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Time of Reflection

We both attacked each other simultaneously: our swords clashing with the sound of steel on steel. Making the cavern, we were in ring with the sound of battle. We twisted and turned, parried and dodged. This was our rhythm as we struggled to get the upper hand.
I matched him nearly blow for blow hardly taking damage, but what he lacked in skill he more than made up for in speed. He jumped up into the air suddenly. “Ha-ha, I’m up here!” he called just as he came down with his fist. “Urge…Ah!” I cried out as the blow landed at my hairline and I began to back pedal. I looked and brought up one of my quortays just barely catching his sword on my blade as blood began to drip into my eyes. As I moved his blade away, I brought the other in from below and he blocked that in response, moving his left foot back a few inches. I used the leverage to propel myself backwards a few feet. Damn it, he is not showing any signs of tiring at all and if he is, he is hiding it pretty well. How long can I go before he kills me and robs me of my talisman and of my childhood friend? How long before I am waiting on the other side of that gate between life and death, I am sorry my Prince, but I do not think I will make it. I thought as I felt a hot pain in my thigh. “AHHHHH,” I screamed when I felt him ram his sword into my shoulder as I hit the floor, he dropped on top of me as he tried to touch me, my fiery soul burning the purest white flame as used me head to knock him off and got back up and we circled each other again. My quortays ready to attack while I am crouched in a wolf stance, preparing to pounce. His stance was of the rogri a beast of the jungles of Lazor. His sword was long and narrow, a long sword. “Why don’t you just give up already? You have no chance of beating me. Hehe, you will DIE HERE!!” he howled like a rabid beast, his face in a state of pure hatred. “I’ll never give up so long as the Prince is in danger! So long as I know the Crowns in danger I’ll never lose; IT IS YOU WHO HAS NO CHANCE TO BEAT ME AND YOU WHO WILL DIE!!!” I roared in response. Our fight continued like this for what felt like years. Constantly moving; never stopping like a storm that refuses to stop.

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All the while, I could hear the fight above me and started to try to break free. NOOO, THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING! IT JUST CANNOT! SHE WILL NEVER MAKE IT! DAMN! DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!!!!! STOP IT JUST STOP IT!! VOTORAAAAA!!!! Was all I could think, my fear of losing my childhood friend and secret lover was too much for me to bear. I could hear their howls and screams as their swords clashed. I screamed out, “VOTOOOOORAAAAA!!!!!!!”
To try to get myself under some kind of control I reflected on the past…

