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Nothing is meant to last forever.
Eventually, there comes a point at which everything will disappear, there comes a day in which the last member of a species will sing a call that will never get an answer, there comes a day In which a flower will bloom for the last time, a tree will shade someone before it comes falling down.
Oceans, rivers and lakes no matter what size and power they possess will dry, deserts will disappear, and mountains will erode and collapse.
It all comes to an end, no matter what it is.
Civilizations will fall, from the smallest of settlements to the more powerful of empires, there’s an end for all, that is reality.
Time takes it all away, from the smallest of beings to those of gargantuan proportions.
And in the end, inevitable and unstoppable the end comes for the world itself.
It all comes to an end, and the stars observe.
Of course, they will also meet their end.
But, as long as they are still there, no story will be forgotten, no tale will be erased, and no world will ever truly come to an end, because as long as they are alive they won’t forget.
And what the stars won’t forget the forest will also remember; because, as long as even just one blade of grass remains of what once was a forest full of giants that touched the skies and were full of life, then, as small, insignificant and minuscule as it is, it’s still a remnant of the forest.
And as long as it stands, dancing thanks to the winds and still full of life then the forest still stands, and if the forest stands, then the forest will remember.
Everything has an end, some things meet theirs quicker than others, and mortals are among them.
In comparison to other beings like creatures, monsters and gods their whole lives are gone in just a blink, humans, no matter how strong and capable they are, live such short lives.
But gone doesn’t mean forgotten, it doesn’t mean erased, and as long as they are remembered, no matter by whom or what, they will keep on living.
The stars won’t forget, and the forest will always remember.
And tonight a new story for them appears, a story in which two hearts reveal what they feel, and in the reciprocation, they find love and someone to belong.
***
His time is limited, even though the heavens have gazed favorably upon him and blessed him with a Vision, in the end, the powerful, smart and capable, Avidya forest watcher is still a mortal. But her time isn’t, and she will remain for too long, far too long in the opinion of many.
But there’s nothing she can do about it, and in truth, there is nothing she wants to do about it, she knows, that just like the rest of things, the day of her end will come, it’s not near, she knows that, but his is.
For too many others his eventual end doesn’t feel that close, many will live the same time as him, many would consider the time he will live a normal one, but some others won’t, others like her.
Beings that will live and live and live, even after all around them stops existing, she knows that the time in which she can stand at his side in the end, for her, will be a short one.
But for the rest of it, as long as it will be, she will keep the memories created together forever.
She knows, she’s aware that it will bring pain, it will maybe devastate her, but, if he allows her to, she will stay until his last day, she will stay even as his hair grays and the fire on his eyes changes from one that is a wild and uncontrollable flame to when it becomes nothing more than an ember. She will stay, even when his once bright and curious mind slowly starts to forget and misremember.
She will stay, and she will remember.
His time is short she knows it, his time is short, and he also knows it.
---
The night is still young and has long left, still, hundreds of stars have already gathered over in the skies, and silently watch what transpires below them.
At the top of Gandharva Ville’s tallest tree, two figures sit side by side on one branch and watch the stars above.
He watches enraptured as she points to the stars and draws constellations of the ones he was never aware of, she tells him the tales and names of stars that are unknown to everyone to her, she recounts the history that only those that can walk amongst the stars are privy to.
“And the stars of that constellation are the ones that remember all the oaths that lovers made during their light.”
Lovers, right.
She moves closer to him and lets her head rest against his chest, it’s an action that at this point has become normal for them, to rest at each other’s side, their bodies pressing together. But tonight it’s different.
Lovers, mates, companions, suitors, no matter the word they are all the same in the end.
Someone to stand at your side and share all of your joys and pains, someone to share the rest of your life with.
For months now, there has been this dance having both of them as protagonists, it has brought them closer and closer and right now they stand barely divided by an invisible line that they haven’t dared to cross, but they know it, hell even those around them know it, that if they let things run their natural course they, once they feel ready for it, will inevitably cross that line.
But.
“And those ones, they keep all knowledge of that considered arcane. Which tends to vary a lot depending on the world but the more knowledge they have the better for them.”
But also, following the natural order, he will find his end, both of them will, he knows, but, what is his time in this world in comparison to hers? She has already lived for so long, and she still has far longer left, her time at his side will be nothing more than a blink for her.
Can he really do this? Can he do this to her?
Initiate something that he knows it’s bound to be doomed and will bring her nothing but pain once he reaches his end?
