The Tale of Fire and Ice
~seikiunne11
5/31/2013
1:05am
She was fire. He was ice.
She was born in love, grew up in passion, and lived in warmth and happiness. He was born out of fate, grew up in loneliness, and lived in cold and isolation. She brightened up every place she went to. He darkened every place he passed. She was day; he was night. She was the heat of summer; he was the dead of winter.
They were never destined to meet; fate forbade it because all forces of nature knew it was an impossible occurrence. If by chance they would meet, not even the gods knew the impossible was bound to happen.
But in love, nothing was impossible.
One day, she was flying freely in the sky, like a bird soaring so high. By chance she flew over the land of ice. She shivered at the cold winds, although she was completely made of fire. The coldness enveloped her, surrounded her, immobilized her, until she felt numb and fell unconscious from the sky.
Every night he watched the sky. Every day it was blue in different shades, and every night it was black. Never was there any form of bright light. He liked looking up the skies; curious to see what could be up there, what could be behind that curtain of dark clouds. One night he saw a bright star shoot across the dark sky. His eyes brightened in excitement, he felt a warm feeling rushing in his chest, the first time in his existence that he felt such thing.
He glided across the icy waters, snowflakes trailing behind him like dust. He followed to where the star would land, wondering what a star looked like up close. He had only heard of stars in stories of the old, how warm they were and how beautiful they were. It was something new to him, it entranced him, and he wanted to know what it was. He was curious: he wanted to carry the story of seeing a star up close, and that way he’d be popular. He wanted that kind of warmth: fame and recognition.
Fire as she was, she landed on a mountain of snow and melted her way into it. The cold of the environment slowly crept into her; she started to lose her light. Her fiery hair losing its colorand was becoming silvery white. She woke and tried to stand, but losing her fire also meant losing her strength.
Then he appeared above her. In her eyes the most beautiful being she has ever seen. His hair as dark as the midnight sky, his face icy silver as the snowflake she always wished to see. His face had that blank expression, and she met it with a weak smile. He reached down and offered his hand to her, she took it in hers and he pulled her up to stand. That spark, that sudden warmth, was it only her that felt it? The white strands of her hair regained their redness and she had her fiery strength back in an instant. Still he had not spoken a word, nor even gave a smile. While she, enjoying the warmth she felt in the cold land, couldn’t find the right words to express the happiness she felt.
The moment their hands touched, fire on ice, they neutralized each other’s bodies. He felt her warmth running in his veins, entering his cold heart. She felt her coldness, creeping in her body, invading her heart. At that moment, they shared something they never felt in their whole lifetime. They didn’t know what it was. They didn’t like it nor detest it. But they kept holding to one another, they never spoke a word. Hand in hand, staring deep in each other’s eyes, they walked to nowhere.
In time, as fated, love grew between them. Each day in the land of ice was filled with echoing laughter, happiness resounding in the silence, the aurora lights and stars guiding them as they flew over glaciers and ice caps. Each day was something to remember, something to be cherished, and something that would be kept in their hearts forever.
But as it is fated, their love was deemed impossible. It was only in time that they would realize that their love surpassed all odds. They started to lose themselves.
She forgot herself, the fire she was. She had stayed too long in the land of ice. Her once bright hair now a dull white, her eyes that shone like molten gold now greenish and lifeless, her bright and cheery demeanor now gone and replaced by her passive and quiet self. While he, being in his own environment, seemed to suck out all her energy and life. He became more active and outgoing than he was before. And as more days passed, he started leaving her behind, saying that she was too weak to catch up with him. He also said she had changed; she wasn’t the same girl he used to have fun with. She wasn’t the girl he fell in love with.
Her heart, that heart filled with love and passion, slowly died down into ashes, like a roaring fire suddenly doused in water. And for the first time in her existence, water leaked out of her eyes; she cried over her dying heart, she lamented at her lost self.
As he was busy frolicking with his kind, savouring his newfound popularity, she started to regain herself. She needed to decide. As much as he loved him more than her life, she could not bear feeling unloved. He had neglected her, he left her, and he didn’t want her anymore. He had no use for her.
He had forgotten her.
Her anger rose, her wings of fire spread out, she was ready to fly away and escape all the sadness that fate brought her. But he suddenly held her back. He asked for forgiveness for his actions, he said he was only giving her time to be back to the way she used to be. He said he loved her. He said he could never live without her.
But his eyes, his eyes spoke the truth, while his tongue was all lies.
Her heart sank, she commanded him to tell the truth, if it was love that he truly felt.
Seeing there wasn’t any way to escape, he finally told the truth. He never truly loved her. He couldn’t really love her the way she did love him. He said they were too different. He said she was unbearable most of the time and he couldn’t keep up. He only told her he loved her because she was something new, she was something exciting, she was something to be discovered. He only kept her because he didn’t want to lose her, not because of love but only because he was curious.
He lied to her.
He had been lying to her all this time.
Fire, she looked up to the dark sky and saw a flickering light, she knew it was time to go. It was her last guiding light, so she could go back home, so she could pick up the pieces of her lost life.
One last look at him, his icy form, she touched her cheek, giving him warmth for the last time.
“I crossed worlds to be with you. I broke fate to meet you. I did what was impossible. And now, it is my fault that I got this ruined by you. I loved you with all that is me. You just gave me lies to keep me, to use me. And now I give up trying to wait for the time that you would ever truly love me.”
With one last look, with one last kiss, she flew high in the sky.
Never looking back, never to return.
Her eyes that once shone like molten gold, now forever green: a memory of that one time that she loved, the only memory of him.
~End