“Father I found a herd of bortas, come I’ll show you where!” I said to my father while we were out hunting. “Ha-ha very well, let us see what you have found.” chuckled King Zorious; I was just eight years old at the time. KA-BOOM! Startled, my father and I looked around to find where the sound came from while tiring to calm down our horses spooked by the sudden explosion. “Where did that explosion come from, Father?” I asked nervously. “I do not know, son. It sounded like it came from the east,” answered King Zorious timidly. “Let us go and see what it was.” He said as he started to gallop away. “OK.” I said as I turned my mount eastward to follow. Five days and four nights later, we came upon the wreckage of an escape pod of an unknown origin. “Who’s there?” I asked when the sound of crying seeped out of the wreckage. I dismounted and threw my reigns over a low branch of a nearby tree. As I walked around the crash site, I found a small hole occupied by a young girl not much younger than I was. As I bent down to get a better look at the girl to see if she was OK, I asked, “Why do you cry? Where are your mother and father?” The young girl startled and shaken said, “I don’t know. I have not seen them in a while and I am scared without them.” The two of us heard the sound of an approaching horse and I turned to see my father dismounting next to mine. As my father got nearer, he saw me kneeling on the ground near the hole in the side of the ship. He joined me and when he looked inside, he saw the girl. “Where are your parents, young one?” he asked her gently. “I do not know. I am scared and hungry, I want my parents.” The girl said, shaking a little more than she was a few minutes earlier, but her tears stopped. He scooped the little girl out of her hideout. The girl was shaking like a leaf in a windstorm and looked to be hungered, “It’s alright. You are safe now. We will find out what happened to your parents, it’s alright.” My father said to the girl. When we got back to the horses, my father put the little girl in the saddle and then climbed up after her. As we started in a westward direction, she gripped the saddle horn and tried not to fall off. After a while of riding, my father asked her name. “Votora Kelsaur, kind sire.” Votora replied. “How long has it been since you landed?” I asked curious. “Five suns and four moons; with nothing to eat and barely anything to drink,” was Votora’s reply. “OK. Let us stop and eat,” King Zorious said. It was a few hours after finding Votora and getting to know her. We stopped to eat; my father and I went a little ways away to find food enough for all three. When we returned she was standing with the horses stroking their noses. Her face was a glow with the afternoon light from above, and even in her fragile state of fear, I could see that Votora was strong. We sat down to eat after cooking the few fish we caught in the stream not far from the camp. We ate in silence. She cried during the night when she thought no one heard even then she radiated strength. She was cute and I could not stop looking at her. She had flowing radiant teal hair; her eyes where the color of the shining sun, with hints of sadden grays and hazels near the middle; her voice was of the birds’ chicks’ songs after a good rain. She was the girl of my dreams, but I was too shy to tell her that. It almost felt as if we shared a soul, like spirit twins who were supposed to be together for life upon meeting. The next day we stopped for lunch my father helped her down from the saddle and then took from his saddle bags some biscuits and cheese. After getting a fire going, father went to a nearby river that we could hear but not see. “How old are you, Votora?” I asked a little shy. “I’m eight, how old are you?” she asked. It made me feel better that she sounded as shy as I felt, however, she unlike me at the time, was able to hide it better than I could ever think of doing myself. She was a girl of wonder. “I’m eight too. Where are you from? Who are your parents? Why did you come here?” I had so many questions I just could not stop myself from asking them all. “I’m from a planet in the Lower Rim Territories. My father used to talk about The Rim when talking to my mother. My computer on board told me and showed me where I was when I started and where I would end. My ma and pa are two very rich nobles who lived in a very beautiful castle in the middle of a very large town. My ma was Narssi and my pa was Voturo. There was a very bad battle happening. My pa was always away tiring to get people to be nice and to stop them from hurting each other. But the other side just kept being mean and kept hurting many of the good people.” She said she was close to tears when she finished. I went over to her and tried to comfort her. She tried hard to keep her tears hidden, but no matter how hard she tried, they still came in tiny waves. “It’s OK. You are safe now. Don’t worry; I’m sure your parents are alright.” I said not knowing what else to say. That seemed to work, her tiny waves of tears stopped and she looked at me, gave a little sad smile, and said that was a kind thing for me to say. It was then that my father came back with three fish. Two medium and one large; he took them to the other side of the camp behind us to clean and gut them. As she waited, she wiped her tears away tiring to hide their existence. After wards, he put them on sticks and over the fire to cook. We snacked on biscuits and cheese waiting for the fish to cook. Once they were done, we all took one and chowed down. Votora was half way through when I was only a quarter through my own; father just looked at her. “My, my, little one, slow down or you’ll choke. You must have been very hungry, ha-ha.” He looked at her with a small half smile and a twinkle in his eye. He chuckled a little then returned to his own fish. After she was done, she said she was going to get another fish from the stream. “There will be plenty of fish to have later, hahahahah!” laughed my father. As the day dragged on, the light showed through the canopy above us. We traveled in silence; the only sounds to be heard were the hooves of the horses on the ground as they walked the sound of the forest as the animals moved to and fro, and the song of birds high above us in the trees and chasing each other in air. It was the third day of our journey back to Nakcbar Cergodo. The trail we were following lead through a large meadow (this meadow later became Votora’s after turning sixteen so she would have a place of her own). The sky was as beautiful as the girl riding in front of my father was. Her eyes were the gold of the sun that afternoon. It was close to sunset when we got to the other side length wise of the meadow. We camped just outside of the trees. “The stars are pretty tonight. I wonder if I could find my home.” Votora said while lying in the cooled grass a little ways away. I went over to join her, “I don’t know. Do you know what direction your home is in?” I asked while I settled in next to her. “No, I don’t. Oh I wish I could see my ma and my pa.” With this, she started to cry again. “Here,” I said offering her my shoulder for comfort. I was unsure of what else to say. When she was through crying, she was asleep, and with fear of waking her, I stayed there with her, and fell asleep thereafter.
When I woke up the sun's rays were just starting to bright the rim of the world, turning it dawn. Father was over by the fire cooking up some breakfast. “Oh good morning Zerious,” He said when he noticed I was awake. “How did you sleep last night?” “I slept well, Father, how about you… Votora,” I asked turning to where she was the night prior. She was gone. “Father where’s Votora?” I asked “Over there, on that hill. See her?” I look across the clearing and saw her standing there tall and proud. As we watched, she started to sway like a tree sapling in a breeze. Then she started to dance like a goddess of the wind; and as we watched her move gracefully over the hill top she began another graceful dance without stopping the first one; she began to dance like fire. She waved back and forth like a campfire in the wind. She moved her arms like the fire at top and her feet swayed like the inner most part of the flame; and just as sudden as the first change she danced the dance of earth. As she danced, her feet pounded the ground and we could feel the ground vibrate with the force of her feet, her whole body moved like the earth. Again, she shifted, this time the dance of water. Her movements were very fluid and graceful from one dance to another. By this time, the sun had already risen half way above the horizon. As I looked back to her, her dance shifted again, and this time all the elements combined. She was the most graceful dancer I have known. Her dance ended with her on one knee and hands over her chest when the sun was fully above the treetops. As she stood, I ran out to her to tell her what a beautiful dancer she was, but when I got to her, her eyes were red rimed and tears started to form in her eyes yet again. "What's wrong? Your dance was beautiful." I asked her, worried about what had her crying. "It is the dance of the Elements to greet the sun every morning. My mother taught it to me. Now I miss her even more," she said as tears began their decent down her face. "You know you could do that in her memory from now on, and you'll always have a piece of her with you." I said to her to comfort her sorrows. "I know. I always do the dance in her memory every morning since I arrived." Her tears seemed to dry up and her strength returned; she did not appear to be as fragile as she had just a few seconds ago, than she turned away. Looked at the sun, and sang softly a song:

