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Waiting until the sun had long gone to bed, and she knew for a fact that her parents were now asleep, a young woman slowly lifted her window open.
The city around her gleamed with light, everyone seemed to think they were beautiful, and in a way it was, but she couldn't help but be saddened by the lack of the night sky that could be perceived from the light pollution.
The buildings stretched high to that darkness, brightly displaying their various advertisements. She rolled her eyes, she didn't know how anyone could tolerate it all. It was too much light if you asked her.
She gazed down at the busy street far below their home. She could do this, it was only like fifty floors to the ground, and there were plenty of built-in safety precautions for if someone fell from their apartment.
She had done this plenty of times before, but with her chosen destination tonight it felt more terrifying.
Very slowly the girl eased out of her window. A small alarm beeped in the frame.
“Human departure detected, sounding alarm.”
“Crap! nonono!” She slipped back inside. “I thought I turned you off!” She finagled the wires she had pried from the window frame and the beeping suddenly stopped.
She stood in silence for a few seconds listening for if the rest of the apartment would be alerted to her attempted escapade.
The girl let out a sigh, then proceeded out the window. She clung to the wall, and made her way over to the pneumatic tubes running up and down the building.
She slipped on her magnetic gloves, grasped the tube, carefully put one foot against the tube, then as she pulled her other foot from the ledge she dropped.
It took everything in her not to scream, she didn't need her parents overhearing this. She tightened her grip on the tube, trying to assist the magnets in slowing her descent. She needed to be going slow enough as to not trigger the safety nets.
Thankfully her tightened grip was enough, and she slowed to a far less terrifying speed.
This better be worth it!
Her feet connected with the roof of the bottom floor, and that was easy enough to run to the edge of and lower herself off of.
She lifted her eyes up to where she had been only moments before, getting back inside was going to be a pain, it always was, but that was a future problem.
The girl set out, walking along the brightly lit street, the traffic of hover cars safely thirty feet above her head.
There were several other people walking about even at this time of night, but none of them paid her any mind, she looked old enough to be out on her own.
She was old enough to be on her own, her parents just didn't seem to agree on that fact, and she couldn't afford her own place anyway.
The girl headed underground to the tram station. With a quick scan of her hand, she paid the toll for the transport, and her journey to the edge of the city began.
She tapped her foot impatiently at every stop, this was going to take all night, and at this rate her dad would be awake by the time she got home.
The tram announced the arrival at her stop, and she quickly exited the transport, then up the elevator to get to pedestrian level.
Once on ground level she kept her pace quick. She always walked fast, many of her friends questioned why, but she didn't seem to have an answer for it. It was just something she did. Maybe she’d had a job that required a fast but steady pace in a past life.
The buildings out here were so much smaller, and further between, but it still took forever to reach the actual edge of it all.
“Yes!” She approached the gate covered in warning signs. Everyone was so accustomed to the city, they thought forests were scary. That was where they got all the oxygen that was pumped into their homes, how bad could it actually be?
Plus, thanks to the tip from her friend, you could actually see the sky for what it was meant to be. She wanted to see it so badly, holograms could only do so much.
The gate was open enough for her to wiggle through it, just as promised, and in an instant she was in a completely different place.
Large trees crowded together like the buildings of the city, but they didn't grow near as tall as them.
The girl took a deep breath, the air already smelling so different, and pressed forward. She needed to get far enough away from the light pollution to be able to see anything.
It didn't take long for the dense branches to block out the light of the city, and she was forced to withdraw a light, and shine it out into the woods ahead of her.
The forest rustled around her, making her startle.
It's just the wind. She tried to assure herself. Or maybe raccoons, they get into the city all the time.
She continued forward, not willing to turn back now. She had snuck out of the house for this!
Her parents were going to be furious!
A loud crash sounded ahead, making her jump with a startled squeak.
That was not a raccoon.
Someone else was probably out in the woods, people snuck out all the time, it wasn't a big deal.
A hiss and growl was enough for her to retract that thought.
The growl morphed into a pained whimper, and before she could think to stop herself, her feet were already moving towards the sound. What if this thing was hurt?
