Loving Rain (Watty Awards 2011)

Chapter 13 - The Explanation

Loving Rain - Ch. 13

_________________________

“Hurry up, Rain!” Alan hollered at me, his paw firmly clasped around my tiny hand. I was running as fast as I could through the castle hallways, but his longer legs were able to travel so much quicker than my short ones. My breath was coming out in short little puffs, just trying to make sure enough oxygen reached my lungs. After so long being cooped up in a tiny room, physical exertion was going to be hard.

               Especially this much of it. I hadn’t realized the night Alan locked me up here that the tower was so far away from the parts of the castle I had most frequently roamed. To my body, it seemed like days of running before we finally reached a spot that I even recognized. I think Alan wanted to pick me up and just carry me, because he kept taking quick glances behind his back at me, but he must’ve been too nervous of how I would react. Honestly, I really kind of wanted him to do it. Running was just exhausting.

               We finally reached the doors of my old bedroom. Alan turned swiftly around as soon as we got there, forcing me to take a few steps back. He was so big. I felt like he had grown two feet since I had last really looked at him, but I knew that had to be an exaggeration. Nobody grew that fast, even growing teenage boys.

               “Do you know what today is, Rain?”

               I bit my lip. No… I hadn’t counted my marks for awhile. Honestly, I had been so out of it, I didn’t even know if I had been making them often enough. “Uhm... No,” I told him honestly, but then hastily added, “I’m sorry. Should I?”

               His eyes flashed with something that I hadn’t seen before; could that have possibly been regret? It was such a strong emotion that it even found its way into his voice. “No, I guess not. There would be no way of you knowing.”

               Well, I wanted to say, there actually was a way. I did at least know that it was fall. Because the last time I counted was in July, and it had to have been several months since then. It might be right around September by now. But I just averted my eyes, not wanting to tell him of my secret for some reason. Maybe just because it was mine, and he didn’t deserve it yet.

               His hand reached out to my shoulder. The touch warmed my insides, causing what I knew would be a blush, but at the same time this voice in the back of my head kept wanting me to shudder away from it. You’re just paranoid, I told myself. Stop it.

               As Alan opened the doors, the hand that was gently caressing me reached up and covered my eyes. “This is another surprise,” he murmured in my ear. “Because today is your birthday.”

               My birthday? That meant I was seventeen. Being seventeen meant that… in exactly one year, I would be married to him. The spell would be broken. Alan would be human. I pulled the hand off my eyes, looking up into his bear-like face.

               I wouldn’t see him like this anymore. He’d be different. His face would be smooth, except for maybe the prickly feel of manly whiskers in the evening. Those lips that had taken my first kiss and all the kisses after that would be even more soft and gentle. The blue eyes he had…

               Would still be the same, I was reminded, looking back into them deeply. He had turned around when I was studying him, and our eyes met simultaneously. Those eyes stopped everything: even time. A serenity just flooded through my veins and my mind floated through the abyss of that deep blue color. We stood there almost endlessly, his hand reaching up to my cheek, brushing against it softly, full of so much love it seemed ready to explode through every pore of his body. And I knew I wasn’t much different.