How I Found It All: Part VII
When I woke up, I found Charley still in my arms, and me in his. The sun had just made it over the top of the trees, and was glaring into my eyes, blinding me until I was able to adjust. I was glad for the blanket that was over us, as the dew had managed to completely saturate it. As I continued to look around, Charley stirred only slightly. His face was speckled with dew, and the light refracting off of the droplets gave him a certain aura about him, an aura of a bright and pure spirit. A thought came over me. I had suspected it before, but I became certain about it now. 'Charley loves me,' I thought. 'and I love him.' That thought had never come to my mind before. Well, I couldn't say that it hadn't come across. Rather, I was never certain about it until then. I wondered how we were going to assure each other, whether it would have been through verbal communication, or something more. He seemed so peaceful, laying on the sand with me. Since I first met him, he had shown me through subtle signs, being quick glances at me, the way he stared into my eyes, his lovestruck expressions, that he was falling in love with me. Having both of us sleeping together on the beach showed just that. The very fact that his arms were around me, and his face smiled throughout the night pretty much proved that.
I didn't know why, but I was hungry, and not just a regular hunger, but one that truly urged me to move. There was no reason for me to get up from our lovely embrace, other than that fact. I needed something to eat. I tried to take his arms off of me, but I didn't do it very well, since he stirred quite a bit from all of the ruckus. I was surprised that I didn't wake him completely from it all. Once I was finally up and about, I headed off to the woody area of this land. I knew that there were going to be animals like deer, so I took the gun. I was hoping that he wouldn't mind if I took it without him knowing. The woods were just like any other in Cyrodiil in the morning. The birds were awakening, and the mammals were still in their nests and dens. I managed to walk between the trees without so much as disturbing a leaf. I thanked Marbles for teaching me the basics of stealth, as well as methods of being silent in almost any kind of environment. Out in the distance, there was a faint outline of something on four legs. I assumed that it was a deer, so I went on to have a closer look. To my luck, it was a fully grown buck with a pristine rack of antlers. Its head was down, eating various ferns and plants. I remembered what I was taught yesterday about shooting and the steps that are taken when hunting. I sighted it in the scope, making sure that it was in the crosshair, and fired.
There was a tremendous bang in my ears, and I saw a little bit of blood spurt on the buck where I hit it. It began to run off in the opposite direction, so I jumped up and began chasing it. Having long legs was quite an advantage, as I was able to jump over all of the fallen trees and other obstacles. The deer was running, and I could see that it was bleeding, since there was a trail of blood following it. Eventually, both the deer and I were tired, but I had the upper hand. I brought one of Marbles' potions with me, and I drank a little bit of it, just to recover my strength. By then, the buck was all ready on the ground, with blood coming out of the generally neat hole where the bullet entered. I got on top of it, so that I could restrain it. I reached for my knife that I brought with me through the portal. I felt no blade. "I must have forgotten it back at the house." A shiver ran through my body and down my spine when I realized what I had to do. So then, I grabbed the magnificent creature by the head, and I twisted it enough to hear a sickening crack. I almost threw up when I thought about what I did. "How does she do it?" I knew that I killed animals a lot when I was out hunting, but I always had my knife for those occasions. Since I didn't have my knife with me, the only thing that I was able to do was carry the deer all the way back to the beach, where Charley might have brought one, or even all the way up to the house.
I saw Charley was all ready awake and looking around for me on the beach. I guess he didn't see me coming, since he jumped when I brought the carcass up onto the beach sand. "So this is what you've been doing?" he asked. I could tell that he was happy to see it. His tone was more than glad, but he tried not to show it.
"What? You surprised that I could go out and hunt?"
"Well, no, but... how did you carry it? It must weigh at least seventy kilograms."
"You remember my sister that I talked about earlier? She is an alchemist. She made me a few potions for the trip." I took one out of my satchel and I showed him the glossy pink flask. "I think that one will cure any disease, except for blight, of course."
"Blight?"
"Oh, nothing. You have my knife?"
"Uh, yeah, it's right here." He took the blade out of its sheath. The glass glared intensely in the sunlight. "It's magnificent. I have never seen a knife made out of glass."
"This glass is native to the mountains of Vvardenfell. My sister had it directly imported." I grasped the hilt, feeling a pulse of magicka surge up my arm. "Whoa!" I suddenly felt strong, stronger than I was when I had taken that potion back when I first arrived.
"What? What's wrong?"
"Nothing. You don't mind if a lady cleans the carcass, do you?"
"Um, if that is what you would like."
"Thank you very much."
I spent less than thirty minutes cleaning and carving the venison on the beach. I didn't know why I did it on the sand, since the blood took hours to completely wash away. Charley took the venison up to the house while I cleaned up. It had gotten quite hot whilst I was out, so I decided to take another quick dip in the lake. I felt the coolness of the water penetrating my scales and my gills. I was quite refreshed even after only a few minutes under. Amongst the coolness, I felt the power of the suns rays through even the deepest water. Oh, the water, the only thing that I had left of my home was like a warm blanket given to a cold and lonely child. It was like a house to come back to from a year at war. It was like... my mother. I loved my mother.
After the both physically and emotionally refreshing swim, I headed back up to the house. There wasn't much left to do at the lake. Charley had all ready finished packaging the venison, and it was in the freezer. I was hungry, so I needed to cook something, anything. "You got things finished around here?" I asked.