She hurried ahead, but her shoes planted themselves into the dirt as her light fell on the injured creature.
The winged humanoid hissed as the light hit its slitted eyes.
“Sorry,” She instinctively said, turning the light towards the ground. Her eyes widened as she took in the thing before her.
It was a little taller than her, but its flesh was made up of green stone. Its massive leathery wings stretched up behind it, one of them not moving as much as the other, as it hissed at her.
Her eyes widened, why did this thing look so familiar?
The defensive stance of the creature wavered as it almost seemed to have the same thought.
She had never learned about creatures like this, she shouldn't know his features as well as she seemed to.
His features. She did know him somehow, didn't she?
What was she supposed to do? Should she flee back to the city? Give up on this escapade?
His eyes flashed with gleaming gold and red light, and something about them made a distant memory flicker to her mind.
He had been older, but looked nearly identical. She had known him.
A name formed on her tongue, without coming to her mind. “Walter?”
The creature just stared at her, until his brows knit together as the name finally seemed to land on his ears.
He opened and closed his mouth, as if tasting something on his tongue. His wings lowered, and he looked her up and down.
“Barbara?”
That was not her name, and yet it was. It sounded like such an old name. Walter did too. But perhaps they had belonged to the time they had been given.
More images of the creature appeared in her mind. She had never known him at this age that now stood before her, but she had known him as an adult. And another guy???
She rubbed her forehead trying to make sense of the new very much human man in her mind.
The creature straightened slightly, his mouth hanging open in surprise.
“It's you!” He said, pointing a clawed finger at her.
Finally panic settled in.
WHAT WAS SHE DOING OUT HERE?!
WHAT WAS HAPPENING?!
WHAT WAS THIS THING- GUY- MAN???!
Sensing her panic, he took a step back from her, not sure if she would shift into fight or flight mode.
He was a fighter, she knew that- SOMEHOW!
He was stubborn, and determined, and it made him incredibly attractive.
Woah, woah, woah! She had to pump the breaks on her thoughts. I am not attracted to… she refocused herself on the creature watching her cautiously.
You know what, actually he doesn't look half bad-
WHAT AM I THINKING?!
She could picture kissing him all too easily, and far too vividly!
Shaking her head, she began to back away slowly. She needed to get out of here, she needed to get back home.
There was some deep rooted part of her that felt this Walter person was far more of a home then the apartment her parents rented.
He was safer.
He practically everything to her.
And she was his world to him.
She locked her gaze with his, and the two of them stared at each other, both scared people in the dark and scary woods.
“What is happening?” She asked, because maybe just maybe he had answers for her.
He glanced over his shoulder, debating fleeing the situation just as she was, but in the end he turned his attention back towards her.
“I think- I think we're remembering,” he said, as if that could qualify as an answer.
“Remembering what?” she snapped, grasping her head as if she could dig the strange images out of her head. Why were there so many things she knew about this green guy? And seriously who was this other old man?!
Whatever it was that was causing this seemed to take the two people and believed them to be the same person.
Before he could come up with an answer for her, she was already asking another question.
“Are you some kind of shapeshifter?"
He snorted a laugh. “What? no!” His eyes suddenly fell to the ground. “Well, I mean-” He looked back up at her. “No, I'm not. I am just a cha- troll. I'm a completely normal troll!”
Well he was horrible at lying.
“But!” He quickly shouted, before she could call him on his bullshit. “The things we're remembering, you're seeing me in your mind right? or like something that makes you think of me. You called me Walter!”
She nodded slowly, unsure of his approach on this, but if he had answers, she was willing to stick it out.
“If I remember correctly, we and everyone and everything is reincarnated, born again.” He nodded slightly, attempting to get her to nod if she understood, which he succeeded in. “But we don't keep our memories, but there are chances that with the right magic you can maintain your memories even after death.”
“Magic?” she questioned, as if she weren't talking to a “non” shapeshifting troll… thing.
“Yes,” he answered, starting to sound a little more confident, and that confidence brought her a little as well. There was something about his voice, he had such a different accent than she or the other people in the city, but she rather liked it.
