Eternal Sleep [On Hold but Not Forgotten]

Darkness Deceives

As Phillip lay down to sleep, I was restless. Everything that I'd been through and the things that I'd seen in my dreams left me chewing on the prospects of a kingdom shrouded in darkness forever left me terrified as to what might happen if we were to fail on this mission to rescue me.

Apparently, I was noisier with my pacing than I'd meant to be, as Charger stirred from his own, standing sleep. He neighed softly at me, curious as to why I was so upset and how everything was not perfectly fine. I envied his ignorance to the true situation surrounding us. I glided forward and placed my hands feebly within his mane and he did not stray from my touch as I began to adorn him with intricate braids. He appeared to be enjoying the makeover when I heard Phillip stir and come to stand beside me.

His hand laced its way around where my ghostly one made efforts to tidy Charger's hair. To my surprise, his hand was able to touch mine. Whirling about, I realized that he had taken on his Traumwanderung form to come join me in the sleeping world. I smiled gently as he embraced me and held me for what seemed like eternity on this silent night. I was grateful that he didn't speak or move any further to try and intensify the moment. I was just grateful for the human—daemon—touch and comfort in this time of great stress and worry.

Reaching up, I placed my hand softly against his cheek and smiled. His blue eyes searched my weary silver ones as a tear traced its way down my own. He brushed it away and began to run his fingers through my hair, but still said nothing. I couldn't understand how I was drawn to him or how I'd ever fallen for the "love at first sight" legend; yet, here I was—completely entranced by this person that I'd just met and who had meant nothing more to me than a nuisance thanks to my mother's deceit and greater plans. I hated that creature, Lilith. Why should she deny me what was rightfully mine? I couldn't help whatever squabble she had with my father. She had chosen to have me.

"I hope we don't fail," I finally whispered.

"We won't. You need to have more faith than that in me," Phillip winked.

I rolled my eyes. Ever the joking trickster, he was. But I enjoyed the lack of seriousness with which he approached everything. It was a nice spot of refuge from my racing thoughts and uncertainties as to whether or not we'd ever be free of our predicament. I should have been more considerate: the betrothal could have been just as binding to him as it was to me had he approached it with the same negativity. Sometimes it was best to just let Fate decide rather than exacerbate the issues that we could not control or understand until they finally revealed themselves. I wished I had the forethought to consider such a thing earlier.

"The tower is so far off; I don't even know how to do what my mother did to get there," I whined.

So much for the positive spirit he was trying to keep. Despite my understanding of optimism being the better option in this situation, I still opted to be the pessimist of our relationship. I could hardly stand the thought of being paired with another person of my same mindset. We would never have made it this far.

"What did your mother do to get you there, exactly?"

I pondered this and tried hard to remember what she had done. It all seemed like it had happened an eternity ago, rather than just two days.

"Once she taught me Traumwanderung, she managed to just have us glide really fast and arrive at the castle," I said softly.

"Hm... that's strange. I've never heard of a daemon being able to travel quite that fast," Phillip said curiously.

"Yeah, I don't know. All I know is that we got to the castle and all the people were there and my father was upset that I'd been put to sleep. Then she revealed that she wasn't going to assist me on my journey and that was it. I was left alone and floated my way out of the castle and to your cottage."