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She felt the grass beneath her legs, then a cool breeze on her face. Birds chirped in the distance, and a critter scurried somewhere above where she sat. Her eyes fluttered open, her gaze landing on the open spellbook in her lap. Had she been reading a spell before falling asleep?
“Oi, Frieren!”
The sound of someone calling out to her helped pull her out of her daze. She found herself sitting under a large tree at the top of a hill, its shadow enveloping her like a blanket. A beautiful blue sky and verdant grass surrounded her on all sides. A familiar setting, but she didn’t even remember walking up the hill. So unlike her to have her mind wandering like this.
She heard her traveling companion make his way up the hill, the rustle of grass beneath his boots. The wind gently ruffled his pale blue hair and his cloak flowed behind him.
“Himmel,” she murmured, and closed her book.
“The others are done with their break,” he said, gesturing behind him where Eisen and Heiter were sitting next on their cart. “If you’re done too, we’ll get back on the road. We’re less than a week from the royal capital now.”
He began to say something about rewards and recognition from “that silly king” for completing their ten-year quest of slaying the Demon King, but Frieren hardly heard him as she lifted her gaze to study his face. Genuine and sincere, as it has always been. He stood just outside the reach of the tree’s shadow, where the sunlight danced on his hair. She heard hearty laughs belonging to their other friends at the bottom of the hill. No longer in her daze, she knew exactly where she was.
“Himmel.”
“Yes, Frieren?”
“Ask me to marry you.”
Frieren felt a small dose of pride at having done the impossible task of shocking Himmel into silence.
He froze, eyes widened. After a few seconds, he let out a sigh, “Good attempt, Frieren, I almost believed your joke,” he rubbed his neck in embarrassment, already starting to turn red. “But you won’t fool me that easily.”
Frieren put the tome on the ground and stood up, brushing stray blades of grass off her skirt. She stepped towards Himmel, stopping where the shadow met the light. Her face held her signature stoic expression. She waited.
Himmel sighed again, as if saying, Fine, I’ll play into your joke. One hand stretched out to her and the other settled over his heart. “Frieren,” he said solemnly, “will you marry me?”
“Yes.” Her answer came out swift and simple.
Himmel shook his head. “Oh you cruel seductress, why must you play with my heart like this!?” He made a fist with his outstretched hand and shook it, adding to the drama of his words. Frieren’s lips curved up almost imperceptibly.
“May I kiss you now?”
“Frieren, I would say the joke is over now, the punchline has been delivered,” he replied as his hands returned to his sides. Frieren waited again. He sighed for the third time, “Yes, you ma–” Frieren stepped forward into the light, rising to tip-toe, and kissed him. It was a brief, clumsy pressing of the lips from a person who had never wanted a kiss before but so desperately did now. Frieren pulled away, eyes transfixed on Himmel’s face which held an expression that was a mixture of astonishment and something else she couldn’t quite place.
After a long moment, Frieren broke the silence, “Himmel, I–” but was cut off by another kiss, this time with Himmel gently cupping her face. Her hands, made so steadfast and sure in centuries of spellcasting, were left clueless at her side in this show of adoration. Many thoughts raced through her mind in this moment, but one rang the loudest in her heart.
Finally.
Their companions were not oblivious to what happened at the top of the hill, and greeted the pair with warm congratulations. Eisen said in his low baritone, “We were wondering when this would happen,” gesturing to the two of them. Frieren failed to stifle a smile at his words. Heiter jokingly offered to have them married right then and there, and to everyone’s surprise Frieren agreed to take him up on the offer. Himmel had no objections to that.
So instead of continuing on their way to the royal capital, the four heroes stopped for a wedding. Heiter readied his speech and prayers, while Eisen, Frieren, and Himmel prepared a bouquet of wildflowers for Frieren, and a ring fashioned from grass for Himmel. They stood facing each other while Heiter made his speech and prayers, while Eisen held the two rings on a cloth; Frieren’s silver one and Himmel’s grass one, a single wildflower in the center its only adornment.
As Heiter said the prayers and ceremony rites, Frieren allowed herself to savor this moment in time. Here they were, having a wedding in the middle of nowhere. No fancy clothes, no ornate ceremony, not even a real ring for Himmel. But her closest friends were here, and that was all she needed. At the end of his prayers, Heiter pronounced them husband and wife, and Frieren and Himmel shared a kiss while Eisen and Heiter shed tears behind them. After the ceremony, they continued onward toward their destination, the newlyweds holding hands the whole way.
Once they arrived at the royal capital, they were greeted in celebration and recognition by the citizens and “that silly king.” After receiving their rewards, a city-wide celebration led them into the night. Conversation flowed between the four heroes, with topics of statues and free beer among them. Banter came easy when you traveled together for ten years, and Frieren enjoyed the jokes and jabs that bounced between them. And after all the feasting and celebration, they turned their gazes upwards, where streaks of light shone against a dark sky. The Era Meteor Shower. It appeared once every fifty years, which meant Frieren had seen it countless times already.
