Private Tales Only For A Day

[Lyta]

Lyta watched over the rim of her cup as Mikko made them sandwiches and hid her smile by taking another sip of the warm drink. It was endearing and sweet. Something she was not used to when travelling with Brom, who would have handed her a stale bit of cheese and called it edible. Brom's strategy was always tough love, Mikko's... Mikko's she had not fully figured out yet.

Finishing the rest of her tea she too rid it of the dregs then handed back the cup and accepted his hand to mount the red elk, even though she did not need it. There was something sweet about the gesture that stopped her from refusing it. Once in her saddle she nibbled on the sandwich as Mikko talked.

"I always preferred a sunset," Lyta admitted with a shy smile. "It is not very often I get to see the sunrise. Usually the Dreamscape keeps me until noon, sometimes later."

 

[Mikko Cendrillon]

Mikko raised his brows, sounding his surprise at her admittance. "Well, Lady Lyta, this is your first glimpse in so long. What do you think of it?"

Lyta looked beautiful in this soft light. Sunsets were always a golden warmth, but a sunrise was such as this had painted her in a soft glow. She looked like a living dream, and one he did not mind not waking from. He had to avert his gaze, afraid of staring and... remembering what it was he had said to her last night. Mikko had been very close to wanting to kiss her, but even he knew such a spell would be as sweet the moment they were both ready for it.

One day, he would do all of this right.

He was going to take the time to get to know her, court her, and introduce her to his family. And being on this trip with her is not the time for such courting. She was a Guardian on duty, and he was here in place of Brom, someone he really did not want to cross.

"How does this compare with your sunsets?" He grinned.

 

[Lyta]

Lyta turned her face towards the rising sun and closed her eyes to savour the feeling of warmth after the cold night. A soft smile creased her cheeks and when she opened her eyes they were full of quiet joy, though tinged with a hint of regret.

"It makes me realise I miss a lot of when Dreaming," the Guardian had said it so quietly it was not obvious whether she had intended to give voice to her thoughts. The tinge of regret was gone by the time she glanced to Mikko though.

"It is beautiful. Do you paint such things or do you prefer people?" She tilted her head curiously.

 

[Mikko Cendrillon]

"I like to capture images that remind me of my life. Things that made me happy in passing, or simply something so gorgeous, it begs to be made immortal." He looked to her a little longer than he'd like, and turning away gave Lyta the perfect view of his blushing cheek.

"You know, I haven't spoken about my artwork like this with anyone... not even my sister." But he enjoyed telling Lyta about it all. She was the muse he was now catching; her life as a Guardian, the idea of her travels, her very beauty... He found himself enraptured with her. "I don't feel like I am here as a Cendrillon of the Vanguard."

And as soon as he said those words, guilt weighed on his shoulders.

 

[Lyta]

"Talking bout passions is important... The Ancestors must agree with me or they would not have left us with a stone dedicated to it," Lyta allowed herself a small smile at the joke. Her eyes were trained on the horizon so she missed Mikko's blush. The snow had continued for most of the night and it now softened the landscape around them, turning it into a winter wonderland. The town Mikko had earlier mentioned was now visible in the hillside, illuminated by a hundred different lanterns that looked like hazy fireflies.

"You must stop thinking of yourself as two different people - the soldier and the man. You are both and there are times when you must give each part of yourself the appropriate time to exist. Otherwise, you will find in ten years you have killed a part of yourself."

 

[Mikko Cendrillon]

Mikko could not begin to formulate how to tell Lyta he was always thinking himself in such a way. He had to be what his family expected of him, but as he grew older, he began to pursue other things that were not the makings of a soldier. His brother's teased him for it, only making him hide his art and interests and put on the front of a dutiful soldier that was acceptable of the Cendrillons.

It was his sister that insisted on seeing the other side of him.

"I was a foolish boy." He breathed out a light chuckle. "I wanted to impress my father by being like my older brothers and forgot to think of myself until I was much older." And Mikko was good at being a Cendrillon soldier, like many generations before him.

 

[Lyta]

"We are all foolish when we are young," Lyta said with gentle sympathy and glanced across to her companion with a smile. "My own mother was very clear the path she wished for me, even if it damned me in a way to a life of a near ghost. It took me a long time to remember I did not have to do the job how she did it, that I could make it my own. You too will find the balance," looking ahead towards the town again Lyta loosed a breath that fogged in the cold air before her.

"Come, let us think of the present. Ghosts are best left behind when the sun rises," with a click of her tongue she spurred the red elk into a steady lope.

At Lyta's request they skirted the main town and continued on to the small village beyond. That there was something wrong with the village was apparently from the lone road that led to the wooden gates. Usually such a track would be bustling even on an early winters day such as this but it was quiet and the snow only amplified the silence. Lyta frowned but said nothing as they drew closer. Nobody met them at the gates which were left open and inside the streets appeared deserted.

"This is not good..."