she pointed in to the outline of a house in the distance.
"What is it?" Rah asked in return squinting to see and then recognizing the outline as a house.
"That is where you were born" Ealora answered as she shifted the reigns into one of her hands to free the other to come around him and hug him back against her.
"I...wasn't born at our..my...at Red Wall?" Rah asked confused on what to call the home of his entire childhood.
Ealora hummed in a laugh and kissed the back of his head again. The story of his birth might not of been a pleasant one to many and there was much of that memory she did not remember as she did with others. "No, much as I wanted you to be, I had been kidnapped by a crazed man of my past named Atlas and in distress, I went into labor with you in the basement of that house.."
"Where was Daddy? What happened?" Rah asked settling back against his mother.
"Sadly, I don't remember where your Father was, its one of the lost items of that memory but he was searching for me after it happened, that I remember." Ealora head shifted to press against the side of his head watching the outline of the house in the distance as if it would grow legs and move towards them at any moment. "Well..you were born and I..was very sick, so the servants Atlas had tending me to protect you on my urging, put you in a basket and sent you down river so that someone could find you and that necklace you where, the sliver of red glass, was in the basket with you, so that it might be known you were the son of the General. An he did find you...as I knew he would."
"What happened to you? Why didn't you keep me and get better and escape? Didn't you want me?" Rah asked, his back leaving the front of his mother as he stiffened with irritation.
Ealora did not answer this, instead the reigns were shifted back into both hands as she turned Contessa around. "I have something else to show you." Was her answer as she kicked at Tessa flanks and sent the horse into a gallop again.
Again the horse wove through the trees but their ride this time was not as long and soon Ealora was pulling Contessa into a slow walk and then stopping at a group of trees. Instead of staying on he horse, Ealora climbed down and then reached up to help Rah down. Slowly through the snow they made a track to a group of three trees. "Look here.." Ealora spoke and took Rah hand and raised it to touch at a carving in the wood. RIP EMAA.
"Who's Emaa?" Rah asked his gloved fingers tracing the carving into the wood.
Ealora sigh as she wrapped her arms around his neck and let her hands rest over his chest pulling him back against her again. "Me" She answered again as she took his hand in hers to trace the letters again "Rest in peace. Ealora Malory Asad Aziem"
Rah head turned, the look of confusion plain on his face and yet he stayed silent to hear what she had to say.
"I died...after I had you, or really I was made to look dead but I was dying. I can't...explain to you what I did, what kind of deal I struck to come back to live again but I did." Ealora turned her head to the side to see her son before loosing her grip around him to kneel down and press him to turn to face her. "Rah, I would face a thousands deaths, suffer unspeakable tortures, all to come home to you. I swear to you, no matter what happens, I'll always come home to you."Her hand rose to brush snowflakes from his sun kissed tan cheek. "I love you, I love you more with each breath I take, I love you so much, my chest aches with the fullness of it but it is a pain I bear because it is a love I cherish."
For several minutes, the world around them was silent. The world slept as mother revealed stories to her son and bore words of deep love that was ever growing. For several minutes Rah just looked at his mouth crotched there in front of him, brushing her gloved thumb over his cheek to remove the snowflakes and then suddenly the little boy was in her lap, his arms thrown about her neck as he pressed his face into her chest.
Castles they might crumble
Dreams may not come true
But you are never all alone
Because I will always
Always love you
Clouds will rage
And storms will race in
But you will be safe in my arms
Rains will pour down
Waves will crash all around
But you will be safe in my arms
Dreams may not come true
But you are never all alone
Because I will always
Always love you
Clouds will rage
And storms will race in
But you will be safe in my arms
Rains will pour down
Waves will crash all around
But you will be safe in my arms
Ealora let out a whoosh of air but it wasn't her sons weight so quickly thrown against her that made her utter such a sound but that he was in her arms again, snuggling against her as he had done when he was a toddler. Her arms were quick to wrap around him and she rocked back and forth as she buried her face against his hair. In this moment, she knew her son had forgiven her.
The night moved on, slowly, the world around them still sleeping missed such a tender moment between mother and son. Only those nocturnal would witness such a thing but creatures of the woods were to busy fending for food or avoiding being food to realize a moment between humans and so mother and son were left alone, as Ealora had intended it, rocking her son as her throat tightened with the emotion of it. A few tears escaped as she repeatedly kissed at her sons head and then she laughed as she loosened her arms as she felt him pulling back.
"I love you Mommy" Rah spoke into the silent night, a night meant only for him and his mother.
Ealora brushed the tears from her cheeks with a gloved hand and then laughed. "I love you too baby"
Her hand pushed against the ground to stand up but as she did so, she clumped a ball of snow into her hand and then suddenly threw it at her son who squealed and then made a snowball to throw at his mother. For a time, mother and son played in the snow each aiming snow balls for one another squealing when either one got to close or hit an arm or a leg but it was soon that mother and son were back on the horse and heading back to the castle for warmth and to join the sleep of others. Now though, Ealora could rest for a short time knowing all was right with the world, even if only a little bit.
-Lyrics are "In my Arms by Plumb