The Fire Flickered
The fire flickered in the girl’s glaring eyes. She sighed heavily as she shifted her weight on the log she was sitting on.
The figure siting on the ground on the opposite side of the fire looked up and spoke. “Are you comfortable milady?”
“As comfortable as I’ll ever be,” she mumbled, still staring into the heart of the fire.
The figure tended to the fire in silence for a bit more, and then backed away from the crackling hearth, unconsciously put a hand around the hilt of his sword, and looked around into the encompassing darkness, scanning the boundary where light and shadow mingled for any hint of danger. Afterwards, he sat on his own log, opposite to the girl, who looked like she could collapse at any second under the strain of a world’s worth of troubles.
“Milady, you mustn’t be so dour. You know as well as I that a negative attitude can only make an already arduous journey even longer.”
“It’d help if I knew when this ‘journey’ was actually going to end.”
The other figure simply sighed, and rather unconvincingly said “Well, you know as well as I that we shan’t be out here for much longer.”
The girl looked down at the ground, and sighed, exasperated at, it seemed, everything in existence. “Jonathan, we’ve been doing this for four years. They’re going to find us one of these days, and you’ll know what they’ll do when they-”
“Milady, please, stop. It’s not good to keep thinking that way. If you give up hope now, then fate really will abandon you. At the very least, trust that I can protect you.”
“But for how long? Calvin and James didn’t even make it out of the castle, and Frederick was killed not even a year ago. What makes you think that you can continue to protect me on your own? It’s only a matter of time before, before-” The girl buried her face in her worn brown cloak, and started quietly sobbing. Jonathan got up, slowly walked over to the girl, and sat down beside her.
“Milady, as they died, your father and mother bid me to protect you. I shan’t break my vow to her to do so. You’re the rightful heir to the throne, and your people will need a ruler to lead them against those fiendish usurpers that that now subjugate the land.”
“The people? The people need me? What happened when I needed them? How many towns have we been cast out of, turned away because they were fearful of helping us? They were too afraid of somebody gutting them like a fish if they were known to be helping this pathetic excuse for a princess. The girl looked up at the fire again. A chill wind blew in, and it seemed to flicker more than ever. The umbra of night closed in around the tiny camp. She softly whispered, “I, I wonder if... if it’d be better for me to just throw myself into the fire, and save you the trouble of protecting me.”
Jonathan grabbed the girl’s hands. The girl turned her dirty, tear streaked face towards her loyal guardian, and saw the refection of the fire glimmer off the tears running down his young, yet worn, battle-scarred visage. “Promise me you will do no such thing. Please.”
“Why? Why should it matter? You finally go back. You could live a proper life. You could-”
“Annette, I love you.”
Annette’s eyes opened wide and her mouth hung open. “Jonathan, what? I-”
“And if my love means anything to you, you will promise me that you won’t be so cowardly as to just discard your life as if no one values it. I’ve watched over and protected you since your fifteenth year, and being at your side every day for these last four years, I’ve...”
“Fallen in love with me?”
“Yes.”
“Jonathan... I... Are you sure? It’s just... I’m an lowly exile with no shortage of assassins out for my head. What life we have left, it might not last long.”
Jonathan gently smiled. “My dear lady, would I have stayed by your side if I was not ready to meet that end? You know that I’d defend you to the very bitter end.”
Annette smiled, with tears in her eyes. “Thank you Jonathan. Thank you for loving me”
Annette closed her eyes, and wrapped her arms tightly around Jonathan. The fell wind softened into a gentle zephyr, and the fire regained its full strength. As the perimeter of light grew again, an ever alert Jonathan looked behind Annette, and spied the barely visible toes of a pair of boots at the edge of the circle of light, with the equally visible end of a crossbow seemingly gloating a few feet above them. Jonathan lunged for the ground, taking a startled Annette, who was still wrapped around him. Not a moment after the sound of a bolt whizzed past them, Jonathan jumped up, drew his sword, and with a prayer on his tongue, he charged towards the shadowy assailant.
“Annette, stay safe.”
The fire, in his heart, and his eyes, began to blaze. He only hoped that it wouldn’t be abruptly extinguished by a bolt to the forehead.
-Josh (Jukebox)
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