part one .part two .part three .I have waited for so long.
I can't count the months any longer. It could have been years for all I know. I have a horrible sense of time, I can't even keep track of anything anymore. It doesn't matter to me anyway, not without my Dolce. I didn't realize until she was gone, how much I truly liked having her around. She gave me something to look forward to, a reason not to give up and just wander off somewhere to die. We grew close, and though it was uncomfortable and unfamiliar to me at times, I did enjoy talking with her. I never had a friend, before I saved miss Dolcemente, and I wasn't always sure how to react to things, I wasn't always sure how to respond or what subjects to let lie, but she didn't mind, and she helped me learn. I think that our relationship was even starting to progress, towards the end-- I thought that we were starting to become more than friends. I had begun to feet something different for her.
But now that she's gone, I'm alone again, every day. Nobody needs me anymore, nobody wants to talk to me, not even the songbirds in the trees. I wander the abandoned forest alone on the outskirts of the village, eating berries as I find them, drinking from the stream when I feel faint. The way I live now, it feels as though a cloud of pain and sorrow surrounds me at all times, shielding out happiness from my life, keeping away the feeling of sunshine. I feel no reason to continue on, no reason to keep going.
Instantly I snap out of my reverie. Someone is coming, quickly, towards me. Caught offguard, I quickly scan my surroundings, and find that I have wandered to the place on the riverbank where I saved Dolcemente that first day, all those years ago. I have nowhere to hide, I have nowhere to go. I stand there, frozen in place, exposed, and tense. A dark shape whips around the corner too fast for me to even duck out of the way, and crashes into me, sending us both tumbling down along the bank, until we come to a stop just inches from the water. I wait, expecting to hear the shrieks of pain, expecting for the dark shape to reel back away from me and stumble off to die somewhere. But to my complete shock, I experience neither of those things. Instead, I open my eyes, and I see nothing but two giant rings of pale, glacial blue, of which seem to hold all my muscles in place as I realize what I am looking at. She reacts before I can collect myself."My Affliction ..."
Her eyes well up, as though their icy centres are melting away. The tears fall onto my face, and stick to my fur where they land. Dolcemente collapses, laying across me, and buries her soft, beautiful face into my neck, crying. I let her cry, and eventually end up crying with her, as I feel the hateful, depressive cloud lift away, the cooling sense of sunshine taking its place.
Soon, the light begins to fade. Dolce's tears have finally dried, and I pull away from her, moving back to get a look at her face while I can still see. What I find there shocks me.
Dolce is older. Years older. She is still the most beautiful creature I have ever had the fortune to witness in my lifetime, but I can see the aging process wearing her down. She looks tired, and bulkier, all her baby fat faded away to make room for new, stronger muscles. The expression of awe on my face is mirrored on hers."You haven't changed,"
she whispers, leaning back onto her haunches. "It's been three years, yet you don't look a day older."
"Three years,"
I breathe. I cast my eyes down, letting the relief finally flood into me as I allow myself to accept that she really is here. "I .. wasn't sure if you were even still alive."
"What does that mean ?"
My face blushes in embarrassment as I look away. I don't want to tell her. However, I've forgotten that she's smart. "You don't age, do you ?"
she asks slowly. I shake my head, and she sighs in surprise.
Before she can comment, I ask, "Why did you leave me ?"
My voice breaks at the end of the question.
Dolce's expression softens to agony as she looks at me, and her lip quivers. "They... they found out where I had been all those mornings, and ..."
She bursts out in tears, and falls into me, crying against my shoulder as she tries to explain. "They wouldn't let me come to you, Flic, they wouldn't let me see you... didn't want to lead them here... didn't want them to hurt you ..."
When her tears finally stop flowing, she looks up at me, and I can see the weariness in her eyes. "I ran away today. I ran, early this morning, before the sun was up, and I left far off course, so that they couldn't follow me, so they wouldn't find you... but we have to go, we can't stay, we have to find somewhere to hide until they stop looking for me... "
"Dolce,"
I interrupt quickly, as her words finally begin to make sense to me. "What ...
'we' ? "
She rests her forehead against mine as she nods. "We,"
she repeats. "I ... I love you, Flic, it's too late for me to go back anyway. I don't belong in the village with them, I can't belong there now, not after all you've showed me... I want to stay ... with you... Please ?"
I feel my face reddening again; I was not prepared for that. What do I say ? "Dolce... I ... I've never ... loved anyone before, but ... I don't want you to go back there ..."
She looks confused at my words. Finally, I smile. "Well come on, we'd better get going."
She grins wider than I've ever seen, and kisses my nose. "I've always wanted to live in the mountains."
--
Dolcemente and I ran for five days, barely stopping. We didn't know where we were going, but we just ran, knowing that wherever we ended up, we'd be happy enough, as long as we were with each other. We eventually found an unoccupied territoury in a small valley to the north, with a big lake and a series of tunnels to take shelter in. We grew closer every day, until I finally learned what love felt like.
I always knew Dolce would not outlive me, but I didn't care, I wanted to be with her, and I knew she would always be with me, even if she could not be here physically. She asked me one day the hardest question I've ever had to answer. She asked me how old I really was."I'm two hundred and twenty-one, Dolce,"
I mumbled.
She looked at me for a long time, calmly, though I could see a wave of emotions in her eyes. This was the day that she said to me the one thing I'll remember until the day I take my last breath. She says,"I'll be with you always, my handsome Affliction, in your frozen heart, I'll always be right here."
She touches my chest as she says it, causing that thrilling sensation of warm tingles... goosebumps, she always called it.
On the day Dolce moved on from this mortal world, I told her something as well, just before she was gone. I rested my forehead against hers, and kissed her cheek softly. "I will never love anyone else the way I loved you,"
I tell her. "I won't forget you. Best of all, I've got a piece of you still living here with me, Dolce."
"And what's ... that ?"
she pants quietly."Our daughter,"
I remind her, a heavy tone of affection in my voice. Upon hearing those two simple words, Dolce closes her eyes, and smiles softly. "I love you,"
I whisper, as she drifts away from me.
------
Finally finished:) Hope you guys like the ending of this ♥ 
by Deajh » Tue Jun 01, 2010 10:26 am 
& 
&