“Some kind of magic in a past life was so strong that…” He faded off, and slowly he took several steps closer to her.
She took a step back, and her back hit a tree. She knew she could just slip around it, but for some reason the tree felt like a dead end.
“That what?!” She questioned, her chest tightening as her heart rate picked up. She needed to calm down, she needed to keep a level head and deal with this like the young mature adult that she was.
He stopped a few feet away, seeming to finally register the panic he had caused. “That when we saw each other, we started to remember the last life we met in.”
Something about the explanation, or maybe just the continued images- no memories in her mind made the tension in her shoulders loosen.
She couldn't remember everything from this apparent past life, but she remembered him.
“Walter?” She questioned again, sudden relief washing over her as if with him everything would be alright.
This time his face lit up with recognition. “Barbara!” He darted forward, and grabbed her around the waist, lifting her up and spinning her around, as both of them lit up with delight of seeing one another again.
He lowered her down, and the two of them pressed their foreheads together.
“I can't believe it!” She couldn't stop smiling, and tears of relief filled her eyes. “How can we be remembering?”
He laughed, reveling in her closeness. “I just explained that, darling.”
“I know, I know,” she replied, and pulled back to really look at him again. He was so young, she was so young! And yet he was still her Walter. He was still hers in every life it seemed.
The two of them stared at each other, still in shock of finding one another, what were the chances?
“What are you doing out here?” He asked, “humans aren't typically out in the woods, especially at this time of night.”
She shook her head as she laughed, the original reason seeming so unimportant now. “My parents are terrified of anything outside the city, but I just really wanted to see the stars with my own eyes. Seeing you is far better though.”
“Strict parents? I don't recall having to deal with those last time.” He joked, but then his face turned to one of deep thought, as if trying to recall if that was a true statement. He shook his head, clearing the thought away.
“You still want to go see the stars?” He lifted his wings in invitation.
“Aren't you hurt?” She questioned, a hand naturally reaching towards the limb that had previously moved with pained restraint.
He rolled his shoulder as his cheeks flushed. “I may have attempted something rather ridiculous, and ended in a crash landing. But you know well enough how durable changelings are.”
She smiled, finding it amusing to catch him in his silly little lie. “But I thought you were a completely normal troll.” She teased.
His cheeks deepened in color. “Just a precaution, although not nearly as bad as it once was, there are still a few out there who are not keen on my kind. Besides, I live nearly the same as any troll. Changelings are a naturally born race of trolls now, and there was no reason for my parents to exchange me for a human.”
Her eyes widened, both surprised by the information, but also how well she understood it all.
Her hand caressed the side of his face, it was still that coarse stone she remembered, but it had far less trauma engrained into it.
A smile slowly spread across her face, and he slowly mirrored the adventurous expression.
“Planning on accepting my invitation?” He prompted.
“Yes,” She giggled. “Please take me to see the stars.”
At her words he wrapped his arms tightly around her, and she hooked her own arms over his shoulders and around his neck. He expanded his wings, and seeing an opening in the trees that she could not, he flung them both up into the air. They shot up through the branches that scratched at her clothing, trying to keep her on the ground where it seemed to think she belonged.
They exploded out of the top of the canopy in a flurry of leaves, and they were lit up by the neon light of the walled city. It called to her, just as the branches had tried to hold her down, it tried to beckon back to its overly bright embrace.
The changeling did not linger on the image of the city, and directed them further away from it, sailing over the wind with natural poise.
He smiled at her as he twirled them through the air, his tusks glinting in the starlight. They suddenly hit an unpredicted gust of wind that knocked them upward in the air.
The two tightened their holds on one another, and he managed to quickly get them back under control.
The two stared at one another in shock, as he hovered them in the air for them to recover.
She pulled in a deep breath and then it came out as a laugh, that had been scary, but honestly a bit fun.
He instantly relaxed at the sound, and laughed at the situation himself, before continuing their journey further and further from the city.
He brought them to a large hill, and circled around it so they landed in its shadow cast from the city.
She slowly released him as her feet planted themselves securely on the ground.