Arkalow O Arkalow
Oh how your wind does blow
O’er the land
O’er the sea
Please take me back home

Nimloroth O Nimloroth
Save my watery soul
Lead my waves
And lead my ripples
Please return me home

Keldriel O Keldriel
Oh, how your Earth is soft
But a softer bed I seek
Not a dwelling in sight
Keldriel lead my spirit home

Frolosaur O Frolosaur
Of how your fire burns
Warms the day
And lights my way
Brighten my path home

“Oh that’s a nice song.” I remarked when she finished. “Thank you.” I had to try to repress a laugh because at that moment she suddenly seemed very shy…Again. I looked up at father and he too was suppressing laughter. “Votora, you seem to have many, many talents.” My father said as he walked back to the campfire that burned a bright gold and orange and blue in the center. We followed, and Votora sat nearest the fire and began to stroke it. “Be careful not to burn yourself, lil’ one. You will get hurt if not.” My father warned. “Don’t worry. As you said I have many talents,” and with that she cupped her hands and a piece of the center flame jumped to her hands. “Hehe, that tickles.” She said as we watched her move the fire from one hand to the other, along her arms and back to the starting hand. “My father told me when he first saw I could do this that meant that the Fire God, Frolasaur, was my guarding god. You see on my home world, all four Gods and Goddesses of the elements protect every person on the planet. God Frolasaur is my protector.” She explained when we looked at her with no understanding of what she said. After that, she returned the flame back to the fire and we ate breakfast in silence, each in their thoughts. After breakfast, we packed and saddled up for our third day of travel since we found Votora; for the rest of the day we were silent. When night came, she did another dance that was in reversed order to that of which she performed that morning, but this time when she ended, she was standing as tall as a mountain like how she began the dance in the morning. We soon learned that they were very important rituals for greeting the moon and sun on her home world. By mid-afternoon on the fourth day, we arrived at the trail where father and I started when we heard Votora’s escape pod crashed. “About how much further, may I ask, you’re Majesty?” Votora asked shortly after we started after breakfast. “Just about another few days; why?” Father replied with gentleness in his voice like always when talking to her. She seemed to have that effect, even today. “No reason really,” She responded. Then suddenly we heard a soft voice sing:

