Of Meetings and Snowfall by J.J Winters

Author:J.J Winters [Winters, J.J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-25T00:00:00+00:00

15

LEOS

He should not have turned back. As he left his house that morning, he got a strange feeling. He wanted to know she was still there. He feared the idea that she wasn’t. He couldn’t make sense of any of it. It was his understanding that it made a statement to not look back. Maybe it showed weakness? But he couldn’t stop himself from turning his body to see her one more time, and yet he was still surprised when he did. She had waited for him to disappear out of sight, and when he turned, she smiled again and waved a final goodbye. What else could he do but return the farewell? It was what he wanted in the first place, wasn’t it?

He cursed the distance between his domain and Michalis’s. It left him with all this time to think. He replayed the moment over and over. It was her image that stuck in his head. It took hold of his focus and wouldn’t let go. And all he could do was walk on. It must be nice to be Zephyel, to fly wherever he wanted with total cool. It must be convenient to be Michalis and use shadows to go where he pleased. He hadn’t inherited any such powers from his parents or his title. His mother wouldn’t have dared to complain about the walk. She would have waged a stubborn war against it and never tired. It would have been nice to at least have gotten some neat skill from his unknown father.

After a great deal of walking, the verdant plains began to change. The sky grew to be a rosy-pink. He neared a familiar lake and veered from the path. The water reflected the sky but was covered in a fine mist that settled over the surface. Though the gentle fog rolled along the water’s surface, the lake itself was mostly still but for the white swans leaving their graceful tracks. A single wooden boat was moored to a rickety pier, and it was that pier where he took his first break. He sat on its edge, letting his feet dangle just barely out of the water’s reach, and thought about what it would be like to bring Noa here. Likely it wouldn’t be enough for her feet to dangle. She’d want to trace them along the surface, disrupting the still water. She wouldn’t be satisfied until she had jumped in, he was sure. Then she’d climb back up on the pier, rest on her back, and watch the sky.

He shouldn’t really be thinking about that but about what he was going to say to Michalis. None of the speeches he had prepared seemed appropriate, and he would only open himself up to countering with a display of emotion. Leos looked toward the water’s surface, pulling forth a memory from his own reflection. Now two boys stared back at him—youthful, naïve, lively. Michalis turned his head, an easy smile on his face.

“Don’t we seem like brothers, Leos?”

“No.

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