“You're amazing,” she whispered, her eyes focusing on the little light there was, which happened to be his eyes. Her eyes were so used to the bright city it would take her some time for her eyes to adapt enough to precieve the stars above them.
“As are you, my love,” he replied in hushed tones. His hand cupped her cheek, and he leaned in, pausing briefly for her to respond.
It seemed so wrong, yet felt so right, they had met only minutes ago, and yet they had known each other for a lifetime.
She closed the gap he had left, and her lips met his. The contact made her mind explode with emotions and memories of so many moments with him, of the life they had built together. They could build that life again if they wanted.
The slowly pulled away from each other, but her hands grasped his shoulders as if she feared he would disappear into the night without a word more.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he assured her, brushing her hair out of her face. “Not after we have just found each other.”
She leaned forward, and rested her forehead against his chest. She breathed a laugh at how silly the thought had been. “Good, because I'm not leaving you either.”
He let out a small hum mixed with a purr, and lowered them both down to the ground to sit in the grass.
She readjusted herself, leaning her head on his shoulder, and slowly her eyes rose to the sky. Her eyes widened as she was able to see the first pinpricks of starlight in the darkness.
He hummed with admiration, and pressed his nose into her hair, taking in her new yet faintly familiar scent.
The two sat in silence as her eyes continued to adapt to the dark, making the stars appear further and further across the sky. There were so many stars, she couldn't believe she was seeing so many with her own eyes.
“Promise me you'll take me out here again,” She whispered, unable to take her eyes off the celestial sight.
He rubbed his head against hers, instinctively scenting her as his. The small purr that had been rumbling in his throat, slowly disipated as he hummed with thought. “I'll take you here as many times as you want, every night if you request. I'll take us further too, where more of its full beauty can be seen by those who put in the effort to seek it.”
The last bit was far less focused on the sky, and so obviously directed to her.
She felt her face warm. “Doesn't sound like I'll be getting much sleep, but it's well worth it to see you.”
“Maybe every other night then,” he responded. “Can't have you losing sleep over me.”
“Speaking of meeting up, you wouldn't mind taking me home tonight, would you?” she asked.
“No, I had planned to take you out to the deep forest, and leave you to fend for yourself,” he replied with a thick tone of sarcasm. “Of course I was going to take you back to the city gate.”
“I was asking more the a direct flight to my apartment, but the gate will do,” she said, she didn't want to leave him yet, but the more time she spent here the more likely the long trip home would end up with her getting caught.
“A troll flying through a brightly lit city,” he said slowly, processing the idea.
Her eyes widened with realization. “I'm so sorry, I didn't even think about that, it's just with my parents and-”
“You could get in trouble.” He nodded slowly. “Well I can't let that happen, I'm the one that's supposed to get you into trouble, but not that dull kind.”
She pushed his face away, laughing at the ridiculous expression he had.
He grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand from his face. “I'll take you home.” He changed his hold on her hand, and kissed the back of it. “You know I'm not afraid of flying into danger for you.”
She knew there would be no convincing him otherwise now, and with the arrangement made she leaned back into him. They could enjoy this night for a little while longer.
The two of them soared far above the city, but the needed building was still easily pointed out.
They dove down towards it, before swooping up and gently landing on the roof.
He slowly released her, but one hand slid down her arm, and gently grasped around her hand.
“You'll be okay getting down to your apartment?” he asked, sounding rather worried with how high up they were.
“I've snuck out of the house before,” she answered, with a roll of her eyes.
He nodded, but neither of them released their hands.
“I'll see you in two nights, right?” she asked, needing to be sure this would not be the last time she saw him. She wanted to find that beautiful life with him again.
He smiled, stepped forward, and planted a kiss on her forehead. “I will come back to find you every other night, and in every life.”
He released her hand, and stepped towards the edge of the building, opening his wings. “I will see you soon my darling Barbara.”
Her chest warmed with the sound of the name only he would ever know her as.
“See you soon dear Walter,” She replied, and watched him shoot up into the dark and empty sky.
In every life.
She would make sure he kept that promise.
In every life they would meet again.