Oh Father Fire, Frolasaur
Oh Mother Land, Keldriel
Oh Father Wind, Arkalow
Oh Mother Water, Nimloroth

Your Fire burns to the east to west
Your Land stretch every direction
Your Wind touches every corner
Your Water washes your children’s spirits

Oh, how I sing this song of yours
With great belief that one day
You will guide my spirit home.

Oh Father Frolasaur
Spare me your light
Lend me your guidance
And strength
Your courage

Oh Mother Keldriel
Your Land is soft
But a softer bed I seek
Though no dwellings do I see

Oh Father Arkalow
Oh how your wind does blow
O’er the land
O’er the sea
Under my wings
Guiding my soul home

Oh Mother Nimloroth
Oh, how your world does glow
Thy spirit cleansed
And clear
Ready for my voyage home

“Why did you stop?” I asked. “That’s the whole song.” Votora said in a sadden voice. “My mother said I wasn’t ready for the longer songs yet.”

I heard the sound of approaching footsteps staggering in my direction. I fought against my restraints to try to get myself free. I was near panic that Votora had lost the fight and now the imposter was coming to finish me off, but as the footsteps drew ever that I began to hear the familiarity of the steps. Another few minutes and I saw that I was right. Votora had survived the battle… However, just barely, she had a bad stab wound in her left thigh and right shoulder. Her face looked bloody from the gash at her hairline above her left eye that stretched to over her right. She just barely had the strength to lift her swords to cut the lock and enter to cut through my chains. After she cut the chains, she began to collapse, and as she started to fall her swords clattered to the ground from her grasp. I caught her and lowered her gently to the floor of my prison cell. “Oh my god,” was all I could manage to say. “It’s not as bad as it seems.” She lied weakly through a bloody lip and rasping breath. Her eyes fluttered as she tried to breathe in gasps as she went unconscious. I looked at her broken body and wondered if she would make it. “We have to get out of here.” I said as I picked up her swords, re-sheathing them as well as I could, and picked her up and held her body close to mine and began to run for the exit to this surrealistic hell. It seemed like a millennia before I saw the light from the doorway at the other end of the room above my cell. On the floor was the man that had ambushed me off the grounds of the palace lying in a pool of his own blood in the center of the room, sprawled eagled on the bloody floor. When we got outside, I noticed that we were not at the cottage, but in the mountains overlooking the meadow that belonged to the young woman unconscious in my arms. I began to move toward the vehicle that Votora had arrived in. I laid her in the back while I got in to the driver’s seat. I started the engine and began to start down the mountainside. In about ten minutes, we were outside her cottage. I got her inside and on to her bed. I began to tend to her wounds. She began to stir but did not awaken. “It’s alright you’re safe.” I whispered to her as I stroked her hair back from the crown of her head. “You’re safe.” I cut and peeled her shirt off to tend to her torso, which looked wounded, the worst. “Holy hell,” I said as I looked at how bad her wounds were, and even though I knew how they got there, I had to ask, “What the hell happened?” I got a bowl down from one of her cupboards in the kitchen and ran out to the river that cut the meadow in half to get some water, and then I put a little saline that she kept in case of emergencies in to the water. I then grabbed a cloth from a drawer in her bedside table and began to clean her skin. I worked my way down and very gently cleaned her face, careful not to wake her with pain. As I cleaned her wounds, I began to see how bad they were. I grabbed some bandages from the same drawer that I got the cloth from, and carefully braced her head on pillows to get her head higher to make it easier to bandage her gashed forehead. As I worked my way down her neck and her chest, I began to notice that most of her wounds were not as severe as I thought beforehand. I rinsed the cloth and reached for another as that one soaked. I began cleaning her shoulders and collarbone. Damn it! If only I was more careful as to who was around me this would not have happened! This would not have happened! This is entirely my fault! DAMN IT ALL! I thought as I continued cleaning her shoulders and wounds. When I was done I changed the water and added another dose of saline to it, and went back to clean the rest of her wounds. She had many scratches that told me her opponent was just beyond her and she had to struggle to keep up. It seemed to me as I finished her shoulder and collarbone