Beyond The River

WATER & WISDOM

This girl however was encapsulated by my father's words. 

"An Ashleigh? Are you the Prince Ashleigh? Does that mean you're a human?" she asks, with a light in her eyes.

"Yes. Yes I am both. The prince and a human." My father replies, still a bit uncomfortable.

The girl keeps staring at him with star like eyes, so he clears his throat and asks, "Is Achlys here? Can I see her?"

With those words he diminishes her light, her eyes become sad, her hair not so vibrant anymore. "Oh, so you're here for my sister?" she asks in a dull tone.

"Yes, your sister. I want her, I-I mean I want to meet her." he says. His cheeks turn bright red at his own words.

"Right. Of course. You want Achlys." She says in barely above a whisper.

Her last words echo eerily in the air as everything starts to swirl and gradually the whole scene dissolves, and a new set appears instead.

This time I'm standing in a forest, and I just know that it's the forest of Reveigh. My father and mother are still in their late teens, lying on their backs on the soft grass, staring at the night sky twinkling with jewel like stars.

Her dark brown hair are splayed on the grass as she giggles slightly, looking at a shooting star pass by, and says "This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." My father, who's been looking at her says, "Yes, it's the most beautiful view I've ever seen too."

The scene shifts again and I'm standing between two girls in their early twenties, one of them was my mother while the other was the girl with white hairs, both of them women now.

My mother stands in a beautiful lush green dress and her hair wildly undone with a look of determination on her face, while the other woman is in a pale blue gown with her hair neatly braided in a single long plait that falls to her hips, she stands still like grief with sadness in her eyes.

"Maiara, you have to understand that I love him. I cannot help it. I can't stay!" My mother says like she's barely controlling her anger.

"Everyone is perfectly capable of helping themselves Achlys." The woman, Maiara, says in a calm tone.

"You don't understand. I love him, I can no longer live without him. And we both know that he loves me too!" My mother says on the verge of screaming.

"I am the calm waters of rivers, that flows past everything it helps to grow and yet never stays, all it does is give and give until it no longer can, and you think I don't understand love?" Maiara asks, and she isn't accusing or taunting my mother, she simply asks.

"But you know that if you let your love for him prevail, then you will destroy not only your life but everything else that is yours too. From your happiness to your family, everything will be destroyed by fate." Maiara says, letting the sadness in her eyes seep into her words.

"But why does it have to be that way? Why can I not simply love him and spend my life with him happily?" Mother asks, her anger finally resolving into despair.

"Because he's a human, and their kind has been nothing but cruel to us. If you wish to find happiness with him and his kind then you will have to face the consequences too." Maiara says.

"But he isn't like the rest of them. He is not cruel. You know him, he's kind and good and right!" My mother pleads her case.

"That is a truth only you and I know and accept. But will the people of both your and Adrian's world accept your love?" Maiara asks.