“Perfect for the dawn of a new era of peace,” Heiter mused.
“Fifty years from now,” Frieren said, smiling, “we can see it again. I know a better place to see it. I’ll take you there. All of us.”
Himmel placed his hand on hers resting on the stone wall. She glanced down at their hands. The grass ring on his finger had already dried and browned, the flower wilted. Her silver ring was pristine. He smiled at her. “Sure, let’s go see it, all of us together.”
~~~
Fifty years passed in a blur, and yet, Frieren saw them with stunning acuity.
Despite offers from the king to give them a permanent home inside the royal castle, Frieren and Himmel settled into a humble home near the city’s walls. Heiter also remained in the capital, but Eisen moved back into his abode in the woods, far from the excitement of the city. It pained Frieren to see him go, but she knew they would all see him again.
They decorated their home with magical and non-magical knick-knacks from their adventures, as well as wall-to-wall bookshelves of spellbooks that Frieren had collected over the years. Although they never had children of their own to fill their house, people of all ages came to visit the two heroes asking to learn sword-fighting or spellcasting, for advice on becoming adventurers and heroes, or simply to hear the stories of their famous quest one more time. The two always welcomed the visitors into their home with open arms.
But a ten-year quest couldn’t satiate an appetite for adventure forever, so it was only a matter of time before they set out on a new campaign together. When Heiter received word that he was promoted to bishop, Himmel and Frieren accompanied him on his journey to the Holy City. Instead of going straight back to their comfortable home after the promotion ceremony, they took the long route back, a five-year long journey of exploring new lands, collecting new spells, and helping anyone who needed it.
There would be days where the pair talked constantly, and conversation flowed from one topic to the next easily. Other times, there would be days when neither one spoke much at all. This of course wasn’t a bad thing at all, as the pair had grown so comfortable with each other it was easy not to say anything to mean something, just as long as they were at each other’s side.
And no matter where they were, on the road, in the city, or somewhere in between, at night they were back in each other's arms. In a mess of tangled limbs and rustles of fabric and whispered “I love you”s they embraced warmly until the morning.
At last, the Era Meteor shower made its way back to their skies. Fifty years older, Frieren and Himmel packed for one last adventure. Eisen and Heiter met them at the gates of the city, and together Frieren led them to the spot she had mentioned fifty years ago. The journey could be made in three days, but they took their time and savored the long walk, reminiscing about their younger days and catching up with each other, not to mention taking rests for the older men’s staminas. Frieren led the way excitedly, the oldest yet still most spry out of all of them.
A week later, they arrived at a lake so perfectly circular one would have wondered if it were made by magic or man. The water was still and clear. “You picked a good spot, Frieren,” Heiter complimented as the four of them sat, shoulder to shoulder, on the grass. Soon, the sky darkened and lit up with the meteor shower, reflected in the calm pool in front of them. A magnificent view.
They watched the meteors fly across the sky, ephemeral points of beautiful light. Eisen chuckled. "Look at us, sitting here, same as fifty years ago. We’re all wrinkly and old, but you haven’t changed a bit, Frieren." He stroked his grayed beard pensively.
That wasn't true at all. She had changed more in the past few decades than in the centuries of her lonely, isolated life. After Flamme died, she was a person who let time move on without her, never changing or experiencing the world until a hand reached out towards her in the woods. Because Himmel took a chance on her, wanted her, she met the friends who changed her for good. The person she was before meeting them no longer existed. She would never again be that person who turned away from time, who let precious moments slip through her fingers like water from loosely cupped hands. And she was happier for it. So, so happy.
But she didn't say that. Instead, she said the only thing that really mattered: “I love you all.” Her eyes welled up with tears, yet a smile bloomed on her face.
She let her tears fall, and she felt the arms of her closest companions reach over her. In the embrace of close friends, the meteor shower was all but forgotten, distant light streaking in the sky.
~~~
Frieren woke up from her dream, her thoughts groggy and muddled. Lying on the ground, she remembered Fern and Stark sleeping soundly on both sides of her. She heard a light fall of rain outside the cave they set up camp in. Reaching up to touch her face, she wasn’t shocked when her hand came away wet with tears. Frieren knew it was a dream from the moment she found herself back in that spot of her memory, sheltered underneath the shade of a tree on a hill. Yet she let herself indulge in the memory, along with what could have been.
She stretched her hand in front of her to see her ring on her finger. She kept it all those years in her traveling bag, but after nearly losing it in the forest she wanted to keep it on her finger from now on. A faint glimmer of morning light shone through the rain and hit the metal.
She brought the ring to her lips. A sweet dream nonetheless.