The Moon Beyond the Mist

18. Bittersweet injustice

The air was thick with fatal fortune's heavy sighs and the mists swam with cool whispers of untold sorrows; it was like walking through a nightmare. Maria and Robin moved in silence, immersed in their own thoughts as the trees grew thicker and the path became narrower.

They had set off following the flight of the crow, however as the foliage above banded closer together, she followed her instinct on which direction to walk. The fog was dense and grey, yet with every turn, Maria visualised a white unicorn marking the way and cutting through the mist with the courage manifested within her.

Spindly limbs of dried out bracken caught at their ankles, masking the ground and the holes that infested it. They would have continued on in their pensive state, were it not for the sudden burbling of a rapid current that filled the hush of the woods and caught Maria's attention.

"It must be a tributary leading off to the Northern River, if we walk south from here we should be able to reach the heart of the forest..."

Her words died out as she turned and looked at Robin for the first proper time in almost an hour. Normally so bold and confident among the trees, his breathing was now laboured with a hand pressed to his side. Guilt washed over her as she recalled their tumble down the rocky slope. He had sacrificed his body so many times for her over the past few days, and yet she had allowed herself to be overcome by her confused emotions, not thinking to check on Robin despite her personal embarrassment.

Inwardly cursing herself, she rushed to help Robin down onto an old and faded tree stump, which sat long forgotten within the frail bushes. He refused to stop moving at first, arguing that he was fine without rest, but relented when the pain across his abdomen flared angrily against his efforts to walk.

His belt was digging into the flesh at his hips, so he loosened the buckle and let it drop to the ground, quickly followed by his jacket as he allowed his head to roll back through the mist. Before he could still her hand, Maria had reached down and pulled up the leg of his trouser, gasping at the steady flow of blood that was now dripping past his ankle. Her eyes flickered up and lingered at the neckline of his shirt, where dark purple bruises were shadowing his pale skin.

"You should have said something, Robin!" she muttered, applying pressure to the jagged wound that cut across his shin. "You've bled enough for my sake."

"We have no time, Princess," he replied with a low groan, "we'll never make it if we don't keep walking now."

Maria's eyes glazed over as she knelt before Robin, a sudden comprehension clouding her sight and heartache numbing every inch of her body. This was not Robin's battle, he had done enough to protect her now. Moonacre was his home, and she would defend it for him up until her final breath. A knight may wield a sword, but a princess could be twice as deadly with only a smile.

"Then don't. Stay here until you are recovered, I will go alone," her words seemed to echo through the deathly silence. "If I am not able to come back to you, follow the Northern River to the de Noir castle; if you keep to the bank the ground should not be so hard on you and there won't be any bracken to catch your feet."

"You cannot mean that—" Robin's words were cut off at Maria's careful touch, her hands smoothing back the wild curls across his forehead and running down the sides of his neck, brushing his tangled feathers through her fingers as if setting them within her memory.

"You must promise me that you'll look after yourself, Robin. You've done too much for me; you must take care of yourself for once. These wounds won't heal over in a day or two."

Her voice was kind and tender as if they had simply been strolling through the forest on a warm summer's afternoon. But her gaze was detached, despondent within the decaying mass of grey undergrowth. Robin felt his throat grow tight and his chest heave as he realised he could not stop her. She was as wild and free as the sparrows soaring up into the sky, the minnows that flickered through the streams and the proud unicorn that watched over her every step. Her love for Moonacre was as passionate as his love of her. He understood that now, and yet, he could not bear to let her part from his side.

A soft warmth blossomed against the palm of his hand, and he looked down to see Maria with eyelids fluttered shut, her lips pressed sweetly upon his skin as if wishing his body to health. Steeped in mist and radiating a gentle serenity, she looked as though she were carved meticulously from stone and left to kneel for eternity deep within the woodlands.

"Don't go," Robin whispered, his voice dry and cracking as his fingers desperately stretched to trace her soft cheek.

When she finally looked up at him, her eyes were dark and heavy, filled with the visions of every Moon Princess that had come before her. A burden carried for centuries weighed upon her eyelids. "You know that I must."

However, Robin knew that she was not the creation of fate nor destiny nor any number of princesses that may have formerly walked her path. She was Maria Merryweather; the moon and stars that were scattered across his soul and illuminated his nights, causing his thoughts to swirl into galaxies as he looked upon her face.

His fingers caught her face as he lowered his head and kissed her with the intensity of a thousand waves of emotion crashing into the cliffs in foaming bubbles and dappled light. Tender affection reached him first, their lips moving in time with the shifting of the rocks deep below the earth's crust. Devotion and ardour took its place as Maria pressed herself into him, a soft sigh breaking the silence as Robin wrapped his arms around her and rooted their bodies together. If they could just get closer, become one with the forest and never leave this spot, perhaps then they could escape their parting. Rage at the bittersweet injustice of it all swept through the kiss with bursts of flame and fury, and suddenly they were alight. A boy and a girl, desperately in love yet doomed to be separated, holding onto one another in the face of a vast and wistful universe.

Time slowed his terrible pace, as he does for lovers, and allowed them a few more moments than truly existed. In the darkness of the forest, shrouded within the fog, the two burnt up and blazed into the night, lighting up the world in their brief seconds of bliss.

"Come back to me," he growled, eyes flashing menacingly as his lips formed the words against her own.

She smiled then, with a gentle melancholy that sent a shiver through the fog and shook the forest. Their foreheads rested against one another, breaths hushed as they immersed themselves in a sliver of happiness. But all too soon the cold touch of mist took its place, and by the time that Robin had opened his eyes, she was gone.

❖

A/N Hello readers, I'm back and here to hopefully bring a little more magic to the weekend! Although, I thought you deserved an earlier release for this chapter as thanks for being so patient. I hope the chapter was worth the wait, let me know what you think? ^^

Also, another big thank you to everyone who has commented/messaged me on the story while I've been away. You're all so wonderful and I feel incredibly fortunate to have a part in this lovely corner of the internet with you! :)