Flash Fiction

The Goddess

I was beginning to tire. Rhiannon had failed to appear as I had hoped. Still I prayed, my dress no longer a blessed white. The rain I tried to ignore had turned it a shade darker, dirtier. I defied the storm knowing that the horse Goddess would not want welcome my fear of her life giving waters.

I had been two days on the rocks. Seated where once Rhiannon had appeared before. I was a child then, before she called me her priestess. I had done all she asked. I would do more if she would only guide me. I ask but one thing from her. It was that request that held me to the rock. I would weather any storm for Rhiannon. I would weather even more for Gowerr. I did not hide my love from my prayers. Rhiannon would not welcome deceit.

"You ask much, my child," the soft voice, so loving and sweet, came from behind. How it permeated past the rain and found my ears I did not know. I turned and her love flooded me as my memories told me it would. I smiled, the blessed rain no longer feeling so cold.

Rhiannon stood before me, dry as if the rain dared not moisten one so lovely. Her eyes bore through me and I knew my heart was open to her. Explanations were not necessary. I was hers as much as I was Gowerr's.

"His wounds are grave, my goddess," I pleaded, "I have done all the healing I know and still he fevers." A small bird, yellow with a bright orange breast, fluttered from one shoulder to Rhiannon's other, immune to the storm as well. Somehow, it made me hopeful.

"All life has a beginning and an end, my child," Rhiannon soothed, her hand softly caressing my cheek, "what you ask will only delay that which must come." My tears lost themselves among those that fell from the sky. The fever would not break as I had hoped. I steeled my heart and knew what I must do. I stood.

"I will hold him then," I said, now that I knew my prayers were for naught, "he will know my love as I have known his." The bird flittered back to the original shoulder. It was a lovely thing.

"Yes, my child, hold him," Rhiannon smiled liked sunshine, her love blanketing my coming grief, "You must hurry, though his time is short." I felt my heart leaden and my eyes dropped to the rocks, away from my Goddess' beauty. I felt Gowerr's love slipping away as she spoke. I knew I must hurry. "Mortal life is a fleeting thing," Rhiannon continued, "I will hold him here, for you love. But know that I will do so for no longer than fifty winters. Hurry, so he will know your love as I do."

I looked up and my Goddess was gone. Tears of joy mixed with the rain. I ran. I had a mere fifty years to show Gowerr my love. Fifty years of nights to prove I am his. My Goddess has seen fit to guide me. I shall not let her down.