He won’t.
“Lumine.”
She stops her ramblings and looks up so their eyes can join. Inside them, he can already see the concern that fills her and honestly he didn’t know what else he had expected, of course, she could already feel that there was something bothering him, with how attuned they are the moment there is something wrong with each other they become well aware of it.
“I can’t,” concern first and now confusion and then a quick realization, “not to you, I can’t,” her eyes fill with pain, now aware of what he’s trying to say, “I can’t hurt you like that. I can’t allow myself to.”
He moves back, putting some distance between them, and the action now brings tears to her eyes, it hurts him, it burns and something inside him screams for him to stop.
“Tighnari.” She tries to get closer to him, to remove the distance he has put between them, one of her hands moves to cup his face, an action that he doesn’t allow her to complete, his hand goes fat and takes hold of her wrist, stopping her there, not allowing her the contact. It makes the tears finally escape her eyes, and like the coward he is he is unable to look her in the eye, he turns away.
“Why?” Her voice, her voice always so full of life and energy is now nothing but a thing full of pain and hurt, he can feel his eras pinning back, the shame and pain of his actions growing and threatening to drown him.
“Because,” he’s a coward because he’s too scared of this growing feeling and he tries to shield himself under what he tries to delude himself in an argument based on facts and reality. “You have said it yourself,” what a coward he truly is, shielding himself now behind her words of the past, “you will keep on living,” centuries, millennia, eons maybe. “I know that in comparison my time is nothing, and in the end, once I am gone, nothing will remain for you. So that’s why I can’t.”
His kind mate for life, and he has seen what happens once someone loses their mate, the pain that comes with it, the emptiness, the void that then would nest inside their hearts. Would it be the same for her?
“I can’t make you go through that.”
Through that pain, that torture, that void that would never be filled once again.
“Is that what you want?” No, but it’s the best option. It’s the correct thing to do, isn’t it?
“Tighnari,” her hand easily escapes his hold, and when it finds its place resting against his cheek he’s tempted to rest against it. “Look me in the eyes, look me in the eyes, and tell me that, that is what you want.”
He can’t, he can’t do that because he knows that’s not the truth. But he needs to stop it before the pain grows even bigger.
“Because let me tell you something,” there’s still that lingering pain and hurt in her voice, but now there’s also a firmness that forces him to pay attention to what she says. “I know what I want, and what I want is this. But I am also aware of the price that I will have to pay.
But I don’t care about it.”
Her hand on his cheek trembles and he finally allows himself to rest against it, and then he moves one of his hands to rest over it. Slowly he looks up and dares to meet her eyes. Silent tears run down her cheeks, a mirror to the ones doing the same on his own face.
“I don’t care about it. And I am willing to accept it. I will gladly pay it.” Tears still escape her eyes, but there’s a fire burning fierce now in them, her words are her will, and she will abide by them, and will live by them.
Still.
“Even when the time will come in which it will bring you nothing but pain?” Even when the time comes when not even a ghost of him will be left when she have nothing left to think about but the pain?
“Even then. And even after that, because when that time comes,” when he will no longer be here, when time has taken him away, “I will be left with my memories, and as long as I remain alive I will hold unto them. Memories of you and I, of our time together and of what we were.”
Memories that she won’t possess if they truly end it up here, and instead, what she will carry will be regrets and what-ifs.
“But it will still hurt, it will still be painful.” It would be an injury that may never heal, an injury that for the rest of her life would reopen and bleed over her time and time again.
“Yes, but when I look back, the days in which I think of what I once had, I will look back and see us, I will see what we managed to be, what we created together.
And for me, memories of precious days, even if they are days that I will never live again, are better than those of regrets.”
Her other hand carefully comes to his face and cleans some stray tears.
“But that is just what I want.”
What she wants. This is her choice.
“So tell me, what do you want?”
He grabs her hand and moves it closer to his lips. “This, I, I want us.” To stay at your side as long as I can, to create memories that you will treasure for the rest of your life even once I’m gone.
“I want that. I want you.”
And he kisses her hand as if he were sealing an oath.
She smiles in return.
***
And over them the stars observe, and as long as they shine they will be remembered, they will remember the love that once was a small seed and then grew and grew until it blossomed.
And all around the forest listens, and the story of the fox that walked alongside the star becomes one of the many that they will tell for as long as it stands.
The stars won’t forget, and the forest remembers.