"I just got the last of it," he said.
"Mmm, I can't wait to get some of that cooking. I can smell it all ready."
"You know, I would like to know more about that medallion around your neck. It seems pretty convenient that it would be from your sister. The fact that you came from a time before recorded history makes the fact that anything from that time would simply just disappear. How did you find it in that lake?"
"I was swimming, and the sunlight reflected off of something metallic in the weeds. I picked it up, and I found these markings on it." I showed him the Daedric writing on the back. "You can't read it, since it is part of a language that was common among mages and sorcerers. What you are looking at is an obscure dialect of Daedric."
"Daedric?"
"Daedra are creatures that live in a plane of existence parallel to ours. This plane is called Oblivion by both the Daedra and the mortals."
"So, where does this medallion come in?"
"This medallion was created by my sister. Marbles was a mage, Arch-Mage, actually. She was a very powerful wizard, and immortal. I don't understand why she is not here." My tone changed from cheerful to distraught.
"Maybe whatever wiped out everyone in Cyrodiil affected her as well."
"No way! There is no way she could have died. Maybe she is in another plane. Maybe she is trapped in Oblivion, unable to escape or travel."
"Well, whatever happened happened. There is no changing that."
"I guess so."
"Don't worry. I have faith that your sister is still alive somewhere. It's only been three days since you've been here."
"You are right. She is alive somewhere. I just need to stay put until she finds me."
We both finished up at the beach, and headed back up to the house, after disposing of the carcass. Charley immediately set to cooking some of the meat up. Taking a baking pan, he sliced the venison into thick cuts and pulled out a bottle of cooking wine from the cabinet. Pouring the wine into the pan, he put the slices of meat into it, adding spices here and there. "There we go. I'll just let that marinade for a few hours, and we'll be set to cooking around dinner time.
"But I'm hungry now. Is there anything you can make for lunch?"
"I do have some leftovers from a few nights ago. Lasagna is always better after a day or two, or three."
"I've never heard of this lasagna, but I'm sure I'll like it." He pulled a container of something out of the fridge, and placed it on a plate. "Oh, it's a kind of pasta casserole. I like pasta."
He reheated the food, and we both sat down to eat at the table. Not much was said mostly because I was extremely hungry, and I wanted to do nothing but eat then. After I had finished my third plate of it, I pushed in my chair and headed into the living room and sat down on one of the two recliners, big and comfortable. Charley followed soon after and moved the other recliner over near me, sitting down in it. We both sat there, looking into each other's eyes for what seemed like hours. Time was lost in our set gazes. He looked into my eyes, and I looked into his. For a moment, I forgot where I was. After I had remembered, I began looking around, and after seeing nothing of interest, set my gaze back onto Charley. He seemed bored, since he was beginning to yawn.
"Hey, you want to do something?" I asked. "It's starting to get dark out, so if we go outside soon, we could catch the sunset."
"I see," he replied. "Well, if that's what you would like, then I could join you." He looked anxious about something. I wanted to know what it was, but I was sure that it wasn't anything. I took him by the arm with mine. At first he looked startled, but he lightened up soon after. The sun was where it should have been. The colors emanating from its direction were only comparable to the sweetest of oranges and the freshest of strawberries. The trees swayed to the gentle breeze, almost in perfect unison. The birds' harmonious songs added to the all ready generously peaceful atmosphere. Charley seemed to glow with excitement for something. Truth be told, I was glowing. I could feel his arm around me, and I knew that there was someone whom I could trust right beside me. We set down on the lawn, staring into the sunset, admiring in pleasant silence. We spent quite a bit of time sitting with each other watching the way our eyes watched the other. Eventually, Charley spoke up. "Jumps, there is something I want to tell you."
"I know what it is. I feel it too."
"I--I... love you, Jumps." I knew it was sincere. I saw the flame in his eyes. I saw his barely controllable feelings.
"I.. love you too, Charley." I saw that he knew I was sincere as well. If I could have read his mind, I would have known exactly what he was thinking.
"I know this week has been strange. You show up from another world; I let you in my home; you show me that you are capable, and now, now I..."
"Shh, you don't need to tell me." I put my finger over his lips. He took my hand, and he held it firmly, yet very gently. I took my other hand and put it over his. At that moment, I knew that he was the one. At this point we were so close that our noses were almost touching. For a moment in time, everything was so clear. He loved me, and I loved him. The only thing left was to express our deep love. In that one moment, our lips finally met, and we were as one. His soft, warm lips against my soft scales was almost filled with magic. I even felt a transfer of my magicka into him through our kiss, ever increasing our desire. We spent the rest of the night with each other. I didn't leave his sight, and he didn't leave mine. After a few hours, we finally began to drift off into inevitable sleep.
Dreams took hold. I was in a dream with my deepest lover. Charley was there with me. I knew that what took place wasn't a dream, but what happened after was. Charley and I were floating with one another over clouds in a blue and green sky. Clouds were above us, and clouds were beneath us. We were holding hands. We did not speak, because our minds spoke more clearly than any words could describe. We watched each other float over an endless sea of blue. There was no sign of land in any direction, but we did not need to land. We were happy, and that happiness drove us higher and higher into the sky, towards the sun.
End of part VII...