area that the only thing that kept her a head by even a second’s amount of time was her skill. As I began to wrap her shoulder, she jerked and gasped as her eyes flew open. “Whoa! Whoa, it is all right! It’s alright!” I said as I grabbed her and held her against me to stop her from hurting herself further. As I held her, I noticed that she was shaking like a leaf in a windstorm. She had returned to how she was when she first arrived. I rocked her back and forth to try to calm her down so I could finish cleaning her wounds. After what felt like an hour of holding her, she went to sleep again. I laid her down ever so softly, and finished wrapping her shoulder and chest. I began to clean the rest of the blood off her stomach. I found another gash that went from her right bottom rib to her left hip that would not stop gushing. I took her pants off and started to clean the wounds. It took all most a full hour to clean and try to stop the bleeding in her abdomen. When I finished bandaging her leg, the moon was starting to rise. I pulled a blanket over her naked and bandaged body to keep the nightly chill off. After burning her clothes that were blooded and useless, I went out and danced the dance of the moons that I had watched her do since that fourth night after finding her. As I finished I felt something inside me give and I dropped to the ground and cried the pain that I felt since I heard the first of the clash between swords at the beginning of the battle that so near deprived me of my one and only love. When I was done, I went to the river and washed my face then turned to go inside to sit beside her bed. I must have dosed off because next thing I know the sun has already risen far above the tree tops and looking down upon the land to found my head on her bed. I raised my head and looked at Votora as she slept. She looked like a broken angel that had fallen from the Heavens; I changed her bandages and went outside to start a signal fire. As I let up the first smoke signal, I heard a sound from inside. I dropped the blanket and ran inside to see that something had dragged her half way across the floor. I ran over to her and saw marks from what looked to be a human hand on her throat. I looked around and saw nothing that seemed to be out of the ordinary. I picked her up and moved her back to the bed. I went back out and finished with the smoke signals. After two hours of sending out smoke signals, I saw another set go up in the distance. I knew help was on the way. I went back inside and saw that somehow something had ripped her bandages and wounds wide open. “What? What happened?” I did not know what to make of it then I saw out of the corner of my eye what it was. A demon; it jumped at me. I went for her dagger that she had strapped under her bed as I ducked the attack. As it charged me, again I brought the blade up and caught it in the chest. It squealed as it withered on the ground and turned to dust. I got to work on bandaging and cleaning Votora’s wounds again, this time without her waking.
A week later help arrived, but still she does not wake. “My Prince, what happened? Where is Lady Votora?” Asked Borhtic Maktu, a childhood friend from the court; tall and muscular with a golden tan that he had developed during his years training to become a knight. His hair is a deep brown and slightly on the lengthy side and his eyes are a pure shocking green. His silver armor gleaming as polished armor should, bore the golden bolt of lightning in the center. “She’s inside. She has not woken for six days now. I begin to worry for her.” I said as we went inside to retrieve her. I put some clothes on her while Borhtic waited in the other room. “OK, help me get her outside and in the wagon, hold the door.” I said as I picked her up. As I got to the wagon Borhtic got in to the driver seat, “Why don’t you stay back there and keep an eye on her in the event that she wakes during the trip back to the city?” He suggested. “Sounds like a plan.” I replied.
The next morning, I woke beside Votora to see her stir, and finally, awake. “Votora, you’re awake!!” I said joyfully as I looked at her with a smile that could split my face in two. “’Bout time too,” Borhtic said with a broad smile as well on his face as he looked back to see her wake. “Huh? How long was I out?” She asked. “Going on seven days, you really had me worried.” I said, “Hell, you had us both worry. Hahahahah,” Laughed Borhtic. Votora and I joined in. She reached over, touched my face, and turned it to face hers. I reached out to her as well and knew right then that she knew that I loved her more then she gave credit. Then she whispered the three words I have waiting for: I love you.

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