Afterward: Of Sword & Shield (Emperor x Tav)

5

A/N: There will be a music video available to listen to. It is the melody Tav hears and is meant to enhance the reader's experience, too. I recommend playing it while reading the scene at the same time if background noise does not interfere with your literary focus.

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After a worthwhile moment of conversation your eyes shut, and you are transcended into a dream. An unfamiliar dream. One that you have not dreamt of before.

“This way,” his voice calls to you in a different tone—your Dream Guardian.

Your line of vision zooms down to both your hands, your beige palms and fingers flexing as you wriggle them, and your garments a suit of an off shade of white with elegant silver embroidery and beaded pearls. You are once again human. Uncannily odd, yet normal at the same time.

“Where are we?” You question him, approaching your guardian while your dark-emerald high ponytail softly sways from side-to-side.

“A meadow,” he answers, his attire a crisp and white suit with gold foiled stitching accented with tiny gems and lustrous beads.

You glance around the meadow in admiration, fireflies skimming past your Dream Guardian and you as the night sky caresses the world with a serene blanket. You do not recognize this place. Even through the many worlds and planes you have traversed to, this place does not trigger a single memory.

“Did you summon us here?” You ask, your attention distracted while he slips both his cool-gray fingers in-between the gaps of your beige fingers, pulling you closer to his body.

“No.” He laughs a little, his laughter filled with liveliness. “I did not.”

“Did I summon us?”

Your Dream Guardian looks at you with a doting gaze, his black sclera and purple eyes jumbled and filled with apparent perplexity.

“No,” he sheepishly replies, an endearing smile on his face.

Then this…this is a dream. You conclude in bewilderment.

“Look at me, Tav.”  

His words draw you back to him and your eyes align with his. Gradually, the corners of your faintly tinted beige-pink lips lift.

“I haven’t seen you in this form in a long time,” you mischievously remark. “How odd. One would think they would hold resentment after being deceived by their blinding fantasy, but strangely enough…I don’t.”

“…” Your Dream Guardian does not react to your comment. He only smiles at you while keeping hold of your interlocked hands.

“Well…did you want to show me something?” You tease him, small chuckles trailing behind the question asked.

He endearingly chuckles along with you, and then he places your hands over his broad shoulders and around his neckline.

“Oh? Are we dancing?” You exclaim in fright and wonder. “I did not think you were the sort to dance. Especially since I did not take you for such a cultured adventurer.”

“You’d be surprised,” he comments on your remark with a warm smile, his voice smoother than any ship sailing brackish waters.