Fire and Ice

Chapter 4: Sinking In Ice

Day 8

Aelius found it strange that Willow had disappeared. He seemed to be the only one that noticed the difference in the Moon City. Every other Moon Elf resumed their ordinary lives oblivious to the fact -or they simply didn’t care- that one of their own was missing. Whenever he mentioned it to an elf, that elf would shrug and say that it doesn’t matter. They didn’t think that she was important enough to miss.

            Aelius did, however, think that her disappearance was significant. He wouldn’t admit it to others, but he had cared for Willow for quite a long time. His whole adolescence was spent focused on her. He had other Moon Elves demand his attention, and he even yielded to their affections. Willow didn’t press him by any means. She kept her distance and never had the nerve to speak to him unless he did first. She would, however, look at him quite often until about a year previous to her disappearance.

            One girl named Maevy suddenly became interested in Aelius. She was glamorous to everybody in the Moon City. As a result, many Moon Elf men fought -sometimes even with the steel or ice- over her. She had dark brown, short hair, smiling twinkling eyes, and an intoxicating smile. She would direct that smile towards Aelius and completely cut off the rest of her suitors.

He felt like he was the lucky one, until he would see the look on Willow’s face. She looked completely disgusted with Maevy, but the brunt of her malice was directed towards Aelius. It was so sharp that he felt like a shard of ice pierced him in the heart, but Maevy was a one-in-a-million chance and Willow was always patient- or so he thought. He thought that Willow could handle it, but he clearly misjudged Willow.

Whenever he was with Maevy, Willow would enter inside his brain and harass him the entire time. He would ignore it and he tried to ignore how Willow would look at Maevy as if she was a venomous snake. He just wished that Willow would give Maevy a chance. She really wasn’t that bad, in fact her attention invigorated him. He felt important in Scene City and well beloved by all –except Willow- because of Maevy.

Every day, he gained more doubt that Willow would stay in love with him. She started to lose that sparkle that she used to have. She became more temperamental and unhappy. She would shoot Maevy some dirty looks and look at Aelius with sadness as if he was too involved to notice the venom dropping from Maevy’s teeth and the lies that escaped through them. He didn’t realize how right she was until recently, but he didn’t figure it out until it was too late.

He should’ve figured that even the most patient people can eventually let go of their passions. He wouldn’t ever dream that he would lose Willow; it just wasn’t her character to give up. She was the most persistent and patient woman he had ever met, despite her hardships. He didn’t realize that he was causing her excruciating pain-next to the deaths of her parents. He thought that she was strong enough to make through this. He even hoped that Maevy would make her jealous so that she would actually talk to him.

His hope faltered because Maevy encouraged her to let go instead encouraging her to try harder. He was also too blind to see that Willow was trying; he just wasn’t making any effort back. He realized that now with her disappearance fresh on his mind. Her disappearance sparked even more painful memories.

He remembered the day that she stopped looking at him completely. It got to the point that she wouldn’t even look at him when he was talking when she was around. He remembered how rigid her shoulders were and how her back was always facing him as if he wasn’t worthy enough to catch a glimpse of her face.

He could sense the anger and hurt emanating from her, and when she would look at him, he could see ice in her ever changing eyes that struck him in the heart and pierced him as if she would see right through him. He got the feeling that she didn’t like what she was seeing. He didn’t know what she saw that made her so angry, when once upon a time, those eyes had only shown affection for him. He never dreamed that she would look at him with so much ferocity.